Colleen Hoover Reading Order: Where to Start with CoHo
April 6, 2026
Colleen Hoover — universally known as CoHo on BookTok — became one of the most-read authors in the world between 2021 and 2023. At one point she had nine books simultaneously on the New York Times bestseller list. She self-published her first novel in 2012; by 2022 she was a publishing phenomenon.
The Standalone Novels (Recommended Reading Order)
Most CoHo novels are standalone — no series continuity, different characters, different settings. You can read them in any order. Some contain small connections (characters appear briefly in another book) but nothing that requires a specific sequence.
Best starting points:
- It Ends with Us (2016) — the novel most responsible for CoHo’s BookTok explosion; domestic abuse, a complicated love story, and a protagonist who has to make an impossible choice
- Ugly Love (2014) — a faster, more contained story; good for readers who want something shorter before committing to longer novels
- Verity (2018) — her thriller; different in tone from her romance novels; genuinely unsettling; frequently cited as her best book
- Confess (2015) — art, secrets, and a romance built around anonymous confessions; widely loved
The full standalone list:
- Slammed (2012)
- Point of Retreat (2012)
- This Girl (2013)
- Hopeless (2012)
- Losing Hope (2013)
- Finding Cinderella (2013) — novella
- Maybe Someday (2014)
- Ugly Love (2014)
- Confess (2015)
- November 9 (2015)
- Reminders of Him (2022)
- It Ends with Us (2016)
- Without Merit (2017)
- All Your Perfects (2018)
- Verity (2018)
- Regretting You (2019)
- Heart Bones (2020)
- Layla (2020)
- Reminders of Him (2022)
- It Starts with Us (2022) — sequel to It Ends with Us
- Too Late (2022)
- Never Never (with Tarryn Fisher)
Connected Books
It Ends with Us (2016) has a direct sequel: It Starts with Us (2022). These two are the only CoHo novels that should be read in a fixed order.
The Slammed trilogy (Slammed, Point of Retreat, This Girl) follows the same characters and should be read in order.
What Makes CoHo Different
Hoover writes contemporary romance with a willingness to go to darker places than the genre typically allows. It Ends with Us tackles domestic abuse with a directness that surprised many romance readers — it’s a love story and a story about leaving a relationship simultaneously. The ending is not a conventional HEA (happily ever after).
Verity is a psychological thriller with unreliable narration and a genuinely ambiguous ending. It reads nothing like her romances. If you’ve only read CoHo’s lighter novels, Verity will surprise you.
Layla introduces a supernatural element unusual for her work. Maybe Someday integrates a musician creating an original soundtrack (released alongside the book).
The BookTok Phenomenon
CoHo’s rise on BookTok is a publishing case study. Her books existed quietly for years before a combination of the pandemic reading boom and BookTok recommendations sent them to the top of bestseller lists. The emotional intensity of her novels — the crying, the complicated feelings, the “that scene” moments — made them ideal for emotional reaction videos.
The phrase “CoHo broke me” became a recurring sentiment. For new readers: the tears are earned, not manipulative. Usually.
Where to Start
Read Verity first if you want to understand why serious readers take CoHo seriously — it’s the most technically accomplished of her novels.
Read It Ends with Us first if you want to understand why BookTok loves her — it’s emotionally devastating and captures exactly what makes her work different from standard contemporary romance.
Read Ugly Love first if you want something short and fast before committing to her longer novels.