Obviously, we’ve all been waiting for a new Colleen Hoover novel for a while (I’m starting to feel the same with Rebecca Yarros, too…). So, when Woman Down came out, I started listening to it immediately. Now, I’m not naive enough to think that this book would actually be the next Verity, but I expected a little more than what I got. 

With the beginning of this book, you get a note from CoHo herself basically asking to not connect this book to her personal life and to just be nice. I find that a really easy ask. As a writer as well, I understand how much negative reviews hurt, or negative comments, or negative anything. People can be brutal, but there’s also purpose behind reviews. I think people just need to learn the line between giving constructive criticism and being just bad human beings. You didn’t like it? Great, cool. Tell me why and give me real answers besides “just because”. I’m good with that. 

Anddd with that being said, I’ll get into my review for this book.

It’s marketed as a thriller, which is my first problem with this novel. I honestly did not find this thrilling. I found it to be a tad bit too predictable except for a few moments, and I didn’t find it to be thrilling except for maybe two parts in the whole novel? It was lackluster at best. The main reason, though, that I think it didn’t feel thrilling to me was because it was so predictable and because the beginning was WAY too slow in terms of pacing. A lot of this book dragged on for me because it just didn’t feel like the stakes were there. For the first thirty percent (if not more) of the book, the entire novel was riding on if Petra never writes again and her career is gone. That’s just not enough for me. Even when real stakes came into play, I didn’t really feel the urgency until closer to the end. Not to mention, Petra just really ticked me off. 

On to the characters then because boy can I rant about Petra. This girl? Wow, I felt for her with like the self deprecation and everything. It sucks when the world seems to be turning against you and it’s next to impossible to tune out that noise. All of her decisions after making it to the cabin, though? Dang they were just really dumb decisions. I could not get behind a single decision she made in this novel, and that’s probably a big reason why I didn’t really enjoy it. I did not connect with the characters at all. Saint? Yeah, he was… something. No development in my opinion, no arc, really nothing to go on except the fact that he’s a “hot cop”. Don’t even get me started on Petra’s neighbors because sheesh. 

So, the plot was definitely not as tight as I would have liked it to be. I think it deserved more thrilling moments as a thriller novel, and truly doesn’t pick up until you’re well into the second half of the story. The stakes were low and it showed. But, as far as what I did like? How engaging the writing was throughout the whole book. One of the reasons that I love Colleen Hoover so much is because of her engaging and emotional writing. Woman Down has that same signature style, it just doesn’t quite hit its mark. 

Spoilers ahead.

Did we all guess that Saint really wasn’t a cop? Because it felt so obvious even in the beginning. Mari was just weird and had this “fishing” energy about her like she swore she didn’t know much about Petra but really did. She was the one who directed Saint to Petra’s cabin. Not only that, but Nora was the one who sent Saint. None of this really surprised me even if I didn’t necessarily see it coming. The only thing that TRULY surprised me was that Petra was married to a man willing to watch their two daughters for weeks while she took a writing retreat. She obviously did not treat that man right. And Petra just retuning to Saint over and over again after all of the creepy shit he does? Yeah, she obviously is an idiot.

And everyone who is saying that this is the darkest book CoHo’s ever written? Yeah, they’re delusional or don’t really remember Verity. 

Overall, this book had potential but really didn’t live up to the hype that it built up as Colleen Hoover’s first novel in four years. Like I said in the beginning, I definitely would have preferred a romance anyway, so I didn’t have the highest expectations, but even this hit a little below what I had hoped for. 2.5/5 rounded to 3 for social platforms. 

Source: Personal Copy

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