Reminders of Him

A Romance Built on an Impossible Situation

Reminders of Him begins where most love stories would never dare to start: with a woman leaving prison. Kenna Rowan served five years for a drunk-driving accident that killed her boyfriend, Scotty. Now she wants to reconnect with the daughter she has never truly known — Diem, who is being raised by Scotty’s parents, who blame Kenna entirely for their son’s death.

This premise gives the novel an unusual moral texture. Unlike Hoover’s lighter work, there are no clear heroes here. Scotty’s parents are protective and loving — and their hostility toward Kenna is entirely understandable. Kenna is sympathetic and genuinely remorseful — and she is also responsible for an irreversible act. Bar owner Ledger Ward, who was Scotty’s best friend and now cares deeply for Diem, becomes Kenna’s unexpected confidant and romantic interest, but only after a slow and credible evolution.

The Romance as Secondary Architecture

What distinguishes Reminders of Him from Hoover’s typical work is the way the romance serves the larger story rather than dominating it. Kenna and Ledger’s relationship develops alongside Kenna’s efforts to be seen — not forgiven, not welcomed back, just acknowledged — by Diem’s grandparents. That parallel structure gives the novel emotional weight that a straightforward love story couldn’t carry.

Hoover makes the wise decision not to rush Ledger’s feelings. He begins in open hostility toward Kenna, shifts through reluctant sympathy, and arrives at something genuine. The transition requires some goodwill from readers, but Hoover earns it through consistent characterization.

Grief as Landscape

The novel’s most effective passages are the letters Kenna writes to Scotty throughout — a device that could feel gimmicky but instead becomes the emotional spine of the book. Through them, readers understand who she was before the accident, who she is trying to become, and how thoroughly grief has shaped everyone in the novel’s orbit.

The small moments with Diem are quietly devastating: a child who doesn’t know she is meeting her mother, and a mother who must pretend she is nobody in particular.

The Goodreads Recognition

Reminders of Him won the Goodreads Choice Award for Romance in 2022, the year it was published — a recognition that reflected both the strength of the novel itself and the extraordinary enthusiasm of Hoover’s readership during what became her breakthrough year with the wider public. The award came as It Ends with Us was simultaneously dominating bestseller lists, giving Hoover an unusual double presence at the top of the romance conversation.

The timing of the novel’s arrival — January 2022, just as BookTok was accelerating Hoover’s back catalog into cultural phenomenon territory — meant that Reminders of Him was read by many as an introduction to her work as well as a continuation. For those readers, its moral complexity and emotional honesty represented a more demanding version of the author than the lighter romances suggested. The positive response confirmed that Hoover’s audience had grown beyond the readers looking for comfort into something larger and more varied.

Kenna’s Voice

The novel’s most demanding technical achievement is sustaining reader sympathy for Kenna across a premise that could easily position her as simply culpable. Hoover manages this through the letters Kenna writes to Scotty throughout the narrative — a device that externalizes her interiority without requiring the reader to accept her self-assessment at face value. We see Kenna as she understands herself; we also see how others see her; and the gap between those versions is where the novel’s emotional complexity lives.

The letters have a specific confessional quality that is different from the novel’s third-person present-day sections. Kenna in the letters is more vulnerable, more willing to name what she is responsible for, and more capable of genuine reflection than Kenna navigating the hostile social environment of the town where she killed someone’s son. This internal split — the person she is capable of being versus the person she has to be in public — is the emotional core of the novel.

The Romance as Structural Choice

Ledger Ward functions as both love interest and moral checkpoint. He knew Scotty, cares for Diem, and has every reason to despise Kenna — which means his slow movement toward her carries the weight of considered judgment rather than simple attraction. When he finally chooses to see Kenna as she is rather than as what she represents to the people who blame her, the gesture means something because it has cost him something.

Hoover is careful not to let the romance resolve the larger moral question. Kenna and Ledger’s relationship developing does not constitute forgiveness from Scotty’s family, and the novel does not pretend that love is sufficient to heal what was broken. The restraint is what gives the resolution its earned quality.

Diem at the Center

The scenes involving Diem — the child who is simultaneously Kenna’s primary motivation and the one person she cannot approach honestly — are the novel’s quietest and most effective sequences. Diem does not know she is meeting her mother; she knows only that a woman keeps appearing near her, watching with an intensity that must seem strange. Hoover gives Kenna the discipline to hold back in these moments, which is harder and more honest than a tearful reunion would be. The love is present in the restraint itself.

Final Verdict

Reminders of Him is among Hoover’s most accomplished novels — not because it is flawless, but because it takes genuine emotional risks with a premise that could have devolved into sentimentality. The result is a love story haunted by loss, which is, in the end, the most honest kind.

Our rating: 4.2/5 — A gutting, morally complex romance that elevates Hoover’s signature emotional intensity with real stakes and no easy answers.

Reading Guides

• Colleen Hoover Books in Order: Complete Reading Guide and Where to Start (2026)