Oh summer's almost over and I'm crying but I don't know why: HEART BONES.

Heart Bones by Colleen Hoover
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Oh, I can't help it, sometimes I just need an addictive, palate-cleansing read. Enter: Colleen Hoover.

Beyah grew up dirt poor, "raised" by her addict mom. Her father was a shadowy figure in her life--paying their rent and known to Beyah only from the occasional visit. When Beyah's mom overdoses and dies, Beyah goes to live with her father in Texas. He's now remarried to a wealthy woman, living in a beach house by the ocean, with a stepdaughter.

In Texas, Beyah meets Samson, her father's next door neighbor. In Samson, she recognizes another damaged soul, even if he is wealthy. Despite putting up walls her entire life, Beyah can't resist Samson, nor he her.

This story is cheesy and addictive, but it's crazily impossible to put down. Both Beyah and Samson are keeping secrets, and we slowly learn Samson's over the course of the story. There's just something about their intense relationship. Beyah also forges new bonds with her dad and stepsister, Sara, who is close to her age. It's corny at times, but also a story about trusting yourself, finding your person, and how powerful it is to be believed in.

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And love wounds with such simplicity: REGRETTING YOU.

Regretting You by Colleen Hoover
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Quick read with lots of drama!

Getting pregnant as a teen wasn't part of Morgan's plans. But it brought her her beloved daughter Clara, now 16. Morgan made things work with Clara's dad, Chris, and they have a good life. But Morgan and Clara's lives are upended after a tragic accident involving Chris changes everything.

This is a quick read, somewhat cheesy, but addictive. Morgan marries young after getting pregnant and always dreams about what could have been. As a teen, she was close with her husband's best friend, Jonah, who reappears in their lives after he gets her sister, Jenny, pregnant. There's plenty of drama, compounded by her daughter, Clara, now a teen herself, falling for her own boyfriend, Miller. Luckily this is actually a pretty cute relationship and practically could have been its own book.

Plenty of silly things happen, but many sad moments occur too. There's lots of tension and excitement as well, much of it overly so, causing some eye rolling, especially as it occurs without proof. Is there a lot of character development? No. But it's still somewhat easy to get caught up in the characters and their stories. The ending is cute, even if it wraps up very easily.


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A, A to Z Challenge: ALL YOUR PERFECTS.

All Your Perfects by Colleen Hoover
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the first book in my #atozchallenge! I'm challenging myself to read a book from my shelves that starts with each letter of the alphabet. Let's clear those shelves and delve into that backlist!

Quinn and Graham had the perfect romance and marriage. But now, that marriage is on the rocks and all those perfect memories threatened as their union is about to implode. If they can't talk to each other and work things out, they're done. Can they get past their problems and find that perfection again?

Wow, I picked a doozy for the first book in my challenge! This book was almost physically hard to read at times! It's a brutal look at a struggling marriage, as Quinn and Graham--once a perfect couple--can barely look at or talk to one another. Told in a then and now format from Quinn's perspective, we see how the two fell head over heels in love. And, conversely, we see how they fell apart. It's an emotional and tense read that's often bitterly sad and heartbreaking. Hoover makes you feel as if you're in the book, part of the characters' dissolving marriage.

This one hit home, as Quinn and Graham battle with infertility, something I know quite well. If you've struggled with this, this will be a hard read--yet you'll be able to find many parallels with the couple. It's not necessarily a happy book, yet it's romantic and sweet too. It presents a very realistic portrayal of marriage and one of the best portraits of a (straight) couple grappling with infertility that I've ever read.

This isn't an easy book to read, but it's really quite good. It packs a sucker punch, but in a good way. You'll find yourself lost in Quinn and Graham's world--I certainly recommend this fierce, touching look at love, marriage, and how far we will go for the ones we care about. 4+ stars.

You can read more about the #atozchallenge here.

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You will know the fear all love endures: VERITY.

Verity by Colleen Hoover

My rating: 3.75 of 5 stars


Lowen Ashleigh's life is basically falling apart. She's a broke writer who hasn't left her home in days, maybe weeks. Her mom had been living with her while sick with colon cancer, including hospice for the last three months. Now Lowen's mom has passed away, and Lowen is emerging back into the real world--financially broke and somewhat emotionally broken. Her agent calls her to a meeting, where she's asked to ghost write the final books in a series for the popular author Verity Crawford. Verity--who has been seriously injured in a car wreck--is unable to complete her books, and her husband, Jeremy, wants to hire Lowen. Lowen needs the money, so she agrees. She also finds Jeremy attractive and interesting, and she arrives at the Crawford home to go through Verity's office and manuscripts. There she finds an unfinished autobiography of Verity's--one that sheds light on how her twin daughters passed away, her relationship with Jeremy, and more. Lowen finds its chapters horrifying and hides it, but as her feelings for Jeremy grow, she wonders if he should see its contents. And she wonders if Verity is as truly injured as she seems.


"I'm not looking for my fifteen minutes of fame. I'm looking for a paycheck."


So I've never read anything by Colleen Hoover, but so many of my Goodreads friends were raving about this romantic thriller. When I saw that I could read it via Kindle Unlimited, I jumped at the chance. It was definitely an interesting read and one that really picked up in the second half. It's a different sort of tale, too, which made it a refreshing read. Be prepared for a dark story--Verity and Jeremy have lost both of their young twin daughters, and now Verity is injured as well. Verity's autobiography is not light reading, and overall, the story is a creepy, bleak tale.


"I think Verity might have made up the term. After our daughters died, she said we were Chronics. Prone to chronic tragedy. One terrible thing after another."


When Lowen comes to the Crawford home, she picks up on some of this eerie energy that permeates the book. However, Hoover makes sure that we know that Lowen is an unreliable narrator as well. She's a sleepwalker, often so tired that she herself isn't sure if she's sure of what she's seeing or hallucinating from exhaustion. As a reader, we aren't sure who to trust. It makes for an engaging story, where you are never sure what (or who) to believe.


"My mother used to say that houses have a soul, and if that is true, the soul of Verity Crawford's house is as dark as they come."


Overall, I'm not sure I can rave about this one quite as much as some reviews I've read, but I did enjoy it. It's a quick read, it's ominous and spooky, and there are some great dramatic twists and turns. The ending makes up for a lot, so I would certainly say it's worth a read. I know that a lot of Hoover's books are not quite like this one, but I still look forward to reading some of her other books. 3.75 stars for this one--rounded up to 4 stars on Goodreads.

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