"Reminders of Him," by Colleen Hoover

Audience: YA/Adult

Genre: Contemporary Fiction/Romance

Overall Content Rating: Unclean

Content Warnings

Adult Issues

Child out of wedlock

Severe Profane Language

S**t, S******g

F**k, F*****g

B*****d

A******e

Romantic Content

Kissing

Groping

"Made Love" mention

Explicit Sex Scenes

Substance Use

Smoking (cigarettes)

Alcohol Consumption (wine + bar talk)

Violence/Bloodshed

One instance of assault; there was blood and a hospital trip involved

Overall Review

One thing I noticed while reading Colleen Hoover's book, and the reviews of this book, was that her stories are highly controversial in content. Some people love her, some people hate her, and there's not much of any in-between. From the very beginning, I knew that this was going to be a book that wasn't going to be exactly "clean" but the number of things that happened throughout the course of the book shocked me. I've read other stuff of hers before and the last book certainly wasn't this graphic.

This is definitely an adult book in my opinion. There were a number of things that I thought were questionable at best and others that were explained too thoroughly for me to think that the audience was younger teens. Details that I didn't want or need were given as if that would draw me into the book more rather than repel me. Even as an adult, I find myself repulsed by the number of things that were mentioned so casually in this book.

Many people claimed they cried during this book, and that I understood. The push-pull feelings that Hoover writes into her story between Ledger and Kenna (the two main characters), all tied up with Diem (Kenna's daughter) made this quite a dynamic book. However, the romantic element was pervasive throughout the whole story.

You're empathizing with how Kenna wants to be forgiven and have a relationship with her daughter and then she's thinking about Ledger and there's always this tension that some people would think is "hot" or "sexy" or whatever else, but honestly it's just full of lust and that's all that is. There's no suspense to the plot really. By the time you reach a quarter of the way through the book, you most likely know what's going to happen. That's not to say you necessarily stop reading, but if you thought about it, you could know what was going to be happening next.

I wouldn't really recommend this book for people under the age of 18. I've heard of younger teenagers reading Hoover's books and I've read some of hers that are totally acceptable for that, but this one was just not it and I really wouldn't recommend this for anyone who wasn't looking for a smutty read.

Additionally, there are a lot of moments where you have to suspend your disbelief, providing a bit of frustration because why can't it just be reasonable?

Overall, there was a lot of explicit content, lots of suspension of disbelief, lust, cliche characters and plot, a few moments where I couldn't connect with the characters at all, and the ending was super rushed and like they tried to tie it up with a bow at the last minute. Like we're talking a few chapters and an epilogue after around 40 chapters of everything else.

Ultimately, depending on what you're looking for in a book, I'm not sure I'd recommend this one. That said, if this book sounds right up your alley after all that I've said, go give it a shot! I'd love to hear what you think of it.