Hello friends, welcome to another book review! 🫂❤️ I’ve been on a reading pump lately, so I feel amazing to offer you somewhat consistent posts for once haha. Today’s book is from Colleen Hoover, who was recently in some drama due to things that happened with his son and so on. I did not read the full story because I rarely look into authors when I am reading books. I want to clarify that I was very upset about what she chose to do, but I personally do not need to love her or have any justification towards her to read her books. Considering the books and authors they made us read during university, I learnt very quickly to disassociate the literary work from the pen that brought it to life. However, again, it is still a pretty touchy subject and I respect you if you do not wish to read anything about her books, it was personally my first time reading something from her; one of my best friends from my gold book blogger days was in love with her and although she had gifted me three books from her, I simply did not read. I was too disinterested for some reason. Nevertheless, after getting two of her books on Amazon recently (they were unreasonably cheap) and remembering my friend from years ago, I decided to give November 9 a chance and I am not regretting it a bit. Let me explain why.
I do not remember what I expected from this book but it was something I didn’t see coming, I am going to be honest. Instead of giving you the full plot or analysis, I want to talk about a play I went 2 years ago with my husband. Every winter, when it is play season in Turkey, we go to weekly plays in various theatres and he has an actor he loves very much, Celal Kadri Kınoğlu. I do not expect you to know him, he is just a bubbly person overall and it was the first play I went from him. It was about a woman and a man, who met up in a hotel room every year only once, they were cheaters but they kept their marriages no matter what, they grew old on the stage, life happened and they lost partners, children, jobs, wars… It was so heartwarming, although the entire audience started hating them; the friendship they grew together like a delicate flower ended up with everyone in tears by the end of the play; including me and my husband. Although they couldn’t find the happy ending and there was an end to their secret yearly rendezvous, I was so chilled when I started reading this book, and I am sorry if this is a spoiler but I was so happy with the ending on November 9 as well.
The book starts with Benton and Fallon at the age of 18, Ben comes out of nowhere to save our little girl from her misery while she has a horrible lunch with her father before moving across the country. They decide to spend the day together, and they instantly click, however, Fallon needs to grow, leave the fire and the scars behind and grow as an actress, she needs to follow her dreams while Ben needs to do the exact same: he is an aspiring author but everything is pretty dark regarding his book and dream until the last few chapters, all we know is that he will write a book about Fallon and him, their unexpected promise to see each other every November 9 in upcoming 5 years.
November 9 is a very important date because it is the date that something horrible happened to Benton, but not only this it is also the date that took Fallon’s face from her, at least this is how she feels towards the fire that happened as an accident and burned half of her body. This is not a spoiler since you read about it at the back of the book, so I feel kind of OK explaining to you why November 9 is a very specific date. They decide to start seeing each other on the same day every single year only for one day without having any further connection with each other throughout the year. They are young and they want to grow as people, they want to become the best version of themselves and I loved this concept a lot.
One year passes and a meetup and they have grown ever so slightly, however, they do spend the day very happily together. One more year passes and something very horrible happens to Benton, and he has to deal with grief again but they manage to be together even if it is one day, and at the end, they part ways in rather sad terms. One more year passes and they have changed so much but their love and care for each other stand still. Years pass and we watch the growth of these characters only with one chapter explaining one day that they get to spend together. We do not have anything from the year when they are alone, we basically catch up on things as they catch up on their lives with each other. Maybe this was one of the reasons that I loved this book this much, I loved the suspension and I loved the expectation of what happened this year that they did not see each other? It was amazing to see the differences one year can make on a person and the feelings towards one person even though they do not see each other. 🥹
At one point I got very upset for thinking that they were not going to end in the way that they dreamt of. I was very upset, but again, this brought the memories of the play I watched with my husband and I realised that you don’t have to end with the person that you love all the time. This is so painful to accept but I was so lucky to end up with the person I loved, the characters I read in various romance novels are so lucky to end up with the person they love but in reality; you cannot always end up with the person that you are desperately in love with. And for some painful reason, that is also okay.
Nevertheless with all my tears and all the confusion this book gave me a sliver of hope and I am so happy that I read it actually. I don’t know if I am going to read another book from this author, I already have one more book from her but nevertheless, this book brought back memories that I had forgotten about in years and it gave me appreciation towards this luck I had to find the person I love and being able to be with them. It made me question a lot of things and I will cherish this book forever because I believe that everybody deserves forgiveness from themselves and from the people that they have done wrong as long as they are aware of what they have done. And I’m talking about heart breaks I am not talking about forgiving someone who has done something incredibly bad I don’t mean that, let’s not get into horrific possible criminal details, but the pure forgiveness that you can provide to someone who needs it the most.
I gave this book 5 glowing ⭐s because it deserved it. Let’s put everything aside, and read this book. It truly stirred up some things in me. Until I see you in my next blog, take care! ❤️
Luster of Books 
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