The Best Books of 2023
Every Single Colleen Hoover Book Ranked From Good To Unputdownable
Every Single Colleen Hoover Book, Ranked
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If there were a queen of BookTok, it would be Colleen Hoover.
The powerhouse author, lovingly dubbed CoHo by her passionate fan base, has penned 24 novels (not including her two anthologies)—and her range is impressive. She's written everything from romantic reads full of yearning and young love to thrillers that will make you sleep with the lights on.
Honestly, Colleen's own story is fascinating enough to warrant a novel of its own: After her self-published work became a smash hit, she netted a huge book deal, sold the film rights to her novel It Ends With Us (keep reading to see where it falls in our ranking), and continues to churn out several bestsellers year after year.
While all of Colleen's novels are worth the read (though it's worth noting that the content matter of some won't be for everyone), some stand head and shoulders above the rest. Here is a ranking of all 24 of Colleen Hoover's novels, from good (because trust us, they all are) to finish-in-a-day good.
Too LateIf you prefer your reads on the darker side, Too Late's blend of psychological suspense and dangerous love might be the perfect pick for you. Sloan will do anything to protect her family, even if it means getting caught up with Asa, a notorious drug trafficker who develops a disturbing obsession with her. When Sloan meets Carter, an undercover DEA agent, she feels an instant pull to him, but knows that getting closer to him will make him Asa's next target. While this book is truly gripping, it's Colleen's darkest work and probably won't be for everyone.
Finding CinderellaThis sweet novella, the third book in the Hopeless series, features two secondary characters who fans of the series will recognize. After Daniel has a chance romantic encounter in the dark, the girl runs away at midnight, just like the titular Cinderella. A year later, Daniel can't stop thinking about the mystery girl when he meets Six, the one who might just mend his heart. Colleen's talent for developing a heartwarming love story with few(ish) words (this one's less than 200 pages) is on full display here.
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Finding Cinderella
amazon.Com
$9.49
Maybe NotChances are, you've had a less-than-stellar roommate at some point in your life. Colleen puts a romantic spin on a roommate feud in this novella that's best read between Maybe Someday and Maybe Now. Warren can't stand his new roommate, Bridgette. But as tempers flare, Warren reasons that anyone who can hate so hard must equally be able to love, so he decides to test his theory.
This GirlWhile the final installment of the Slammed series is worth the read, it doesn't offer much new insight into Will and Layken's relationship. Fans will remember that the previous books in the series were mostly told from Layken's point of view, as she falls for Will, the brooding older boy who helps her heal after tragedy. This Girl flips that on its head, allowing Will to explain his side of the story. Although it's fascinating to hear his perspective on the events of previous books, this one can feel a little repetitive at times.
Maybe NowThis sequel to Maybe Someday (we'd recommend reading Maybe Not before this one too) turns the focus on Maggie, a beloved character battling illness. When she finds her old bucket list, she decides to use it as a catalyst to live life to the fullest. As Maggie checks items off her list, she keeps her ex, Ridge, updated on her adventures, which threatens his once-solid relationship with his new girlfriend, Sydney. Fans of the first books will love revisiting these characters as their stories come to a satisfying conclusion.
Finding PerfectWhile this fifth and final book of the Hopeless series might be slim, it provides much-needed closure. When the group gathers for Friendsgiving, tensions run high as secrets are revealed. Save this for the holidays—it's short enough to devour in between festivities, and the Thanksgiving setting will get you into the holiday spirit.
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Finding Perfect
amazon.Com
$9.73
Point of RetreatThe second installment in the Slammed series picks up where book one (our pick for the best one in the series) leaves off. Readers follow Will and Layken as their relationship is once again tested by secrets. Highlights of this one include the welcome addition of chapters told through Will's perspective and sweet family dynamics. If you like books that give familial relationships time to shine, you'll enjoy this one.
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Point of Retreat
amazon.Com
$9.71
Losing HopeColleen is always plugged into what her vocal fans want, hence giving them novels centered around beloved characters. Losing Hope, the sequel to Hopeless, uncovers the truth about Dean Holder, the mysterious man who captivated audiences when he reconnected with his long-lost childhood friend, Sky. While it features some of the same scenes from the first book, Dean's perspective offers a unique twist.
SlammedAh, the book that started it all! There's something special about devouring this one and reflecting on how far Colleen has come since her debut novel. Slammed introduces us to Will and Layken (whose stories continue in Point of Retreat and This Girl), as Layken is forced to step up for her mother and younger brother following her father's unexpected death. When she meets her new neighbor, Will, they form an instant connection that is later threatened by the discovery of a shocking secret. Colleen actually considers this to be a YA series, so it's perfect for readers of all ages.
Without MeritWithout Merit sets itself apart from other CoHo books, as romance isn't the key focus. While there's a romantic subplot, the story zeroes in on themes of acceptance and finding yourself. Merit lives with her fractured family in a repurposed church—and while her family attempts to keep up appearances in public, their private lives are far from pristine. Her mother is banished to the basement after recovering from cancer, her father is remarried to her mother's former nurse, and her relationship with her siblings is fraught. When she meets Sagan, Merit finds the will to shatter the illusion—but doing so comes with devastating consequences.
It Starts With UsAfter audiences fell head over heels for It Ends With Us (more on that later), they clamored for a sequel—and six years later, Colleen happily obliged. This satisfying follow-up explores what happens after Lily decides to go all in on her connection with Atlas, her first love. Second-chance romance fans will love the focus on Atlas, who some readers have dubbed the best CoHo male lead.
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It Starts With Us
amazon.Com
$10.98
ConfessIf you love novels with heroines you can root for, Confess needs to be your next read. After losing everything, Auburn needs a miracle, which she finds when she walks into an art studio looking for a job and sparks an instant attraction to Owen, the studio's lead artist. As their bond strengthens, Owen grapples with the decision to divulge a secret that could destroy Auburn. This book is one of Colleen's angstiest reads, complete with sizzling chemistry and tearjerking reveals.
Maybe SomedayMusic lovers, this one's for you! Sydney, a college student coming off of a devastating breakup is captivated by her neighbor, Ridge, who's always strumming his guitar on his porch. This first novel in a three-book series comes complete with original music, an utterly swoonworthy slow burn, and an emotional love triangle.
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Maybe Someday
amazon.Com
$10.03
LaylaIf you thought Colleen only delivered heart-tugging romances that pack an emotional punch, think again! While Layla has the same romantic undertones as the rest of her work, it marks Colleen's first foray into the paranormal world. After Layla is almost killed in a vicious attack, her boyfriend, Leeds, books a romantic getaway to the bed-and-breakfast where the couple first met. When Layla's behavior takes an inexplicable turn, Leeds is left to confide in Willow, a mysterious guest. This twisty read will leave you absolutely reeling.
Never NeverCoHo teamed up with bestselling thriller author Tarryn Fisher to write three suspenseful novellas, which are all now available in one volume for easy reading. Charlie and Silas, who believe they're each other's soulmates, wake up one morning as complete strangers. As they work together to figure out what happened, they uncover devastating secrets that have them questioning why they were so in love in the first place. As expected, this contains a plot twist of truly epic proportions.
Ugly LoveFriends-with-benefits arrangements usually go awry when one person's feelings get a little too intense, and Colleen expertly explores that phenomenon with Tate and Miles in Ugly Love. CoHo utilizes flashback chapters to peel back Miles' mysterious layers, which in turn dials up the emotion of the present timeline. Fair warning, readers: This one takes an absolutely heartbreaking turn.
HopelessWhen Sky meets Dean, a boy whose rocky reputation mirrors her own, she's both captivated and terrified. Only Dean has the power to stir up emotions Sky thought she had buried long ago. As Dean and Sky's push-and-pull relationship intensifies, they must grapple with their emotional scars. Heads up: Once you fall head over heels for Dean and Sky, it's essential to keep going with the four other books in the Hopeless series.
Heart BonesThis book delivers a tantalizing and heart-wrenching romance in a sunny seaside setting, so it's perfect to toss in your beach bag for your next getaway. Beyah finally has the opportunity to escape poverty and neglect when she receives a scholarship to her dream school—but when an unexpected death leaves her homeless, she's sent to Texas to live with the father she barely knows. After meeting Samson, her brooding and wealthy next-door neighbor, they agree to a casual summer fling that will change their lives forever. This is definitely one to read if you want to recapture the feeling of first love.
It Ends With UsIt Ends With Us, based loosely on Colleen's parents, is probably her most popular book, and for good reason: It takes a deeply emotional and thought-provoking look at first love, second chances, and healing from heartbreaking situations. Recent college graduate Lily has worked hard to overcome a tough childhood and is finally in a good place: She has a great new job and is happily dating Ryle, a charming neurosurgeon. But when things with Ryle aren't what they seem, Lily is left second-guessing their bond—especially when Atlas, her first love, re-emerges. Read this one ASAP, because the movie adaptation is coming!
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It Ends With Us
amazon.Com
$10.98
Regretting YouColleen explores mother-daughter dynamics with great success in Regretting You. Morgan, a teen mom, keeps a tight leash on her sixteen-year-old daughter, Clara, a girl with big dreams. Although they love each other, Morgan and Clara's differing perspectives on growing up causes tension, which can only be diffused by Clara's father, Chris. When Chris is involved in a tragic accident, Morgan and Clara must set aside their differences and attempt to rebuild their lives after profound loss. Honestly, this book should be sold with a pack of tissues.
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Regretting You
amazon.Com
$8.29
November 9This one's a book lover's dream. Fallon meets Ben, an aspiring novelist, the day before she's set to move across the country. After spending her last day in Los Angeles together, Ben begins using Fallon's life as fodder for his novel. The pair continue to meet on the same day every year, until Fallon begins to suspect that Ben is keeping a secret that could destroy their unique bond. November 9 isn't just a romance...It features one of Colleen's wildest twists yet!
All Your PerfectsAlthough All Your Perfects is technically the fourth book in the Hopeless series, it can easily be read as a standalone. Quinn and Graham's love story might seem perfect, but their marriage is far from it, as years of secrets and mistakes threaten to tear them apart. If you're going to read one book from this series, this should be the one. (Colleen herself called it her most romantic novel.)
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All Your Perfects
amazon.Com
$10.69
Reminders of HimColleen recommends that first-time CoHo readers start with Reminders of Him, because it packs in both a hefty dose of emotional turmoil and swoonworthy romance. After serving five years in prison, Kenna returns to the town where everything went wrong, in hopes of reuniting with the daughter she had while in prison. Her attempts at reconciliation are thwarted by everyone in town, except for Ledger, the man who shouldn't want to have anything to do with her.
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Reminders of Him
amazon.Com
$9.12
VerityColleen proves that she can truly do it all with Verity, a rollercoaster mystery that will keep even seasoned thriller readers guessing until the very last page. Lowen, a struggling writer, gets the break of a lifetime when she's hired by Jeremy to ghostwrite the remaining books in the bestselling series started by his wife, Verity. When Lowen moves into their home, she discovers a manuscript for Verity's unpublished memoir that paints her in a less-than-glowing light—and as Lowen's feelings for Jeremy intensify, she debates showing him the manuscript so she can capture his heart. This book is creepy, unputdownable, and truly unforgettable. Once you reach the shocking conclusion, you'll be flaunting your allegiance for either Team Letter or Team Manuscript.
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Colleen Hoover's Books Are Designed To Be Adapted
A woman is crowned with a huge, curly red wig, strutting down the street, clad in competing patterns. Boxers are sitting above low-rise trousers, all partially hidden beneath a mustard yellow jacket and stripey button down, with flashy golden boots peeking out below frayed edges. This startling image is not a challenge that Tyra subjected exhausted competitors to in an early season of America's Next Top Model, nor is it the moment a young Disney star (sans stylist) swaggered onto their first red carpet in the early 2000s. Instead, this woman is Blake Lively and this achievement in bizarre costuming is the first glimpse that people were granted of the onscreen adaptation of the hugely popular novel, It Ends with Us, from perennially online author Colleen Hoover.
Fans of the book responded immediately, and derisively, to these fractured snippets; "The wig, the outfit, none of this is reading a young girl in her 20s, starting life in the big city!" TikToker Talking to Tequila remarked. In some ways, this is the least compelling kind of internet "discourse", people negotiating their idea of something, while the finished product lies buried beneath rumors and blurry set photos and TikTok accounts. Yet this discussion also functions as proof of Hoover's hold on a subset of the culture, and gestures to something interesting in the prickly process of adapting.
Hoover's books are strange and meandering epics, successfully elucidating and ignoring the state of modern womanhood. In their long sentences and romantic preoccupations, they read as fanfiction for women who have never read fanfiction. Like all of her writing, It Ends with Us unfolds in the first person, with abrasively flirtatious dialogue occasionally interrupting the stream-of-consciousness-style prose. In an Elle profile of Hoover, she expands on the logic behind her undisciplined style: "If I'm supposed to [sit] here talking about character descriptions or describing a room or anything that's going to make me not interested, I just skip it [and] start writing dialogue. I write what I want to read." Executing this story from an under-developed, purely subjective vantage point means that character and plot are thrust upon the reader in sudden, unpracticed spurts, erupting from a vague source.
It Ends with Us' protagonist, Lily Blossom Bloom (Hoover's bizarre naming strategy could be summarized by that viral "chalkboard baby naming" meme), is a better-defined main character than most of the ilk's others. Hoover achieves this by placing Lily across various intersections in her own timeline. She lives her adult life, slowly falling in love with the elusive Ryle, while her teenage diary relays a past with Atlas (I warned you about the names). Hoover's protagonists are empty vessels, in their lack of observance they function as blurry avatars, catching the different kinds of female readers who cross the book's paths.
Such characterization is made even simpler in Hoover's unusual use of popular references. Lily's diary entries are addressed to the comedian Ellen DeGeneres, while her young life is built around the daily talk show. Later, Ryle's sister talks about planning her week around a Paolo Nutini concert. Hoover manages to build a map of cultural moments, helpfully pinpointing her ensemble amidst the unchic markers of the early 2010s. Lily's pop culture dictionary is so unnervingly specific that they prove to be the most compelling insights into her character. She hints at this strange framework in a monologue early on: "Don't get me wrong, the eulogy I delivered won't be profound enough to make history–like the one Brooke Shields delivered at Michael Jackson's funeral, or the one delivered by Steve Jobs's sister, or Pat Tillman's brother…" These footholds in the wider world are both the greatest arguments against—and the only indicators towards—realism.
All of this is confused by Hoover's argument that It Ends with Us is designed to draw attention to the threat of domestic violence. As Lily falls into a relationship with Ryle, the signs of abuse gradually develop, eventually proving unavoidable and reflected in the parallel story of her childhood under an abusive father. Hoover misunderstands the functionality of the romance story, and despite imbuing it with potentially deadly consequences, the vacant characters make for a strangely stakes-less story. Ryle and Atlas are both loosely drawn—tall, dark, and handsome, effectively concealing the specifics of Lily's desires. There are no internal truths that can be gleaned from either relationship, rather it is rendered a simple case of right or wrong; true or false.
Abuse is a serious issue, and Hoover can't be accused of taking it lightly (as she herself experienced it at a young age), but these grave matters are frequently projected on to the plot rather than organically woven in. In Ugly Love that issue is incest (yes, you heard that right), in Verity it is infanticide and mental illness. The flimsiness of these love stories is partially obstructed by such capital-S, Serious topics. As such, the process of adapting Hoover's worlds is made simpler in its broadness, her stories are less concerned with the delicate process of building a life together and more taken with the horrifying tension hanging ominously overhead.
Her writing style is excessive and uncontrolled: long sentences that spin out with limited punctuation, reflecting the rhythms of everyone's unrestrained subconscious. This kind of form is expansive, a blank page stretching out, easy for creatives to inscribe their own ideas onto, easy for screenwriters to channel her purposely non-specific voice. Hoover marks a new iteration for the book-to-screen adaptation, one where the text seems purpose-built to hit the big screen, designed to appeal to as many people as possible. While Jane Austen and E.M. Forster constructed love stories that were contained to their cultural milieu, Hoover embodies our most primal feelings (love, fear, anger), in the crudest setting. It Ends with Us has yet to be deemed a cinematic triumph, but its real success lies in the endlessly replicable formula Hoover has mastered in writing it.
London-based film writer Anna McKibbin loves digging into classic film stars and movie musicals. Find her on Twitter to see what she is currently obsessed with.
How Colleen Hoover Rose To Rule The Best-Seller List
When she self-published her first young adult novel, "Slammed," in January 2012, Hoover was making $9 per hour as a social worker and living in a single-wide trailer with her husband, a long-distance truck driver, and their three sons. But seven months later, "Slammed" hit the New York Times best-seller list. By May, Hoover had made $50,000 in royalties and quit her job to write full time.
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