The Heart Principle
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Sometimes I read a book and I’m confident anyone I recommend it to will love it. Other books are like The Heart Principle - its a more select audience, but those who like it will love it. Beyond the simple fact that people get weird about romance books, a major part of the central conflict hangs on the main character's inability to say no to her family. Boundaries can be hard, and setting boundaries with family members is an ongoing struggle most - but not all! - deal with consistently. People pleasing tends to be a gendered issue, and I suspect cultural backgrounds can have a huge impact here as well. So if its something you can relate to definitely pick up this book! But if you tend to think people who struggle to say what’s on their mind are just silly/weak/whatever, you’ll probably find it more annoying than anything else.
I enjoyed the book overall and loved the focus on burnout and mental health recovery. Recovery is not a linear process, and it was nice to read a character with real setbacks and who struggled as much with acknowledging the pain points as with actually dealing with them. Its also important to acknowledge that burnout doesn’t necessarily come from not liking what you’re doing - it can also come from pushing too hard on a passion project and losing sight of why you love it. The double-whammy for our leading lady of adding the personal burnout from trying to force herself into a caregiver role while also trying to hide her professional burnout from unexamined imposter syndrome was fascinating to watch, and I thought the addition of conversations with her therapist throughout the book was a brilliant touch.
The big fight at the end was well orchestrated by Hoang - it was a logical result of underlying issues rather than the characters making a mountain out of a molehill. Both needed to put in the work on themselves before they could resolve the conflict with each other, which is one of my favorite things to see in romance books. Meet-cutes and good chemistry make the book fun to read, but the stakes of the fight at the end of the book (and if/how they overcome it) are what make or break a romance for me. Hoang hit a good balance of making the fight severe enough that it makes sense that 1) the characters would actually have to have this fight at some point, and 2) that it really would be a relationship-breaker. The fight didn’t feel forced, and the stakes weren’t artificially raised - it was something two otherwise compatible people would actually struggle with and have to do the work to figure out a way through.
Overall a fun read, not as light as most romance but very enjoyable. Pair it with blood orange italian soda - a little sweet, a little tart, but a guilt free and refreshing indulgence.
