Great story about mental health

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The Heart Principle includes:
-Adult romance
-Chinese female MC/ Vietnamese male MC
-Female mc is neurodivergent

I've been anticipating this book for so long and unfortunately, I did not enjoy this book as much as I hoped even though I gave it 5 stars. When Entertainment Weekly released an excerpt in 2019 I instantly fell in love with and it made me excited even more. But then months later it was announced that this book will be going in a different direction. I didn't think too much of it as I absolutely loved the other two installments. I was expecting a fun, lighthearted book as reading about Quan in the other 2 books he was such a fun character and a fantastic brother to Khai. I was expecting to fall in love with him more here, but he just felt like a side character in this book and didn't have much character development

Despite this, this book did focus on Anna’s growth and was executed well. As Helen Hoang states in her author’s note this was a personal story to her as Anna’s struggles were hers. It was very heartbreaking to read about Anna’s thoughts and feelings and I related a lot to her. I liked seeing her heal and finally stand up for herself. The plot mainly focuses on mental health which is not a problem and I like reading about it, but I expected the main plot to be romance.

This book also includes infertility, the loss of a loved one and gaslighting so proceed with caution if these topics are triggering.

The issue is I had high expectations and expected something different which is why I'm a little disappointed, but don't let my review discourage you as this story can resonate with many people due to how personal it is, especially Asians and POC who face pressure from parents and not being able to be themselves.