by Helen Hoang
Published by Penguin
Genres: Fiction / Romance / Contemporary, Fiction / Romance / Multicultural & Interracial, Fiction / Romance / Romantic Comedy
Pages: 352
USA Today bestselling author Helen Hoang returns with a witty and sizzling new romance that shows how wrong you can be about someone...and how right they can be for you.
To most people, Quan Diep is nothing but a surly-looking, underachieving playboy. The problem is he's not any of those things. And now that he's the CEO of an up-and-coming retail business, he's suddenly a "catch," and the rich girls who never used to pay any attention to him are looking at him in a new way--especially Camilla, the girl who brushed him off many years ago.
Anna Sun dislikes Quan Diep almost as much as germy bathroom door handles. Or so she tells herself. She will never admit that she has a secret crush on him, especially because he only has eyes for her charismatic and newly engaged younger sister Camilla. Over the years, Anna has worked hard to overcome her OCD, but she'll still need to find a way to bury her anxieties and seduce Quan so he doesn't ruin her sister's engagement, and with it, a crucial real estate development deal.
Slowly, Anna breaks down Quan's dangerous and careless exterior while peeling off her own tough, protective shell. But when Quan discovers Anna's true intentions, he's forced to confront his own hurtful past and learn to forgive, while Anna must face her greatest challenge: truly opening herself up to love.
My Review:
The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang is the third book in her popular The Kiss Quotient Series. I listened to this book on audiobook and listened to the entire book in one sitting. I had been waiting for this book for a while and was not disappointed. What I love about Helen Hoang is she writes about people on the Autism spectrum with such realism and heart, that I can’t help but love her characters and books.Violinist Anna Sun can’t believe it when her boyfriend suggests that he date other women just to be sure they are meant to be. Anna can’t believe he wants to date other women, so hurt and betrayed and with the urging of her friend, she decides to find a one-night stand. Using a dating app, she finds tattooed, motorcycle-riding Quan Diep, who has his own issues and only wants to try to get back into the dating scene after an illness.
Anna and Quan don’t quite make it to a one-night stand on that first date, so they date several more times. They start to get to know each other and just as things start to heat up, tragedy strikes for Anna, and she has to go home and take care of her father.
This fun, romantic story was a delight to read and I enjoyed the story so much.
It’s a perfect book to continue the series, The Kiss Quotient. There were lots of fun banter between Anna and Quan, but also a lot of tenderness and love between them. This is both a sexy, steamy book and a sweet love story at the same time. It is also about family and obligation and grief, which makes this book such an all-around success. The issues Anna has with figuring out that she is on the autism spectrum and how to be herself is so powerful and realistic that it touched my heart.The narrators were Brian Nishii and Natalie Naudus and they both did an excellent job of doing the voices of Anna and Quan and had just the right inflections for all the other characters. The voices were smooth and enhanced the story.
I recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a heartfelt, sexy contemporary story about love, and family and doesn’t mind a bit of steam too. I received a complimentary copy of this book. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
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Wonderful review Wendy! I have the first book in the series on hold at the library. It sound like a great set of books.
Thank you, Whitney, it’s a pretty good series, I hope you enjoy it as much as I’ve enjoyed the books
Great Review! My nephew is also on the autism spectrum (former Asperger’s) so this interests me.
Thank you Bonnie. The whole series has characters on the autism spectrum, and they are fun books too.
I’ll be listening to this one next, so I’ll come back to your review when I’ve posted mine. Can’t wait to dig in!
Oh, I sure hope you enjoy it Rachel!
I want to get this series. Great review!
Thank you Yesha, the whole series is so good, I think you’ll enjoy it.
Fantastic review Wendy! I just picked up the audio for this one! I really enjoyed her last…and am looking forward to this one too!🤩📚💜
Thank you Kaceey. I sure enjoyed the audiobook, hope you do too!
This sounds totally heartfelt (as you said) and a story that tugs at the heart strings in all too realistic ways. I love the sound of this series ❤️ Wonderful review!
Thank you Tessa! It’s a very good series.
Wonderful review! I’m not a big fan of a lot of steam in my romance stories, but I do like how she incorporates so much more into them as well. I really enjoyed The Bride Test and I’ve been looking forward to this one.
Thank you Yvonne, If you liked the Bride Test, you’ll probably like this one too!
I loved Hoang’s two previous books and I’m very much looking forward to reading this one!
Thank you Lark, I think you’ll like this one if you enjoyed the other 2 books!
Great post and review. It does sound like a fun book.
Thank you Debbie, it’s a good one for sure!
Wonderful review Wendy. My library doesn’t have the audiobook, but I will wait for it. I enjoy Natalie Naudus performances. I am not a huge lover of steam, but these books have much more to them. I especially love the way she portrays her characters on the autism spectrum.
Thank you Carla, I hope you can get this one soon. She does an amazing job of portraying characters on the autism spectrum and this is especially good.