Book Review: November 9

Title: November 9
Author: Colleen Hoover
Publication Date: November 10, 2015
Genres: New Adult, Contemporary
Add to: Goodreads / Amazon

Fallon meets Ben, an aspiring novelist, the day before her scheduled cross-country move. Their untimely attraction leads them to spend Fallon’s last day in L.A. together, and her eventful life becomes the creative inspiration Ben has always sought for his novel. Over time and amidst the various relationships and tribulations of their own separate lives, they continue to meet on the same date every year. Until one day Fallon becomes unsure if Ben has been telling her the truth or fabricating a perfect reality for the sake of the ultimate plot twist.

MY THOUGHTS
Colleen Hoover did another great job in surprising me with a twist and making me go through an emotional whirlwind. I still feel the aftermath of Maybe Someday, the last book of hers that I read, and I was both excited and scared to read this one. Excited because the plot sounded good, scared because Colleen Hoover knows how to deliver a great amount of angst in her books.

“What’s it called?” she asks.

“What’s what called?”

“Our book. What’s the title going to be?”

“November Nine.”

Fallon and Ben are the kind of characters you want to get to know deeper. It’s like peeling an onion and going through its layers. I hope that’s not a bad metaphor because it’s quite fitting for some reason. They got their own family issues, aspirations in life, insecurities and secrets. Their agreement to meet on every 9th of November without contact made the book and title interesting. But November 9 wasn’t just a date, it was more than that. It held a big part of both Ben and Fallon’s lives.

The book’s summary about the ultimate plot twist wasn’t lying though. For me, it was a dark kind of twist and other readers will probably put this book down and not continue it but it didn’t work on me. It got more intriguing that I had to continue. That was the reason why I grabbed on to the pages until the ending. I had a WHAT?! reaction, no kidding. Props so much to the author for tugging my emotions and for surprising me the most. When you thought things are going smooth but then it’s like, “Nah, not yet”. For that and for the engaging story, thank you to the author for another swoon-worthy yet heartbreaking book.

MY RATING

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Book Review: This Girl by Colleen Hoover

Title: This Girl
Series: Slammed, #3
Author: Colleen Hoover
Publication Date: April 30, 2013
Genre: New Adult, Contemporary
Add to: Goodreads / Amazon / Book Depository

Layken and Will’s love has managed to withstand the toughest of circumstances and the young lovers, now married, are beginning to feel safe and secure in their union. As much as Layken relishes their new life together, she finds herself wanting to know everything there is to know about her husband, even though Will makes it clear he prefers to keep the painful memories of the past where they belong. Still, he can’t resist his wife’s pleas and so he begins to untangle his side of the story, revealing for the first time his most intimate feelings and thoughts, retelling both the good and bad moments, and sharing a few shocking confessions of his own from the time when they first met.

In This Girl, Will tells the story of their complicated relationship from his point of view. Their future rests on how well they deal with the past in this final installment of the beloved Slammed series

My Thoughts

I BUTTERFLYING LOVE THIS BOOK SO MUCH! No wait, not just this book but the entire trilogy. Slammed was my second Colleen Hoover book and I know I'm late since a lot probably have read it but I did plan on reading the books. I just had Maybe Someday first in my hands and weeks later, I was finally able to own all the books in this trilogy so I flew through the pages and dive right into the story. Everything was just well done and I wasn't disappointed by a bit. In Slammed, I felt my heart break a hundred times; in Point of Retreat, my heart broke and shed both happy and sad tears; in This Girl, I've laughed, smiled and shed tears again, but this time they're happy tears. Just thinking about the epilogue makes me cry.

Slam poetry is one thing you cannot not love when you're reading the books. It's one of the reasons strong feelings are evoked from the reader because the characters also pour out their strongest feelings, whether bad or good, when doing a slam poetry.

Very beautiful trilogy and I couldn't ask for a better ending. Every teardrop was worth it.

My Rating

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Book Review: Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover

Title: Maybe Someday
Author: Colleen Hoover
Publication Date: March 18, 2014
Genre: New Adult, Contemporary
Add to: Goodreads / Amazon / Book Depository

At twenty-two years old, aspiring musician Sydney Blake has a great life: She’s in college, working a steady job, in love with her wonderful boyfriend, Hunter, and rooming with her good friend, Tori. But everything changes when she discovers Hunter cheating on her with Tori—and she is left trying to decide what to do next.

Sydney becomes captivated by her mysterious neighbor, Ridge Lawson. She can’t take her eyes off him or stop listening to the daily guitar playing he does out on his balcony. She can feel the harmony and vibrations in his music. And there’s something about Sydney that Ridge can’t ignore, either: He seems to have finally found his muse. When their inevitable encounter happens, they soon find themselves needing each other in more ways than one..

My Thoughts

My first Colleen Hoover book and it's so beautiful. This was one of my anticipated releases of 2014. I had Hopeless in my TBR first but it was a series so I decided to give this one first a try since it's only a stand-alone. And I just fell in love with it.

Plot

I love how music was a big part of this book and how it was emphasized by the two main characters. It was like it's the connection they use since Ridge is deaf and it's hard for him to communicate with other people, especially when writing songs with Sydney. Whenever he listens to her heartbeat though, it's sweet and emotional at the same time. The angst was so heavy as well that it made me put the book down time after time to regain myself. But it's good, really good and you can feel the pain of the characters that it's almost impossible to stop reading, despite the hurt. The ending was really sweet and I cried (not that I didn't cry at some moments in this book).

Characters

I like Sydney and all throughout I feel bad for her, but I do love her determination and her love for music. Ridge was a bit complicated to understand because he's this sweet and nice guy but he's just so in love with his girlfriend, Maggie, that the love in their relationship is getting too much. Maggie's a wonderful girl and I like the fact that she's mature to think about her and Ridge's relationship and made him open his eyes because Ridge seemed to think that he's so in love with her yet it's like she's trapped in some kind of love cage and she wants to be free. I didn't like Warren and Bridgette at first, Ridge's friends, because they seem to treat Sydney as if she's disabled and the reason for the problems  Maggie and Ridge were facing. But in the end, they did realize they were wrong and were there for Sydney when no one was there for her and that was something I like about how a friendship grew between them.

Conclusion

A heartwarming book yet at the same time, it made my heart ache. I'd reread it though. Even if with the heavy angst and the painful moments and the tears, I'd read it again. Beautiful book and I'm now looking forward to read and enjoy Colleen Hoover's other books. I just can't wholeheartedly give this book 5 stars because Ridge's love for Maggie was a bit too much for my taste. Even if he did it because he's concerned for her but at some point, I think he needs to let her breathe. But overall, I still love the book.

My Rating:

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