The Heart Principle is another fantastic book by Helen Hoang. Simply calling it a romance between Anna and Quan would be doing a disservice to the book and to the readers, because it is so much more. In The Heart Principle, Hoang covers dealing with an adult Autism diagnosis, elder care, the death of a parent, family, cancer, burnout, and the importance of compassion for yourself and others.I have been mulling over this review for days because I wanted to express how much I liked this book, but at the same time how hard some of it was for me to read. Anna's struggle with her family and her desire to make everyone happy to her own detriment was tough to digest, but so well-told I couldn't put it down.
Publisher's description:
When violinist Anna Sun accidentally achieves career success with a viral YouTube video, she finds herself incapacitated and burned out from her attempts to be perfect in other people's eyes. If Anna ever wants to move forward, she has to learn to listen to her own heart, but that's not easy when her greatest fear has always been disappointing others. Her solution is to create a low-stress environment, with no expectations to fulfill, where she can experiment with being herself and going after what she wants. Translation: Anna is going to embark on a string of one-night stands. The more unacceptable the men, the better. That's where tattooed, motorcycle-riding Quan Diep comes in, but nothing goes according to plan.