I used to be a huge fan of Colleen Hoover back in my book blogging days. Ugly Love still remains a favorite of mine and I re-listen to the audiobook at least once a year. Maybe Someday, and Slammed are other favorites of mine by her and as much as I never want to read Hopeless again in my life, it was a really good book. I started liking her books less and less and to this day, November 9 is still one of my least favorite books ever! The problem for me is, once you’ve read one Colleen Hoover, you’ve pretty much read them all. The formula is the same, the characters are the same and there always has to be this way over the top shocking twist that makes me wanna roll my eyes so far back they may get stuck that way.
I had just finished an audiobook and was looking for a new book to read and this one kept coming up on my recommended list. Part of me hoped that her books weren’t as pretentious and I remembered, but they were. The story is told from two points of view, Morgan who got pregnant at 18 (or somewhere close to that age) and went on to marry her boyfriend and baby daddy, and her 16 year old daughter Clara. Morgan’s life has become predictable and boring but she is happy. All that changes when her husband dies in a car crash along with her sister and Morgan discovers that the two had been having an affair. She has to find a way to mourn and keep it together for her daughter, while trying to process her hurt and anger at both of them AND her growing feelings for her husbands best friend, who is also her dead sisters baby daddy. The whole, falling for my dead husbands best friend is not one of my favorite tropes.
To top is all off, we also get Clara, the 16 year old daughters story as we follow her dealing with her dad and aunts death, an aunt she was incredibly close to, all the while falling in love for the first time. Oh my goodness was this kid an annoying brat! I get that she’s hurt and mourning two close people in her life but instead of being there for her mom, she did everything she could to make things harder for her. Not only does she skip her dad’s funeral to get high with her new boyfriend, but she also ‘punishes’ her mom when she catches her mom and her aunts baby daddy kissing by pretty much guilting her boyfriends into sleeping with her (and taking her virginity). At this point, I didn’t even care that Clara was in pain and thought she was just being a brat.
I wasn’t a fan of having both of their stories being told and would have preferred if this would have been Morgan’s story. I didn’t like how she treated her old friend, who I cant for the life of me remember his name, and didn’t buy how she went from being kind of bitchy to him to all of a sudden realizing that she’s been in love with him all these years. I really didn’t give a shit about Clara’s love story and was annoyed every time the story went back to her. The guy she was falling for was so lame and boring. Clara kept having to remind us his name was Miller Adams every time she brought him up and how much he loved suckers. Who calls lollipops suckers??? Her wanting to be an actress was so typical for a Colleen Hoover character, yet other than the play they did at the end, she never did anything to show her passion was acting other than cry about it how her mom didn't support her dream. Speaking of the play at the end, basing an entire play on an inside joke between her and Miller Adams was so stupid and cringey.
The only thing I was remotely interested in was Chris and Jenny’s affair. How long had it been going on? Why didn’t they just get together instead of hurting all the people they supposedly love? When Morgan found all these letters between Chris and Jenny, instead of reading them to find out what was happening between them (which was driving her crazy) she took the cowards way out and destroyed the letters.
As always with a Colleen Hoover book, it doesn’t matter that I hated this book because everyone else seems to love it. As for me, I learned my lesson and have finally given up on her books for good. Instead, I will be happy to re-read my old favorites.
