My rating 4/5 stars
Helen Hoang got me back after reading “The Kiss Quotient” and her style is so light and funny. I don’t understand why it took me so long to read the other books from this series, but here I am – full of hope and regrets. 😀
I failed the reading order, but it doesn’t matter that much, because all 3 books can be read as stand-alone. You meet the characters, but there are no spoilers or important aspects that you miss by changing the order.
Anna and Quan were very strange characters, but soooo good together and good people, this made me very invested in the story and in their development. The special person here is Anna, who managed to capture my attention and really impress me because her feelings were so well written and passed on to the reader. You could literally feel what she was feeling and I got the impression that not all authors can pull up something like this.
When her boyfriend tells her he wants an open relationship, Anna is devastated and lost. She seeks company on a dating app and finds Quan, who is recovering from his own life story. They have short encounters, all of them going somewhere, but never to the final point. This is due to various aspects, but most important are Anna’s feelings towards intimacy and Quan’s complexes after being cancer free.
The story is not about sex or intimacy at all, it’s about the struggles they both faced and the challenges needed to overcome. Anna is special and delicate and as the story progresses, she will face her identity and symptoms, becoming her true self. Her family is dominant and disregards her emotions, making her a people pleaser. This makes Anna sensitive, emotional, and very hard to manage, even by herself.
Quan was a very good and genuine guy, accepting Anna and trying to understand her nature, but without forcing her to do anything she is not ok with. Besides that, he was his own demons, which were hard to face, emotionally and physically.
I loved the depth of the story and the dynamic, considering it was very good and very fast to read. The social messages are strong, inspired by the author’s own struggles and stories, which makes this universe she created very personal and vulnerable. I admire her courage to share this with her readers and loved every minute of it.
Ramonisme 