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Are you concerned about a teen wanting to read New York Times bestselling author Colleen Hoover’s romance novels?

This list shares all the Colleen Hoover books by age rating so you know which romance books are appropriate for teens. You’ll feel fully informed on what you need to know about this BookTok sensation. Let’s get literary!

collection of colleen hoover books on bookshelf.

What Adults Need to Know

Colleen Hoover the author is known for writing contemporary romance novels that have become a sensation on Instagram, TikTok, and other social media. As such, a Colleen Hoover book may seem like enticing fiction for teens to read. However, her books are NOT for all ages.

In fact, NO Colleen Hoover books are recommended for anyone under age 14.

I spoke about how the popularity of these books converges with appropriate age ratings to Parents:

“Part of what made [Hoover] so popular is her ability to draw on extremely emotional life events to make her plot, incredibly gripping for the reader. But, this often means drawing on what makes life hard, and ugly: from domestic abuse to imprisonment, death of a child, and even very psychologically, disturbing characters and events.”

Hoover’s books are also often “spicy” and “steamy” — two words used to describe graphic sexual content in a book.

Colleen Hoover Books: Age Rating For Each Book

A few are recommended as appropriate for Young Adults aged 14 and over. Most are “new adult” books recommended for Mature Adults aged 17 and over. Lastly, a few are so dark and/or explicit that it’s best that only persons aged 21 and over read them.

infographic of colleen hoover age ratings for all books.

Young Adult: Ages 14+

Colleen Hoover’s Young Adult books generally follow high school-age characters and are not “spicy” — meaning they have less (or no) sexual romance content. There are some difficult issues thematically in these books, like grief and infidelity, but they aren’t too heavy overall.

  1. Slammed (Slammed Series Book 1 of 3) (2012)
  2. Point of Retreat (Slammed Series Book 2 of 3) (2012)
  3. This Girl (Slammed Series Book 3 of 3) (2013)
  4. Regretting You (2019)
  5. Heart Bones (2020)
  6. Never Never (Part 1 of 3) (2015) (co-authored)
  7. Never Never (Part 2 of 3) (2015) (co-authored)
  8. Never Never (Part 3 of 3) (2016) (co-authored)

Mature Adult: Ages 17+

Colleen Hoover’s “New Adult” books become spicier in terms of graphic, “open door” sexual romance content, and the characters’ life experiences become darker and heavier, including domestic violence, imprisonment, tragedy, infertility, and more.

  1. Hopeless (Hopeless Series Book 1 of 4) (2012)
  2. This Girl (Slammed Series Book 3 of 3) (2013)
  3. Losing Hope (Hopeless Series Book 2 of 4) (2013)
  4. Finding Cinderella (Hopeless Series Book 3 of 4) (2013)
  5. Maybe Someday (Maybe Someday Series Book 1 of 3) (2014)
  6. Ugly Love (2014)
  7. Maybe Not (Maybe Someday Series Book 2 of 3) (2014)
  8. Confess (2015)
  9. November 9 (2015)
  10. It Ends With Us (2016)
  11. Without Merit (2017)
  12. All Your Perfects (2018)
  13. Maybe Now (Maybe Someday Series Book 3 of 3) (2018)
  14. Finding Perfect (Hopeless Series Book 4 of 4) (2019)
  15. Layla (2020)
  16. Reminders Of Him (2022)
  17. It Starts With Us (2022)

Related Posts: Most Spicy Colleen Hoover Books Ranked | Trigger Warnings for It Ends With Us | Trigger Warnings for Ugly Love | Trigger Warnings for Layla


Very Mature Adult: Ages 21+

Colleen Hoover’s “Very Mature Adult” books are extremely explicit sexually, and they contain very dark and disturbing content, including sexual assault, drug use, murder, and more.

  1. Too Late (2016)
  2. Verity (2018)

Related Post: Trigger Warnings for Verity

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a 14 year old read It Ends With Us?

No. It Ends With Us is only appropriate for Mature Adults ages 17 and older. It contains adult themes, including domestic violence, and explicit sexual content.

Can a 12 year old read Verity?

No. Verity is recommended only for very Mature Adults ages 21 and over. The book contains very dark and disturbing content, as well as very explicit sexual content.

What age is Too Late Colleen Hoover appropriate for?

Too Late is appropriate for very Mature Adults ages 21 and over. The book contains very dark and very explicit sexual content.

What age is appropriate for Verity by Colleen Hoover?

Verity is recommended only for very Mature Adults ages 21 and over. The book contains very dark and disturbing content, as well as very explicit sexual content.

Is Maybe Someday appropriate for 13 year olds?

No. The age rating for Maybe Someday is Mature Adults ages 17 and over based on some adult issues and spicy romance scenes.

Conclusion

This list of Colleen Hoover books by age rating informed you as to what age teen can read which books. As a reminder, none of Colleen Hoover’s books are recommended to teens under age 14. Additionally, no teens should read Too Late or Verity, which are only recommended for ages 21 and older.

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10 Comments

  1. I agree with most of these. As someone who read layla, november 9, it ends with us, it starts with us, reminders of him, hopeless, losing hope, and a couple others at the age of 13, with these being the first books with any mature themes, they have literally scarred me. I thought I was fine at the time, but, writing this a couple years later, I feel that I was not ready for it then, nor am I ready for it now; they took away my innocence a lot. I was kind of in a reading slump and these were the books I was recommended by YouTube/found at my library. This also happened with “before i fall” (which i read at the age of 10 and discovered what sex and suicide were – how fun). To all the teens out there, sometimes you should actually listen to age ratings 🙂

  2. You said young adult is 14+ but that is so not true and I really think you need to change that information because a young adult is aged 18-22. A 14 year old is literally barely a teenager so how can you classify them as a young adult. They probably haven’t even started puberty that much.

    1. The characterization here is based on the book publishing industry’s and the Young Adult Library Services Association’s (a division of the American Library Association) classification that Young Adult books are for persons aged 12 to 18 years.