Helen Hoang is an amazing writer who writes romance books. The Heart Principle is the third book in a series following members of the same family. In this book we see Quan, cousin and best friend of Michael as well as brother of Khai.

I have a lot to say about this book, so I am just going to briefly touch on the great characterization that is Hoang’s trademark. The plot and writing are even better in this third book then the first two. There is sex but also relationship building. It is an overall amazing book.

The Heart Principal is a romance book, so it is not fair to put on it the expectation of educating readers. Yet the main characters are autistic. Autistic adults! Autistic adults that are often women! Autistic adults shown as capable of falling in love and having meaningful relationships. Do you have any idea how big of a deal this is? If you belong to an underrepresented group then you probably do.

So often in the reviews of these book the idea of the main characters being autistic is a brief blimp, or worse never even mentioned. Every time that happens I grow a bit smaller. Because while us autistic people are just that…people…we often are not treated as such. As our other main character, Anna, so excellently shows we have to hide who we are everywhere except our own houses, and sometimes even then. But now we can see ourselves in books, and others can see us too.

I am not romantic. The relationships in this book was a bit too easy and coincidental, but isn’t that what romance books do? With that being said, I loved this book so freaking much.