This contemporary romance has All. The. Feelings .... both steamy and sad. TW: Parental illness

This story takes place in the same world as Hoang's first two novels and features Anna and Quan. Anna's life is unraveling - a talented violinist, she has artist block and can't complete playing a single piece. Then her long-term boyfriend tells her he's going to 'date' other women to confirm his commitment to her. If he can see other people, Anna decides she will too (although the thought terrifies her) and she signs up with several dating apps. That's how she's connected to Quan.

He's a tattooed entrepreneur recovering from a very 'personal' surgery and ready to resume 'normal activities.' He plans to do this as a one-night-stand in case things don't go well. His plans crumble when he meets beautiful and vulnerable Anna who shares his interest in Netflix nature documentaries. He's quickly pulled into Anna's world of family drama while managing a life-changing business deal. Will their love be enough to overcome the expectations of Anna’s family?

All the kudos to narrators Natalie Naudus and Brian Nishii whose performances covered a vast range of intense emotions and helped me feel each one deeper than the words alone. I appreciate Dreamscape Media and NetGalley for providing the advanced listening copy of this title.

Such a terrific terrific book. I loved the characters. Having a neurodivergent main character is so refreshing. Showing how that character in a real relationship and navigating life (and not making it a bad thing) will help so many people. It shows that different doesn’t mean less.

I listened to the audiobook version and the narrators brought such life to an already moving story.

The only thing I didn’t like was one story wasn’t wrapped up but that’s so true to life.

I had to take a moment before writing this review. The Heart Principle is the third in the loosely connected Kiss Quotient trilogy, but where The Kiss Quotient and The Bride Test are romances, this one is literary fiction. Don’t get me wrong what The Heart Principal reveals is so important, meaningful, and necessary for us to hear. There is a love story and it is a good one, but this book is nothing like the other two.

There is so much sadness and stress, so many people are unwilling to listen when they are presented with the truth. So much heartache for the sake of fitting into an ideal that isn’t realistic.

My heart bled for Anna, for all the ways in which she cut herself down because she was taught, that this is the way to “be”. I loved Quan’s absolute acceptance of her needs, not because he was being a hero, but because that’s what you do if you are a decent person. You accept others and you tell them your needs. If they can meet them, wonderful, and if they cannot, you do not blame them. Quan was beautiful in the way that he was just decent and kind.

The Kiss Quotient was sexy as all get-go, The Bride Test was sweet and this one felt like watching someone reassemble and paint with gold a piece of broken pottery. It hurt to read, but having read it, I know it is gorgeous and stronger for it.

Unfortunately wasn’t able to get to this one before the archive date! I loved the kiss quotient and I know this one will be good! Excited to pick this one up and read it when I have the chance.

Was so excited to receive this, especially after being declined the ebook! Helen Hoang did it again, but even more this time. I knew going in that this was different from her previous two, but it didn’t disappoint.

I’m not an audiobook listener, but the audio was really good. I’ll be trying more out!

✨Audiobook Review✨

First off, I want to thank @netgalley and @dreamscape_media for the ALC of The Heart Principle, which releases today! 🎧📕

I have not read The Kiss Quotient or The Bride Test yet but, they’ve both been on my TBR for a while. When I saw @between2novels post her review I knew I wanted to read this one ASAP and requested it on Netgalley. I was so happy when I was approved and after looking at other reviews I determined reading the others first wasn’t imperative.

I’m so glad I picked this one up so soon! I loved Anna and Quan’s story! Both are realistically flawed people that struggle to make this work. And I LOVED this new twist on a romance I haven’t read before: attempted one night stand turned relationship. Can this please be a new trope we see more often please?

The narrators were Brian Nishii (Quan) and Natalie Nauru’s (Anna) and I loved both of their performances. Their voices synced so well with the characters’ personalities and I would love to listen to either or both again!

Needless to say, I loved this book and it was quite probably my favorite August read. Go get it now!

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟/5

There was much to love about Hoang’s The Heart Principle and not. The blurb has a rom-com vibe and not. Neither com nor angst fit the novel, solid romance for two-thirds and then a long-winded “something else”.

For what it’s worth, here’s the blurb and let’s see where it takes us:

When violinist Anna Sun accidentally achieves career success with a viral YouTube video, she finds herself incapacitated and burned out from her attempts to replicate that moment. And when her longtime boyfriend announces he wants an open relationship before making a final commitment, a hurt and angry Anna decides that if he wants an open relationship, then she does, too. Translation: She’s going to embark on a string of one-night stands. The more unacceptable the men, the better.

That’s where tattooed, motorcycle-riding Quan Diep comes in. Their first attempt at a one-night stand fails, as does their second, and their third, because being with Quan is more than sex—he accepts Anna on an unconditional level that she has just started to understand herself. However, when tragedy strikes Anna’s family she takes on a role that she is ill-suited for, until the burden of expectations threatens to destroy her. Anna and Quan have to fight for their chance at love, but to do that, they also have to fight for themselves.

Though the novel’s impetus was Anna and Quan’s romance, in the end, this was more Anna’s than Quan’s story. As soon as Anna is introduced, it’s evident she’s in emotional distress. She struggles to play her violin, the viral video having sent her into a spiral of self-doubt: when you’re an overnight sensation, how can you match your own success? Moreover, Anna’s boyfriend is a bonehead of the first order: after bringing him to bliss, he announces she’s the one for him; therefore, he needs to play the field before “settling down”. Strangely, and this struck me about Anna repeatedly, she isn’t angry. She’s hurt and rightly so, but her response is devoid of the boiling “we’re done” rage this should elicit. We soon come to like Anna better when she recounts: visits with her sympathetic therapist, her professional struggles, and, more significantly, interactions with her loving, but exacting family. When Anna’s therapist gently steers her to the realization she is on the autism spectrum, Anna gains an understanding of herself. Hoang is honest about Anna’s backsliding and dark times because there are no magical cures, not even Quan’s love-making, to Hoang’s credit and my nodding agreement.

Quan, who begins as Anna’s sticking-it-to-Julian-the-dick-boyfriend, becomes her friend; then, more than her friend. Quan is lovely, but as a character, he suffers from what I call Sonali-Dev syndrome: the closer and more loving the relationship with the heroine, the less solid a personality he has. Quan is gentle, understanding, funny, and loving. He is Anna’s perfect partner, understanding her need for solitude, down time, and space. Quan has suffered too. When the novel opens, he’s recovered from testicular cancer. He is diminished and “scarred” as he says, but is in a better place than Anna. Quan goes on the dating app because he’s ready to be with a woman again. Though they meet for a one-night stand, it’s obvious this isn’t compatible with their monogamous personalities. Their love scenes, numerous and explicit, are organic to who they are and how their relationship evolves; the scenes are a reflection of their vulnerabilities and fears; in time, a celebration of a hard-won love. The road to Shangri-La, however, is embedded with many painful bumps and ruts, especially when Anna’s world comes tumbling down.

[Spoiler and CW ahead] Anna’s family is loving, but doesn’t understand her. Her sister, in particular, doesn’t tolerate what she perceives are Anna’s “weaknesses”: her forgetfulness, procrastination, need for down time, etc., part and parcel of her neurodiversity. Her parents behave in what is, to me at least, a typical immigrant family: they have high expectations and one of the many is that you keep within the bounds of social norms of success and correct behaviour. Yeah, not Anna.

When Anna’s father has a stroke, her sister decides Anna, she, and their mother will care for him at home. The relentless round-the-clock care-giving is difficult to read about. Anna’s coping, as her therapist explains, to “mask” (that is, conform and please in order to “mask” neurodiversity, if I understood correctly) leads to a breakdown; embroiled in her attempt to hold it together by masking also results in emotionally betraying Quan. Though there’s an HEA for Quan and Anna, Hoang doesn’t want to offer a pat resolution to Anna’s emotional breakdown. In place of hunky-dory, Anna spirals into anxiety, depression, and grief. Many, many pages go by. I thought this section of the novel went on too long; what was a romance with a wonderful dose of heroine-growth turned into relentless misery-fest. I understood why this was important to Hoang, but I can’t say I enjoyed listening to it.

Lastly, the narration was competent, but not outstanding. I enjoyed Naudus’s Anna-narration: her voice has a lovely, husky innocence, in keeping with how I envisioned Anna. I cannot say the same for Nishii’s Quan-narration. It’s likely a personal quirk, but I disliked Nishii’s almost-childish timbre. It’s nitpicky, but I couldn’t stand the way he emphasized curse words and the drawn-out way he pronounced “hot” as hawt. On the other hand, I don’t know that I would have sight-read a novel this depressing; maybe listening to it helped me like it more than I would have, despite growing impatient with the drawn-out love scenes. Miss Austen agrees, The Heart Principle as audiobook is “almost pretty,” Northanger Abbey.

Helen Hoang’s The Heart Principle was created by Dreamscape Media. It releases today, September 2nd, and may be found wherever you prefer to get your audiobooks. I received an advanced audiobook from Dreamscape Media, via Netgalley, for the purpose of writing this review.

This third installment in The Kiss Quotient series, Hoang crafts a deeply personal story focusing on a violinist's career and life struggles, with a bit of romance thrown in. The love interest, Quan Diep, appeared in the first two novels in the series, so I was looking forward to reading his story. While the novel leaned more toward women's fiction than romance, it was a truly wonderful book and the narrators added to the realism of the story.

All the stars for this beautifully emotional story! This is the third book in Helen Hoang’s Kiss Quotient series and in my humble opinion the best! This book is much less steamy and much more emotional than the previous books in the series, it can also be read as a standalone. I was definitely intrigued by Quan in the previous books and excited to see he got his own story. Anna is a semi well-known violinist who struggles with anxiety. Her boyfriend of five years has just asked her for an open relationship and Anna is determined to make him regret that decision. On the search for what Anna believes is going to be the first of many one night stands she comes across Quan’s profile on a dating app. But when Anna and Quan me things don’t go to plan. There is a strong emotional tie between these two that cannot be denied. *swoon* Quan is guaranteed to make everyone’s book boyfriend list. This man was so kind, patient, and supportive, not to mention he’s pretty darn HOT as well. Anna was such a complicated and sympathetic character. My heart went out to her over and over again she was going through so much, her anxiety and inner struggles were palpable. This is one of those books you don’t just read you feel deep down in your soul. Cannot recommend this book strong enough, went onto my faves shelf immediately!

*** Big thank you to Berkley for my gifted copy of this book. All opinions are my own. ***

Love, love, love the fact that The Heart Principle features a main character on the Autism Spectrum! Anna is left feeling out of sorts when her boyfriend ,Julian, decides they should see other people (aka if you are a Friends fan-"we were on a break!"). Even though she is hurt by his decision, Anna decides if he is going to sleep with other people then she might as well too! In comes Quan, who is the complete opposite of magazine-ready and family acceptable Julian.

Anna is going through more than a breakup. Her family suffers a tragedy, and her career is struggling. Quan helps Anna as she braces through her troubles, but will that be enough for them to make it as a couple?

This was a much more sad and emotional book than I was prepared for. I was expecting cute, flirty, witty romance and there were some very deep emotional heartbreak and family topics that the book discussed. I love a deeper meaning behind romance novels, but here the romance suffered in wake of the emotion and hard issues. There was very little romantic storyline between Quan and Anna to develop their relationship. It was like "try to have sex, fail, try to have sex, fail, now we are in love!" I was wanting more of those little witty exchanges and moments where you can feel the characters falling further in love that I felt was missing. Anna was a very relatable female lead and I loved seeing how she developed throughout this novel.

Thank you to Dreamscape Media and NetGalley for granting me a free copy of this audiobook in exchange for my honest review!

I love Helen Hoangs novels! I finished this audio in two sessions. Not only did the author write a complex love story that has depth but they have the perfect narrator to help tell the story. I loved the characters and felt so invested. I was rooting for the main characters the whole time.

Wow. This book wrecked me. It punched me in the chest and in the gut and triggered many personal feelings and yes, I did cry. Hoang meshes tough issues and love together so well, because that is how life is. Life is not perfect, and neither is love.

Anna is a violinist experiencing artistic burnout after becoming an instant YouTube sensation, and her awful boyfriend suggests an open relationship. She sets up a date with Quan intending to have a one-night stand, but it turns into something much more.

The caretaking of a terminally ill parent, something I have experienced twice in my lifetime, the artistic burnout, the not being heard by her unsupportive family and squashing her voice down inside until it festered was so excruciating to read. I found it deeply upsetting and, at times, it was almost unbearable. But the sweet relationship and sexy chemistry between Anna and Quan is filled with hope, understanding and personal growth, and I found the book incredibly romantic and could easily read more about them.

A few details that I loved were the use of the dating app, watching documentaries over chat and her internet friends. As someone with several amazing internet friends, this really spoke to me and felt so contemporary and real.
Also, how hot is Quan with all those tattoos? Gawd damn. And how fun is it to see Michael and a glimpse of Stella from The Kiss Quotient? Love when characters from previous books show up.

••• The rest of this review is about the Audiobook •••

I listen to a lot of audiobooks and there’s nothing more exciting to me than a full cast recording and especially if the book has multiple POV chapters. I absolutely loved the dual POV chapters for Anna (narrated by Natalie Naudus) and Quan (narrated by Brian Nishii). I think it adds to the experience of telling the story since we get so much of their inner thoughts and feelings. But I’m so sorry to say I didn’t vibe with Quan’s narrator as much as Anna’s. I think there is a slightly monotone quality to his voice and it’s not as rich and soothing as Anna’s narrator, or when she does Quan’s voice in Anna’s chapters he sounds a lot more sensitive and sexy.

However, once I got used to it the book flowed nicely and you get excited to hear what each character is thinking about the same scene.

Thank you for the digital audiobook from NetGalley. The narrator for the Anna character was not my favorite, although she may have been just trying to stay true to the volatile, moody nature of Anna with frequent times of whining or pleading in her head while being vocally false and amiable. I felt that the author missed an opportunity to go a little bit more into the ways that women on the autism spectrum can present differently than men or women with higher support needs. She commented often that she or others recognized certain things about her that could indicate ASL, but she didn't go into much of what those signs were that others may have been able to notice and support. Using Anna's relationships with her sister, parents, and boyfriend (Julian) we can see how much Anna is focused on pleasing others, and how important it is for Quan to help her not only become but also accept her authentic self, and then leave room for others in her life to meet and then move into accepting her as well.

Helen never fails to write a book that stamps on the reader's soul. Quan and Anna have a big wall to hurdle and most of the time it seems an impossible feat. Anna has the focus of the book and I am completely here for it. I love the two narrators of the audiobook.

The Heart Principle is easily one of my top 10 favorite audiobooks ever. I love so much about Helen Hoang's books. The accurately written neurodiverse characters bring so much awareness and much-needed representation. Anna is beautifully complex in her struggles but very relatable. The shock and potential conflict of an unexpected diagnosis in addition to caring for an ailing loved one made my heart ache for her. Quan was beyond perfection everyone deserves a partner that understanding, patient, loyal, and flat-out amazing. His heart is pure gold. While it is definitely a romance after a certain point, that element fades to the background a little and the focus is more on Anna's healing. I love the way it all came together and that the ending doesn't hinge on an engagement, wedding, or baby. Brian Nishii and Natalie Naudus blew me away with their phenomenal narrating. The amount of emotion they brought is some of the best I've ever heard. I can not recommend this book enough, it has everything, humor, heart, struggle, love, and forgiveness. The entire audiobook is exquisite.

This book was, emotionally, a lot. It was intense and I found a significant portion of it extremely stressful. That said, it was also a very well written book and I could stop reading.

I loved the romance between Anna and Quan, although this felt like less of a romance than the first two books. All of Hoang’s books have a focus on the main characters discovering more about who they are and their own capabilities, but this one was heavier on that and less so on the romance. Anna felt much more developed than Quan; this felt very much like Anna’s story with Quan’s being secondary, rather than them sharing their stories equally. But their love for each other was very sweet and moving, and the scenes when they were together were my favorite parts of the book.

The ending did feel a little rushed - since I was listening to the audiobook and not paying attention to how much was left, I was surprised when it was suddenly the epilogue. I never quite got the sense of catharsis I needed after such a heavy story, which left me feeling somewhat uncomfortably stressed even after the book was over. The book was so good that the ending felt disappointing in comparison. This may be partly my expectations: yes, life is messy and not always wrapped up perfectly, but I also came in expecting a romance where I’d feel happy at the end, and I didn’t really get that.

Natalie Naudus was an excellent narrator for Anna’s chapters. Naudus had a way of really making you feel how defeated Anna was feeling even when she was trying to show everyone in her family how happy and perfect she was. Brian Nishii, who narrated Quan’s chapters, was great as well, although didn’t stand out to me or make me feel the story the same way Naudus did.

Overall, The Heart Principle is probably the most well written book of the series, but I can’t say I enjoyed listening to it as much, due to how overwhelming it felt at times and the lack of focus on the romance itself.

The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang is a wonderfully, deeply entrancing romance between two wonderful, earnest characters. I felt so connected to Anna and Quan, they’re both such layered characters, struggling with different issues individually, but working towards improvement and finding their way. As the youngest daughter in a Chinese-American household, Anna has seen it her duty to adhere to the will of her family in order to please them her entire life. When we meet her, she is burned out from her career and success as a musician. Quan helps run a small fashion company, but is still recovering emotionally from a serious health scare from the year prior. They meet on a dating app for a casual hookup, but it doesn’t go as planned and they keep meeting up.

I loved the tenderness between Quan and Anna. They have such a beautiful way with each other that makes the reader want to root for them to be together. Early on in their relationship, a family crisis puts Anna’s relationships with her older sister and mother to the test. Through therapy and her relationship with Quan, she begins learning how to find her voice and assert herself. This was such a stunning, layered book. There’s a wonderful romance, family drama, and beautiful character arcs. I felt so connected to this book and wanted to keep reading. I listened to the audiobook and really liked both the narrators, Natalie Naudus and Brian Nishii.

Thank you Dreamscape Media and NetGalley for providing this ARC.

This is the third installment in The Kiss Quotient series and like the other books, it did not disappointment. The characters were complex with real life problems. But they were also relatable and you can’t help but root for them.

In addition to the story being hot and steamy, what I really loved about this book was that nothing was solved over night. It took work for the characters to overcome their issues and accepting themselves on their own time.

Overall, a great read! Perfect for a romance fan or anyone who loves tattooed bald men who ride motorcycles with a heart of gold.

The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang
Format: Audiobook

Thank you @netgalley @berkleypub @dreamscape_media for the ALC!

Synopsis: When violinist Anna Sun accidentally achieves career success with a viral YouTube video, she finds herself incapacitated and burned out from her attempts to replicate that moment. And when her longtime boyfriend announces he wants an open relationship before making a final commitment, a hurt and angry Anna decides that if he wants an open relationship, then she does, too. Translation: She's going to embark on a string of one-night stands. The more unacceptable the men, the better. That's where tattooed, motorcycle-riding Quan Diep comes in. Their first attempt at a one-night stand fails, as does their second, and their third, because being with Quan is more than sex - he accepts Anna on an unconditional level that she has just started to understand herself. However, when tragedy strikes Anna's family she takes on a role that she is ill-suited for, until the burden of expectations threatens to destroy her. Anna and Quan have to fight for their chance at love, but to do that, they also have to fight for themselves.

I really enjoyed listening to this one! A nice quick audiobook to end out the month on a good note. Anna and Quan are both such sweethearts figuring themselves out and how to work best together and I was rooting for them the entire way! I also felt like I learned a lot from Anna's character and how she interacts with her family vs Quan and her struggles to be who she really wanted to be depicte how she thought society wanted her to be. I will have to check out her other books now as well!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4/5)

I keep trying this author's books and while I enjoy her plots and characters the books just aren't for me. There is to much sex and focus on physical things for me. I don't mind some sex in a romance but Hoangs always feel like they are borderline erotica to me.
I know her books are really popular and as long as you don't mind the sex and then you will probably really enjoy this. The plot of this book is actually really good and sweet. I love her characters as well and how she always has at least one character who is on the autism spectrum. The way she adds that to the story.
This really is a great romance and I think most people will really enjoy it.