All Your Perfects by Colleen Hoover - Reshelved Books

Hello Deweys!

I am addicted to Colleen Hoover.  I fall in love with her characters right away.  The way she writes is phenomenal, and it's so inspiring to know that she was first a self-published author before she hit it big.  SO I was super excited to check out her latest novel, All Your Perfects from my library.

This novel did not disappoint.  So what would you do if you if you went to your fiancé's apartment to surprise him and found a strange man sitting outside the door?  What would you do if that man told you that his (soon to be ex) girlfriend was inside having sex with your fiancé?  Yup.  You guessed it. This is the scene that this novel opens up with.  Throw in some Chinese food in the hallway, a wedding that will never happen, and some pride in the face of heartbreak and you get the beginning of this wonderful novel.

Quinn was 25 years old when she found out her fiancé was a jerk, but through the devastation 1) She got out before she exchanged vows and 2) She met Graham.  The novel flashes between the past (the break-up / post break-up) and the present (the the marriage between Quinn and Graham.)  This relationship which was founded through a not-so happy, yet lucky, coincidence is basically the ideal romance of two soulmates.  However, their current marriage isn't so happy.  Mainly because Quinn is dealing with the fact that she is infertile and cannot conceive.  The couple is unable to adopt for legal and financial reasons, and Quinn has become so consumed with this grief of not being able to have a baby that she has changed as a person and as a wife.  

Hoover crafts a story about two people who are supposed to be together, but are struggling.   The reader watches them fall in love, but the reader also watches their love fall apart.  Perhaps things would be better if they could just communicate about their pain, their fears, and their grief, but like so many of us, they don't.  The reader's heart breaks for Quinn and Graham as we slowly watch their relationship silently dissolve.

I silently cried while reading this and I give it 5 out of 5 Coffee Beans.

~Jessica