Review: This Girl by Colleen Hoover

About the book:

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.

Pages: 285

Published by: Atria (April 30th, 2013)

Genre: NA contemporary romance

My rating for This Girl (Slammed, #1):

A beautiful retelling of Slammed from Will's POV. Mostly, This Girl brought warmth in my heart and put a smile on my face. The majority of the novel was filled with just Will and Lake, and then, of course, I already knew most of what was going on in the flashback scenes. So because there wasn't a whole lot of new material, nothing evoked an incredibly strong reaction out of me. I definitely loved it, don't get me wrong. I loved seeing Will's perspective of the events from Slammed. I especially loved the scenes he shared with Caulder, Kel, Julia, and Gavin, the ones we didn't even know had occurred when we read Slammed! They were funny and engrossing and made me connect with the characters and the story more.

But I didn't get all those fluttery and giggly feelings I always get when I read a romance story for the first time. I was going to give this book 4 leaves (a.k.a. 4 stars), which is my "I loved it, but it didn't blow me away" rating. 

Then the last 13 pages alone brought that force of WOW to the table! Those 13 pages made me give This Girl 5 leaves. It was all new material with characters in addition to Will & Lake. 

Including Julia. 

Lake's mom is my favorite book mom. Ever. Just... I love everything about her! Read the series, everyone. You'll understand. I can't even put into words how much I love Julia. Her actions choke me up. The ending contained humor, love, and surprises that made my emotions ricochet around the room! It was absolutely breathtaking and now my heart is aching from the sweetness of it. <3 

"You, baby girl. You're my final piece."