Book 9/30.
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This was my fourth Colleen Hoover read, the first being the incomparable It Ends with Us which was a major 5 star read. I gave 4 stars to my next two CoHo reads, Ugly Love and Verity, though the latter was a much stronger 4 star read than the former. November 9 is also a 4 star read, but on the same level as Ugly Love in that I could easily have rated it 3 ½ stars.
I enjoyed the premise of this novel: Ben and Fallon agree to meet up on November 9th for the next five years with no contact whatsoever on the other days of the year. The writing was good and the plot kept me intrigued enough that I read this in 1 ½ days. Miles and Tate from Ugly Love make an appearance in this book and I looooove when authors create a world where characters from different books exist together 🤩
The reason this was an Ugly-Love-4 star-read-and-not-a-Verity-one is because Ben tended to be extremely controlling. And that’s putting it verrrryyy mildly. I gather his dominance was meant to be sexy, but it came across as very red flag-y instead, e.g. this conversation Ben had with Fallon the day he met her.
I shove the dress back at him. “I don’t want to wear that, I want to wear this.”
“No,” he says. “I’m paying for dinner, so I get to choose what to stare at while we eat.”
Or when as they were making out that same day he tells her, “By the way, it’s your fault people think you’re ugly.”
Say what now??!!!
Unfortunately those are not the only two times in the book when Ben was being a creepy and controlling dick. Ben is exactly the kind of guy any decent therapist would tell you to stay away from and I don’t understand how CoHo, someone who created the perfect book boyfriend with Atlas, thought the creepy and controlling dick that is Ben could pass the vibe check.
PS: I know it doesn’t make sense that I’ve given 4 stars to a book with such a problematic MMC who gets the girl when he really shouldn’t have, but I can’t help that I quite enjoyed this one despite its issues 😐
PPS: And yes, book 9 and November 9 was verrrryyy intentional 😅
** A guide to ratings **
1 star – did not like it
2 stars – it was okay
3 stars – liked it
4 stars – really liked it
5 stars – it was amazing
Lwile the Leo 