I crack open my cookie and slip the fortune out of it. “If you only shine light on your flaws, all your perfects will dim.”
- Buy ALL YOUR PERFECTS (Kindle)
- Buy ALL YOUR PERFECTS (Hardcover)
- Buy ALL YOUR PERFECTS (Paperback)
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OMG. OMG. OH. MY. GOD!! This was one of the most POWERFUL, BEAUTIFUL, HEART-BREAKING, and HEALING LOVE STORIES I’ve ever read. It’s about a married couple struggling through some very dark days and HOLY EPIC FEELS, you guys!! I read the book in one sitting and absolutely devoured this story. I felt so strongly for this couple and everything they were going through. And then as I was reading there was just this MOMENT where everything CLICKED and I swear I just literally burst into tears and then SOBBED my way through the whole rest of the book. But in the BEST WAY. These weren’t tears of sadness, rather just an EMOTIONAL OVERFLOW. Oh, and WHAT AN EPILOGUE!! It was PERFECT. This book was PERFECT. Everything about it was PERFECT. You have to read it!! One of the BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR!!! 5 STARS ALL THE WAY!
Every once in a while a book comes a long that takes you by surprise and blows you away. This was one of those books for me. It takes an unflinching look at one of the biggest, darkest, most painful struggles a married couple can face and portrays such a raw, honest view of how the different parts of this situation affect the husband and wife both as individuals and as a unit. By going back and forth through the years of their relationship, this book quietly builds an incredible impactful story that worked its way into my heart. I felt deeply connected to this couple’s pain and heartbreak, as well as their love and healing. Not to mention that the writing was oh so beautiful. I’ve read every book Colleen Hoover has written and have loved them all but I have to admit that this one is was really special to me. It’s not that common to find love stories about already married couples — so often, the stories end with a marriage or at best you see glimpses of it in an epilogue — so reading a book where the entirety of the story was dedicated to life after “I do” was both incredibly refreshing and very powerful. With this book, Colleen Hoover has truly reminded me why she is one of my all-time favorite authors whose books I recommend to nearly everyone I meet.
“I have loved you every single second of every day since the moment I laid eyes on you.”
This book really grabbed a hold of my heart from even just the first few pages. As I mentioned, it’s broken up into alternating chapters of ‘thens’ and ‘nows’ going back and forth between the heart-breaking day Quinn and Graham met…
“I’m Graham,” he says, reaching out his hand.
“Quinn.”
Even his smile is sad. It makes me wonder if his smile would be different under different circumstances.
“I would say it’s good to meet you, Quinn, but this is the worst moment of my life.”
… and a time years after their marriage as they faced an unanticipated turn of events that spiraled them down a path they never thought they’d take.
“Our marriage didn’t collapse. It didn’t suddenly fall apart.
It’s been a much slower process.
It’s been dwindling, if you will…
We don’t talk about it…
In our defense, it’s hard to admit that a marriage might be over when the love is still there… The problem is, love and happiness are not concordant. One can exist without the other.”
Gah, this story just felt so REAL. I’ve highlighted so many passages from my book that half of it looks yellow. Colleen Hoover really just peels back the layers of this marriage and lays it out bare. The love. The need. The emptiness. The happiness. The loss. All the different elements playing their part in the story.
Most of the story is told from the heroine’s perspective. Towards the end, you get to see the other side, but it’s done in a very unique way. And I have to admit, she really did such an amazing job of placing the reader right in the heroine’s mind — feeling every emotion that she was going through.
Graham presses his mouth to mine. I can taste his tears. Or maybe they’re my tears. He pulls back and presses his forehead to mine. “I miss you, Quinn. So much. You’re right here, but you aren’t. I don’t know where you went or when you left, but I have no idea how to bring you back. I am so alone. We live together. We eat together. We sleep together. But I have never felt more alone in my entire life.”
In my eyes, jumping back and forth in time was the perfect way to balance this story. It meant that my poor heart got a break from the intensity of what they were going through in the present day, but it also helped grow my understanding of them both as their own selves and as a unit. My heart soared with happiness for them falling in love and ached for the devastation their challenges wreaked on their marriage.
I felt so bad for them and the unfairness of the cards they’d been dealt. I genuinely wanted so badly for them to find a way through the Category 5 storm they were weathering.
The old man leaned forward and looked at me very seriously. “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.”
And OMG….. THE BOX!!!!!
The moment — the moment — I realized the significance of that box, tears sprang to my eyes and I just began to sob. It was the missing piece. It was everything I needed. I actually had to stop reading at one point because I literally couldn’t see the page through my tears. From that point forward, every part of the story was just so emotionally POWERFUL. As I said earlier though, these were GOOD TEARS. These are the kinds of tears I want a book to pull from me. They’re not sad tears, but rather just literally the product of being so connected to the story that your emotions spill over.
“No matter how hard I try… no matter how much I love you… I can’t be the one thing you’ve always wanted me to be…”
A tear immediately falls from my eye. And then another. But I remain stoic as he steps toward me.
“If this is what our marriage is… if this is all it will ever be… will that be enough? Am I enough for you?”
You’re left with the beautiful, resounding truth that when love is real and true, it can conquer anything. I’m not sure where this quote is from but it really rings true with this story that “The grass is greenest where you water it.”
Gah, and the epilogue!! SO BEAUTIFUL. By the end I was just sobbing big ugly crocodile tears of happiness.
“I didn’t marry you just for the good years. I didn’t marry you just for the amazing chemistry we have. And I’d be foolish to think our marriage could last an eternity without a few tough moments. So, while this year has been our toughest yet, I know one thing with complete certainty. I love you more this year than any year that came before it.”
I think my favorite thing about this book was that there wasn’t any fairytale deus-ex-machina-style fix to the problems that this couple faced. I loved that the way they worked through it actually was about how they dealt with it and, rather than finding a magical way around it. It felt so much more real and believable because of this. I’m trying to be as vague as possible to keep this spoiler free but I think you’ll see exactly what I mean when you read it.
I can’t recommend this book highly enough. It’s one of my favorite Colleen Hoover books ever. It’s definitely one of the best books of the year. It’s an instant top recommendation of mine. Just read it. I promise it’s amazing!
Rating: 5 STARS!!! Contemporary Adult Romance Standalone.
- Buy ALL YOUR PERFECTS (Kindle)
- Buy ALL YOUR PERFECTS (Hardcover)
- Buy ALL YOUR PERFECTS (Paperback)
- Buy ALL YOUR PERFECTS (iBooks)
❤ SIGNED GIVEAWAY ❤
Open Internationally.
Winner gets hardcover copy of All Your Perfects by Colleen Hoover and a signed bookplate.
Void where prohibited by law. Must be over 18 to enter.
