Leah’s Review of “All Your Perfects” by Colleen Hoover

By: Leah

Originally posted on Leah’s Books.

All Your Perfects

• Author: Colleen Hoover
• Genre: Romance
• Publication Date: July 17, 2018
• Publisher: Atria Books

CONTENT WARNING: infidelity, infertility, mention of death

Plot Summary

Can a love story with a perfect beginning survive a lifetime between two imperfect people?

THEN: The last thing Quinn expected was to meet the love of her life just outside her fiancé’s from door. A year after leaving behind their cheating partners, Quinn and Graham are in a perfect relationship that seems designed by fate.

NOW: Seven years later, their perfect love is threatened by their imperfect marriage. The memories, mistakes, and dreams that they have built up over the years are tearing them apart. The one thing that could save them might also be the very thing that pushes their marriage past the point of no return.

Written with the same emotional depth and keen insight that made Colleen Hoover’s It Ends with Us and Ugly Love instant New York Times bestsellers, All Your Perfects is a powerfully moving story about a broken couple whose future hinges on promises made in the past, reminding us that the enduring power of love is the ultimate savior.

Overall Impression

Okay, so Colleen Hoover books are all over BookTok, and I can’t lie — I developed a severe case of FOMO and had to try reading at least one of her books. This was the first one, but I can guarantee it won’t be the last, because it was absolutely incredible.

We get the story told in two different timelines — then and now. In the “then” parts, we get to see how the relationship between Quinn and Graham develops slowly out of the ashes of their former relationships. I liked that things were done in a healthy way, giving the characters time to grieve their losses before jumping into something new. We also get to see a relationship that just feels meant to be, and who the characters used to be before life weighs them down.

“She must not realize this or she wouldn’t have thrown away her relationship with a guy who impressed me more in one hour than Ethan did in four years.”

In the “now” parts, we get to see what things are like between Quinn and Graham in the present day, after 7 years of marriage and some emotional issues. Although I loved both the characters in the past sections, I struggled with not loving Quinn as much in the present sections. She holds her pain inside, forcing Graham to do the same, and it’s slowly killing their marriage. I understand why she feels the way she does, and it’s that which forced me to give her some more leeway than I normally would, but it also made me admire Graham that much more. But it always felt like things are coming to a breaking point, and I kept waiting for that to come.

“I haven’t felt alive inside in years. I’ve slowly been rotting away, and that rot is now eating at my marriage to the point that I can no longer hide it.”

It was hard to reconcile how fated their romance and love felt, and how determined Quinn was to face her pain alone, even though she isn’t the only one affected by it. But the things that they aren’t talking about are the same things that are ruining them. And I was endlessly frustrated with her for not being willing, or able, to just talk to the man who loves her more than anything else in the world. 

“The most disturbing thing about it is how skilled we are at pretending nothing has changed. We don’t talk about it. We’re alike in a lot of ways, one of them being our ability to avoid the things that need the most attention.”

This is an incredibly deep and moving story, and I wasn’t really surprised to find myself crying by the end of it. More than once, to be honest. The writing is gorgeous, and allowed me to fully immerse myself in the story, imagining the love as well as the pain that each of the characters are feeling. But this is a branch of the “failure to communicate” trope, and while it’s incredibly realistic, it also frustrated me to no end. But I guess I’d feel the same way to see this happen in real time, since relationships need communication to sustain them. It talks about the feelings and pressures that people feel, especially when going through a major issue with no resolution available. And while I didn’t love Quinn for the entirety of the book, I definitely loved how this was written and how it all came together.