Okay, so I feel like I have SO much to say about this novel. First of all, I love the inclusion of the deaf community and how Colleen Hoover seamlessly added it into her novel about music. I thought it was beautiful, and while I have never had any experience with deafness (I’d love to know what you think if you have had experience with it!), I thought that it was really well done. Now, to get to the plot and the characters!

With the plot specifically, I think it was really well written. I think everything tied together well and made sense. What I didn’t like was when characters did something out of character just to move the plot forward (more on that in the spoilers). That made me so mad because I knew that specific character would never say something the way that they did and I completely lost all interest in said character after that (no matter how many nice things they did afterwards). 

One thing that I appreciated (and didn’t appreciate at the same time) was the fact that Colleen Hoover tried to write things from both perspectives of cheating and being cheated on. However, there were moments in the novel that felt as if Colleen Hoover was trying to justify cheating and that was just NOT okay (also more on that in the spoilers). 

Spoilers ahead.

I’ll try to go in chronological order for these spoilers so they’re easy to follow. 

First of all, oh my goodness Sydney and Ridge pissed me off at first. When they were writing songs innocently and didn’t act on their feelings I was like “cool, this is gonna be okay.” Then, of course, they kissed and it was not okay at all. I’m gonna be honest, any time I see cheating in a book or movie, it completely ruins the story for me. Especially when they try to justify it because they were cheating with their “true love.” This is where the novel gets complicated. At first, Sydney thought some things that basically justified their kiss. Like, “Oh, my feelings made me do it. I had no control over them.” That’s a load of BS. I don’t care how strong your attraction is to someone, you always have a choice. That choice is what normally gets you in trouble.

What really threw me for a loop, though, was that Colleen Hoover worked it in that Ridge was in love with both of them. That is something I could get behind. I don’t believe you have one person you’re supposed to be with. Personally, I think you can fall in love with many different people based on timing and place. That’s why I found it so dang hard to like/dislike this book. CoHo brought up some good points (not about the cheating, though – still a major no-no in my opinion). 

Alright, this review is getting long, so I really need to say this because it made me angrier than anything else in the novel. When Warren talked to Sydney and asked her if she just needed to be screwed? Like EXCUSE ME? I liked Warren before that. He was one of my favorite characters. When he said that to Sydney, though? It felt so out of character for him and I hated him throughout the rest of the novel. I was fuming. I can’t even believe Colleen Hoover felt okay writing those words because I felt threatened and I was only reading a book. Personally, I would have never forgiven one of my guy friends had they ever said that to me. Immediate excommunication from my life. 

I know I said that was the last thing, but Maggie deserved better. That is all. 

Overall, Colleen Hoover knows how to get my emotions all worked up. Sometimes in a good way, sometimes in a bad way. This novel had both, but was still very well written. I would still suggest this book to my friends because it made me think about a lot of situations and the way that human emotions work in such unpredictable ways. If you’re in between reading this novel and one like Reminders of Him, go with Reminders of Him. Looks like I need to find my next Colleen Hoover novel to binge read….

Source: Audiobook from Audible