Few authors in recent years have divided readers quite like Colleen Hoover. The Texas-born writer has become one of the most successful names in contemporary fiction, dominating bestseller lists and TikTok feeds with her emotional, fast-paced novels. But her rise has been accompanied by growing criticism over how her books, and now her films, depict love, trauma and abuse — and how Hoover herself has admitted to regretting the ways she romanticized infidelity in earlier stories.
Hoover’s 2016 novel “It Ends With Us” became a viral sensation and cemented her reputation as a powerhouse in modern romance. The story, loosely based on her mother’s experience with domestic abuse, follows Lily Bloom, a young woman who falls in love with Ryle Kincaid, a charming neurosurgeon who later turns violent. The book was intended, Hoover has said, to show the difficulty of leaving abusive relationships.
Yet many readers and critics say the book blurs the line between depicting abuse and romanticizing it. They point to Ryle being written as a passionate, flawed hero rather than an unequivocal abuser, and to the tone of the book, which combines tropes of contemporary romance with scenes of violence.
The criticism reached its peak in 2024 when the movie adaptation of “It Ends With Us”starring Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, was finally released following a very troubled production period. Reports of behind-the-scenes tension between Lively and Baldoni, who also directed the movie, were fueling headlines. The lawsuits that followed, along with accusations of a hostile work environment, added to the project’s chaos.
When the film finally hit theaters, the controversy migrated to the screen itself. The marketing campaign for the movie drew criticism for selling a tale of domestic abuse as a lighthearted romance. Trailers featured upbeat music and flirtatious scenes between the leads, with little sense of the dark heart at the center of things.
“It Ends With Us” performed well at the box office, but the conversation around Hoover’s work changed. What once looked like a story of empowerment was being reconsidered as an example of how pop culture can soften or glamorize violence.
The backlash didn’t come out of nowhere: Hoover’s back catalog — which includes titles such as “Confess,” “November 9” and “Ugly Love” — has long depicted relationships including cheating, manipulation and emotional dependency. Her readers praise her for emotional honesty and nuanced depictions of messy human behavior, but critics say that she often frames obvious unhealthy behavior as romantic or excusable.
In 2022, Hoover finally addressed the criticism herself. During a fan Q&A session, Hoover apologized for romanticizing infidelity in some of her earlier books, such as “Confess” and “November 9,”, where the characters cheat or emotionally cross lines without clear consequences.
The comments received mixed reactions: some readers praised her self-awareness, while others said the acknowledgment came too late. Some of those books remain bestsellers and continue to shape readers’ ideas of romance.
Hoover’s approach to marketing has also been labeled as “odd” by some of her critics. In 2023, she announced plans for an “It Ends With Us” coloring book — an idea quickly scrapped after public outrage. The proposal struck many as tone-deaf, given the novel’s subject matter.
Hoover has said she never intended to glorify violence and that her goal is to spark empathy and awareness. In interviews, she has described writing “It Ends With Us” as therapeutic and a way to honor her mother’s experience by showing the complexity of abusive relationships. Still, she has admitted the story simplifies some aspects of real-world trauma and that her writing style has evolved with criticism.
The debate around Hoover’s work speaks to larger questions about responsibility in popular fiction. Romance novels have long walked a fine line between fantasy and realism. But when millions of readers — many of them young — consume stories where cheating, manipulation or aggression are reframed as passionate love, critics say the genre’s conventions become more than harmless escapism.
Yet, despite criticism, Hoover shows no sign of waning. Having sold more than 30 million books worldwide according to the Slate, she reigns supreme over the “BookTok community on Tiktok”, where fans dissect and defend her characters daily. The contradictions in her work — between sensitivity and sensationalism, empathy and exploitation — may be the very reason she captivates so many. Hoover’s stories invite readers to feel deeply, even when those feelings are uncomfortable or problematic. Whether her novels challenge or romanticize harmful behavior remains open to interpretation. For now, Hoover stands as one of publishing’s strangest figures: a writer whose success is undeniable, whose intentions are earnest and whose portrayals of love, cheating and violence continue to divide the cultural conversation.
