Review: All Your Perfects

All Your Perfects by Colleen Hoover
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

My thanks to Netgalley, Simon and Schuster Canada, Atria Books, and Colleen Hoover for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and independent of receiving an advanced copy.


So I was not the biggest Colleen Hoover fan. I did not enjoy “It Ends With Us” (please feel free to check out my review) even though it received a high rating. Most people I had talked to were huge fans of Hoover’s writing. I recently had a discussion with my sister-in-law about Hoover and she, also a big fan, said oh check out “it Ends With Us’ and you will change your mind! I had to tell her that I gave it 2 stars. So I wasn’t holding out much hope for “All You Perfects”. I kept an open mind because I hadn’t read enough of her books to really decide if I like her writing style or not. So glad I did.

“All You Perfects” is about a couple and their marriage. It alternates chapters between the past and the present so you can understand where they started and how they got to the point where they felt like they were breaking. Quinn and Graham meet in a hallway, in front of an apartment where their significant others are having an affair. Imagine coming home after a trip, excited to see your fiancé, finding this guy outside the apartment, telling you his girlfriend is inside screwing your fiancé. Do you open the door? Eventually. Do you eat their Chinese food they got delivered - definitely! Do you have revenge sex with the hot guy who was also a victim? They don’t, surprisingly. But a bond was formed, an extra spark was lit and they do the right thing and wait because what if they could have something special - blah blah blah.

They do get together and they are insanely attracted to each other. Their love is true until they start having infertility issues. Years of wanting a baby and not being able to conceive wears away at their relationship. It begins by not wanting to talk about it because you don’t want to hurt the other person and ends up that you just don’t talk. You have grown so far apart from each other you don’t know if there is any way forward, or any way back to the other person.

This novel was a slow burn for me. You get to fall in love with Quinn and Graham while they fall in love with each other. Every marriage has issues and distance is often a result so I found their issues universal rather than situational. It was a 3 star, marching along, I though oh good beach read, nice chick lit, but nothing grabbed me. UNTIL. THE. LETTERS. I don’t want to go into too much detail because I don’t want to reveal any spoilers but it was a game changer for me. I was enjoying it much more than “It Ends With Us” but once it hit that spot, I just was moved. My heart melted and I might have cried a little, well okay I cried. I wasn’t expecting it to have the depth and heartfelt-ness that it did based on the first part of the book. Up to that point, the writing was good, the characters were well drawn but the writing during those letters changed everything for me. It went up to 4 stars for sure for me. I loved the resolution and the ending. It was real.

A beautiful story that illustrates a real marriage, the love and the challenges, what it takes to stay in it and whether it is time to walk away. It reminds you that so much of life is in your hands and how you choose to look at things can shape your reality. Reframing things can be powerful if you choose to be grateful for the blessings you have instead of focusing on what you don’t. Also, making assumptions about other people’s feelings is a dangerous road and usually leads to the wrong conclusion. Especially when you are in a negative space. It felt real and although it is their story, it could be anyone’s story.

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