This is 100% an example of an actual 2 a.m. book read. I started this book once my kids went to bed at around, um, let’s say 9 p.m., with the intention of reading for a little bit before I went to sleep. 10 p.m. came around and my husband yawned pointedly and dramatically. 11 p.m. came around and he shut off all the lights and pulled the covers around himself. 11:05 p.m. came around and he snored loudly as I cranked up the orange light on my Kindle Oasis and kept reading just one more chapter…until I read the words “THE END” at 2:01 a.m.
Colleen Hoover is a great writer not because she’s naturally gifted (she is), but she keeps getting better. Her romances feel raw and real, even if the circumstances leading to them would be an eye-rolling corny soap opera in another author’s hands.
24 year old Kenna made a mistake, and that mistake resulted in her serving 5 years in prison and her parental rights to her 4 year old daughter terminated before she even gave birth to her. Hoover often tells her stories through multiple perspectives, and Kenna is a heartbreakingly sad, confused, broken woman. After being released from prison, she tracks down the location of her daughter, who is now in the custody of her dead boyfriend’s parents, in the hopes of being able to prove she’s able to be a loving, involved mother in her daughter’s life. She’s aware, however, that her daughter’s grandparents think little of Kenna and will refuse contact, so Kenna drifts through her daughter’s town, hoping to find a way to meet her. “I want to be good at life,” she narrates. “I want to make it look effortless, but up until this point, I’ve made every aspect of life appear entirely too difficult to navigate.”
Ledger Ward is a local bar owner and the other point-of-view perspective we follow through the novel. Kenna wanders into his bar one evening during her search, and he is immediately drawn to her not just because she clearly isn’t a local, but because she looks “like she hasn’t had a good thing in a long, long time.”
Here is where the reader might think that this relationship will immediately turn into a passionate romance, with some standard fight once Ledger finds out about Kenna’s past, resolving in a happy ending for all, but Hoover chooses to place the budding romance in the background and focus on themes of parental love, guilt, and self-forgiveness. Even though the circumstances in the book are a little more extreme than what many people will experience in their own lives, it’s just grounded enough for the reader to believe that this could be a realistic situation in someone else’s life, and that’s what separates Hoover’s romances from most others in the market. The overarching themes themselves are easy for the reader to identify with, and brings the entire story to a higher level.
Are you a Colleen Hoover fan already? You’ll enjoy this book. Not a fan yet? Give it try and see what you think!
Disclaimer: I borrowed the e-book version from the Kindle Unlimited program for free and read it on my 10th generation Kindle Oasis. I was not paid for this review, and all opinions are my own.
Title: Reminders of Him
Author: Colleen Hoover
Publication Date: 18 Jan 2022
Print Length: 335 pages
Marie’s Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
2 a.m. Book Reads 
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