Books Like Reminders of Him
by Colleen Hoover
Reminders of Him is built on a question with no comfortable answer: how much forgiveness can a person earn? Kenna Rowan has served five years for her part in a car accident that killed her boyfriend, and she returns to town to find the daughter she gave birth to in prison and has never been allowed to know. His grieving parents are raising the child and want Kenna nowhere near her. The one person who shows her kindness is Ledger, a bar owner tied closely to that family, which makes every moment of warmth feel like a betrayal. Colleen Hoover writes this as a romance, but its deepest pull is between a mother and a child behind a closed door.
Readers loved it for different reasons. It might have been the guilt and the slow work of atonement, or a forbidden romance where both people have a lot to lose. It might have been the grief, or the question of who gets to be a parent. The nine picks below follow those threads, and the notes say so when a book shares the emotions but not the love story.
Recommended for fans of Reminders of Him
It Ends with Us
Colleen Hoover
Love and impossible choices, written with the same raw directness.
Pick this if you want the same author at her most serious, in a story that puts a difficult choice ahead of the happily-ever-after.
November 9
Colleen Hoover
Two people meet on the same day each year, and an old wound shadows it.
Pick this if you want a love story where the past keeps getting in the way, told one day a year.
Archer's Voice
Mia Sheridan
Two traumatised people slowly learn to trust in a quiet small town.
Pick this if you came for wounded people learning to trust gently, and you want the romance to take centre stage.
Every Summer After
Carley Fortune
A woman returns to the people she hurt and has to reckon with old mistakes.
Pick this if the walk back into a place you've wronged was the strongest part for you, in a warmer and much less painful story.
Things We Never Got Over
Lucy Score
A small town, a gruff bar owner and a child who changes everything.
Pick this if Ledger and the small-town setting appealed to you and you'd welcome far more humour and spice.
The Language of Flowers
Vanessa Diffenbaugh
A young woman marked by her past struggles with love, trust and motherhood.
Pick this if Kenna's fear of not being a fit mother moved you most, and you're happy with less romance.
Me Before You
Jojo Moyes
A love story that doubles as a hard moral argument, and it will make you cry.
Pick this if you read to feel wrecked by a love story that asks a difficult question.
Little Fires Everywhere
Celeste Ng
A custody battle divides a town and asks who deserves to raise a child.
Pick this if the question of a mother's rights gripped you, though this is a looser fit, a literary family drama with no central romance.
The Midnight Library
Matt Haig
A woman confronts her regrets by trying out the lives she didn't live.
Pick this if regret and second chances were the themes that stayed with you, though it is the loosest fit: speculative and gentle, with no romance plot to speak of.
At a glance
These picks were chosen for guilt and second chances, grief-marked romance, and parents and children kept apart, and only a few of them are pure romances.
| Book | First published | Pages | Closest match on | Match |
|---|---|---|---|---|
It Ends with Us Colleen Hoover | 2016 | 384 | Same raw emotional punch | 90% |
November 9 Colleen Hoover | 2015 | 320 | Love marked by tragedy | 85% |
Archer's Voice Mia Sheridan | 2014 | 384 | Slow, tender healing | 84% |
Every Summer After Carley Fortune | 2022 | 324 | Returning to face mistakes | 81% |
Things We Never Got Over Lucy Score | 2022 | 530 | Small town, bar owner | 80% |
The Language of Flowers Vanessa Diffenbaugh | 2011 | 367 | Damaged past, motherhood | 79% |
Me Before You Jojo Moyes | 2012 | 492 | Romance and real tears | 77% |
Little Fires Everywhere Celeste Ng | 2017 | 384 | Who gets to parent | 74% |
The Midnight Library Matt Haig | 2020 | 304 | Living with regret | 70% |
About Reminders of Him
Reminders of Him was published by Montlake in January 2022 and became one of Colleen Hoover's bestselling novels. It alternates between Kenna and Ledger, with letters Kenna writes to her late boyfriend threaded through, and it is told in the same emotionally direct style as her earlier romances.
Frequently asked questions
Is Reminders of Him sad?+
Yes, for much of its length. It deals with the death of a young man, prison, and a mother separated from her child. It is also a hopeful book, and readers who like Colleen Hoover's emotional intensity tend to find the ending earned.
Which Colleen Hoover book is most like Reminders of Him?+
It Ends with Us shares the same seriousness and focuses on hard choices, while November 9 is closer if you want a love story marked by an old wound. Both have the emotional directness of Reminders of Him.
What should I read if I want the guilt and forgiveness without so much romance?+
The Language of Flowers follows a young woman shaped by her past who has to face a hard decision about motherhood, and Little Fires Everywhere looks squarely at who gets to raise a child. Both are less focused on romance.
What are good small-town second-chance romances like this one?+
Things We Never Got Over is the closest for its small-town setting and a child at the centre of the story, though it is funnier. Every Summer After looks at old mistakes and the people we hurt, in a gentler, more nostalgic tone.
More books by Colleen Hoover
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