Reminders of Him by Colleen Hoover

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.

Okay.

Okayyyy.

I just needed a hot minute to process all of that in but wow, let me tell you that this is another top tier Coho creation. I kid you not. My pile of balled up tissue paper soaked with tears is not kidding either.

How in the world can someone wreck you then heal you with just words is beyond me and Colleen Hoover has done it to me. Repeatedly.

Reminders of Him now resides on my list of favorite CoHo reads (and I’ve read them all) right beside All Your Perfects and It Ends With Us.

Without going into specifics, Reminders of Him navigates the story of Kenna, a mother who was separated from her daughter for four years and without any means for her to reconnect with her child.

the yeses

It was very early in the book when I felt the heaviness of the premise but it was around the 44% mark when the tears started to make their way out. I’m not sure how many of you would consider that as a good thing BUT it definitely is for me.

It’s amazing how Colleen was able to make the pain tangible and felt. I was hurting for all the characters involved and was rooting for each one of them to find happiness and peace. The emotions in this story are raw and unique. Each character carries a pain that stemmed from one awful night. The emotions are all valid and you can’t help but ask yourself what you would have done had you been this or that character.

I love how everyone navigated through their anguish and eventually came to terms with their reality. There’s something very touching about how family oriented the main characters are and how, despite all of their decisions, they all just did everything out of love.

It’s a moving and emotional story, one that I felt really resonated more for me since I have a three year old and cannot imagine not being with her. It was painful seeing Kenna’s devastation especially during the times when it felt like everyone and everything was against her.

When you read this book, I wish that you will keep an open mind on each character’s motivations and what propelled them to do what they did. I love that there is no real villain here except for time and circumstances.

the uh-ohs

To be honest, the only thing I can think of that made me go uh-oh was the pace, the timing and of course the instant connection. But these are but minor things in the grand scheme of plot lines, characters and story as a whole.

At this point in her career, I’m no longer shocked with how much emotions Colleen can pull out from her readers. Writing wise, she really has grown and improved so much over the years and I can’t wait to read whatever she has in store for us next.

People say you fall in love, but fall is such a sad word when you think about it. Falls are never good. You fall on the ground, you fall behind, you fall to your death. Whoever was the first person to say they fell in love must have already fallen out of it. Otherwise, they’d have called it something much better.