colleen hoover Archives - A Bookie's Books

Colleen Hoover’s Newest: Reminders of Him

The Book:

Title: Reminders of Him

Author: Colleen Hoover

Published January 18th, 2022 by Montlake

Genre: Romance, Contemporary, Fiction

Pages: 327

“After serving five years in prison for a tragic mistake, Kenna Rowan returns to the town where it all went wrong, hoping to reunite with her four-year-old daughter. But the bridges Kenna burned are proving impossible to rebuild. Everyone in her daughter’s life is determined to shut Kenna out, no matter how hard she works to prove herself.

The only person who hasn’t closed the door on her completely is Ledger Ward, a local bar owner and one of the few remaining links to Kenna’s daughter. But if anyone were to discover how Ledger is slowly becoming an important part of Kenna’s life, both would risk losing the trust of everyone important to them.

The two form a connection despite the pressure surrounding them, but as their romance grows, so does the risk. Kenna must find a way to absolve the mistakes of her past in order to build a future out of hope and healing.” –Goodreads

My Review:

Hoover is a genius. This is the best book I have read so far this year.

I have been on a hoover binge these past couple of weeks with reading Verity, Reminders of Him, and Ugly Love. I am also going to be listening to Heart Bones as soon as I get an Audible credit.

Reminders of Him honestly tore me up. It brought me so much pain and then patched me up one layer after the other. It was so beautiful.

I want to say this is one of her best works. The plot was amazing. You begin with this character, Kenna, that you’re not sure if you should hate or love, but you see her kindness and her devotion to getting the only thing she wants, her daughter.

We then get to Ledger, who is a beautiful soul, that just wants to do right by his extended family.

I think the book balanced both sides of this tragic love affair. Hoover held out information that was vital to the story to keep readers on their toes and waiting for the sweet reprieve to know that our gray character was good at heart.

We get to see two characters cope with their forbidden love while also navigating real-world situations.

Hoover’s writing always paints the most beautiful pictures of everyday life. She always makes me believe in love over and over through every word and every embrace.

I think this book has quite a bit for everyone. At the very least it will urge you to drive more responsibly and to hold your loved ones a little closer every day.

Hoover had me in tears by the end of this story. I devoured every page and finished it within a day. I highly recommend it.

If you have read it please comment, let me know what you think.

As always, thanks for reading,

A Bookie

Star Rating 4.8

I Read Ugly Love, Here’s What I Think

The Book:

Title: Ugly Love

Author: Colleen Hoover

Published August 5th 2014 by Atria Books

Genre: Romance, New Adult

Pages: 324

“When Tate Collins meets airline pilot Miles Archer, she doesn’t think it’s love at first sight. They wouldn’t even go so far as to consider themselves friends. The only thing Tate and Miles have in common is an undeniable mutual attraction. Once their desires are out in the open, they realize they have the perfect set-up. He doesn’t want love, she doesn’t have time for love, so that just leaves the sex. Their arrangement could be surprisingly seamless, as long as Tate can stick to the only two rules Miles has for her.

Never ask about the past.
Don’t expect a future.

They think they can handle it, but realize almost immediately they can’t handle it at all.

Hearts get infiltrated.
Promises get broken.
Rules get shattered.
Love gets ugly.” -Goodreads

My Review:

Halfway through this book, I thought I would be giving it a so-so review. It did not have a hold of me. I thought it was a nice, quick read. The love story was interesting and had some spice to it, but I did not love it.

Until the end.

This book got me with a right hook and kick to the groin in the last half.

I did not expect what happened at all. It was thrilling and almost made up for its average beginnings…

Almost.

Yes, the end was thrilling and the premise of the story was interesting. The severe lack of depth in the female characters or action in the first half of the book brought it down a notch.

The main female character, Tate was kind of boring. All her struggles were about the love interest. Tate’s struggles with hooking up with someone emotionally unavailable is relatable, but not unique.

I thought the story could use a bit more development for her and maybe focus a couple of times on her work or her schooling.

The guy, Miles, had depth and development. His story was heartbreaking, albeit a little incestuous, (actually a lot incestuous.) What is with everyone writing about incest?

Rachel, the step-sister, was 2-D and only viewed from Miles perspective (until later). I do not like when a woman is not thoroughly defined through literature. Hoover usually does a good job, but this book was a bit lacking.

The last half of the book was gut-wrenching and I cried. It is a real tearjerker, so do not let the sexy scenes fool you, BUT the first half was dull. Yes, it held me captive with the flashback to Miles dating his step-sister. The flashbacks were the only interesting parts though.

Still, despite the lack of anything in the first half, this book was good. The ending was unexpected and heartbreaking. If you like Colleen Hoover this book would be great to check out.

As always, thanks for reading,

A Bookie

Stare Rating: 3.5

A Two Book Colleen Hoover Review

Here, I review Without Merit and Layla by Colleen Hoover

The Books:

Title: Without Merit

Author: Colleen Hoover

Published October 3rd 2017 by Atria Books

Genre: YA, Contemporary, Romance

Pages: 385

“The Voss family is anything but normal. They live in a repurposed church, newly baptized Dollar Voss. The once cancer-stricken mother lives in the basement, the father is married to the mother’s former nurse, the little half-brother isn’t allowed to do or eat anything fun, and the eldest siblings are irritatingly perfect. Then, there’s Merit.

Merit Voss collects trophies she hasn’t earned and secrets her family forces her to keep. While browsing the local antique shop for her next trophy, she finds Sagan. His wit and unapologetic idealism disarm and spark renewed life into her—until she discovers that he’s completely unavailable. Merit retreats deeper into herself, watching her family from the sidelines when she learns a secret that no trophy in the world can fix.

Fed up with the lies, Merit decides to shatter the happy family illusion that she’s never been a part of before leaving them behind for good. When her escape plan fails, Merit is forced to deal with the staggering consequences of telling the truth and losing the one boy she loves.” -Goodreads

Title: Layla

Author: Colleen Hoover

Published December 8th 2020 by Montlake

Genre: Romance, Paranormal

Pages: 301

“When Leeds meets Layla, he’s convinced he’ll spend the rest of his life with her—until an unexpected attack leaves Layla fighting for her life. After weeks in the hospital, Layla recovers physically, but the emotional and mental scarring has altered the woman Leeds fell in love with. In order to put their relationship back on track, Leeds whisks Layla away to the bed-and-breakfast where they first met. Once they arrive, Layla’s behavior takes a bizarre turn. And that’s just one of many inexplicable occurrences.

Feeling distant from Layla, Leeds soon finds solace in Willow—another guest of the B&B with whom he forms a connection through their shared concerns. As his curiosity for Willow grows, his decision to help her find answers puts him in direct conflict with Layla’s well-being. Leeds soon realizes he has to make a choice because he can’t help both of them. But if he makes the wrong choice, it could be detrimental for all of them. “ -Goodreads

My Reviews

For the first book, I am going to review Without Merit.

I listened to this book on audiobook this past week. I enjoyed the audiobook and the reader.

I thought the book was well done. Certainly, not her best work and it was not her worst.

The premise of the story was good, but I felt like it was a little bland. When I read the synopsis, I thought there would be a grad escape plan that would come to a crashing halt. Forgive me, Colleen Hoover, for assuming this.

When I say ‘bland,’ I don’t necessarily mean boring, because it wasn’t. I just mean that it did not have the OOMPF that most of Hoover’s books had. It did not have that spark. The story still had drama that kept pulling me into the story more and more.

The main character was honestly annoying but in a good way. Her family was even worse, but that was kind of the point.

I think the romance in here was a charming addition to the story. I think it added some suspense and some drama.

All in all, the story was good. Not high on her list but still a good read. I do not know how she comes up with all of the ideas for her books. Everyone I have read has something different in it than the next.

Hoover is a queen.

Star Rating: 3

This next book, however, is my least favorite out of all of her books.

I don’t know if it was the ghost or the fact that it was from a male’s POV.

The paranormal aspect was way out of the left field for a Colleen Hoover book. There was a good bit of suspense. I sometimes felt like I had to hide under my covers, but that was short-lived.

The male lead was horribly dull. Leeds was honestly boring. There was no development in his character. Every time he spoke, I wanted to kick him in the face. That was pretty hard to get past since the entire book is in his POV.

I could not get into this story. I also listened to this book and it was so hard for me to press play. I would listen for moments in the mornings, but it would not pique my interest enough to play it in the car or elsewhere.

I honestly don’t have much to say.

Nothing was necessarily bad with the book. The writing was great. The story was unique and interesting. I just did not vibe with it.

Star Rating: 1

I hoped you enjoyed my two reviews. I am so behind on reviews, I would have the next two months planned out if I did every single review, hence the combination of these two.

As always, thanks for reading,

A Bookie

Regretting You: A Book You Won’t Regret Reading

Title: Regretting You

Author: Colleen Hoover

Published December 10th 2019 by Montlake Romance

Genre: Romance, Contemporary, Fiction, YA, New Adult

“Morgan Grant and her sixteen-year-old daughter, Clara, would like nothing more than to be nothing alike.

Morgan is determined to prevent her daughter from making the same mistakes she did. By getting pregnant and married way too young, Morgan put her own dreams on hold. Clara doesn’t want to follow in her mother’s footsteps. Her predictable mother doesn’t have a spontaneous bone in her body.

With warring personalities and conflicting goals, Morgan and Clara find it increasingly difficult to coexist. The only person who can bring peace to the household is Chris—Morgan’s husband, Clara’s father, and the family anchor. But that peace is shattered when Chris is involved in a tragic and questionable accident. The heartbreaking and long-lasting consequences will reach far beyond just Morgan and Clara.

While struggling to rebuild everything that crashed around them, Morgan finds comfort in the last person she expects to, and Clara turns to the one boy she’s been forbidden to see. With each passing day, new secrets, resentment, and misunderstandings make mother and daughter fall further apart. So far apart, it might be impossible for them to ever fall back together.”-Goodreads

My Review:

Colleen Hoover is never going to disappoint.

I have read a few of her books before and saved a few more after this book and they are always great.

This books takes two POVs, a daughter and her mom’s, and navigates their life after the deaths of the their husband/father and sister/aunt. I am notorious for not reading synopsis of books, so I was totally thrown at the fact that two of the main side characters in the story died.

And than the juicy stuff started to reveal itself. There was so much tea being spilled in this book, I felt like I was in high school all over again.

I love the story and how it was a plot that could have actually taken place. Seeing the humanity written out in the character was exciting. Most books always write the characters making the best decisions they can. This book had the characters f*cking up all over the place.

Clara was as unlikeable as she was relatable. I loved the YA romance with her. I loved her counterpart Miller. But she was one stupid mofo. I am sorry to bash on the girl like that. but, seriously, some of her decisions were S-T-U-P-I-D (and obviously relatable af to younger girls like myself). She took out her anger on everyone else other than the person she was really angry at most of the time. She just was really unlikeable no matter how hard I tried to like her.

But there has to be some characters I hate.

Morgan and her counterpart were extremely mature…NOT. A food fight in the kitchen is their peak maturity, but hey, what else are you supposed to do when your world is falling apart. All jokes aside, I honestly loved them. They were rocky in the beginning with the whole baby and not admitting feelings, but by the end they had me swooning. Morgan sacraficed her good mother face for her daughters emotional state (no matter how bad that kind of ended up on the daughter’s side also). I loved Morgan, no matter how many times I wanted her to throttle her to tell her daughter the truth.

I cried more time than I would like to admit to this book. But it is important to cry during a book. If a book doesn’t make you tear up at least once, it probably wasn’t that good (or that sad, which honestly are the same thing).

That being said it did leave me with this warm, ooey, gooey feeling all over that made me text the guy I am talking to and tell him some weird, mushy stuff.

It was good to read a book that was so warm and fuzzy and also so gut-wrenching at the same time. If you have not yet, check it out. Colleen Hoover will never be a disappointment. I finished the book in a day or two, so it is a quick and easy read.

As always, thanks for reading,

A Bookie

Star Rating: 3.9

It Ends With Us

Author: Colleen Hoover

Published by Atria Books

Genre: Romance

Pages: 367

“Lily hasn’t always had it easy, but that’s never stopped her from working hard for the life she wants. She’s come a long way from the small town in Maine where she grew up – she graduated from college, moved to Boston, and started her own business. So when she feels a spark with a gorgeous neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, everything in Lily’s life suddenly seems almost too good to be true.

Ryle is assertive, stubborn, and maybe even a little arrogant. He’s also sensitive, brilliant, and has a total soft spot for Lily, but Ryle’s complete aversion to relationships is disturbing.

As questions about her new relationship overwhelm her, so do thoughts of Atlas Corrigan – her first love and a link to the past she left behind. He was her kindred spirit, her protector. When Atlas suddenly reappears, everything Lily has built with Ryle is threatened.” -Goodreads

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