There has never been an author who has dominated the USA TODAY Best-SellingBooks list week after week like Colleen Hoover has in 2022. Sure, otherauthors have had multiple titles appear on the best seller list for multipleweeks, but they have all fallen well short of Hoover, who boasted a total of15 titles in a single week this summer. Three of her books, “Reminders ofHim,” “It Ends With Us” and “Verity,” have taken the No. 1 spot so far thisyear.
Hoover has managed to write half of the Top 10 books in sales this year. Overthe past 10 years, she has gone from self-published newbie to bestsellingpowerhouse. And there is no sign of her slowing down. Hoover’s next novel, “ItStarts With Us,” the follow-up to her best selling “It Ends With Us,” is setto publish Oct. 18.
So just who is Colleen Hoover, and how did she and her novels get so popular?
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Author Colleen Hoover.
Who is Colleen Hoover?
Colleen Hoover, 42, lives in a small town in east Texas just outside SulfurSprings. She worked for several years as a social worker before becoming acounselor at WIC, a nutrition program for women, children and infants. Whileat WIC, Hoover began to pursue her writing career. She would write on a laptopborrowed from her mother during her off hours, often while one of her sons wasat play rehearsals. She gave the novel to her mother as a Christmas gift, andnot long after, she self-published it to share with friends and family.”Slammed” (2012) would become her first published novel and her first book toappear on USA TODAY’s Best-Selling Books list. In total, she has written 22novels and three novellas, and contributed to two anthologies.
What types of books does Colleen Hoover write?
Hoover’s books fall into new adult and young adult genres. The subject mattervaries. For instance, the author’s interest in slam poetry heavily influenced”Slammed.” Both the “Slammed” and the “Hopeless” series were inspired byHoover’s social work career.
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But Hoover has explored different genres in her novels. For example, herinterest in the paranormal led her to write “Layla,” in which the titlecharacter survives a life-threatening attack, after which inexplicable thingsstart happening around her. Hoover also has written thrillers and love storieswith twists and turns involving heartbreak and mental health struggles.
Colleen Hoover: Author dominates best sellers list with 15 books,including ‘It Ends With Us’
Book cover of “It Ends with Us” by Colleen Hoover.
Which Colleen Hoover book should you read first?
“It Ends With Us” is one of Hoover’s most popular and well-received novels,and a good starting point. It has been the highest-ranking novel of Hoover’son the bestsellers list in anticipation of its sequel, “It Starts With Us,”which arrives Oct. 18.
Many of Hoover’s plot lines involve emotionally intense situations includingsexual assault, surviving trauma, infertility and abusive relationships. Ifyou want to start out with something less intense, try “Maybe Someday.” Foryoung adult fans, the “Slammed” series, “Regretting You” and “Without Merit”are good choices.
How did Colleen Hoover’s novels become popular?
While Hoover has steadily had bestsellers since her debut on USA TODAY’s list,her popularity has exploded in the past two years. Her sales surge can beattributed in part to her massive popularity on TikTok, particularly in theplatform’s #booktok subculture. Publishers Weekly chronicled the phenomenonwhen Hoover’s 2016 book “It Ends With Us” started climbing the bestsellerslists in 2020.
Fifteen of Hoover’s novels are on this week’s list; “It Ends With Us” topsthem all at No. 2. The novel, which has reached No. 1 before, has been on thelist for a total of 76 weeks. Her latest novel, “Reminders of Him,” now on thelist, debuted at No. 1 in January.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Colleen Hoover: Who is she andwhy are her books so popular?