It’s no secret that Colleen Hoover is on every nightstand on this side of the Mississippi these days. Every girl I know has read one or several of her classics. In the age of social media and instant serotonin doses, it has become a rare sight to see a girl laying out reading a book. Of course the hot girl read has and will always be alive, but from girls who wouldn’t pin themselves as a self-proclaimed reader, Colleen changed the game.
Colleen Hoover took over the internet a few months back with arguably her most popular book It Ends With Us and caused a widespread, unplanned, hot girl book club. I really feel like her books sparked interest in a lot of young girls’ thoughts on books. Her easy to read plot lines and relatable ways of writing have people hooked. And, more importantly, I think one of the best parts about a Hoover book is the conversation after. Making books that are quick and as fun to talk about as a reality TV show is a recipe for a reading phenomenon.
I was skeptical at first, but after reading her book Verity I found myself looking through conspiracy theory Twitter trying to make sense of it all. That’s how I knew she got me. Just like any cheesy summer read, her books are best paired with a bag of Cape Cod chips and a beach chair. But as we go into the winter months, a good cup of hot chocolate and a cozy couch will do the trick as well. Some of my most loved reads included Verity, November 9th, and It Ends With Us. Her writing even got me into some other authors who put out similar things, my favorite similar author I found was Taylor Jenkins Reed. Her novels are a bit more complex but equally as fast of a read as Hoover’s.
Colleen Hoover opened the door of leisurely reading for a lot of young girls. As an education major, I know a lot of kids get thrown into the cycle of rejecting reading as a whole because school shoved book after book down your throat (rarely books we wanted to read). I remember that type of pressure and anxiety around reading absolutely ruined the whole act for me. I know a lot of young students feel the same way as I did. Reclaiming the power to read is a pretty cool thing, so shout out Colleen Hoover and her simple, captivating books for normalizing the hot girl read!