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| This Girl by Colleen Hoover April 30, 2013 Atria Books 256 pages Genre: New Adult Source: NetGalley for honest review (Though I have also pre-ordered the paperback because I want it on my shelf!) |
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.
My Review:
While Will's POV from Slammed isn't necessary to perpetuate my sheer love for this series by Colleen Hoover, especially since Point of Retreat was from his POV, I will not deny my utter excitement at getting another book from Colleen featuring Will and Lake. Book retellings can be a tricky business and are not always done right. I'm not a fan of simply cutting and pasting previous scenes and then just reconfiguring things to change the speaker/voice. This is where Colleen Hoover got everything right. This novel, for me, was the perfect retelling of a story from another character's POV, and Will is the perfect narrator.
What makes THIS GIRL so special and unique?
1. We get not only Will's POV from Slammed, but we additionally get his POV while he and Lake are on their honeymoon. So we get the past and present mixed together. It's basically a story within a story. This could not have been done better.
2. We get Will's POV during the scenes with him and Lake during Slammed. But Colleen didn't fall into the old 'cut-and-paste' method with a few internal thoughts thrown in here and there. We get a full immersion into Will's psyche and truly get to see each situation from his deep POV, no stone unturned. Additionally, I loved the interactions between Will and Lake after he would tell her each mini-story and how together they would reflect on the different ways they saw each situation and how they were able to come together, understanding the other a little bit better after seeing the other side of the story.
3. We get lots of bonus material about Will himself: who he was before Lake, what happened with him while Lake wasn't around, how much he was dedicated to her during those really difficult times, his relationship with Julia, his relationship with Caulder and Kel, his relationship with Gavin. All of these things made me fall in love with Will over and over again.
4. We get new honeymoon scenes that prove how compatible and wonderful Will and Lake are together. While it is obvious they are on their honeymoon having sex (refer to Kiersten's definition), there is nothing overly steamy or graphic, and any sex scenes eventually go fade to black, so the audience for this book remains consistent with the audience for Slammed and Point of Retreat.
5. We get more slam poetry!! Including beautiful slams from Will!!
6. We get a beautiful, heartfelt, poignant, and perfect epilogue. You will rejoice with Will and Lake and their future, and the beauty of their life together. You will swoon over Will all over again. And Colleen somehow was able to involve all the pertinent players from the books into the epilogue. Girlfriend knows how to leave her readers happy!
Bottomline: This is the perfect bonus ending to the Slammed series. I will miss journeying with Will and Lake into their future, but their future is bright and my thoughts for them will forever be happy. This is a series I will read over and over, and Will's POV is the metaphorical cherry on top. Thank you, Colleen, for your writing genius!
5 SLAMMIN' STARS
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