🎧︎All You Perfects by Colleen Hoover narrated by Madeleine Maby delivered an emotional story that explored the complexities of infertility, depression and its effects on a marriage. I went into the story expecting all the feels and it did not disappoint. Picking up this book requires one to have a box of tissues at hand as one journeys with Quinn and Graham through the difficulties of their relationship.
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Title: All Your Perfects
Author(s): Colleen Hoover
Narrator(s): Madeleine Maby
Published by Simon & Schuster Audio on July 17, 2018
Pages: 308
Length: 7 hours and 43 minutes
Genre(s): Contemporary Romance
Source: Purchase, Scribd
Format: Audiobook, eBook 
Purchase: Amazon|Audible|Audiobooks.com
Rating: 
Heat Level: 
Listening time 7 hours 43 minutes
The number-one
New York Times
best-selling author of It Ends with Us - whose writing is "emotionally wrenching and utterly original" (Sarah Shepard,
New York Times
best-selling author of the Pretty Little Liars series) - delivers a tour de force novel about a troubled marriage and the one old forgotten promise that might be able to save it.
Quinn and Graham's perfect love is threatened by their imperfect marriage. The memories, mistakes, and secrets that they have built up over the years are now tearing them apart. The one thing that could save them might also be the very thing that pushes their marriage beyond the point of repair.
All Your Perfects is a profound novel about a damaged couple whose potential future hinges on promises made in the past. This is a heartbreaking pause resister that asks: Can a resounding love with a perfect beginning survive a lifetime between two imperfect people?
Quinn and Graham have been married for seven years. Once upon a time, they had the type of relationship everyone envied. Friends, lovers and soulmate riding a season of highs. What more could they desire? However, as with everything in life, a season of lows will most definitely follow a season of highs. Now, after almost seven years together, Graham and Quinn both face a devastating season of lows. Think category five hurricane. They go through the motions, bottle up their feelings, and pretend all is well. When in reality, their marriage has hit a rough patch. Will they be able to reignite the spark that once burned so bright or is their once perfect love doomed for all time?
‘Some people think the focus in a marriage should be put on the perfect days. They love as much and as hard as they can when everything is going right. But if a person gives all of themselves in the good times, hoping the bad times never come, there may not be enough resources or energy left to withstand those category 5 moments.’
🎧︎All Your Perfects hit me hard. I believe if I read this book at the time of its release, it would not have had the same effect. Has one half of a married couple I related to the Quinn and Graham’s struggles. Marriage is hard and this story aptly demonstrated this fact. For marriage to work, both parties have to be willing to make it work. Quinn gave up, but Graham held on for fear of losing the most important person in his world.
“What’s the secret to a perfect marriage?’ The old man leaned forward and looked at me very seriously. ‘Our marriage hasn’t been perfect. No marriage is perfect. There were times when she gave up on us. There were even more times when I gave up on us. The secret to our longevity is that we never gave up at the same time.”
The story moved between the past and the present. The chapters set in the past were amazing. Graham and Quinn’s love story warmed my heart. They may have met under unconventional circumstances, but one could not deny the genuineness of their feelings for each other. The chapters in the present gutted me to core. Pain and tension flowed from these chapters. These moments revealed how they have forgotten the promises made in the past.
People are led to believe that a marriage ends only when the love has been lost. When anger replaces happiness. When contempt replaces bliss. But Graham and I aren’t angry at each other. We’re just not the same people we used to be.
Graham was awesome. Far from perfect, but here we have a guy who deeply loves his wife and would do anything to make her happy. I understood Quinn’s struggles, but she rubbed me the wrong way with her attitude towards Graham. My biggest issue with this couple was their refusal to communicate with each other. But in reality, this is an issue with most relationships. Hoover did a great job in demonstrating the adverse effect their failure to communicate had on their marriage. Thank goodness for their contingency plan, which, although it came into effect before planned date, provided the catalyst to preserving what they held dear for the past seven years.
The story hidden in the pages of this book was beautiful, raw, real, and inspiring. It’s a story about falling in love, staying in love and fighting to keep the spark alive. Life can be funny. One moment it has us on a high and the next it drops us to our lowest point. However, how we handle these low points within our relationships will determine its longevity. 🎧︎All Your Perfects highlight the importance of honesty, trust, and communication within our relationships.
Narration
This is my first time listening to the narrator. Maby’s voice was pleasant, which made listening easy. However, the emotional experiences of the characters were absent from her tone.
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About Colleen Hoover
Colleen Hoover is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of several novels, including the bestselling women’s fiction novel It Ends with Us and the bestselling psychological thriller Verity. She has won the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Romance three years in a row—for Confess (2015), It Ends with Us (2016), and Without Merit (2017). Confess was adapted into a seven-episode online series. In 2015, Hoover and her family founded the Bookworm Box, a bookstore and monthly subscription service that offers signed novels donated by authors. All profits go to various charities each month to help those in need. Hoover lives in Texas with her husband and their three boys.
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