After serving five years in prison for a tragic mistake, Kenna Rowan returns to the town where it all went wrong, hoping to reunite with her four-year-old daughter. But the bridges Kenna burned are proving impossible to rebuild. Everyone in her daughter’s life is determined to shut Kenna out, no matter how hard she works to prove herself.

The only person who hasn’t closed the door on her completely is Ledger Ward, a local bar owner and one of the few remaining links to Kenna’s daughter. But if anyone were to discover how Ledger is slowly becoming an important part of Kenna’s life, both would risk losing the trust of everyone important to them.

The two form a connection despite the pressure surrounding them, but as their romance grows, so does the risk. Kenna must find a way to absolve the mistakes of her past in order to build a future out of hope and healing.

Genre: Contemporary Romance Fiction

Tropes:

• Strong heroine 
• Single parent 
• Found family 
• Second chances 

My Thoughts:

*Contains spoilers*

Ugly Love, It Ends With Us, Verity, Too Late, It Starts With Us and now, Reminders of Him can be added to the list of books I’ve read and thoroughly enjoyed by Colleen Hoover. 

Unpopular opinion (in the eyes of BookTok), but I LOVE Colleen Hoover’s books and writing style. I’ve never come across an author who has me coming back for more and is able to write across many genres successfully. Most of the time, authors stick to the same genre and can sometimes tire it out by having the same repetitive writing style and storyline. With Colleen Hoover, she’s able to create story’s across different genres whilst maintaining her writing style, in a way that is refreshing and engaging. 

I don’t understand the hate towards her and her writing style. I always find myself coming back to her books because they’re so easy to read and have me engaged throughout. I haven’t found myself wanting to DNF so far and can rely on her books to pull me out of a reading slump. 

Reminders of Him was no exception to the expectations I have for Colleen and it’s safe to say, it fully met and exceeded them. Reminders of Him had me in awe (and tears) of Colleen’s amazing storytelling of how she’s able to tug on the heartstrings. 

I’m a big reader and lover of romance fiction, with the tendency of enjoyment for spice. With Colleen Hoover, I fully know when reading that I’m not going to experience huge amounts of spice, but I still enjoy her books regardless. 

Reminders of Him follows Kenna Rowen, a young woman who has endured so much, lived through so much and despite it, has come back on the other side as a resilient and inspiring individual. In Reminders of Him we learn that Kenna did not grow up with her mother’s love and was constantly in and out of foster care for neglect during her childhood. However, she ends up finding love with boyfriend Scotty, who had experienced the opposite of Kenna’s childhood. Her time with Scotty is cut short due to an tragic accident with Scotty paying the ultimate price. However Kenna didn’t fare much better off as she suffered five years in prison, resulting in her devastating absence in her daughter’s life. 

Kenna’s story follows her after her release, as she attempts to rebuild her life in the town she lost Scotty and in the same town that her daughter lives in, whom she is yet to meet or even see a picture of as she is taken care of by her paternal grandparents. Despite her lack of parental rights, she is devoted to her daughter and will do anything to see her; even if that means leaving town. 

In this town, Kenna’s reputation of that tragic night precedes her; leaving her struggling to keep a roof over her head and to meet her daughter. Then she meets Ledger, Scotty’s best friend unbeknownst to Kenna. Unaware of who she is, Ledger becomes intrigued by the new woman in town, but quickly realises exactly who she is. Ledger is Kenna’s only connection to her daughter Diem, but upon realising who she is, he develops instant hatred towards her. Yet, he can’t stay away from her and so the story follows their growing relationship and rebuilding of Kenna’s life. 

When reading Reminders of Him, I enjoyed the constant uncertainty that Ledger went through, where he had the instant connection with Kenna but also feelings of hatred and betrayal. I can imagine it being extremely difficult to navigate feelings for someone who brought instant and initial strong feelings, only for them to quickly turn into hatred when learning that they are the very person who took away your best friend. The same is said for the Landry’s (Scotty’s parents), I can’t even imagine having to navigate life loosing a child in the circumstances they lost Scotty, then to be blessed with a grandchild from him and then to have the person who took Scotty away from them reappear wanting their grandchild. 

I always think Colleen does a great job at building the characters in a book in a way that leads you to feel what they feel, understand how they feel and wish everything for them. The letters Kenna wrote to Scotty very much helped build Kenna’s character and in my opinion, helped readers to feel for her when reading about her feelings and past. I thought I was able to get a view of her state of mind through the letters, which helped me understand her. 

I absolutely loved this book, I rated it 5 stars. I loved everything about it and don’t have anything I would change. When I began reading this book, I had just finished King of Pride the previous day and had really struggled to be motivated to read, so I was apprehensive about how much I would enjoy this book. However, I was intrigued from the start and was eager to follow Kenna’s story as I wanted to know how it ended. It had me wanting to scream at Ledger in the moments he blamed her and said she fled the scene. I initially thought she left the scene to get help and quickly became confused due to the accident – but as I read, it became clear she left because she thought Scotty was dead; I’m still confused if she was still trying to get help though. 

I instantly liked Roman as he was the one person who was on Kenna’s side and gave her the benefit of the doubt, encouraging Ledger to see Kenna. The same for Lady Diana and her funny comments that she made about Ledger.

Throughout the book and the development of Ledger and Kenna exploring their feelings, I had constantly thoughts of “this is going to blow up” and “someone is going to see them”, which had my heart racing in anticipation on when the shit would hit the fan. Every time there was a build up I thought “they’re going to be caught” but even when the build up came through, I still was shocked. I’ve not read a book that had my heart racing, since Verity. 

As I read the book, my heart ached for Kenna and how all she wanted was to be reunited with her daughter and to be forgiven. I honestly admire her strength and perseverance so much and can honestly say, I don’t think I could get back up after facing the challenges that she faced in Reminders of Him.

After Ledger and Kenna’s relationship is revealed and Ledger arrives at Kenna’s apartment, I was expecting Diem to be stood waiting to meet her mother, but I was so glad it was Grace who was there to forgive Kenna. 

I loved how we got to read the moment Kenna finally met her daughter. I thought it was bittersweet and heartbreaking at the same time. I really had so many emotions for her and felt as though I fully understood how she felt at each moment. I have never cried at a book, but this is the only exception. The emotions she went through towards the end when she didn’t think she’d ever meet Diem, had me sobbing. I felt like after I’d finished crying, there was another scene that started me off again because I just had such strong feelings for the emotions that Kenna experienced at those parts of the story. I will say, I thought the ending was sort of abrupt, but equally I loved it and loved the entire storyline. It was heartbreakingly beautiful, and I loved that Kenna finally got to be happy and forgiven.

I wanted to include some memorable quotes that I highlighted from the book and my thoughts at the time: 

“There was before you and there was during you. For some reason, I never thought there would be an after you. But there was, and I was in it. I’ll be in it forever.” – Kenna, in her letter to Scotty the day he died. This quote stopped me in my tracks, not because its popularity on TikTok, but because of its meaning. 

“I have a daughter who smells like strawberries” – Kenna 

“You’re forgiven, Kenna” – Kenna, to herself after she finally accepted she can move on. This had me crying. 

“I’ll be damned,” I say quietly. “Is that . . . is that a fucking pigeon?” – Ledger, having a moment with Patrick (Scotty’s dad) and then experiencing their inside joke.

“Hi, Scotty” – Kenna, meeting her and Ledger’s son. This made me loose it, I started bawling. 

My Rating:

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Georgia

♥