Reminders of Him

Author: Colleen Hoover
Genre: Contemporary Romance / Women’s Fiction
Published: 2022
Rating: ★★★★★

After finishing The Nightingale, I went looking for my next read.

I had already read a few Colleen Hoover books, including Verity and It Ends with Us, and enjoyed them, so I figured choosing another one of her books was a pretty safe bet.

Then I found Reminders of Him.

The description immediately caught my attention: a mother getting out of prison and trying to reunite with her daughter.

At the time, I was in my first year of motherhood. And that was enough for me. I couldn’t imagine being separated from my daughter, so I needed to know how this story was going to unfold.

I expected it to be a quick read. What I didn’t expect was to love it so much that I couldn’t put it down.

Reminders of Him follows Kenna Rowan as she tries to rebuild her life after serving time in prison. Her daughter is now around five years old, and Kenna wants more than anything to find a way back into her life.

Usually, when we hear that someone has gone to prison for something they’ve done, it can be easy to think:

“Well, there are consequences.“

“You have to pay the price.“

“That’s what happens when you make a terrible mistake.“

But with Kenna, I never felt that way. The more I learned about her story, the more my heart broke for her.

There is one scene in particular that I still remember—the moment she gives birth while in custody, knowing that she won’t get to take her baby home with her.

That wrecked me.

Maybe it was because I was such a new mom when I read it. Maybe it was hormones. Maybe it was simply the thought of having your child placed in your arms and knowing that you’re about to lose them. Whatever the reason, I cried.

And from that point on, I wanted Kenna to win.

When she gets out, nothing is waiting for her. No easy second chance. No comfortable fresh start.

She is trying to survive in a run-down apartment, working limited hours at a grocery store, and doing everything she can to create some kind of life for herself while hoping that someone will eventually listen to her.

That someone will see more than the worst thing she has ever done.

That someone will let her be a mother again.

I found myself rooting for her the entire way.

That’s what stayed with me most about this book.

Kenna isn’t asking the world to pretend the past never happened. She is living with the consequences of it every single day.

But Reminders of Him asks a harder question:

How long should someone’s worst moment define the rest of their life?

And when a child is involved, that question becomes even more painful.

I won’t tell you how the story unfolds because this is one of those books that works best when you experience it for yourself.

But I will tell you this: Grab tissues before you get to the end.

I don’t know whether this book hit me so hard because I was a new mother when I read it, or because Colleen Hoover managed to make me feel the agony of a mother desperate to know her child. Probably both.

All I know is that I wanted this momma to win and I never stopped hoping that she would.

Storykeeper’s Verdict: A Story Worth Keeping.

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