By far my favorite Helen Hoang book. I related so much to the main character, as a caregiver myself. There were multiple times when all I wanted was for Anna to stand up for herself and was so happy with her growth by the end of the story. As always, the romance in this one was A+ and so well done.

A really great read that draws the reader in. It's almost impossible not to feel the emotion as you follow Anna's journey of self discovery and standing up for herself.

A deeply moving love story with Autism representation that also covers a dying parent, after effects of cancer recovery, finding love and learning to be kind to yourself and your mind.

Helen Hoang is one of my favorite authors of all time. I still remember the first time I picked up on of her books (picked up being a relative term - it was an audiobook version of Kiss Quotient). I fell in love with her characters and her writing.

The Heart Principle is no exception to her talent just more proof that she needs to keep writing stories for us for as long as she can. I enjoyed seeing a new side to Quan and loved watching the romance between him and Anna blossum.

One of the best books of this year!

The book is about a violinist named Anna. Feeling burned out with her career and her boyfriend wanting an open relationship, she decides to embark on something very not Anna and that is a string of one night stands. First up is Quan, a motorcycle riding tattooed guy she meets on an app. They start talking and after some failed attempts at the one night stand things start going more into the boyfriend category…then tragedy strikes Anna’s family.
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There is so much to this book. I barely skimmed what the book is about. This was a great romance with steamy parts and fun banter between Anna and Quan, but it also feels heavy and heartbreaking for a lot of the book. I read the author’s note at the end and It helped me understand her own experience with some of what Anna goes through. If you like a romance with some depth and a little heavier than most then this is a book for you. I can’t recommend this one enough, it’s probably one of my favorite romances this year!

Well, after months of waiting, I finally read (well listened) to The Heart Principle. And it was worth the wait. I should preface my review by saying I have not yet read The Kiss Quotient or The Bride Test. And to be honest, @rcbooksandfood might rescind my friendship if I don’t read TKQ soon.

What I Loved!
♥️ Quan. He was just so sweet and so kind even though he was dealing with his own issues. He was a tattooed, motorcycle riding man but man he was just perfect.
♥️ Anna, a “famous” violinist, was struggling in all aspects of her life but kept that to herself. I loved that she felt safe with Quan even though he was technically a stranger to her.
♥️ Both Quan and Anna are so loyal to their families. While it’s devastating at times, both of them will give their lives to support their families.
♥️ There was just a little bit of steam but that’s what made sense with the story.

I think what made this book so special for me was the autism spectrum representation. As someone who works in education and also has a close family member on the spectrum, seeing this representation is just beautiful.

Review originally posted on Instagram and on Forever Young Adult's blog in October 2021:

First Impressions: Ready For My Close Up, Mr. Demille

Objectively, I like this cover, though I don’t know if it totally fits this particular book. The little Quan on a motorcycle is a nice touch, but I think my favorite cover of the series is still book one.

What’s Your Type?

Dealing with mental health
Drama with a side of romance
That supportive boyfriend everyone needs
Cathartic book-crying
Dating Profile

Anna Sun accidentally became internet famous and now the pressure of recording a solo album of violin pieces—one written especially for her by a famous composer—is causing her extreme anxiety. If she makes any error as she practices her piece, she restarts the entire thing. After Anna’s piece of shit boyfriend tells her that he totally wants to marry but he first needs to screw around and “sow his wild oats” she decides that maybe she needs to see what else is out there too.

Enter: Quan Diep, the cousin and brother to our previous romantic leads, who is starting this book a little worse for wear. He’s recovering from a serious health scare that has left him feeling emotionally fragile, and this former ladies’ man hasn’t sowed his own wild oats in a long time. Michael, said cousin and co-owner of their children’s clothing line (I MEAN), urges Quan to get back out there.

Meet Cute

Anna and Quan end up meeting on a dating app and bonding over their shared love of octopus documentaries. Anna, a serial monogamist, is wondering if she’s bold enough to have a one-night stand while Quan, a serial casual dater, has never felt this kind of connection with a woman before.

The Lean: Sweetly Sexy

From While You Were Sleeping, Bill Pullman explains attraction to Sandra Bullock
I’m pretty sure we all need a Quan in our lives. These two have some communication hurdles to get over, in addition to their personal hang-ups, but it works because Quan is quite possibly one of the most patient book boyfriends we’ve ever read about.

Dirty Talk

But the longer he kisses me, the greater the temptation grows. My hips push against his fingers, seeking the kind of caress that’s eluding me. He doesn’t give it to me. He can’t. He doesn’t know how. But my fingers are right there, and they’re impossibly slippery with the force of my need. Every muscle in my body draws tight as an A string.

Ms. Perky’s Prize for Purplest Prose

Teacher types on laptop while talking to student
Typing a romance novel on a computer screen
I love Hoang’s writing, as it’s a great mixture of straightforward and realness that still makes you hot under the collar. If I didn’t totally always connect with Anna and Quan, it was more because I was having some whiplash moving from the heavier parts of the story to the romantic ones, which, ya know, is life, but I needed a moment to adjust my expectations for what kind of book I thought I was going into. The parts I ended up highlighting weren’t the sexy bits but the parts where Anna is coming to these important realizations about her life and how she views herself, like when she realizes she may be autistic:

I let the tears fall.

I cry for the girl I used to be.

I cry for me.

It’s a foreign experience. Self-pity is not an indulgence that I allow myself. This doesn’t feel like pity, though. It feels like self-compassion, and the realization makes me cry harder.

No one should need a diagnosis in order to be compassionate to themselves.

But I did.

We Need To Talk: Prep Your Mental Headspace

I don’t even know how to talk about this book. It’s both everything I expected from Helen Hoang (deeply-felt emotions, realistic characters, insightful commentary) and yet nothing like I was anticipating (holy crap was it heavy on the feels, but light on the romance). Honestly, if I was pressed, I wouldn’t even label this a romance, because the romance itself was incidental to all the other weighty emotions the characters were dealing with. And that is okay. Hoang admits in her author’s note this wasn’t the book she intended it to be, but her own life situations had her feeling the need to purge and express her emotions, and I completely applaud her for being so raw with her/Anna’s journey. But do I almost wish this was a completely separate book from this romance series because Quan didn’t really get his time to shine? A teensy bit. This was very much Anna’s story, which meant Quan once again felt like a secondary character in his own lead book.

If you’re in a fragile mindset, I definitely recommend you read some through content warnings before embarking on this journey, because there are some deep lows. Partway through the book something happens to a family member of Anna’s that leads to everyone rallying together to provide round-the-clock care and the mental toll it that care takes is hard to read about. There were also some family members of Anna’s I’d gladly cuss out for her, and I’d imagine that there’s many parts that will sadly feel all too relatable to some. Like any good romance, the book doesn’t leave us on a bleak note, but the last quarter of the book was hard to get through.

Was It Good For You? Crying After Sex

A woman starting to cry and then fanning herself to stop the tears.
Hoang moved me enough to make actual tears leak from my eyeballs (admittedly, that isn’t necessarily a herculean task when it comes to me) and made me smile for the moments when our characters triumph, whether it be over a personal struggle or someone who’s been holding them back. As I closed this book’s back cover, the thing I wanted to do most was give Helen Hoang a giant hug and let her know that there’s one reader out here so very happy she’s still around.

FTC Full Disclosure: I received my free review copy from Berkley Publishing. I received neither money nor peanut butter cups in exchange for this review. The Heart Principle is available now.

This was an incredibly difficult read. The story deals with not one but several heavy topics, and the heroine, who is the main focus of the book, is hard to like. The plotting, particularly toward the end, felt stilted and over-dramatic. But my main complaint as a reader is that this book was marketed as both the final book in The Kiss Quotient series (a sexy and funny series exploring some challenging themes) and as Quan’s book, and it’s a poor fit for either of those things. There’s nothing humorous about this story, the intimate scenes are awkward, and the romance isn’t particularly believable. Quan, who is dealing with the aftermath of a serious health issue and upheaval in his work with Michael, the hero of The Kiss Quotient, has barely any role in this book other than to care for Anna, and there’s very little exploration of his interior life. I found the book both depressing and unconvincing. This was women’s fiction, not romance, in my opinion. I completely understand if this was the book Helen Hoang needed to write, having read her afterward, but I wish she and her editor/publisher had decided to make it a standalone and that she’d returned to Quan’s story at a later time. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a free copy in return for an honest review.

I am so happy that I had the opportunity to read this book. Thank you #netgalley for that opportunity. I loved this book. I have loved all of Helen Hoang's books, but I have to admit that Anna and Quan are my favorite couple so far. Anna's honesty is refreshing, Quan's supportive nature was a relief and their chemistry is out of this world. I am always entertained by family dynamics and boy, do Anna and her sister have some tension. I highly recommend this one!

This ARC was offered in exchange of an honest and impartial review:
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4*
Pros: Expertly deals with difficult topics such as living after surviving a deadly illness, providing full care to an extremely sick loved one (including the guilt, emotional toll, exhaustion, fear and self-doubt), gaslighting and emotional manipulation, among many others. Asian-American main characters. Autistic lead and exploration of related topics such as diagnosis, therapy, soothing mechanisms and so on. Wholesome and supportive moments. Talks about toxic families and love relationships, and the pressure of unrealistic expectations.
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Cons: Disappointed at the development my favourite character of all books, Quan, got. Extremely focused on the female MC. Not exactly a rom-com.

I love Hoang's books. She always has diverse and complex characters, as she did here. Mostly, I love how she gives different perspectives of being on the Spectrum

The Kiss Quotient and The Bride Test are two of my favorite romances of all time. Naturally, The Heart Principle was one of my most anticipated reads of the year by far. When I got the email from Berkley with a widget, I lost my marbles and downloaded immediately.

One interesting thing about the writing of this book is that the author changed from third person to first person for this book. She wrote a powerful authors note where she detailed the reasons for the change that I would highly recommend you read after you finish this book. It really added to the already emotional complexity of this incredible novel.

I cannot get over how beautifully written this book was – I loved the writing of Helen Hoang’s first two books, but this one really was stunning. The amount of emotion infused in every word was incredible – this book was emotional and immersive and relatable in ways I did not expect. The overall tone of this book was much more serious than the previous two– it focused on the mental health of its characters just as much as their romance.

Anna was a truly stunning character – she was a wealth of complexity who shined during her highs and lows. At the start of the book, she was facing some serious burn out – and undiagnosed autism. Her journey was an uphill battle – her family was unsupportive of her, she had to go through a very difficult family tragedy, and she was being emotionally manipulated by her ex-boyfriend. I loved reading about her coming into herself- as she wrestled with her challenges, she slowly became a more well-rounded character. I also really appreciated that there was no magic fix to her mental health problems / burn out – it was devastating to read, but ultimately felt very realistic.

I just can’t believe how much I loved this book. The Heart Principle made me swoon, cry, and think about my own mental health. While this book was a departure from the first two books in the series, I really enjoyed the direction it took. Helen Hoang keeps topping herself and I cannot wait to read whatever she writes next. 5/5

I really enjoy Hoang's books because I love that she provide characters that are truly representative of real world issues. In this case, Anna is on the autism spectrum, although she hasn't ever really been diagnosed until she started talking with a therapist who brought it up to her. She researched it on her own and finally felt that she fit in.

I think this representation is accurate (especially after reading the author's note) and I loved that this was a main character in the book.

However, that being said, I don't know if I loved the way the rest of the book fit in around it. I don't like how Anna's family treated her and responded to her. I'm not sure if this is the culture or something else, but they were all very unlikeable and the way Anna would just give in to them - at the sake of her own physical well-being - was frustrating.

I also like Quan but he seemed too... nice. He seemed too forgiving and I'm not sure I really understood their relationship. I get how it started and I liked them together, but he had his own issues that weren't investigated and Anna didn't seem to be interested in getting to know him better. It was him putting his issues aside for her and not the other way around, and this bothered me a lot.

The story was good and I'd read more from her, but I did want more from Quan.

I really struggled to get into this book and invest myself with the characters. Which is a shame as I loved the authors previous novel the kiss quotient.

I’ve been looking forward to reading Quan’s story for a long time, and while I really enjoyed reading it, there was just something missing that kept it from being a winner. The Heart Principle was more of an emotional read than the previous two, but it still contained the light-hearted, romantic charm of the rest of the series.

I don’t believe I’m in the minority when I say the best part of The Heart Principle is: Quan. After surviving cancer, he has his own insecurities and anxieties to overcome. I really loved delving deeper into his character. I was already a big fan of him, but this book made me love him even more! The chemistry between him and Anna was also really well written! The way in which their relationship develops was beautiful and felt organic.

There was a lot of focus on Anna’s family and her personal growth, which I didn’t mind, but the tone of the book felt very different from The Kiss Quotient and The Bride Test. The book is also written in first person POV instead of third like the previous two books. Neither of which were bad changes, the book just didn’t give me the same giddy, heart-fluttering feeling that I had when I read The Kiss Quotient.

Overall, The Heart Principle is a romantic, heartfelt story full of excellent character development and examines heavier topics such as family loss, caregiver burnout, and cancer. Quan and Anna’s chemistry deserve all the praise, and I really enjoyed the way their relationship unfolded.

The Heart Principle, book three in The Kiss Quotient series was just as good as the first book! The characters of Anna and Quan were written so perfectly. Both were so easily relatable. Quan has been my favorite character from book 1 and I loved that we finally get to see him fall in love. What is so beautiful about these books though is the representation. Asian Americans as well as people on the autism spectrum is seen in positive ways that we don't usually get to see. Overall, The Heart Principle was a wonderful conclusion to an amazing series!

Violinist Anna Sun accidentally achieved worldwide career success with a viral YouTube video, but is now struggling with a severe case of imposter syndrome and burnout. So, when her long-term boyfriend announces that he wants an open relationship so he can “be sure,” Anna decides to step out of her comfort zone and go on a series of one-night stands. But then she meets tattooed, motorcycle-rising Quan Diep, and soon realizes that she’s been missing out on a whole lot of life and love.

If you haven’t read one of Helen Hoang’s romances, I urge you to stop what you’re doing and pick one up! In her books, Helen captures real people dealing with real life circumstance and issues so perfectly (especially with how she explores mental health and autism spectrum disorders). This one unexpectedly hit me close to home because of a recent family death. And while I didn’t have the same experiences and thoughts as Anna, I shared some of them. It made me feel understood and a little less alone in my grief. And when a book manages to touch a reader in that way, I think that’s when I can say that the author did their job. On the more lighter side, Helen depicted a beautiful relationship with Anna and Quan- they were flirty, open, honest, and so supportive of each other. Their relationship had me smiling hard, especially with how accepting Quan was of Anna.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Berkley Romance for this gifted copy in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book but holy shit, was this book sad. I was not expecting this book to be so incredibly sad and heavy and depressing, especially because the first two books in the series are pretty light-hearted and steamy and fun. So just a warning before you read it: this book is a lot, and it will probably make you cry a lot, and I wish I had known that going in because I was just wanting something light and fun and this book hurt to read.

I loved the romance between Anna and Quan, it was beautiful and it felt so real. However, I don’t think the romance is the main aspect of the story, this is very much a coming of age story for Anna, it’s about her finding her voice, learning things about herself, and dealing with real tragedy. I was already bawling my eyes out at the end and then I read the authors note and I cried even more.

A new favorite because it was everything I wasn't expecting and a good way. An own-voices story which felt really good. I enjoy the romance, the smut, and the self-discovery elements!! A must read!

I love The Kiss Quotient series but this one was my least favorite thus far. I felt there was so much set up from the other books but this did not give as much as promised.