Earlier this year, Colleen Hoover announced that she would be releasing a sequel to her viral sensation book(It Ends With Us) on October 18th: It Starts With Us.
Dubbed as CoHo, or the “Queen of BookTok” after “TikTok’s emergence into the literary scene,” Colleen Hoover is known for her contemporary romance novels targeted at Young and New Adult audiences. If you’ve looked at the New York Times Best Sellers list, either recently or in the past year, you’ve probably noticed at least one of her books topping the list. As of now, It Ends With Us, which has spent 75 weeks on the list and holds the number one place in Paperback Trade Fiction. Verity, 61 weeks on the list, follows closely at number two, and Ugly Love, 63 weeks on the list, is at number 4.
Whether you’ve spent any time on BookTok, are an avid reader of romance works, or have walked into any book store, you’ve probably heard of Hoover’s books. In fact, both Bernardsville’s The Bookworm and Barnes and Noble have an entire section dedicated to Hoover. And earlier this year, Hoover dominated the #BookTok table at Barnes and Noble. Clearly, Hoover deserves that title as “Queen of BookTok.”
The most famous of Hoover’s books is It Ends With Us, which “was a deeply emotional novel that told the story of the relationship between Ryle and Lily that is a deeply honest account of an abusive relationship.” Lily struggles to leave Ryle, but is aided by her childhood friend, Atlas. Hoover, along with gripping her readers with a heart-wrenching storyline, spoils them with a beautiful writing style. The book was a Goodreads Choice 2016 Winner for Best Romance and has sold over 4 million copies.
It Starts With Us, as Hoover announced on her Instagram on July 31st, “begins about an hour after the epilogue ends in It Ends With Us,” and “follows the characters as they navigate life after the events” of the previous book. Hoover also reports that It Starts With Us will be a dual POV from both Lily and Atlas.
Goodreads, in their summary of the new book, reports that “Before It Ends with Us, it started with Atlas. Colleen Hoover tells fan favorite Atlas’s side of the story and shares what comes next in this long-anticipated sequel to the ‘glorious and touching’ (USA TODAY) #1 New York Times bestseller It Ends with Us” and that the book, like its predecessor, is “gripping” and “pulse-pounding.”
If you haven’t read It Ends With Us, stop what you’re doing and read it now. And, for those of you who have, good luck, for both the heart-wrenching story that we may soon read and in hope that you succeed in getting a copy. Fans of CoHo(and readers in general) can—and will be—vicious.
