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A review by thanmayi
Reminders of Him by Colleen Hoover
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Reminders of him follows Kenna, a 26 year fresh out of prison mom who wants to meet her daughter again but her dead boyfriend's parents have custody and are willing to go to any lengths to stop her from doing that.
This felt like the straightest book I've ever read and let me give you an example as to why.
"He's got eyes that have seen a thing or two, and hands that have probably hit a man or two." I- there's so much more like this in the first few chapters of this book.
THE CHARACTERS
Kenna
I didn't necessarily like Kenna but I empathized with her. She's strong and is willing to do anything to meet her daughter in any way possible. Her resilience through her grief was admirable and I felt bad for the way her childhood played out but her character feels like a shell of a person. She's got 3 personality traits throughout this book and that's 1) crying about Scotty 2) crying about Diem 3) Kissing/ sleeping with Ledger.
Ledger
Listen I listened to the audio and I do not know why for the life of me I cannot remove the picture of Luke from Gilmore Girls as Ledger (Even though Ledger is clearly younger and is filled with tats) but we're still going to roll with that anyways. He as a character had a much stronger personality than Kenna and I liked the man throughout the book. He's in this undoubtedly difficult position and the dual POV gave great insight into the way things worked in his head.
My only issue with him was how quickly he forgives Kenna, sure she didn't have malicious intent and accidentally killed his best friend, but somehow when she reads out the letter where she says SHE KNEW that she was in no position to drive before she gets into the driver seat and still drives...THAT JUST MAKES HIM 100% SYMPATHIZE WITH HER!? I'm not saying that he should have hated her but dear god it would make a lot more sense than him falling in love with her.
Scotty
I don't really have much to say about Scotty, he comes off as a good son and boyfriend and overall a perfect person and it was cool seeing him through the eyes of the many people who loved him.
Diem
Listen throughout the audiobook...I thought Diem was spelled "DM" and thought it was a short form for something...unfortunate name aside, she's a little ball of sunshine and was adorable.
Roman
As much as I love Ledger and Scotty, I totally fell for Roman. He's this slightly grumpy, totally adorable ex-football player who is Roman's best friend. I really wish we could see more of him in this book but I really liked his character.
The Landers
I feel bad for everyone in this book, but especially the Landers, they lose their only son due to a bad decision made by his girlfriend which ended up killing their son. If I had to pick a side I'd pick theirs a hundred times over.
ROMANCE
This sorta has the insta love trope but it's more well done so I appreciate it, but apart from that, I can almost bet on the fact that Kenna and Ledger's relationship falls apart sometime after the end of the book. Throughout this book, it's very clear that Kenna only falls for this man because he's the only one who doesn't hate her. She's attracted to him, yeah, but they fall for each other because of how they were both connected to Scotty and Diem and it barely has anything to do with each other.
CONCLUSION
Listen it's hard to sympathize with Kenna for the most part because SHE KNEW that she wasn't sober enough to drive but she did anyway, CoHo tries to make us sympathize with her by trying to show us the entire letter about the accident but really that was the point where I really started to dislike Kenna. Does this mean I want her to stay away from her daughter? No, but I also think that she shouldn't have tried to re-enter her life and expect that the victim's family welcome her with open arms and give her a role in her daughter's life.
It kind of pissed me off how fast Grace and Patrick forgive her a few hours after reading the letter after hating her for YEARS. This just oversimplified their grief and the whole thing just felt unbelievable.
I love HEA but I would've much preferred if the book ended with Kenna moving away and a time jump to a much older Diem deciding she wanted to have a relationship with her mother and Ledger and Kenna reconnecting then. I didn't like the fact that Grace and Patrick or even Kenna felt entitled to their biological connection to Diem, I mean COME ONE imagine a random woman coming up to you after not being in your whole life for 5 years and saying that she's your mother. THAT SH*TS TRAUMATIZING and yet they act like it's nothing.
I hated how diversity was used as something to give someone character points, the fact that Ledger hired POC made him look "good". I'm sick of seeing cis, white men get appreciated for doing THE BARE MINIMUM in books.
I've read through a bunch of the reviews both 1 star and 5 stars and I think I fall right in the middle for this one.
This felt like the straightest book I've ever read and let me give you an example as to why.
"He's got eyes that have seen a thing or two, and hands that have probably hit a man or two." I- there's so much more like this in the first few chapters of this book.
THE CHARACTERS
Kenna
I didn't necessarily like Kenna but I empathized with her. She's strong and is willing to do anything to meet her daughter in any way possible. Her resilience through her grief was admirable and I felt bad for the way her childhood played out but her character feels like a shell of a person. She's got 3 personality traits throughout this book and that's 1) crying about Scotty 2) crying about Diem 3) Kissing/ sleeping with Ledger.
Ledger
Listen I listened to the audio and I do not know why for the life of me I cannot remove the picture of Luke from Gilmore Girls as Ledger (Even though Ledger is clearly younger and is filled with tats) but we're still going to roll with that anyways. He as a character had a much stronger personality than Kenna and I liked the man throughout the book. He's in this undoubtedly difficult position and the dual POV gave great insight into the way things worked in his head.
My only issue with him was how quickly he forgives Kenna, sure she didn't have malicious intent and accidentally killed his best friend, but somehow when she reads out the letter where she says SHE KNEW that she was in no position to drive before she gets into the driver seat and still drives...THAT JUST MAKES HIM 100% SYMPATHIZE WITH HER!? I'm not saying that he should have hated her but dear god it would make a lot more sense than him falling in love with her.
Scotty
I don't really have much to say about Scotty, he comes off as a good son and boyfriend and overall a perfect person and it was cool seeing him through the eyes of the many people who loved him.
Diem
Listen throughout the audiobook...I thought Diem was spelled "DM" and thought it was a short form for something...unfortunate name aside, she's a little ball of sunshine and was adorable.
Roman
As much as I love Ledger and Scotty, I totally fell for Roman. He's this slightly grumpy, totally adorable ex-football player who is Roman's best friend. I really wish we could see more of him in this book but I really liked his character.
The Landers
I feel bad for everyone in this book, but especially the Landers, they lose their only son due to a bad decision made by his girlfriend which ended up killing their son. If I had to pick a side I'd pick theirs a hundred times over.
ROMANCE
This sorta has the insta love trope but it's more well done so I appreciate it, but apart from that, I can almost bet on the fact that Kenna and Ledger's relationship falls apart sometime after the end of the book. Throughout this book, it's very clear that Kenna only falls for this man because he's the only one who doesn't hate her. She's attracted to him, yeah, but they fall for each other because of how they were both connected to Scotty and Diem and it barely has anything to do with each other.
CONCLUSION
Listen it's hard to sympathize with Kenna for the most part because SHE KNEW that she wasn't sober enough to drive but she did anyway, CoHo tries to make us sympathize with her by trying to show us the entire letter about the accident but really that was the point where I really started to dislike Kenna. Does this mean I want her to stay away from her daughter? No, but I also think that she shouldn't have tried to re-enter her life and expect that the victim's family welcome her with open arms and give her a role in her daughter's life.
It kind of pissed me off how fast Grace and Patrick forgive her a few hours after reading the letter after hating her for YEARS. This just oversimplified their grief and the whole thing just felt unbelievable.
I love HEA but I would've much preferred if the book ended with Kenna moving away and a time jump to a much older Diem deciding she wanted to have a relationship with her mother and Ledger and Kenna reconnecting then. I didn't like the fact that Grace and Patrick or even Kenna felt entitled to their biological connection to Diem, I mean COME ONE imagine a random woman coming up to you after not being in your whole life for 5 years and saying that she's your mother. THAT SH*TS TRAUMATIZING and yet they act like it's nothing.
I hated how diversity was used as something to give someone character points, the fact that Ledger hired POC made him look "good". I'm sick of seeing cis, white men get appreciated for doing THE BARE MINIMUM in books.
I've read through a bunch of the reviews both 1 star and 5 stars and I think I fall right in the middle for this one.