Reminders of Him

By Colleen Hoover | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (5 out of 5 stars)

Love. Sadness. Happiness. Tears. And more and more tears. That is how I can describe this book. I put reading it on hold because I was too eager and I want to subside the feeling of being too excited so I can absorb what happens in the book well. And I did.

Someone told me (I have forgotten who because I’d probably didn’t care that much) that “I’m not that much the CoHo (Colleen Hoover)-reader type.” I was like, “okay” but I think my face gave it away. I truly can understand and comprehend, that we all have different preferences, but as much as I thought that I am not the CoHo-reader type too, I simply am not. I am that type and I am so comfortable saying it and slaying it that I am that type of reader because life is as stressful as it is now and we need a breath of fresh air at some point and that is what CoHo creations give me.

As you may also know, I am doing my post-graduate studies and the materials I read are, I don’t know how do I describe it, but for the lack of a better term, intense. Just like what CoHo said in the epilogue of Reminders of Him, reading is a hobby but to some, it is an escape. Indeed, it is for me. It lets me into another character’s life, it opens my mind to various insights of people even on the things I don’t believe or understand and it was nice to have that comprehension–that understanding, that discipline–to not judge somebody just because you think otherwise.

Reminders of Him pained me because I am a mother and I can very well comprehend and empathize with Kenna. She has been through a lot. I can also understand how it felt to have the same kind of relationship as her with her mother. And, indeed, it is a difficult world out there. To be unsure how we can not be awkward with anybody and to actually say the right things at the right time.

I want to learn how to talk to people without wishing I could retract every word I said. I want to be good at feeling things when a guy touches my waist. I want to be good at life. I want to make it look effortless, but up until this point, I’ve made every aspect of life appear entirely too difficult to navigate.

Kenna

Scotty may have not lived long for Kenna, but I think their relationship prepared her for Ledger. It was more mature, more secure, and it went through a lot more that was able to test their honesty with one another and how much they can rely upon each other when the going gets tough–even when the world was against them.

Happiness isn’t some permanent thing we’re all trying to achieve in life, it’s merely a thing that shows up every now and then, sometimes in tiny dose that are just substantial enough to keep us going.

Whoever was the first person to say they fell in love must have already fallen out of it. Otherwise, they’d have called it someting much better.

So, you decide right now, right here. Are you gonna live in your sadness or are you gonna die in it?

Ivy

Sadness is part of our lives as much as happiness, I guess. We fall into it a thousand times in our lives but perhaps we remember it more because it stings more. When we are happy, we may tend to forget a lot of things; the same thing when we are sad, we forget how tiny bits can make up for the big pieces and we forget how to be grateful because we think that the world owes us and it is not giving us what we want. But somehow, what we want is not exactly what we need.

Some things can be forgiven, but sometimes an action is so painful the memory of it can still crush a person ten years down the road.

I have taken note of quotes from the book that I can relate to or so beautiful that I don’t want to forget them. You may check it on my Goodreads profile.

I had a lot of tears while reading and finishing this book, same goes with Ugly Love, but a little more intense. And for those who have loved and lost (even not romantic ones), may we all be reminded that:

Maybe it doesn’t matter whether something is a coicidence or a sign. Maybe the best way to cope with the loss of the people we love is to find them in as many places and things as we possibly can. And in the off chance that the people we lose are still somehow able to hear us, maybe we should never stop talking to them.

Ledger