Benable — create shareable lists of things you recommend!
E.g., products you love, local businesses, travel recs - you can add anything to a Benable list!
The Three Stages of Colleen Hoover
10
items The film adaptation of Verity, starring Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson, is set to hit theaters on October 2, 2026. Naturally, we’re curious about which of Colleen Hoover’s novels, aside from Verity, are worth reading, and in what order.
This list t...
Sections
3
First Stage
Second Stage
Third Stage
First Stage
We begin with the most emotional ones.
The easiest and lightest of Colleen Hoover’s novels to read is Heart Bones. It's a relatively accessible coming-of-age romance about Beyah, a young woman forced to spend the summer with a father she barely knows. It combines romance, family problems,...
Heart Bones
Fallon and Ben agree to meet on the same date every year while living separate lives, creating a romance built around secrets, storytelling, and anticipation. It is emotionally complicated, but its narrative remains much closer to contemporary romanc...
November 9
A passionate relationship develops under a strict “no feelings, no future” arrangement, while the characters gradually reveal the wounds behind their behavior. The book becomes emotionally heavier as the past catches up with the present.
Ugly Love
Second Stage
Things getting ugly
Kenna returns to her hometown after five years in prison and tries to reconnect with her young daughter. It is a story about guilt, forgiveness, motherhood, and second chances, making it considerably more emotionally demanding than a straightforward ...
Reminders of Him
Lily's seemingly promising relationship with neurosurgeon Ryle gradually becomes entangled with painful experiences from her past and the return of her first love, Atlas. It begins like a romance but develops into a serious examination of abusive rel...
It Ends with Us
The sequel shifts more attention toward Lily and Atlas as they attempt to build a new relationship while dealing with the continuing presence of Lily's ex-husband, Ryle. It is generally more hopeful than It Ends with Us, but reading it effectively re...
It Starts with Us
Quinn and Graham's seemingly perfect marriage is devastated by a painful problem that threatens their future together. The novel focuses heavily on infertility, marriage, resentment, and the difference between falling in love and maintaining love ove...
All Your Perfects
Third Stage
These are the toughest ones
A romance takes a supernatural turn after a devastating incident leaves Layla physically and emotionally changed. The combination of romance, grief, paranormal elements, and questions about identity makes it stranger and psychologically heavier than ...
Layla
This is where the Hoover reading experience gets considerably darker. A young woman trapped in a dangerous relationship attempts to escape while navigating obsession, manipulation, violence, and survival. Hoover officially classifies it as Very Matur...
Too Late
The darkest stop on this particular reading journey. Struggling writer Lowen Ashleigh enters the home of bestselling author Verity Crawford and discovers a disturbing unfinished autobiography that forces her to question what really happened inside th...
Verity