| Name | Colleen Hoover |
| Pen Name | NA |
| Nationality | American |
| Born | December 11, 1979 |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Education | Bachelor’s degree in social work |
| Genre | Romance, thriller, YA fiction, new adult fiction, women’s fiction |
| Notable Works | It Ends with Us, Verity, Slammed, Hopeless, Ugly Love, November 9 |
| Notable Awards | Goodreads Choice Awards, UtopYA Con Awards |
| Height | 5 feet 9 inches |
| Spouses | Heath Hoover |
| Children | Cale Hoover, Levi Hoover, Beckham Hoover |
| Official Website | colleenhoover.com |
Born on December 11, 1979, in the city of Sulphur Springs in Texas. Colleen Hoover grew up in Saltillo. Her parents divorced while she was still a toddler, as her father was physically abusive towards her mother.
The family faced financial struggles, and her mother remarried, and together they ran a dairy farm. After finishing high school in 1998 at Saltillo High School, after that, she completed her graduation with a degree in social work from Texas A&M–Commerce in 2004.
Hoover took on various jobs before becoming a counselor at a federal program known as the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children.
She got married at the tender age of 20 and had given birth to three kids by the time she was 26, and they all lived together in a trailer home while she worked as a counselor.
Colleen Hoover started working on her debut novel, Slammed, in November 2011 with no intention of publishing it. She began crafting it as a Christmas present for her mother and decided to self-publish it in January 2012.
Although the publishers rejected ‘Slammed’ in the initial stages, word soon got out about the novel, thanks to the rave reviews it received on social media platforms, and soon enough, it was visible on several lists of bestselling novels.
The novel was about a young woman who migrates to Michigan after her father’s demise. As she begins a romantic relationship with her neighbor, circumstances and revelations force them apart.
The mixture of drama, romance, and surprises is what got the readers hooked, and these elements have stayed constant in Colleen Hoover’s works ever since then.
Slammed was turned into a series, with the second book, Point of Retreat, released in 2012 and the third book, This Girl, released in 2013. They all made it to the spot of bestsellers.
Following the success of Slammed, Hoover gave up her job in the field of social work and started writing full-time. Having embraced several genres so far in her career, her romance novels are the ones that are the most loved among her fans.
CoHorts is the term by which Hoover’s fans like to identify themselves, and they also give her the credit for establishing the genre of new adult fiction. This is defined as the category of fiction wherein the main characters fall in the age bracket of 18 to 29, which is the age range usually targeted by Hoover.
Some even say that the author is a genre on her own, which is why she has managed to strike such profitable deals with publishers so far.
While the pandemic was ongoing in 2020, Colleen Hoover made several of her e-books available for free for the readers to access. During this time, she became more popular on TikTok when many new readers discovered her and started exploring some of her older titles.
As a result of this, many of her former novels rose to prominence and became bestsellers, which is a unique occurrence in the world of publishing.
Among her many novels devoured by readers worldwide, the one that’s unanimously loved is probably the book titled, ‘It Ends with Us,’ which was released in 2016.
Colleen Hoover described it as the hardest book she has ever worked on, given the fact that it was partly based on the domestic violence and abuse she witnessed in her own home between her parents.
The novel is about Lily Bloom, a young girl who wishes to open a floral shop. She meets a handsome neurosurgeon named Ryle, and they start dating. Through a twist of events, Lily’s past makes an appearance, and she also discovers Ryle’s violent side.
‘It Ends with Us’ developed such an insane fandom that the readers would constantly flood Hoover with requests for a sequel. The writer ultimately gave in and came out with the sequel titled ‘It Starts with Us’ in October 2022.
The sequel was, unsurprisingly, met with a humongous amount of sales and preorders. She has also written the very famous ‘Maybe Someday’ series, which includes Maybe Someday, Maybe Not, and Maybe Now, of which the first two books were released in 2014, and the final one came out in 2018.
Her latest novels include ‘Layla and Reminders of Him,’ released in 2020 and 2022, respectively. A couple of her other novels that are widely read and loved include:
- Ugly Love: A story where two people meet and decide to have a strictly physical relationship, but things take a different turn, and keeping that promise becomes difficult for them both.
- November 9: A woman becomes the source of inspiration for a writer. While the two keep meeting year after year, the lines between fiction and reality seem to get blurrier.
- Verity: A woman gets the opportunity to finish a series that was started by a famous writer who suffers a tragic accident. However, the woman soon realizes that the situation might just be spookier than it seems.
- Heart Bones: Mourning the loss of her mother, a young girl is forced to live with her father. While she grapples with the situation of barely knowing him, she begins to develop an attraction for one of her neighbors.
Writing Style And Approach
Colleen Hoover doesn’t believe in sticking to a single subject or genre in her books. She says that since real life is often a mix of romance, tragedy, and drama, her novels should also reflect that.
This is probably why so many readers find her books both thrilling and relatable because she takes a piece from reality and infuses it with the magic of fiction.
Although her success story could make one assume that she writes constantly, the truth is quite far from it. Her novels are mostly engaging plots that encourage you to keep turning the pages, and this quality apparently comes from the personality of the writer.
Hoover says that she gets distracted quite easily, which is why she only writes what she herself would want to read, and it’s this element that makes her books such binge-worthy reads.
She doesn’t believe in being burdened by the pressure of expectations, which is why her career has been a combination of self-published titles and acclaimed publishing houses.
The author has herself admitted that she often finds herself gravitating toward the traumas that surround a young individual’s life, including violence, disability, and the loss of loved ones.
Hoover says that the more she goes through life, the stronger is the need to make her novels darker and more emotional. Despite the success she enjoys, she doesn’t allow the pressure to get to her.
One can either find her writing for multiple hours in a day or going months without writing down a word because she only believes in developing a story when she’s truly excited by it. We must admit that the path of organized chaos does work quite brilliantly for the writer.
Hoover has the unique ability to take dark themes and incorporate them effortlessly into her fiction. Although some accuse her of only creating characters that are heterosexual, cisgender, and white, she more than makes up for it by discussing subjects that many authors shy away from.
Domestic violence and abuse feature in many of her novels. Although most of her books come with trigger warnings due to the topics involved, Hoover has a way of dealing with these tragic themes both sensibly and sensitively.
She shows her characters as ones who do face the evil of abuse in numerous forms but also ones who stand up for themselves and detach their lives from the loop of violence and abuse.
Although infidelity and miscarriages aren’t often explored in books, Hoover integrates them into her stories, which is a much-needed addition to today’s literature.
Toxic relationships often become the center of her stories. While certain subjects could make readers uncomfortable, the writer has indeed grown and evolved quite a lot in the way she writes these stories that explore violent relationships.
This is particularly evident in how she crafted ‘It Ends with Us’ and the following sequel. The story that started with an obsessive and negatively passionate love soon shifted gears to a calmer, kinder, and much more nourishing bond.
By shedding light on the subjects of gaslighting and emotional abuse, Hoover constantly reminds her readers that the scars one witness in a relationship aren’t always external.
In addition to romance, Hoover has experimented with thriller and mystery, as is evident from the way she deftly crafted Verity. Through this novel, the writer showed her eclectic range, as she truly managed to develop a scary and eerie ambiance that was enough to induce goosebumps.
While it’s unknown as to who are the authors that Hoover considers as positive influences, the writer has mentioned that she always wanted to write. It was ultimately her mother who served as her inspiration, due to which she developed her first book.
Hoover has also mentioned that she was encouraged by the lyrics of the song, Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise, by The Avett Brothers, which say “decide what to be and go be it.”
Hoover founded ‘The Bookworm Box’ along with her sisters, Murphy Rae and Lin Reynolds. The aim of this organization is to support charities by raising money through a monthly book subscription service.
Together, they also created Book Bonanza, an event where book signings take place, readers get to meet authors, and an online auction is conducted, all of which aim to raise money for charity.
The Bookworm Box has donated more than a million dollars to over 400 charitable organizations. That works for the betterment of children and women.
Colleen Hoover was honored to be part of the Time’s 100 Most Influential People list in 2023. The awards that have been associated with her name to date include:
- Nominated for the Goodreads Choice Awards for Slammed in 2012
- Nominated for the Goodreads Choice Awards for Losing Hope in 2013
- Nominated for the Goodreads Choice Awards for This Girl in 2013
- Winner of the utopYA Con Awards for Maybe Someday in 2014
- Winner of the Goodreads Choice Awards for Confess in 2015
- Winner of the Goodreads Choice Awards for It Ends with Us in 2016
Here are some quotes by Colleen Hoover, a popular author known for her contemporary romance novels:
