Do you need to read Colleen Hoover’s books in order?

Colleen Hoover’s book series have taken off on TikTok lately. Her stardom has skyrocketed, especially after the news last week regarding the big-screen adaptation of her most famous book, It Ends With Us. If you haven’t heard, the film has found its leading lady in Blake Lively. 

Hoover has managed to bring out at least two books most years, and some years she’s even released three. That almost puts her on the same level as Stephen King when it comes to productivity. She has established herself as one of the most prolific writers in the romance genre. With an already huge catalog of works, the author has come a long way since she released her first self-published title in 2012. If you’re just discovering her books, where you should start reading?

The romance author has released a total of 24 books since she began her career. Some of these are standalone stories that don’t connect to anything else. However, she also has four different series that tell a chronological story. Firstly, there’s the Slammed series, consisting of three books, then there’s Hopeless, followed by Maybe and It Ends With Us. 

You’d probably want to read the books in these series in chronological order if you want the story to make sense, and it can get a little confusing as some of Colleen’s book series have been released around the same time. You don’t need to read the books in the order Colleen released them as she sometimes jumps between series. For example, the first book in the Hopeless series released after the second book in the Slammed series but before the third, so the order can be a bit confusing.

The books within each series do have an intended reading order, so you’ll have to pay attention to which books belong to which series, or else you’ll end up wondering why there’s a bunch of new characters and no mention of the events of the last story. If you want to start with It Ends With Us in preparation for the movie adaptation, you’d have to start with It Ends With Us (2016) and then read It Starts With Us (2022). Confusing, we know.