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.

I really enjoyed this one, no wonder I keep seeing recommendations to read it everywhere – they weren’t wrong!

Thank you NetGalley for my complimentary copy in return for my honest review.

I’ve given the previous two of Hoang’s books 5 stars and this addition to the series is no exception, I loved it. It was everything I wanted it to be. If you want to find a ridiculously hot and sweet romance novel – look no further. This whole series has been wonderful, and I think this one may be my favourite.

I was pulled heart first into Anna and Quan’s world. There chemistry was incredible, and the romance was better – it’s hard not to fall for both.

These books got me back into reading Romances and none really measure up to it. Please do yourself a favour and read it. I can’t recommend it enough.

❤️ The Heart Principal ❤️
Another great set of characters and I think I enjoyed this one even more than The Kiss Quotient.
Some heavier issues in this story which I think were dealt with very well and sensitively written.
I’ve realised I should have read a book in between these two, so I’ll catch up on that one next!
Thank you to @netgalley and @corvusbooks for my ecopy

This took me by surprise - I had previously read The Kiss Quotient (the first book in this companion series) and really enjoyed it. Hoang has a beautiful and melodic way of writing romance while also tackling larger topics such as autism in women which is so underrepresented in literature.

But this one hit different. This one was so much more raw and intimate dealing with topics including grief, health, coming to terms with who you are, familial acceptance to name but a few. The character of Anna was so beautifully written - it felt as though you were going on her journey with her and I could really tell that there was a personal aspect to the story that Hoang included which took it to another level for me. Don’t get me wrong - this book is 🌶spicy🌶 but there is another layer to the story that I’ve only seen in books by Beth O’Leary.

If I was going to find a fault, it would be that, while I enjoyed the chapters from Quan’s perspective, I’m not entirely sure it was necessary - we get far more chapters from Anna’s POV and I felt that some of the chapters from Quan didn’t add anything to the story. But equally, I love Quan as a character and it was fun to have an additional POV which is unusual in sexy romances. I’m aware this is contradictory but I did truly love this book with my whole heart!

I haven’t actually read the second book The Bride Test but I’m 100% going to pick it up in March!

I absolutely adored this book! I was so excited to read it as I loved the rest of the series and oh boy it did not disappoint. I think it may even be in my top romance read of 2022 :)

I think this is probably my least favourite book in The Kiss Quotient series. I did like the characters but i think this was ultimately missold as a romance as it's more a family drama with elements of romance in the first act. I wish it hadn't have been presented as this was, as what i really wanted from the book was a semi-cutesy romance like the other 2 books in the series. Hoang's writing was great but this wasn't the book i felt was promised by the blurb or the cover.

Although this was not my favourite of the series it was still a fun book! I do think however as this is the third in the trilogy the marketing should have been more careful, as the tone and focus was worlds away from the first two books in the series!!

I loved it! Not as much as the first two but I still loved it.

The main characters were individual and just heart wrenchingly loveable.

This is the 3rd book in a companion series and it both lived up to my expectations from the previous 2 but also brought something new.

I will start this review by saying that if you are looking for a fun, light hearted romance, you may need to look elsewhere. There is definitely romance in here but there is also a lot more and that part tends to be a little bit more intense. The main character deals with a lot of issues with her family in here as well as her struggles stemming from a recent autism diagnosis. I really appreciated the way all of this was handled in here and I think the mix of the romance with the more serious elements was handled very well.

I definitely preferred this to the 2nd book in the series and I am looking forward to seeing what Helen Hoang writes next.

Once again Helen Hoang has written another book that I couldn’t put down. This was romantic and sexy and I loved the main characters.

To a degree I liked the set-up of this book; ND main character, tired of life, family difficulties, meets a man who makes her look at things differently. The kind of fake-dating trope that I generally enjoy. But it didn't grab me and the reality was that Anna irritated me and it is hard to engage in a love story when the main character doesn't gel with me.

It felt a little too melancholy for me; in a way that is nice, but really when I read this kind of book I am after more escapism and cosiness. But for others who want something slightly less fun, this may be for you.

The book addressed important and interesting subjects such as cultural pressure, grief, autism and end of life care. For one book to address all of these with two main characters, whilst maintaining general story lines was a real achievement and very powerful.

*potential spoiler*... I really liked both characters until right at the end when Quan's dialogue involved the sentence 'I don't prefer jerking off in the shower to having sex with the woman I love, but I'm happy to wait until she's ready', where he's talking about them not having sex since her dad died. Are we supposed to think he's some kind of Saint for that?!

Overall, I really enjoyed the book and Anna was a gorgeous character to be on a journey with. I didn't have quite the same 'wow' feeling as when I read The Kiss Quotient, but it's still an amazing piece of work and I'm glad I read it.

I thought this was an amazing book, with a lovely romance in it, but not, strictly a romance novel.

This is because - and other reviewers here have said it far more eloquently than me - the heroine Anna's struggles with her diagnosis and the expectations of her family made up the largest part of this book, and in that time she and the lovely Quan hardly meet.

This book was heart wrenching in many places. Anna, an excellent musician, who has gone viral unexpectedly via a You Tube video is struggling to play like that again. She feels unbearably stressed, because she is masking her true self and true feelings all the time in order to fit in to everyone's expectations of her, whether they are her boyfriend, her friends or her family (oh boy - her family - her sister is something, wow).

When her boyfriend decides he wants to try having an open relationship before settling down, Anna's anger propels her into online dating where she hooks up with the lovely Quan, who has his own struggles to contend with as he is a cancer survivor.

As Anna receives a diagnosis of ASD and starts to make sense of her feelings and how she has been masking all of her life, we have a lot of soul searching, and lovely Quan accepts her for who she is, which is a fabulous part of this book.

However, as we get to the middle section of the book, Anna's family falls apart, and Anna is gaslighted into becoming her father's carer. This part of the book was very difficult to read, as Anna is physically and mentally recoiling for what she is being forced to do, and how her father dest want it. This is when it turned into more of Anna's story - which was beautifully done, and very truthful. However, when the romance part is picked up again for the fianl part of the book, I did feel that the many plot points were worked through too quickly.

So gorgeous, very angsty, heartfelt and true, with a truly emotional author's note to finish you off at the end. But not for me a fun, lighthearted romance or romcom.

I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader's Copy of this book and all opinions are my own.

🌿BOOK REVIEW🌿

The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang

“No one should need a diagnosis in order to be compassionate to themself.”

Anna is a violinist that falls into career success after a viral YouTube video, but now she is exhausted from her constant attempts to outdo that video. Already burnout, her long term boyfriend announces that he would like to have a period of an open relationship before making a full commitment… Anna decides she has had enough and she will let loose and throw herself out of her comfort zone. In comes Quan who was supposed to be a one night stand, except the two fall for each other and family tragedy drives them closer.

This is easily my favourite of The Kiss Quotient series, I absolutely adored Anna and Quan as main characters and it was so cleaver how all three books link together. It was fantastic to see burnout covered in a book and I really resonated with Anna when she was struggling with it. My favourite thing about this book was how well Anna and Quan complimented each other, and helped the other to better themselves.

There are some hard scenes in this book involving illness and end of life, I think Hoang did a brilliant job at covering these in an empathetic manner but just to be aware of if they are topics you aren’t comfortable reading. Hoang covered ableism in such a fantastic way here, it made me so angry at the way some people in her family acted when Anna confided that she might be autistic. The support that Quan and her mother gave her warmed my heart and is a great lesson of choosing who you surround yourself with!

Overall this is a fantastic series of books, and I highly highly recommend this one!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

⚠️CW// death of parent, mental illness, grief, ableism, suicidal thoughts, cancer

This was a masterpiece. It was very different from the other books but damn it hit like a train. It was emotional, sad, happy and everything else. And after reading the author's note, it makes this book even more special for me.

BOOK REVIEW📚: The Kiss Quotient Series Review

The Heart Principle: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (#gifted)

Helen Hoang deserves so much applause for this series. As a bookstagram favourite, I was incredibly nervous reading this series. However, I’m so glad I bought into the hype! I adored these books!

With neurodiverse representation, lots of steam and cute romance scenes, this series is incredibly heart-warming. I adored all the couples, even though Michael and Stella from the first book have to be my favourite. Hoang does a fantastic job at highlighting that your person should love you for who you are. There’s no need to change anything about yourself.

Every book explores different themes ranging from grief to societal expectations. Additionally, these books don’t have to be read in order (although, I do recommend it!). You can read them in any order so I’ve split up my reviews within my blog post. You can pick which review to read via the small contents page.

A fantastic series that I simply adored. Hoang has officially become one of my auto-buy authors.

Thank you netgalley and the publishers for an eARC in exchange of an honest review.

As soon as I knew a series about Autistic MCs falling in love existed I knew I wanted to read it. When I requested this book I didn’t realise it was part of a series, and then I discovered they work fine as standalone but I wanted to read them in order. Well I loved the first two so I finished this one yesterday.

Where do I start?

Out of the three books this is the only one where the character is diagnosed later in life. The thing is, just like when Anna reads about autistic women and their struggles and feels a connection, I also do. It’s funny because I haven’t been diagnosed, and no doctor has ever suggested it. But it was my friend who said oh I thought you knew you were. Suddenly a lot of things started to make sense in my life and I am currently looking into a diagnosis myself. In a way, this resonated with me far more than anything else. I felt seen, and I felt like I understood why Anna did the things she did.

Related to this, I almost had to put the book down for a bit. In fact I did for half a day. Because Anna’s father suffers a stroke and is going to pass away. This is too close to home for me as well, as this happened with my family member and caused a huge family rift. I almost stopped reading because I thought it would be too painful, though my boyfriend pointed out I already knew about the plot point now so I’d keep thinking about it. Accurate. So I finished the book. There were times where I had to skip some of the descriptions, but it still got to me. I cried along with Anna.

Anna and Quan’s relationship is so sweet and pure and made me so happy. It made me happy to see her journey and healing to being herself and happy. Even if that means losing someone you care about.

My only disappointment in this book is we see absolutely nothing of Khai and Esme from book 2, which since he’s Quan’s brother I didn’t expect. He featured so heavily in both Michael and Khai’s books and yet they barely featured in his. This seems odd to me, especially after he survived cancer. I’m a bit unclear about the timeline too now. I hope we get another book so I can find out how everyone else is.

I’m giving the book 4 stars for making me cry so much.

Honest, Sexy and Intense. I sprinted through this book, it's story resonating with me on many levels. It is, as Hoang notes in the Authors note, quite autobiographical, and it really shows in the depth of the feeling and the writing. Female Autism has been overlooked in the past and is often misunderstood now, so I feel this is an important book too, so many young women can see themselves reflected, and understood and hopefully learn to take the pressure off themselves from it. And Quan is a complete dreamboat. That needs saying too. A brilliant read.

What a book! I was disappointed by the second book in this series, and was dubious and I should not have been. This book is fantastic, there is something very special when an author can create an emotional connection to the characters so much so that you feel all their fears, and embrace all their happiness.
I really enjoyed this book, I read in one sitting and was really emotionally satisfied after reading. A 5 star read of perfection.
Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this book Netgalley.
#TheHeartPrinciple #NetGalley