Book Review – November 9 by Colleen Hoover

If we’re going to kiss, it has to be book-worthy.

Ok, so maybe I was a little bit hasty to write about my first impressions on romance novels before reading this book.

Rating: 4.5/5

Plot Summary – Fallon and Ben meet each other on the anniversary of an accident leaving Fallon scarred on the left side of her body. It’s the eve before Fallon moves to New York to pursue a career in theater despite her looks.

In a serendipitous meeting, Fallon and Ben fall in love. Sadly, it’s not the best timing. These two agree to meet every November 9th in the same location at the same time and recount their growth over the year. Of course, truths are revealed and hearts are broken.

But do they end up loving each other? Stay tuned.

My thoughts – I can’t tell if this is the story about love at first sight, or love conquering over anguish, or love can heal all wounds. But I can tell you it’s about love. And like the most purest love that you’ve ever thought about that it almost doesn’t feel real love.

This book was like romance-ption (see what I did there?). It was a romance novel including a main character who loved romance novels. If more romance novels were like this one, then I’d definitely apologize for my last post as well as read more and more of these novels.

There weren’t any throbbing members or quivering bosoms. The book felt like a good-hearted story of a boy and girl who happen to fall in love. Their emotions felt real. Their decisions felt real. This whole book felt like something I wish was real and it’s definitely something I look for when I read.

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t a fan of Confess when it came out. I thought that the story didn’t move in an eloquent way. It seemed clunky stuck with random things that I didn’t anticipate to happen. I was worried November 9 would be the same way.

However, November 9 really had me walking through the city and not paying attention to what’s happening around me. While the rest of America is head down entranced by Pokemon Go, I’m getting hurt in other ways. I walked into a pole this book is so good.

 

Whether or not the couple ends up together at the end of a book doesn’t determine whether that book has a happy ending or not. As long as the two people end up happy, it doesn’t really matter if they end up happy together.

While I want to give this book five stars, there were two things that I agonized over and wish didn’t happen.

1. The explanation – Every book has that scene where the main character needs to start from the beginning and explain their reasoning behind things. Without providing too many spoilers, the main character in this book provides their novel. While it’s fun to read a novel within a novel, it was a little bit tedious. I think that Colleen Hoover could have achieved the same effect if Fallon and Ben were talking to each other and the reader was reading a flashback to the beginning of their story. Then, it would feel more like a flowing story than abruptly halted by reading another book.
2. The ending – Again, without giving away too much about the book I was not happy about the ending. It was oozing with cheese! I’m happy that the ending the way it did, but I’m just not a fan of endings such as this.

However, don’t let these two points deter you from reading the book. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. I couldn’t put it down and other cliched phrases to describe how great this book was.

Would I recommend it? Absolutely and especially so if you have a soft spot in your heart for love.