Picture this: It’s 11:15 a.m. on a Sunday in the middle of June. You woke up about an hour ago, washed your face, made yourself some iced coffee and hopped on TikTok. When scrolling aimlessly on your For You page, you come across a woman reading a book called “Ugly Love.” You are about to skip to the next TikTok when you notice how many comments and likes the TikTok has. Intrigued, you decide to check out the comment section. It’s filled with comments saying: “A must read,” “Colleen Hoover has me so hooked,” “Sobbing, is an understatement” and “Just finished reading it… not OK.” Next thing you know, you are jumping in your car and heading to your nearest Target to purchase not one, but several of Colleen Hoover’s books. 

This past summer I could not put down a Colleen Hoover book even if I tried. I read “All Your Perfect’s,” as well as “It Ends With Us’ ‘ and am currently reading “Ugly Love.” I read them anywhere and everywhere: at the beach, outside tanning in my backyard, on airplanes, and in my bedroom through all hours of the night. I woke up to Hoover’s words and fell asleep to them… and I know I wasn’t alone in doing so. 

Colleen Hoover is not only the #1 New York Times bestselling author of 22 novels, but is also a wife and mother to three boys. Hoover, originally a social worker, is 42 years old and lives in East Texas as a full-time writer now. Her first-ever novel, “Slammed,” was self-published, but now her work has been published by Montlake Romance, Grand Central Publishing and Atria Books. A majority of her novels can be placed into contemporary romance categories or psychological thrillers, and tend to target a new and young adult audience. Hoover describes herself as a very unemotional person, which starkly contrasts the feelings she captures in her books. On TikTok, Hoover comes across as a funny and down to earth individual. 

Hoover has a history of winning awards for her novels. For instance, in 2015, her novel “Confess” won the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Romance. Then in 2016, her trending novel “It Ends With Us” also won the Choice Award for Best Romance. Following up in 2017 her title “Without Merit” went on to also win best romance. 

Hoover is not only talented, but she is also giving. Back in 2015, her family founded a nonprofit organization called The Bookworm Box, a monthly book subscription service. Through the charity subscription service and bookstore, readers are given the chance to monthly receive signed novels from authors all around the world. Hoover donates all proceeds to different charities each month. So far, The Bookworm Box has donated over a million dollars to charity. 

Hoover’s surge in popularity is said to have started because of attention from the #BookTok, a hashtag with more than 70 billion views on TikTok. BookTok is a section of TikTok dedicated to both readers and authors, Hoover being one of the most talked about amongst the authors. 

In 2021, Hoover’s print unit sales were 693% higher than in 2020. Hoover’s fan’s have even created a nickname for her as they refer to her as “CoHo” and call themselves “Cohorts.” Hoover’s — or should I say “CoHo’s”— fame on BookTok started from young women showcasing huge colorful stacks of her novels, and then ranking as well as reviewing them. 

Hoover has played a major role in helping the Gen Z culture shift towards reading. She has helped influence a reading phenomenon for Gen Z by steering individuals away from binge watching and streaming shows. 

Transitioning a generation whose lives are glued to their phones is no minor task. Hoover and BookTok have resparked an excitement around reading. With binge reading trending and Hoover’s novels at the top of the list, she has been able to expand her audience and make reading “cool” again. 

Hoover’s writing style which supplies angsty love stories, extensive sex scenes, catchy premises, and outrageous plot twists, may be part of the reason Gen-Z is so fond of her novels.

Aside from her novels, Hoover’s TikTok content is also enjoyable and shockingly not always about her novels. In fact, Keeter-Gray emphasizes, “She’s not on TikTok to prove a point about her books or tell people how to read or anything. In one video I think about a lot, she was using potato chips as a bookmark.” 

Here is a list of BookTok’s Favorite Colleen Hoover Novels (in no particular order): 

• “November 9”
• “Confess”
• “Ugly Love” 
• “Without Merit” 
• “Verity” 
• “Reminders of Him” 
• “All Your Perfects” 
• “It Ends With Us” 

A Look Into Two of CoHo’s Most Popular Novels  

Hoover has written many books and series over the years. She gives her readers a taste of raw, honest emotion that is real as well as relatable.

“It Ends With Us.” Her most popular book “It Ends With Us” was published six years ago in 2016 but just now has become a hit. For example, last year 768,700 copies were sold, 18 times what it sold in the prior year. “It Ends With Us” starts off as a traditional romance novel but then shifts toward an examination of domestic violence. This is personal to Hoover’s life experiences because as a toddler, Hoover watched her mother leave her abusive father. 

“Reminders of Him.” When writing “Reminders of Him,” another popular book of Hoover’s, she wanted to showcase a romantic comedy to make light of the pandemic events occurring in 2020. However, Hoover couldn’t make light of the situation at hand and ended up embracing how she felt in the moment, telling the Washington Post that she felt like she had written one of the saddest books she’s ever written. The protagonist in this book loses the love of her life by accidentally killing him, and ends up having his baby, which she may never see again, all while in prison. This heart wrenching story shows Hoover’s strength as a writer to create emotional complexity in her novels.

There is a sequel to “It Ends With Us” coming out Oct. 18 titled “It Starts With Us.” In addition, Hoover’s novel “Confess” has been filmed as a series by Awestruck and is available on Prime Video via Amazon and iTunes. Katie Leclerc and Ryan Cooper star in the series. “Verity” is in the works of potentially becoming a film. In October 2021, it was announced that Amazon Studios is currently developing the project with producers Nick Antosca and Alex Hedlund producing. With all of this underway and #BookTok not going anywhere anytime soon, a Colleen Hoover fall, winter and spring are in our midst.

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