Quote is from Will's poem "My Final Piece" (page 284)

I finished reading all the books in the Slammed series back to back and here is my quick review of the final book, This Girl. Right away I can tell you I rate This Girl five stars and declare it my personal favorite out of all three (I just “butterflying” love this book).

This Girl follows immediately after the wedding when Will and Layken are on their honeymoon. While on their honeymoon Layken asks Will to tell her about his past and he agrees. Will begins to tell his version of the events that occur in the first book, Slammed. I love how we get to see Will’s vulnerable side, especially since Will appeared to have it all together in Slammed.

I will say that even though the main events are the same in Slammed, Colleen Hoover flawlessly makes it different. Will’s retelling of the main events we saw in Slammed as well as his additional personal events make This Girl a new story. This Girl is more vulnerable in a sense that we get to see a side of Will that was never really shown. In the second book, Point of Retreat, we see a side of Will that is openly in love with Layken. The side of him that doesn’t mind showing his affection in public and proving his love on stage. However, in This Girl we see the side that tries to deny his feelings and the side that struggles to “keep it together”. It also helps that the ending is perfect with the time jump and poem (oh my god the feels).

If I could only recommend one book from the series, This Girl would be it.

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Point of Retreat

quote is from page 296

Point of Retreat is the second book in the Slammed series by Colleen Hoover and unlike the first book the story is told through Will Cooper’s point of view. The story begins a few weeks after Christmas (where Slammed left off) and start of the spring semester for university. A misunderstanding occurs, which causes Layken to question their relationship and Will trying to prove it’s strong. 

I would give Point of Retreat four stars because as much as I “butterflying” love this book I also found it to be a bit boring. *SPOILER* The beginning of the story is good and I like how we get to see how their relationship has deepened and how they help each other grow. However after the misunderstanding occurs I felt like it was taking too long (in terms of the plot) for Will and Layken to overcome it, especially when a more dramatic event occurs in the story. I get where Layken is coming from but at the same time it is obvious that their relationship is strong, but she can’t see that. The overall story plot was good but Layken’s character was so annoying that I also felt irritated while reading. On a more positive note, I felt like we really got to know Will on a deeper level and the ending was perfect. Getting over the misunderstanding and the accident made their relationship that much stronger. I did not feel disappointed at all with the overall story and appreciated the deeper character development, which I felt lacked a bit in the first novel. Point of Retreat is a fast read (finished in one sitting) and like Slammed I could feel the emotions of the characters.

On a side note, I forgot to mention this in my post about Slammed, but I love the side characters in the series. I would personally love to read a spin off about Eddie and Gavin’s relationship.

I have to say that Colleen Hoover is quickly becoming a favorite author. Although I find her writing to be simple she manages to bring out the emotions, which brings readers to laugh, cry, and smile along with the characters. 

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Slammed

When reading Slammed, I laughed, cried and smiled – all in one sitting. It was that good.

This novel is the first of the Slammed series written by Colleen Hoover.

Slammed is told from the point of view of 18 year old Layken Cohen who just moved from Texas with her mother Julia and younger brother Kel. She meets her 21-year-old neighbor Will and his younger brother Caulder. Immediately they feel a connection but due to their situation they can't be together because Will is actually Mr. Cooper, the student teacher at her high school. 

Although I devoured the book in one night and I am looking forward to reading the last two, I personally give it a 4 star rating. The back cover summary is a bit misleading (kind of dramatic as well), as if you will get to know the characters on a deep personal level - but that never happens. Despite the misleading summary the novel is entertaining and you can feel the emotions of the characters.  It is also interesting how Colleen Hoover incorporated slam poetry into the story (the quote used in the above picture is Layken's slam poetry/love confession to Will). I don't personally read or analyze poetry so I can't judge whether the slam poetry in the novel is spectacular but I thought they went well with the plot. This was definitely an easy read and nothing too deep but enough to allow the emotions of the characters to be felt. If you are looking for something extremely deep and want to analyze the poetry that was incorporated into the story then this is not for you. However, if you are looking for a good contemporary romance that is a light read this is the book.  

Slammed has a lot of good quotes and my personal favorites from the story are from Layken’s mother, Julia, to Layken herself.  The quotes below are actually sound advice, in my opinion, which is why I am choosing to share them. The first quote occurs at the very beginning when Layken’s mother was giving her relationship advice – how you know if someone is a good guy and worth being with (forgot to get the page number). 

And the last quote is from a letter Layken’s mother wrote, basically the whole thing is worth quoting but I just chose the last bit (page 316).

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