Colleen Hoover

About Colleen Hoover

Margaret Colleen Fennell Hoover was born on December 11, 1979, in Sulphur Springs, Texas, and grew up in nearby Saltillo. She earned a bachelor's degree in social work from Texas A&M University–Commerce and spent several years working in that field. In January 2012, she self-published her first novel, Slammed, which she had written for her mother's Kindle. The book attracted enough attention that Atria Books signed Hoover and re-published it later that year. Her 2012 title Hopeless became the first self-published novel to reach the top of the New York Times bestseller list. She married Heath Hoover in 2000; they have three sons.

Hoover's career transformed again in 2021, when her 2016 novel It Ends with Us—a story of domestic abuse told with romantic framing—went viral on BookTok, the reading community on TikTok. The surge of attention pushed the book back onto bestseller lists years after its original publication and introduced her to an enormous new audience. By October 2022, she had sold more than 20 million copies of her books and was named one of TIME magazine's 100 most influential people of 2023. A major film adaptation of It Ends with Us, starring Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, was released in August 2024 and grossed more than $350 million worldwide.

Her Most Challenged Works

Despite being shelved largely in adult romance sections, Hoover's books have attracted challenges in school libraries and classrooms, particularly It Ends with Us. Critics have objected to sexual content, profanity, and depictions of relationship abuse, arguing that the romantic framing of a domestic violence narrative is inappropriate for young readers. Other titles including Verity and Ugly Love have been similarly flagged. Supporters note that Hoover's books address real experiences many teenagers face and that the books consistently portray coercive relationships as harmful.

Recognition and Legacy

Hoover won the Goodreads Choice Award for Romance in both 2015 and 2016 and regularly places multiple titles simultaneously on bestseller lists—a rare feat in publishing. Her online community CoHo is one of the most active author fandoms in social media. Her self-publishing-to-superstardom trajectory has made her a frequently cited example of how digital word-of-mouth has changed commercial fiction in the twenty-first century.