November 9 by Colleen Hoover

Beloved #1 New York Times bestselling author Colleen Hoover returns with an unforgettable love story between a writer and his unexpected muse.

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.

Goodreads Summary

I debated even putting this review on my site...especially when I looked at the average rating on Goodreads. This review will contain slight spoilers so stop reading if you don't want to see any! Fallon and Ben meet by accident when Ben decides to be her "one day boyfriend" to make Fallon's judgmental dad angry. They're clearly meant to be, though they both don't seem to see that, and Fallon is leaving for New York that night. They decide to meet for the next five years on November 9th. Fallon and Ben's story will help Ben write his book. It sounded like such a great novel and it started out pretty nicely, but it went horribly wrong in the end.

Nearly every cliche and trope that Fallon herself says she hates happens in this book. They are in insta-love and though they see each other once a week that doesn't make it any less of a fact. Ben acts like a tortured fool for someone who really committed an illegal act and knew full well that Fallon was victimized by it. Fallon let her burn scars rule her life, but it takes Ben telling her she's beautiful to heal. This annoyed the heck out of me that she needed some boy's opinion to think better of herself (never mind her mom, friends, her own opinion, etc...). 

Then we come to the part that made me put the book down and skim the rest of the book. Fallon finds out that Ben's brother has died and Jordyn, his wife, is pregnant. Instead of letting Ben come to New York to be with her, she commits the noble (can you hear the sarcasm in my voice) act of telling Ben she doesn't want to love him and is leaving. So he ends up screwing around with his sister-in-law. Yep...that part killed it. Then he finds out she lied and ends his relationship with his brother's wife and decides to love her child (his nephew) from a different house. I don't understand when people lie to people to supposedly save them from themselves or help someone else. It makes no real sense. It's not altruistic, it does not make things better for either party, and it does not make you a nicer person. It does, however, make me angry. They then go through the whole cliched "it turns out I moved here to be with you and lied to you" and "I still love you despite you sleeping with your nephew's mother" and "we'll be together forever." I just don't understand the appeal for this book and this plot and I never will. The whole plot was overly dramatic and heavily romanticized. The characters were plain stupid and he was ruled by a part that wasn't his brain. Overall, I'm glad I checked this out from the library. 

1 Star



This product or book may have been distributed for review, this in no way affects my opinions or reviews. COPYRIGHT © 2014 LIVE TO READ