Rowena’s review of The Shape of My Heart (Apartment 2B Trilogy #3) by Ann Aguirre.
Some people wait decades to meet their soul mate. Courtney Kaufman suspects she met hers in high school only to lose him at seventeen. Since then, Courtney’s social life has been a series of meaningless encounters, though she’s made a few close friends along the way. Especially her roommate Max Cooper, who oozes damaged bad-boy vibes from every pore.
Max knows about feeling lost and trying to move beyond the pain he’s been on his own since he was sixteen. Now it’s time to find out if he can ever go home again, and Courtney’s the only one he trusts to go with him. But the trip to Providence could change everything because the more time he spends with Courtney, the harder it is to reconcile what he wants and what he thinks he deserves.
It started out so simple. One misfit helping another. Now Max will do anything to show Courtney that for every heart that’s ever been broken, there’s another that can make it complete.
Ahhh, finally. We get Max’s story.
Max was one of the roommates from Nadia and Lauren’s apartment when they were all in college together. He’s also the guy that was a playboy who had big time feelings for Lauren and it was a bummer that Lauren didn’t return those feelings. But that’s okay because Max finds his own happily ever after with his friend and new roommate (who took Lauren’s spot in the house when she moved back home), Courtney.
Max and Courtney’s story was my favorite of the bunch. I loved Max from the other books and didn’t really think much about Courtney, until this book. I loved the both of them together and I really enjoyed getting to know them separate from each other as well.
Max’s story was sad and not at all what I expected from the Max of the previous books. I knew that he had a past that affected his present but I wasn’t expecting the past that I read about but boy did it make me love Max all the more. Meeting Max’s family was on one hand, great because I really came to love his Uncle and his brother Mike but meeting his Dad made me want to punch him in the nose (the Dad, not Max). I loved seeing Max reacquaint himself with his brother and build a relationship with him despite the many years they spent apart. I loved seeing Max thaw out in this book because in the other books, he was dark and mysterious but in this book, you see him smile more and you see him laugh and I really, really liked his character.
Courtney was fantastic too. I thought her conversations with Eli were cute and a way to keep him close even after all this time. He was her first love and seeing how their time was cut short, I understood Courtney’s fear of going through all of that again with Max but when she finally owns up to her feelings for Max and goes all in? I loved it.
What I liked about this book is that Max and Courtney were completely and totally relatable. I connected with the both of them, not just one of them. I felt their pains and rejoiced in their accomplishments and when things got rough, I was really rooting for them to find their way back to each other.
This was the perfect way to end the trilogy. It had everything that I love in the books that I read. Hot guys, a steamy romance and characters that leap right off the pages of the book and into my heart. More than one person wormed their way into my heart and I really, really liked reading it. If she decides to write any other books for characters from this series, I hope she’ll write Evan’s book because I really enjoyed his character and I liked the part he played in Courtney learning to stand on her own two feet. This book hit me with all of the loving feels and I really enjoyed it.
Grade: 4.5 out of 5
Reading Order:
This book is provided by HQN Books. You can purchase it here and here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
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