At the end of June 2023, I made it a goal to read every single popular Colleen Hoover book that had been bombarding my TikTok feed. At first, I didn’t think that I would reach this goal. It didn’t seem realistic. But, I somehow completed my goal a few months later. 

Hoover’s books are always getting hyped up by people on TikTok, and sometimes I can’t really understand why. But other times, I totally understand the hype. Colleen Hoover is definitely a hit-or-miss for me, and don’t get me wrong, I did love some of her novels. However, there were definitely some that were pretty hard to get through, and I am here to tell you what is worth reading, and what you should avoid putting on your bookshelf.

7: Layla

Layla is at the bottom of my list. I honestly didn’t enjoy reading this book for so many reasons. First of all, unexpectedly, the book was filled with spirituality and ghosts, which is very surprising considering the majority of Colleen Hoover’s books are romantic in nature. Along with ghosts being involved in the story, I felt spooked out for the entire book. Things just kept happening that made me question my entire life and why I was still reading the book. I wanted to abandon it countless times, but I ultimately decided to push through. If I did end up abandoning it, I don’t think I would have been disappointed with myself. I’d recommend this book only to people who enjoy reading about ghosts and spirituality. 

6: November 9th

At No. 6, is November 9th. First of all, the layout of this book is a time jump, so each chapter is set one year apart from the other, and because of this, I had a really hard time connecting to the characters. Personally, it’s hard to connect to characters that are completely different people in every chapter. The one thing I did enjoy about this book was the character development. At the beginning of the book, the main character, Fallon, is extremely insecure due to being in a harsh fire accident, which is understandable. By the end of the book, Fallon learns how to manage her grief, and she really changes for the better. I loved the person she became by the end. She learned many important lessons, one of which I learned from forgiveness. Although this book taught me a lot of life lessons, I still just had a really hard time figuring out each character, it all felt very detached for me. 

5: It Starts with Us

It Starts With Us is the sequel to It Ends With Us, and spoiler alert, this book just wasn’t it for me. It didn’t meet my high expectations. Once It Ends With Us became famous on #booktok, everyone wanted more, but once readers got more, many didn’t like it. Be careful what you wish for, because, unlike the first book, this one felt very rushed and unnecessary. Although this book was a very quick read for me, it felt like the epilogue to its predecessor. Overall, the writing of this book didn’t feel too sophisticated, and do your best to steer clear of this sequel unless you’ve read the other one and want to know what happens next. 

4: Reminders of Him

Reminders of Him was pretty decent. It revolved around a character who had just been released from prison, which is something I’ve never read about in a book before. It really showed how life can be after prison, and it was pretty gruesome, opening my eyes to a new world. I really felt for the character, although one thing I will say is that this novel read slowly for me, and the ending was honestly very unrealistic. Overall, I did enjoy this book, but it did have some lulls to it. 

3: Regretting You

I loved, loved, loved Regretting You. This was another super quick read for me. The novel circles around a mother and her daughter, two characters that are shown to be complete opposites to each other. The mother, Morgan, grew up making bad decisions; she had been rebellious towards her parents and went off the rails. By the time she became a mother, she decided she was going to be extremely strict and make sure that her daughter did not make the same mistakes she did. Her daughter, Clara, hates the way she is parenting, and the two of them never get along with one another. Although Morgan and Clara are always butting heads, it takes a traumatic accident for them to start understanding each other. Overall, the character development in this book was amazing, and I loved the mother-daughter bond the two created. I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a mother-daughter family dynamic.  

2: It Ends with Us 

This was the second book written by Hoover that I read, and my second favorite overall. I loved this book so much, and I read it in less than a week. It Ends With Us truly brought so much light to my day, and I fell in love with the characters. This novel was specifically designed for the hopeless romantics, and it made me believe in true love. 

1: Ugly Love

When I read, there are certain books I get attached to. These books stick to me, and I honestly think about them every day. When I read a book as amazing as this one, I never thought that I would find anything better. This book really did it for me, and it was the first Colleen Hoover book I had ever read. It’s also her best. When I wasn’t reading this book during the day, I felt like I had to be reading. I felt so insanely magnetized to this book that I was going crazy. The character development in this book was wild, and I learned so much from each and every character. My favorite thing about this experience was that every single character had a purpose to the story, and it felt like everything made sense. I loved this book endlessly, and I’d recommend it to any hopeless romantic.