I really enjoyed this one, it was a fun premise with delightful characters and a little depth within focusing on mental health.

I must firstly apologise for the amount of time it has taken me to provide a review of this book, my health was rather bad for quite some time, something that had me in hospital on numerous occasions and simply didnt leave me with the time I once had to do what I love most.

Unfortunately that does mean I have missed the archive date for many of these books, so It would feel unjust throwing any review together without being able to pay attention to each novel properly.

However, I am now back to reading as before and look forward to sharing my honest reviews as always going forward. I thank you f0r the patience and understanding throughout x

In fairness, 'The Heart Principle' (the third in the series) was the first of Helen Hoang's books I'd read.

After hearing many rave about 'The Kiss Quotient' I was excited to read it, but unfortunately, I didn't like this book. 'The Heart Principle' which follows burnt-out violinist Anna Sun is meant to be a romance read with an autobiographical edge.

That is not what this book is. Despite a few graphic sex scenes, this book cannot be described as a romance read. As we explore Anna's burn-out and struggles with her mental health and her family, especially considering an autism diagnosis, it seems to me like romance is the last thing she needs!

I would have loved to see an in-depth exploration of Anna's life, especially as she reacts and learns to live with her diagnosis. The themes of this book are hugely poignant and there's tons that could be said. Instead, Helen Hoang decided to package up the story as a romance. This also could've been done well, as the two characters learn to love each other as they are. Instead, it felt shallow and unrealistic. We had no understanding of why Anna and Quan were actually well-suited to each other, except for the fact that Quan had autistic family members.

This book could've been a great memoir-esque exploration into a late-life autism diagnosis. It also could've been a fun romance story. But by trying to do both, I think Helen Hoang achieved neither.

Have some conflicted feelings but I overall I really enjoyed. It was quite difficult to sympathise with Anna but I think that was kind of the idea at first. As we go reading the book we start to understand Anna and her reason to be the way she is. The love interest was OOHH, exactly what I needed. I've read all Helen's books by now, and I will definitely keep reading it all.

So many important topics including their differentiating grey areas Covered in this and I loved the focus on self discovery and coming of self was fantastic and loved the mixed POV. Thoroughly enjoyed

This was an unexpectedly deep read.

The heart principle was my first read by the author and it did not disappoint. Although I did think it would be a lighter read than it was.

In addition to being a romance THP demonstrates the difficulty in caring for sick relatives. Anna’s mental health is so realistically portrayed and then the addition of Quan with his own illness must have been so difficult for Anna.

I like that there’s wasn’t too much romance and their circumstances weren’t ignored in favour for mush.

I’ll definitely be checking out the first 2 books to this series!

Thank you NetGalley for a digital arc.

This book was so fun! I’ve read a couple of other books from this author and really enjoyed them. I was pleasantly surprised to see that this was just as good as those. I enjoyed the story and the characters were very well written.

I really enjoyed The Heart Priniciple, it might be my favourite of the trilogy. I loved the main characters and I really liked reading about Anna's journey of discover post burnout. The romance was very cute and timely.

An absolutely lovely read that brings to like characters that have not found their way to mainstream yet. Sweet, beautifully written and a joy. I cannot recommend this author enough.

The Heart Principle is the perfectly imperfect romance that makes you so glad you picked it up. It has characters that have real flaws and issues that make them so easy to relate to and buy in to their story. A great read.

Once again Helen Hoang hits all the spots with this third installment of the series. I love the story of Quan and Anna and the appearance of characters we already know and love like Michael, Khai and Stellar. This author is without a doubt an auto buy author for me. Looking forward to what is next!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of The Heart Principle.
I loved the first two books in this series as it was so refreshing to see romance books featuring neurodivergent characters.
This was a step in a different direction as it felt less romance based and more contemporary. While I appreciate that the book was important and it was very well written it wasn't what I was expecting.
It's not fault of the author but the cover and marketing of this book was very romance heavy, and while present in the book it was not the main feature. As such this impacted my enjoyment of the book.
I liked the book, but I didn't love it and I feel that's because I wasn't prepared for the content.
I look forward to Helen Hoangs future work and will make sure to research the content properly and not rely solely on an illustrated cover to decide whether the book is for me.

I really loved this book. I’ve read the first book and really enjoyed Hoang’s writing and this was no different. I enjoyed the love story more than the first one and found that it was so comfortable to be in- a theme I love in a contemporary romance

Meaningful, powerful & hearting wrenching! This is so much more than a romance and I love, love, loved it!

I adore Helen Hoang as an author and her previous books are some of my favourite reads of all time, so my expectations were very high for her latest release The Heart Principle. This book did not disappoint and is my favourite book that she has written so far. This book was a powerful emotional journey and it felt real, raw and honest. This was heavier than her previous two novels and will have you sobbing as these characters fall apart and then heal throughout the book.


****UPDATE****

Months later this book still has me in a chokehold and I cannot stop thinking about it!

Helen Hoang has a truly special touch when it comes to writing characters who feel so real and tug on a reader's heartstrings.

This third installment of her Kiss Quotient Series tells the story of Anna, a burnout out violinist struggling to adjust to her 30 seconds of fame after a video of her playing went viral, and Quan, struggling with his own issues following a health scare.

After meeting on a dating app, what ensues is a slow burn romance of epic proportions. This was a sad yet beautiful story of two lost individuals finding what they were looking for in each other. The story was told in the first person, and after reading the author's note this was evident why,,

The story felt so personal and gave so much depth into each character, the only fact that didn't work for me was the pacing of the story. which moved slow to begin with for the first 60% or so and then felt rush towards the end.

However, this did not take away from what was a very special story about two unique characters and I can't wait to see what Helen Hoang comes out with next.

This was my first Helen Huang book, and I enjoyed it for the most part, I loved the different representations throughout and thought the main character was very compelling. Saying this the romance wasn’t my favourite and it didn’t feel as realistic as other romance I have read. I also thought that the initial plot device of our main character dating other people could have been further explored as it felt like the love interest we got was introduced a bit early. Overall if you enjoy Helen huangs other books I imagine you would love this one! Definitely recommend for a quick easy romance read!

This book was highly anticipated for me and I am glad to say I was not disappointed.

It's incredibly well written, once again autism is portrayed well in this book, and I loved the relationship between Anna and Quan.

I felt though the latter third of this book, where Anna cares for family, dragged a little. Overall though, it was sexy and steamy and downright enjoyable.

Unfortunately the book did not draw me in. I found the main character extremely hard to relate to and lost interest.

Even as this book began, it was immediately ridiculously relatable, with all the stuff about masking her autism and her therapist catching her doing it.
I loved her long distance internet friends being endlessly supportive.
The relationship with Quan was very sweetly developed, and I really wanted to punch her ex in the face. As you may be able to tell, I was really invested in Anna as a character.
It's been a while since I read the previous book so I worried I wouldn't remember the other characters from previous books enough, but this didn't need to be a concern, as it wasn't about them, it was about Anna and Quan.
I'm not going to lie, the parts later on in the book where she was back with her family, caring for her dad, really dragged. It sounds lacking in emotion but I didn't care enough about her family because of how awfully they'd treated her in the past. I felt bad for her dad as he was suffering, but no empathy at all for her sister who couldn't see anything but her own viewpoint. She was a blah human. I also really hated her sister ignoring their father's suffering because she wanted to keep him around.