Book Review: This Girl (Slammed #3) by Colleen Hoover

Summary: 
There are two sides to every love story. Now hear Will’s.

Colleen Hoover’s New York Times bestselling Slammed series has brought countless readers to their knees with a whirlwind of love, passion, and heartache.

Layken and Will’s love has managed to withstand the toughest of circumstances and the young lovers, now married, are beginning to feel safe and secure in their union. As much as Layken relishes their new life together, she finds herself wanting to know everything there is to know about her husband, even though Will makes it clear he prefers to keep the painful memories of the past where they belong. Still, he can’t resist his wife’s pleas and so he begins to untangle his side of the story, revealing for the first time his most intimate feelings and thoughts, retelling both the good and bad moments, and sharing a few shocking confessions of his own from the time when they first met.

In This Girl, Will tells the story of their complicated relationship from his point of view. Their future rests on how well they deal with the past in this final installment of the beloved Slammed series.

Release Date: April 30, 2013
Age Group: YA
Source: NetGalley

Review:
I loved this book!  I did not read the first book in the Slammed series, Slammed, but I did read Point of Retreat (read my review here).  I always meant to go back and read book one, but never took the time to do it.  But, reading This Girl more than made up for me missing out on Slammed.  Hoover alternates from present-tense (Will and Layken are married and on a short honeymoon) to flashbacks from chapter to chapter.  The flashbacks start with Layken and Will's first meeting and span their entire relationship.  I love flashbacks, when they are done well, and Hoover executed the concept perfectly. 

The difference between This Girl and Slammed is that the flashbacks are told from Will's point of view.  In fact, the entire book is from Will's perspective.  I enjoyed Will's voice and getting to know him better.  I liked him a lot in Point of Retreat, but by the time I finished This Girl I had fallen for him.  He's just about perfect, and I loved the intensity of his love for Layken, as well as his brother and their friends.

Hoover excells at writing emotion: the feelings just jumped off the page as I read this book.  I teared up several times, just overcome with the feelings Layken and Will were experiencing.  

I love titled chapters, and the inclusion of quotes or poetry at the beginning of chapters.  Hoover took that concept one step further by having her characters express their feelings through poetry.  I loved that some of their declarations happened at poetry slams, and reading the poems Layken and Will wrote for each other was a fun part of the story.  This Girl has a lot of poetry included throughout the book and I really enjoyed that.  It made for a more intense, emotional read.

Having read all of Colleen Hoover's work (with the exception of Slammed), I can say that her writing keeps getting better and better.  I would highly recommend this series to all fans of contemporary fiction! 



 

1 comment:

  1. Hi Kelli, I just noticed this review and wondered if you would like to link it in to the current monthly collection of books that people loved on Carole's Chatter. This is the link There are already over 20 great books linked in that you might be interested in. It would be super if you came on over. Cheers

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