New Adult Romance | November 9 by Colleen Hoover

“Fallon meets Ben, an aspiring novelist, the day before her scheduled cross-country move. Their untimely attraction leads them to spend Fallon’s last day in L.A. together, and her eventful life becomes the creative inspiration Ben has always sought for his novel. Over time and amidst the various relationships and tribulations of their own separate lives, they continue to meet on the same date every year. Until one day Fallon becomes unsure if Ben has been telling her the truth or fabricating a perfect reality for the sake of the ultimate plot twist.”

Mixed Feelings

There are some authors that have such a huge following that I start to feel an overwhelming curiosity that cannot be ignored. Colleen Hoover is one such author.

I read Maybe Someday, and it really wasn’t for me. It was more about the subject matter, though, so I wanted to try another of her books to get a better feel of Hoover as an author.

I picked November 9 to try out next mainly because it was her newest release, and I thought the premise sounded interesting: girl meets boy the day she’s moving, and girl and boy decide to meet the same day each year.

Let’s start off with the good stuff. I really enjoyed the alternating points of view. The reader gets a first-hand account of both Fallon and Ben’s thoughts and emotions. I especially love this tactic in romance books, so I loved this aspect of the story.

The idea of meeting up once a year for five years (as determined by Fallon) is a really unique concept. I like how Hoover mixed things up; I was always surprised by what happened with each encounter.

Moving on to the not-so-good stuff…This is 100 percent a personal pet peeve, but I don’t like when books reference the writing of books. Ben is an aspiring author, and he and Fallon talk about romance novels, including things like TBR lists, book boyfriends and the ultimate swoonworthy kiss.

This completely took me out of the story and reminded me I was reading a fictional novel vs being so immersed in the writing that I felt like the characters were real.

My biggest problem with November 9 is that while the book is written in such a way that I felt compelled to continue reading, I don’t think the writing is exceptional or even great. What I’m saying is, I wasn’t moved by any turns of phrase or insightful musings, which left things feeling dry.

The engrossing sections of the book are mainly due to the unexpected twists and turns. Some of which, felt cheap and unnecessary. As I’ve said in other reviews, I’m not a huge fan of tortured and never-ending “will they, won’t they’s,” where characters do terrible things to each other and then somehow overcome them.

As an avid reader, I do not expect books to be realistic all the time. But in novels when there’s only the romance to focus on, if the actual romance is tortured, then I start to feel tricked and cheated out of a great experience.

OVERALL:

I can absolutely see why other readers would enjoy this book. It’s a unique romance that while tortured is unputdownable. However, when I consider the things I mentioned above, November 9 is just not a book I can recommend.