Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang

25 reviews

abbyynormal's review against another edition

emotional funny relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Sexual content, and Death of parent

Moderate: Cancer, Cursing, Grief, and Gaslighting

Minor: Infertility, Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit

_b0ok_l0v3r's review against another edition

emotional funny lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Death of parent

saraavowlerr's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny inspiring medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Grief, and Death of parent

hanreads__'s review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Medical content, Grief, and Death of parent

slavic_bookworm's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Once again Hoang doesn’t disappoint! And there she goes, onto my too favorite authors list. I am just sad that there is no more books of hers I can read. She is a brilliant romance author.

Now onto this book. There were moments where Anna made me a little frustrated, but I do not struggle with the same mental issues as she did and I think that frustration that I felt made me a little closer to the main character since clearly that is what she felt a lot of the time. This book deals with a lot of triggers so be sure to be in a good mind set when reading this book. Now onto Quan. Quan,Quan,Quan. Life would be so much better if everyone had a Quan in their life. Hell, I wish my husband could take a couple lessons from him in dealing with people with compassion and understanding like he does. Wow! This is definitely a make me feel good book, especially for someone that does deal with mental health issues.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Infertility, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Grief, Medical trauma, and Death of parent

amissabellator's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Bullying, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Cancer, Cursing, Death, Suicidal thoughts, and Gaslighting

Minor: Body shaming, Medical content, and Alcohol

The text follows Anna Sun - a woman who is diagnosed with autism with low-support needs - (and, to a lesser extent, Quan Diep - a man who has recently overcome personal illness (

testicular cancer

)) as they fall in love. This includes graphic depictions of sex and sex acts, in line with the previous installments in the series. However, this story also includes a family medical emergency storyline (

father is rendered immobile and requires full-care after a stroke

) and goes into detail about burnout, toxic families, and mental health struggles. It also talks about expectations, both physically (

Quan suffers anxiety about his genitals following his cancer surgeries

) and emotionally (

Anna is repeatedly misled/gaslighted about her life and her autism symptoms

).

micaelamariem's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I just finished this book in the airport and am sobbing. It was so emotional and dealt with so much tougher topics than Hoang’s previous romances, which I appreciated but was not emotionally ready for. Through it all, the main theme was about self-compassion, learning to say no, and learning we don’t need to be perfect. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Bullying, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Sexual content, Excrement, Grief, and Death of parent

shingekiyes's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

(listened to audio book from library)

REVIEW TRIGGER WARNINGS BEFORE READING THIS BOOK! 

i devoured this book. i was up until 3am reading this and good LORD was it worth it. 

i would definitely classify this as contemporary fiction and not a romance because the main focal point was Anna’s struggle to accept and honor herself, not the love story. though i liked the love story—which added fantastic levity to the serious topics presented here despite also being pretty rocky—i was completely sold by Anna’s arc: her diagnosis, accepting a caretaker role, the epiphany about her needs, her growth. 

once again, Helen Hoang perfectly captures the neurodivergent experience. Anna’s relationship with her family, her friends, herself, and her art were so relatable and heart-wrenching. i can only describe my feelings/reactions towards the ongoing conflicts related to her autism as VISCERAL. chapter 41 literally caused me to sob into a pillow. i am not kidding. i had to try very hard to stifle my weeping. 

the ending, though extremely fast-paced was satisfying and realistic. i appreciated that, unlike The Bride Test, not every plot point received a sparkly, happy conclusion. grief and healing are not linear, and it makes sense that Anna‘s experiences with them were not either. 

i will admit, criticisms of Quan’s story are valid. though i liked that his chapters were brief, i would happily read an entire novel about his journey surviving cancer. i did not feel like his POV was needed at times, which led me to want his storyline to be fleshed out more, to be more on par with the tone and severity of Anna’s. i think each arc could have better paralleled the other and his story could have had a stronger impact. maybe Anna’s story was heavy enough and Helen Hoang felt the need to write something lighter to help the reader escape that darkness, but i think it still could have worked. 

wrt the sex scenes: this book was much steamier and more satisfying (wink wonk) than The Bride Test. it also showed realistic sexual dysfunction and healthy communication of boundaries/needs. i liked the pining as much as i liked the sex scenes themselves, and i never turned the page and felt let down or disappointed by how the scenes ended. they all tended to make sense and feel complete. 

overall this was a fantastic, quick read that i recommend to nd romance readers looking to see and authentic story in a new genre. 

CW (not included below): autism meltdown, autism burnout, career burnout/career issues

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Death, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Cancer, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Medical content, and Alcohol

Minor: Cursing, Xenophobia, Excrement, Vomit, and Car accident

pointlessmoss's review against another edition

lighthearted sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

For days now, I've been feeling so conflicted about how I should rate this book - but beyond that, my thoughts and feelings on the story itself. This was a very worthwhile read for me, especially because I could relate to the characters' experiences in some ways. I was really invested in the characters, but some parts of the story felt underdeveloped or rushed, and by the end that took me out of the story somewhat. The tone shift from the first to the second part was so quick and so extreme that it's hard to think of them a one cohesive narrative, even though I was right there with the ups and downs pretty much the whole time. Part of the book was quite difficult to read (

warning: dark themes. Ex. caring for a sick person, caregiver burnout, depression, referenced suicidal ideation

) and while I enjoyed the story as a whole, I still would have liked to get a closer look at the characters and I wish things had ended differently - still happily, but in a different way. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Cursing, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Cancer, Infertility, Medical content, and Grief

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

peachmoni's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Medical content, and Grief

Moderate: Bullying, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Classism

Minor: Cursing, Infertility, Suicidal thoughts, and Alcohol