Beyah Grim had me at 2AM with my ring light still on, half-edited TikTok draft forgotten on my laptop, completely ignoring the fact that I had a video due the next morning. That's the kind of hold this book has - it just quietly takes over your night.
So here's the thing people keep debating about Heart Bones: is it peak CoHo or is it mid CoHo? And honestly? It's somewhere in between, which is both its strength and its frustration.
Beyah Grim Deserved Better Than Her Last Name
Beyah is the kind of protagonist I want to root for so badly it physically hurts. Girl grew up with nothing - neglect, poverty, a last name that sounds like a punishment - and she's STILL out here building a future for herself. No savior complex, no waiting around. When she gets dropped on a Texas peninsula with a dad who's basically a stranger? She doesn't spiral. She adapts. That same scrappy, figure-it-out-alone energy is exactly what kept me glued to The Lightning Thief — protagonists who get handed the worst circumstances and just keep moving hit so differently than ones who get to fall apart. That quiet resilience hit different at 2AM when I was stress-eating goldfish crackers and questioning my own life choices.
But then Samson shows up. Rich boy next door. And look - I love a class divide romance. The tension between Beyah's survival mode and Samson's privilege could've been explosive. Sometimes it IS. There are moments where their conversations about sadness and what draws them together feel so raw and unfiltered that I literally paused my editing and just... sat there. Colleen Hoover writes emotional intimacy like she's reading your diary.
The problem? The secrets. Both of them are holding back these big revelations, and instead of building tension it sometimes just builds annoyance. I kept wanting to shake my phone like JUST TELL HER. The slow drip of information works in thrillers but in a summer romance it can feel like the story is stalling on purpose.
Angela Goethals Understood the Assignment
Okay but can we talk about the narration? Because Angela Goethals genuinely carried sections of this book that might've fallen flat on page. Her voice for Beyah has this specific guarded quality - like she's always holding something back, always one beat away from shutting down completely - and it mirrors exactly how Beyah moves through the world. You can hear the walls in her voice.
The character differentiation is solid too. Each person sounds distinct enough that I never had to rewind and figure out who was talking, which is a bar that sounds low but honestly? A lot of single-narrator audiobooks trip over it. Goethals doesn't.
BUT - and I need to be real about this - the pacing of her delivery combined with Hoover's already slow-burn structure means you might find yourself reaching for that speed button. I bumped to 1.75x around hour three and honestly it improved the whole experience. At regular speed the middle section drags in a way that had me almost reaching for a different audiobook. At 1.75x? The emotional beats land faster and the slow parts feel intentional instead of sluggish.
The Rip Current Hit But It Didn't Drown Me
The back half of this book picks up significantly. When the secrets finally start unraveling and the stakes get real, Hoover does what she does best - she makes you feel things you weren't prepared for. There's genuine emotional weight here, especially around themes of loss and what it means to build a life from nothing only to risk it for someone.
But I've read 200+ books this year and probably half of Hoover's catalog at this point, and I have to be honest - Heart Bones doesn't hit as hard as It Ends With Us or Verity. Those books left me wrecked. This one left me thoughtful. Which isn't bad! It's just a different register. The ending has a sweetness to it that some readers will love and others might find too neat after all that buildup.
The spice level is pretty tame here - this leans way more emotional intimacy than physical. If you're coming for the tension between Beyah and Samson, it's there, but it's the quiet kind. The kind where hands almost touch and someone looks away too fast. Chef's kiss when it works. Slightly frustrating when it doesn't go anywhere for chapters at a time.
Who's Adding This to Their Queue (And Who Should Skip)
If you loved the emotional gut-punch of Hoover's other work and you're okay with a slower build, this is worth your time. If you need constant momentum or you're listening while multitasking at the gym, this might lose you in the middle section. It rewards your attention but it demands it too.
Bump to at least 1.5x. Trust me on this.
The 2AM Verdict From My LED-Lit Book Cave
Heart Bones is good CoHo, not great CoHo. Angela Goethals' performance elevates it from a book I might've DNF'd in print to one I finished in two sittings. The class-divide romance works, Beyah is a protagonist worth caring about, and when the emotional moments land they LAND. But the pacing issues and the frustrating secret-keeping hold it back from the top tier. Speed it up, settle in, and let Beyah's story wash over you. Just maybe not at 1.0x.
