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lizshayne 's review for:

The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang
4.0
emotional sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

OOF.
The interesting about this book is that if it wasn't a romance novel, it would be a devastating story of late-autism diagnosis and the tension between how learning that one is autistic provides meaning and context to one's own experience and creates tension and fear among one's family in particular.
Also, like, this book is a LOT. Like half a semester of pastoral classes that I took in rabbinical school worth of a lot. 
The fact that it works at all as a romance novel where you are rooting for the characters to get together and actually care that they bang is a testament to, well, the power of genre to direct attention and also Hoang's growth as a writer. She was quite fine in the Kiss Quotient, but this is a level up for her as a writer.
It was a READ, though. Probably less of one for someone who hadn't recently herself been diagnosed with autism.