This Girl: A Novel (Slammed)

THIS IS ME SHOUTING FROM THE ROOFTOPS!!!!!!THIS. BOOK. IS. PHENOMENAL.I'm laughing. I'm crying. I'm shaking.It was perfect. Every single line was perfect.Beautiful. Heartbreak. Breathtaking.Unputdownable.Pure. butterflying. gold.6 HUGE STARS!!!Books like this are the reason why I love reading.Colleen Hoover has outdone herself. She managed to take a story that we love and retell it from the hero's POV while still making every single word of it feel new, fresh and powerful.Yes, technically it's a retelling of Slammed from Will's POV but there is SO much more. There are new scenes, added story lines, and even a epilogue that is guaranteed to make your heart squeeze. Not one word of it felt repetitive.Reading this book was like taking a beautiful walk down memory lane. It's been over a year since I read Slammed and Point of Retreat. Those two books are one of the reasons I started blogging. Slammed was actually the first book ever that inspired me to write anything about it. At the time, it was only a small review paragraph where I tried to convey my love for the story but it was something. The depth to which those books hit me was unlike any other book I'd read at that point. I "felt" the story with every single part of my heart and soul.But before starting This Girl, I didn't have time to reread either of them and I wondered if I'd be able to connect to it as strongly as I did to the first two. But can I just say that barely 10 lines into the book, every, single emotion that the original books had instilled in me came flooding back. My heart clenched. My throat closed up. I was right back there. Right. There. In this beautifully crafted world, surrounded by the characters I'd come to love with my whole heart.There is something simply magical about reading a book that revisits characters you are already in love with. EVERYTHING just has so much more weight. It's like the best possible kind of reunion imaginable.Do you need to re-read Slammed and Point of Retreat before reading this? No. But you do need to read them at least once first? For sure!Without spoilers, I want to tell you a little about this book. The whole book is from Will's POV. I know it's being called "Slammed from Will's POV" but it is so much more . It actually takes place after Point of Retreat and is a continuation of their story in that respect. But, a major part of the book, is Lake asking Will what his perspective was on a lot of the things they went through together, and asking him things about himself that neither she nor us (the readers) knew.And because when you read this, you'll already know the general story, something as simple as this line can just make your breath catch:"I cross the street, unable to take my eyes off the girl in the U-Haul."And then, finally, after the alternate story of Slammed has been caught up, Will and Lake's story progresses even farther ((cue the squeeling)) including an absolutely perfect, utterly beautiful, heartwarming epilogue that literally left me smiling, crying and shaking."She doesn't speak, but she doesn't have to. I know in these moments when it's just her and me and nothing else, that she truly, soul-deep, loves me."I could NOT put this book down. It was riveting, captivating, and I was so wrapped up in the story that I didn't even notice that I literally read until the sun came up. I wanted both to rush through it and yet also to read it as slow as possible to savor every and every world. It absolutely consumed me.This book was perfect from start to finish. It captured that heart-fluttering power of first love told from the POV of one of our favorite book heroes. Everything was just so emotionally charged - the flirting, the introduction, the crushing, the chemistry, the sheer, raw, passionate intensity that just rolled off the page. Like I said, perfect!"I can't remember feeling this way since... well, ever. It's new. It's scary. It's exciting. It's nerve-wracking. It's calming. It's every single emotion I've ever felt balled up into an intense urge to grab a hold of her and never let go."There are also new slams!! A few of them actually. And ohhhhh my are they ever beautiful! You know, I've never been into poetry, for some reason I just can't seem to get into it, but the slams in this series are just so POWERFUL that you can't help but "feel" them.For those of you who have yet to start this series, you should know that there is a reason that Colleen Hoover is getting the acclaim she's receiving right now. Everything about her writing - the story, the style, the characters, is simply breathtaking. The level of EMOTION that exists in nearly every line of this book is just overwhelming. I loved every minute. Her words speak straight to your soul."I suddenly don't care where we are or who might be watching us. I have to kiss her. I have to."I laughed, I cried, and sometimes I laughed through my tears. And when the FULL understanding of the title hit me, I can't even describe to you what I felt. Just. WOW.My 6-star book list is reserved for those few books that, from start to finish, go above and beyond. That grab a hold of my heart so strongly that a year later, I can just pick the books up and the emotions are right THERE. That tell a story that is so beautiful, real, original, and powerful that it leaves a mark on my heart that I know will be there for ever.This book did that.Soul deep, guys.Just, butterflying perfect.6 huge stars.

I seriously enjoyed the first two books. This book was the first two combined with a honeymoon. Too much of re-reading book one and two all over again while trying to get to the honeymoon!I realize a book just about the honeymoon wouldn't have been enough but re-reading one and two at the same time was just toooooo much!!!I binged all three so I technically read 5 books, not just 3...Instead of re-living 1 & 2 in the third you could have taken it to the pregnancy etc. and on from there. Just my opinion.I really did enjoy book's one and two. Good writing 😁☺️

Let me say this right off the bat. I ADORED Slammed and Point of Retreat. Adored them. They were two of my favorite books of 2012, and they are the two favorite reviews I have ever written. You can check them out here on my reviews on amazon. I especially loved Point of Retreat which is told through Will's POV. So when I heard that there would be a third book in the series telling Slammed's story through Will's eyes ... oh yeah! I was totally excited and rushed right out to get my own copy. Unfortunately I am going to have to go against an overwhelming sea of five star ratings here and only give this one three stars. Three stars because I liked it. I did. I just didn't love it. For me it did not live up to the level of the first two books of the series. Let me explain.I'm not going to spend any time explaining what happens in this book. If you've read Slammed you already know. If you haven't read Slammed, stop what you're doing right now and read it first. You won't be able to enjoy this one at all if you don't know the background behind what Will is explaining. I will explain that the framework of this story takes place where the first two books left off, during Will and Lake's honeymoon. I did not like the way this was framed at all. I would have much preferred to just read the story straight through, but at the beginning of each chapter there would be a short present day scene where Lake would prompt Will to tell more of the story of their history from his POV. Some of the reactions that took place during these scenes REALLY bothered me. A lot. There is a scene almost half-way through the book when Lake finds out that Will had gone on a date with a girl during the awkward stages of their non-relationship during the school year. One date. That's it. But Lake FREAKS out. Completely freaks out. She is laying in bed with her HUSBAND Will many, many months after this happened, and yet she is so angry that she locks herself in the bathroom and has a meltdown. This was such an immature, juvenile sort of reaction that I could see happening in junior high. It really bugged me and hurt a lot of my enjoyment of the story. Even more, it made me dislike Lake as a character, and I hate that I left this book feeling that way about a girl I loved so much after reading Slammed. Little things like this were happening all through these present day scenes. I would have rather eliminated them from the story. It would have improved things a lot. This is my own neurosis, but I have always disliked stories told in present tense. I learn to live with it, but I don't normally like it. I guess I can understand the honeymoon scenes being told in present tense, but as Will is telling Lake his story it would have made a lot more sense for that part of the book to be told in past tense ... the way all of us tell stories to our friends. It's a minor detail, but there it is.As for the story itself, here is where my major issue occurs. I loved the story of Lake and Will's relationship as it was told in Slammed. I could feel the despair she felt as she realized that she could not be with the guy she loved because of circumstances. I rooted for this couple to succeed ... somehow. I loved Will's POV in Point of Retreat, so I don't mind hearing his inner voice to tell a story. BUT in this book it made me very, very uncomfortable. I know that he is only 21 and only three years older than Lake. I know that at any other time in their lives this would not be a big deal. A year in the future this would not be a big deal, but let's face the facts. He is her English teacher. Like it or not, he is her English teacher. And no matter how perfect they may be for one another, there is no way to paint this situation where a relationship between them would be right. I understand their pain. I understand. But as I was reading page after page after page of Will's obsession with everything Lake I felt uncomfortable. Maybe it is because I have an 18 year-old daughter, but it kind of creeps me out to think about a teacher obsessing about a student like this. I hate to say it, but this story just had a weirder vibe when told from Will's POV. I still love the guy, and I'm happy they finally got their HEA, but I did not like the way the story flowed in his head. And for some reason when I hear this story told by Will I kept thinking that they fell in love WAY too fast. I didn't feel that way in Slammed, so maybe I'm just in a different place as a reader, but they had only been on one date before getting all obsessive about each other. An awesome date, yeah, but still only one date. And sadly, seeing Lake's actions toward him in this book made her seem petty and immature at times as she was constantly slamming doors after him all the time. Then having him constantly blaming himself for everything got terribly old. At one point in Will's story after he and Lake become an official item they are sitting at the club with Eddie and Gavin and this conversation takes place:"It'll take some getting used to. It just seems like you're doing something illegal," Eddie says."I'm twenty-one," I say defensively. "I'm not even a teacher anymore. what's so weird about it?""I dunno," she says. "It's just weird.""It is weird," Gavin says again. "It really is."And that pretty much sums up how I felt for a lot of Will's telling of this story. I hate that I felt that way. But it is what it is, I guess.Having said all of that ... I still did enjoy this book. It seems as if I had lots to hate about it, but in reality there was a lot to love about it as well. Who can turn down a chance to hear more about a favorite story, this time from the guy's POV? I would describe it as candy for fans of the Slammed universe. I LOVE the slam poetry sprinkled throughout this book. I could listen to Will perform these poems all day long. Fans of the series should find a lot to enjoy about this one. I think that if it had been published as a cheaper e-book addition to the series as so many of my favorite authors do for their fans it would have been better. Published as a full-priced book may be a bit misleading for this one. This is candy. A bonus for readers. I'm glad I got the chance to read it, but it does not stand anywhere near the quality of the main book of the series. I don't consider it to be an equal, and definitely not worth twice what I paid for the other books. I understand the reason for the pricing. And, of course, I paid it without regret. I just want to make clear my feelings about the quality of this book. Are you a fan of the series? Then I do recommend this book. It does have some great moments that we didn't get to see in Slammed. And I adored the epilogue. Will's poem at the end? Amazing! Unfortunately I'm going to have to go against the tide here and only give this one three stars. I liked it.