November 9
Colleen Hoover, 2015
A scarred former teen actress and a stranger who poses as her boyfriend make a pact to meet every year on the same date. A tender, aching romance that moves between yearly reunions, carrying longing, grief and family strain in a direct, emotional voice.
Feels like longing, grief and hope. About identity, family and ambition.
Who it’s for
You may like it if you enjoy contemporary romance built around a long-running pact and characters shaped by grief and ambition. The story leans into heavy family blame and a scarred heroine's lost career, so it may not suit you if you want a light, low-stakes romance.
Why read it
It gives you a romance about timing and reinvention, with two people whose yearly meetings keep hope and grief close to the surface.
A page from the book
A daughter hears what her father is really mourning.
I was one of the fastest up-and-coming teen actresses just two years ago, and the moment the fire burned away my looks, the studio pulled my contract. I think he mourns the idea that he’s not the father of an actress more than he mourns almost losing his daughter to a fire that was caused by his carelessness. Colleen Hoover.Hoover’s fans call themselves “CoHorts”; a BookTok resurgence made her backlist bestsellers years after publication.
Books that feel like this
More by Colleen Hoover
Ugly Love
Colleen Hoover, 2014
A nurse restarting her life falls for a man who offers only sex and no past—and discovers how much pain can hide behind a closed door.
Maybe Someday
Colleen Hoover, 2014
A music student who hides her own songwriting listens every night to the guitarist across the courtyard — until he catches her watching.
Confess
Colleen Hoover, 2015
A broke newcomer takes a last-minute job at a Dallas artist's studio, where anonymous confessions painted on canvas make strangers feel less alone.
Where to get it
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Questions readers ask
- Is November 9 for me?
- You may like it if you enjoy contemporary romance built around a long-running pact and characters shaped by grief and ambition. The story leans into heavy family blame and a scarred heroine's lost career, so it may not suit you if you want a light, low-stakes romance.
- What is November 9 like?
- A tender, aching romance that moves between yearly reunions, carrying longing, grief and family strain in a direct, emotional voice. Feels like longing, grief and hope. About identity, family and ambition.
- What should I read after November 9?
- If you liked November 9, try All the Bright Places (Jennifer Niven), I'll Give You the Sun (Jandy Nelson) and The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough).
A taste of the feed
What a family argues about when it can't talk about death.
She’s shivering or shaking, I can’t tell which, and so I slowly inch my way toward her, hoping I don’t fall off before I get there, because the last thing I want to do is make a jackass out of myself in front of this girl. “I’ve made it clear I want cremation, but my mom doesn’t believe in it.” And my dad will do whatever she says so he won’t upset her any more than he already has, and besides, You’re far too young to think about this, you know your Grandma Finch lived to be ninety-eight, we don’t need to talk about that now, Theodore, don’t upset your mother.
All the Bright Places · Jennifer Niven
Maybe a life is not one self but a crowd you keep adding to.
Or maybe a person is just made up of a lot of people,” I say. “Maybe we’re accumulating these new selves all the time.” Hauling them in as we make choices, good and bad, as we screw up, step up, lose our minds, find our minds, fall apart, fall in love, as we grieve, grow, retreat from the world, dive into the world, as we make things, as we break things.
I'll Give You the Sun · Jandy Nelson
Do we ever really change, or merely become ourselves?
Each of us has something within us which won’t be denied, even if it makes us scream aloud to die. We are what we are, that’s all. Like the old Celtic legend of the bird with the thorn in its breast, singing its heart out and dying. Because it has to, its self-knowledge can’t affect or change the outcome, can it? Everyone singing his own little song, convinced it’s the most wonderful song the world has ever heard. Don’t you see? We create our own thorns, and never stop to count the cost. All we can do is suffer the pain, and tell ourselves it was well worth it.
The Thorn Birds · Colleen McCullough
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