Hoover’s Early Life

Born in Sulphur Springs, Texas on December 11th, 1979 was Colleen Hoover. Hoover grew up in Saltillo Texas and graduated high school in 1998. Colleen has two sisters, Lin and Murphy of which they all share the same dad, but Murphy has a different mother. Her father was physically abusive to her mother throughout their marriage, and the couple divorced while Colleen was a toddler. Her mother later got remarried, and the family struggled financially while running a small dairy farm in Saltillo, Texas.

Colleen graduated from Texas A&M-Commerce in 2002 with a degree in social work. She had a variety of jobs throughout high school and college before becoming a counselor for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children. During this time, Colleen and her family lived in a trailer home. Colleen married her husband Heath Hoover in 2000, who was a long-haul trucker, and they later had their three children.

When Her Writing Career Started

As she grew up, she would casually tell people that she wanted to be a writer, and she knew from the start she had an idea of going down the writing career path. However, after marrying her high school sweetheart at the age of 20 and having three children before the age of twenty-six, that passion was put on hold. As a busy wife and mother, she decided to go a more practical route of pursuing a career in social work. Several years later, Hoover was finally motivated to pick up the pen and start writing. She had great encouragement from family and friends which got her to self-publish her 2012 debut Slammed. She chose the indie route not only because the publishers weren’t interested, but because she didn’t know how to even begin the process of finding an agent.

In November of 2011, Colleen began writing her first novel, Slammed. This teenage love story was intended as a Christmas gift to her mother. Later, Hoover decided to self-publish the work in 2012.  She was initially rejected by publisher after publisher, but that didn’t stop her because her book began climbing through the best-seller lists. From the help of word of mouth and enthusiastic reviews on social media platforms, Hoover became the author everyone talked about. 

The novel, Slammed centers on an 18-year old woman, Layken, who is on the move to Michigan with her family after the unfortunate death of her father. After arriving in Michigan, she becomes romantically involved with her new neighbor, but an unforeseen discovery forces them apart. Layken didn’t expect things to be more complicated than they already were, but another family tragedy tops it off. Readers of this book have had the anticipation of embracing the romance, drama, and surprising plot turns throughout the books, all of which became an indicator of Hoover’s books in general.

Astounded is not even close to how Colleen felt by the reaction the public had to her book through book bloggers, indie reviewers, and word of mouth on a variety of social media platforms. The novel became a New York Times bestseller which was only the beginning of that route. This was rare for any book, let alone a self-published one. This experience gave Colleen a wake-up call and some encouragement to prepare for a digital following long before many authors realized social media was an essential part of their profession.

Colleen’s Writing Journey

Colleen has had a long road with many writers blocks, but as a result of all the hard work she has been awarded #1 New York Times bestselling offer of roughly twenty-two novels and novellas. Her collection of novels fall into the New Adult and Young Adult contemporary romance categories, as well as psychological thriller and paranormal.

Colleen’s novel Confess won the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Romance in 2015. To follow in 2016, her latest novel, It Ends With Us, also won the Choice Award for Best Romance. In 2017, her novel Without Merit won Best Romance.

Her 2016 blockbuster, It Ends With Us explores the fall of an abusive relationship, while Hoover's other book, Verity, unravels a picture-perfect couple’s courtship and marriage in a twisted and jaw-dropping manner. 

Reporters have said that when they asked Hoover to pinpoint what gives her books that extra umph, it was a tougher task to respond to. Hoover has stated that she doesn’t plan her titles in advance, and instead bases them on the mood either she is in, or what mood the book gives to her.

Colleen has founded The Bookworm Box: a charity subscription service and bookstore. She created this charity with the help of her family. The benefit of The Bookworm Box is to provide a subscription service for readers with an exciting opportunity to receive signed novels in the mail each month from authors all over the world. All of the profits from the service are donated to various charities each month. The Bookworm Box has donated over $1,000,000 to those in need.

Given Colleen’s decade-long career in social work before starting to write full-time, it’s also easy to see why she would have a desire towards unpacking complex traumas that fall upon young people like: deaths of loved ones, disability, incarceration, and violence. Many of the protagonists featured in her books are baffling women around ages 18 to 26, a demographic considered as “new adult”.

According to Colleen Hoover’s team, her books have spent a combined 120+ weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list over the past ten years. Her popularity on social media has grown, as she is the third most followed author of all time on Goodreads behind Stephen King and Bill Gates. There is also a 24,500 person facebook group dedicated to discussing just one of her titles, Verity. 

Colleen Hoover has gone through a long path to get to where she is today, and she has no other words to describe her journey other than “Life changing”. This has been a dream come true for her, and she gives many thanks to her friends, family, and most importantly, her readers.