Colleen Hoover. Taylor Hill/FilmMagic
Colleen Hoover went from BookTok’s “It Girl” to Hollywood’s hottest get.
The author is known for her emotional novels, but the books are making even more headway now that there are film adaptations in the works. Hoover’s most famous novel , perhaps, is It Ends With Us, which was originally published in 2016. Due to its popularity on BookTok, it became the top-selling print book of 2022 — which seemed to get the ball rolling on the film adaptation.
Justin Baldoni optioned book’s rights in 2019, and Hoover made the first official casting announcement in January 2023, revealing that Blake Lively would star as Lily Bloom.
Hoover has faced some backlash over the film’s casting — and Lily’s outfits — due to the age difference between the film and book characters. The author has addressed this, explaining that the changes were made after some careful consideration.
“Back when I wrote It Ends With Us, the new adult [genre] was very popular. You were writing college-age characters. That’s what I was contracted to do. I made Lily very young. I didn’t now that neurosurgeons went to school for 50 years. There’s not a 20-something neurosurgeon,” she told Today in June 2023. “As I started making this movie, I’m like, we need to age them out, because I messed up. So that’s my fault.”
Keep scrolling to see which of Hoover’s novels are getting the Hollywood treatment:
‘It Ends With Us’
The book follows the story of Lily Bloom, who falls in love with neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid after a chance meeting but quickly realized she knows nothing about him. When a past love, Atlas, makes a surprise return in her life, Lily might just be in over her head.
Lively is set to star as Lily while the film’s director Baldoni will play Ryle. Brandon Sklenar will round out the cast as Atlas.
The movie has a projected release date of August 9, 2024.
‘Verity’
A departure from Hoover’s romance novels, Verity kept readers on the edge of their seat with a mystery novel full of jump scares. Writer Lowen Ashleigh receives the offer of a lifetime when famous author Verity Crawford’s husband, Jeremy Crawford, recruits her to fulfill his incapacitated wife’s famous book series. Following a mysterious accident, Verity is in what appears to be a catatonic state. (Not to spoil, but there is one chilling moment that involves Verity and Jeremy’s son, plus a wave to an upstairs window.)
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In May 2024, Hoover announced that Verity was set to be adapted by Amazon MGM Studios.
Colleen Hoover. Courtesy of Colleen Hoover/Instagram
‘Confess’
Hoover’s Confess followed the story of Auburn, a young woman with a mysterious past who does everything not to fall in love after meeting brooding artist Owen.
Go90 adapted the novel as a TV series, which premiered in April 2017, starring Katie Leclerc and Ryan Cooper as Auburn and Owen, respectively. The show is streaming on Prime Video.