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.

Anyone that has read "Slammed" or "Point of Retreat" by Colleen Hoover needs to pick up "This Girl." In "Slammed," and "Point of Retreat," Colleen introduced us to Lake and Will. "This Girl" is a follow up to the two books but is told in the point of view of Will Cooper. You get to go back and relive all the wonderful moments of the first two books but you get to hear it in Will's point of view. As much as I want to get into the book I don't want to spoil it for anyone that has not read the first two books in this series. With that being said I will say that Lake and Will have had several ups and downs in their lives and these stories show you that no matter how many times someone may get knocked down they have to get back up and live life. Will and Lake have learned to deal with so much pain and hurt at such a young age, but they finally find the one thing that will help them move on through life and that's the love and comfort they bring each other. They soon find out that family can be brought to you in all sorts of ways. *Will: "I don't know how one minute, a person can think his life is nothing more than a barren valley with nothing left to look forward to. Then, in the blink of an eye, someone can come along and change it with a simple smile." Hoover does a great job of dealing with sorrow and death but bringing out such raw emotion in her characters. I fell in "butterflying" love with these characters in the first two books and "This Girl" just brought the story to me in a whole new perspective but made me fall even more in love with Will Cooper. I rate this book at a 4.0 and would highly recommend picking up "Slammed" and "Point of Retreat" if you haven't read them and then jumping right into "This Girl."

I love how fairly priced these books are. Sure beats getting ripped off by bookstores.

The 1st 2 are much nicer. This girl is a lot of répétition

The first two books of the trilogy were ok, but this one is basically the first from a different point of view and it doesnt really add much.

No aporta absolutamente nada a la historia los personajes van contando sus pov de lo que sucedió en los libros anteriores pero es muy hermoso

One should read this