Colleen Hoover – Shainne Hostalero

5 Kilig Books You Should Read This Month of June 2022

If you are looking for your next light read that can make your heart swell, here are my picks.

Some find my book genre of choice funny, amusing, weird, disappointing, and a mixture of all that. Taking a doctorate amidst mothering, full-time work, and running an enterprise, I’d like some breath of fresh air. With that said, reading Young Adult, Contemporary Romance, and kilig books that can be considered chill, easy-to-read, and got that kick of warmth is a must, if not a resort.

If you are looking for your next light read that can make your heart swell, here are my five picks, in no particular order:

1. The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

Who would’ve thought STEM is a good setup for lovebirds with all the sciences stuff? Dr. Adam Carlsen and Ms. Olive Smith will be your new favorite couple! As a bonus, Ali Hazelwood provided an Adam Carlsen POV as a bonus chapter. That chapter can be found on the author’s website.
There is a reason why this piece is a New York Times Bestseller.

I was kilig, happy, lonely, and ugly crying all at once in this book. I did not even want to put it down nor did I want it to be finished–it was good!

I put annotations on the pages that moved me a.ka. made me cry and I highlighted a few pieces that I want to remember in this book.

This book is the type that I can read over and over again and won’t get tired of.

2. Romancing Mr. Bridgerton by Julia Quinn

If you are a fan of the Bridgerton Series on Netflix, it was recently announced that after Anthony’s story, it will be Collin Bridgerton and Penelope Featherington’s story that will come next. In the book, Romancing Mister Bridgerton comes after An Offer from a Gentleman which is Benedict Bridgerton’s.

These two books are my favorites in the series, but I lean on An Offer from a Gentleman as my top 1 and Romancing Mister Bridgerton next. But, all the twists of Lady Whistledown are in it. Many of you might know that Penelope and Lady Whistledown are one and the same, but her works and how it all happened in a full circle will be revealed in this book.

It is a given that the complete Bridgerton book series will make us swoon, but Collin and Penelope’s story, I think, is the strongest, because of their good foundation–friendship.

3. The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang

This book reminded me of the movie Pretty Woman, there has been a kind of resemblance and I think Helen Hoang also took it as an inspiration in writing the book.

Stella Lane and Michael Larson could be in the opposite worlds, but someway somehow, their paths have crossed.

The Kiss Quotient was long sitting in my TBR list and in my Kindle library. I gave it a try without reading so much about it online and without knowing that it was one of Amazon’s Top 100 Books of 2018. It did not disappoint.

4. The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas

I used to read via my Kindle for the entire 2020 and 2021 and was amused by good physical books that have been released in the market, so I went for it. This book is part of my April 2022 which I read so many good reviews about. Though it was your typical fake dating thing, but it was kilig all the same.

Catalina Martin and Aaron Blackford can give that to you. Some paths of the book you’d see almost the same with The Love Hypothesis, but it is just as good.

5. Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover

This could be a little fascinating, but you’ve heard the story a thing or two once before. But, nonetheless, a read that you will find staying awake all night to just finish.

Colleen Hoover (CoHo) does that. I’ve read so many of her works and I couldn’t remember if I did NOT like any of them. Tate Collins and Miles Archer are in it for the long haul. It was a little tragic but heartwarming at the same time and CoHo will give you a happy ending.

So, if you are looking for something to think and cry about that has that kilig vibes, too. Ugly Love is a good read.

You might have a different experience in each book and we may not be, in particular, aligned in how we see the book, but these are just from my experience and personal preference. I hope to get your insights too, on how you saw each read if you have tried them. Happy reading!

Reminders of Him

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

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

Ugly Love

Love isn’t always pretty.

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

After I read Rebecca, I was determined to start a new read and choose something that will be lighter (in terms of how it was written) and a bit of fresh air. I checked my Kindle library which I was able to update last week and found Ugly Love which was also set in my Goodreads To-Be-Read account. Then, I did. Without further doubt, I did. I didn’t fail.

Less than a week, in the midst of the business, I finished the book, and yes, never without a tear in my eyes. I was in such awe of the tragic reason of Miles Archer as to why he doesn’t want to open himself yet again to love and how much Tate Collins can swallow for someone even though she knows she deserves better. I guess we all are like her at some point, sometimes.

Love isnt’ always pretty, Tate. Sometimes you spend all your time hoping it’ll eventually be something different. Something better. Then, before you know it, you’re back to square one, and you lost your heart somewhere along the way.
Cap

As we grow older perhaps and with every man and woman that pass through our lives –some may have even created a dent on it–we knew how terrifying it to start over again after every heartbreak. We focused on self-blame for the most part, maybe, but just like Miles, we also have to forgive ourselves and open up to all possibilities to see where life would take us.

Sometimes a man’s spirit just ain’t strong enough to withstand the ghosts from his past.

Tate is all of us. She’s willing to accept whatever it is a man can offer to her even if it is below the minimum. We all her at some point–hoping and wishing something may change, that if we love more and be okay with anything they could only give us, they would come around and give us what we deserve. Nope. It is not true. They will give it to us if they want to. We may be the most perfect, the most available, the ultimate deal, but those aren’t assurance that they will take us or not hurt us. A man will give it to you if he wants to even if you don’t do anything, even if you don’t say so.

There are just so many things I realized while reading and after finishing the book–that we are Miles and Tate at some point in our lives. But the thing that can defy our fears is acceptance–accepting things that we cannot change, things will never have, and times or people that are not for us, and we must always be accepting of whatever it is because that is the only way to move forward. We must also not be too hard on ourselves–that before we forgive other people, we must forgive ourselves first because it is hard to share or to give something that we, ourselves, do not have.

Verity

So be it.

by Colleen Hoover | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (5/5 stars)

The first question I had for myself after I finished the book is, “what the F*** did I just read?” It is so brilliant, creative, thrilling, and terrifying even!

I’ve read some books by Colleen Hoover–I started with It Ends With Us last year and I knew right then and there that she’s one of the best authors to watch for. Of course, there are tons of raves in Kindle Philippines Groups about books she has written and released and part of me also relied on those posts, so I’d be able to relate (somehow, I am not under any pressure of going to what’s trending or to relate, to be understood even), and to travel through words and story settings I craft in my head while I read the book word per word.

Colleen Hoover is so creative, I’m starting to get inspired by her as I also went back to writing after I stopped a few years ago. Definitely, I could say that she’s very good in her craft and really gives! Verity, for one, is one of those books that terrifies you to the core reading it in the middle of the night, making you so uneasy, tearful but you would not stop reading it–that if there additional four hours in a day, you will avail because you want to finish what you started.

In this book, like Lowen, I don’t know what was true anymore–that “fictional” manuscript that Verity wrote and eventually read by Jeremy even way before Lowen discovered it or that letter of Verity addressed to Jeremy stipulating that fact. I was mindblown. The story was so effective that I couldn’t let this day pass without writing about it here.

Verity by Colleen Hoover (I’m using Kindle Paperwhite, which I think 2nd Gen, but I’m not sure. It still works perfectly fine.)

I sympathize with the children–dead and alive–they did not deserve to be in the middle of it all and suffering the chronic setup their family has become.

I started reading Verity a few nights back, for the first five chapters I’m stalling because I’m terrified of what the book might be and I don’t what to check reviews yet in the fear that they will spoil the ending to me. I did try looking though because I frantically do not want to be caught off guard, but that wouldn’t be fair either.

I posted it on my Instagram Stories and a former colleague commented that the book was stressful, it will be so good, and I wouldn’t be able to put it down. It was true. She was right. I couldn’t. I was ready to spend all my Saturday nights finishing it and continued it today, on a Sunday in between checking and packing orders for Happy Shift.

IN HINDSIGHT: One of the best books I’ve read so far. It’s my 6th book for the year 2022 and I’m happy I was able to finish it before I start a new semester in my doctorate. I wish the best for Lowe and Jeremy and their family. I hope life takes them to a different turn, a turn that may be able to let them start a new joyously and fruitfully. I hope wherever Verity is now, she’s at peace. It hasn’t been easy for her no matter what the version of the truth we are talking about. She really needed to be at peace in her own right.

Nothing is harder in a relationship than not respecting the person you’re with.

The reason why Jeremy and Verity ended up the way they did was not because of the tragedies they came their way, but the loss of respect for one another.

I guess being here in her office for a few days will be one way to test my theory. The richer you are, the more creative you’re able to be.

I’d like to believe this theory is true. If you are not worrying about money or earning, your creativity blossoms because you aren’t confined to what was acceptable for others (for them to sell) or to simply worry about what other people might think (whether it is positive or negative).

I’m not interested in speaking about a woman who chose never to speak of me again.

I, too, isn’t interested.

If an attraction is present between two peole, those two people can only be one of two things. Involved or not involved. There is no in-between.

In or out. Yes, there is no in-between.

Too Late

“And that’s where love finds you…in the tragedies.”

Too Late by Colleen Hoover is something I didn’t expect. It is edgier than any other CoHo books I’ve read or at least researched about.

I never expected that I will be into this kind of genre because after reading Priest and Midnight Mass by Sierra Simone (as suggested by reviews in a book group I joined in), I tried to relax a bit and read Before The Coffee Gets Cold.

You see, most of the things I post here in this blog are the books I was able to read. It gives me an outlet to share and reading has been part of my routine (I can definitely make it through without internet connection as long as I have something to read).

Too Late is thrilling and breathtaking! You think you have predicted what happens but NO. The boom stressed me haha I couldn’t stop and I was deciding if I should pause or continue to the next page, to the next chapter.

The love triangle of Asa, Sloan, and Luke (Carter) was so intense. Reader discretion is advised because there are contents that are sensitive especially to a younger audience.

I won’t go into details of what the story will be, but there are quotes/excerpts from the book I’d like to share so you’d be interested to read it too.

General Patton’s theory: how sometimes it’s necessary to sacrifice the live of the few for the good of the many.

Love is not found. Love finds.

Love shouldn’t feel like added weight. It should make you feel as light as air.

Too Late is well written and brilliant! It’s terrifying and impressive at the same time.