Your rating:
A woman struggling with burnout learns to embrace the unexpected—and the man she enlists to help her—in this new New York Times bestselling romance by Helen Hoang. 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 herself has just started to understand. 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.
No posts yet
Kick off the convo with a theory, question, musing, or update
Your rating:
I liked this book but I am thankful my friend warned me that it wasn’t really a romance. Because it had elements of romance of course but that wasn’t really what it was about
0Back to a better book! Seems like her first in the series was the only one with a strange plot.
I felt like I could see myself in Anna, obviously not 100% of the time and especially not the intensity of people pleasing she has. I got angry when she was at her parents home and wouldn’t say ANYTHING. I’m 100% a people pleaser but I don’t think I could with my family. But I guess I’m lucky and my family is pretty accepting unlike hers.
But this book made me cry and I appreciate that in a book. Not a 5 star because I think the portion of her at her parents house out too long and just really made me upset
0Yes, I tagged this as literary fiction, and I think that is a major crux of my complaints regarding this book. I personally went in to this reading experience expecting a romance, and for me that element was sorely lacking. This read as a women's fiction book, and I think it was good at that! but was not what I was wanting to read.
This book deals with heavy topics, and is sort of staggering under the weight of those issues. As a romance novel... I was frustrated by the romance elements.
We don't see enough bonding between Anna and Quan-- I spent most of the time thinking "WHY do you like this other person??"
I was annoyed with how tight-lipped Anna was regarding sex, especially since it's quite early on in the book she's being so frank about blow jobs. So this inability to proceed or even allude to the topic with Quan was really annoying. And then in the third act when 'he has to know I trust him, so I'll initiate sex with him' was just weird, and if there'd even been a hint of communication there to try to show that Anna was talking to Quan, to establish her feelings--I'd have been way more on board.
Quan was The Most Patient Person on the planet. He essentially insta-loves Anna, which is the only reason why he keeps coming back and trying again/for more. WHY does Quan love her?? Wasn't explained to my satisfaction.
Dealing with and autism diagnosis, masking, and your family not accepting this about you--hard, serious topics. Add on a stroke, caretaking, quality of life discussions, end of life discussions, family misunderstandings and discrepancies, PLUS a crap boyfriend wanting an open relationship and being professionally at a standstill due to your artistic block struggles?? All that was too many topics to be covered well
I thought the book was fine, good to be discussing masking and some of the realizations Anna goes through about her diagnosis helping define her needs. I was a bit bored/uninterested throughout, but my issues were the last 10-15%, when they get together and say ILY way too fast and there is a 2+ year time montage in just a couple pages. I understand Anna was going through autistic burnout, and while I commend the inclusion in this book, I was confused and bored and annoyed that we skipped all that time. How is the love relationship going? How does Anna struggle during this time? How does Quan?
We don't get to see anyone's perspective really during this LONG time jump, since it's from Anna's POV but she's not really present. I felt annoyed and exasperated and glad when the book was done.
0
