All Your Perfects by Colleen HooverMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
This is not my first Colleen Hoover book. However, this is the first time I've walked away from one of her books, and NOT liked it. At all. Go ahead and see my previous CoHo book ratings. And I even skimmed through a few pages there towards the end because I couldn't bring myself to continue with certain chapters. I NEVER DO THIS, Y'ALL. Not even with the crappy one star books that I've read! Once I was halfway through I sat there wondering if I was even reading the right book, and by the time I got to the end I was just...sad. Disappointed? I was definitely surprised at my reaction to this book. I normally love all of Colleen's work so this feeling was definitely something new for me. I will say that it wasn't ALL bad. Those first few chapters had me going, and I was so excited to see what direction it would go in. But it just never recovered. Now, I'm sure you’ve already read the blurb so I’m not about to rehash that. But you’re probably reading this in order to decided on whether you want to snag this book up or not, right? So, let's dive right in, shall we? Oh! And just know, that there will be some small spoilers which I'll do my best to hide.
"The problem is, love and happiness are not concordant. One can exist without the other."
So, Graham and Quinn meet under some interesting circumstances. (view spoiler) There's an attraction right from the start, but due to the events that lead up to their meeting they walk away. Not wanting a reminder of the "worst day" of their lives. But as destiny would have it a few months down the road they cross paths again. With the amount of chemistry that both of our characters felt their relationship quickly progresses into a healthy one, and eventually turns into a great marriage. However, a few years down the road the struggles begin to emerge. Quinn is dealing with depression,(view spoiler) sadness, and refuses to communicate any of what she's feeling to Graham. Graham in turn is trying to hold everything together and be sympathetic to whatever he thinks Quinn is going through. Because he knows something is wrong. But rather than ask, or speak up he just stands by silently trying to give Quinn the space to grieve. To feel whatever she needs to feel. Unfortunately, this doesn't help their situation. Mistakes are made, (view spoiler)and hurtful words are thrown around that seem impossible to forgive. Or forget. And yet, within the last few chapters Colleen attempted to do just that.
“Our marriage hasn’t been perfect. No marriage is perfect. There were times when she gave up on us. There were even more times when I gave up on us. The secret to our longevity is that we never gave up at the same time.”
Now, we were given the "NOW" and "THEN" of Graham, and Quinn's relationship throughout the whole book. It's like a flashback of happier times. And one of the things that really stood out to me was the drastic change that occurred within Quinn that had no cause whatsoever. Yes, she was dealing with some tough, painful, stuff. BUT she had always been able to vocalize her feelings to Graham. And there wasn't anything that prompted her to change that about herself. But it was her treatment of Graham(view spoiler) that became the main reason for why I didn't like her. Then there was Graham himself. I felt like he started off really strong, and there were other ways that this could have gone that I would have been 100x's happier with than what we got. And this next part I'm hiding because it's going to have a lot of spoilers. (view spoiler)Even the excuses that both character's gave for their actions were weak. I honestly don't think I've ever wanted a fictional couple to break up as much as I wanted them to. And I've read Thoughtless by S.C. Stephens-- I even rooted for them to stay together. Now someone would argue that these books are completely different, and the level of mistakes are not comparable. I get that. But Stephen's created enough story, and redeeming qualities for her characters so that I could forgive them. Forgive the betrayal. Colleen didn't give me nearly enough reasons to get passed the small mistakes that Graham and Quinn both made. And to me, that says a lot. In the end, there were three instances where I saw a glimmer of hope. And that's when Quinn called Graham out on his shit when Graham called Quinn out on hers, and then when Graham finally (because he didn't at first) owned up to his mistakes. But it took a lot for me to even make it to that point in the story.
(view spoiler)
So, overall this book fell really short for me. Maybe it's because I've experienced (view spoiler) at this level and beyond in my personal life. Again, I had no issues with Thoughtless though. Or maybe this story just didn't have enough of that Colleen magic for me? Maybe I just didn't connect well with the characters because the story was really depressing? Quinn is handed a really crappy hand and there was no silver lining really, I just felt terrible about it. All I know is that this was so not the story I was hoping for. I haven't even thought about it since I finished it. Until today when I sat down to write this review. Which is weird for me because I'm usually still thinking about her books days/weeks later. They normally leave a bigger impression. So, here's hoping that the next one she comes out with is a story I'll enjoy. Until then, this one is going down as a book I won't ever revisit. Sorry, Colleen...
At the time of posting you can snag this book for $8.99 on Kindle.
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