Colleen Hoover, one of The New York Times best selling authors, has written 26 books and now two movie adaptations, with two more on the way in 2026. Hoover’s first movie adaptation was It Ends With Us, her 14th book release and it was a box office smash hit amid the drama and scandal it inspired. So in August 2024 when Colleen Hoover announced she was going to be the executive producer of the film adaptation of her novel Regretting You starring the rising stars Mckenna Grace and Mason Thames, a real life couple, her fans were shocked but thrilled. There was so much drama from the It Ends With Us press tour between the stars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, that fans thought it would stop or discourage Hoover from continuing with her movie adaptations. It didn’t; and Hoover did not disappoint with the upcoming lineup.
Regretting You has had a great reaction from fans in the box office during the last few weeks since it has been released, and many people have reported that this move has sparked their interest to read some of Hoover’s books. When authors announce they’re making a movie adaptation of one of their beloved books, their fans are always concerned about whether or not the movie will be as good as the book was, and that certainly wasn’t an issue with this movie. Her book fans were extremely impressed and loved the new movie and even said the casting was phenomenal and all the actors had great chemistry on screen. Seventy-three percent of CLHS students polled said the phenomenal casting was one of the reasons they were so motivated to watch this movie when it came out in theatres.
The Regretting You book has become a favorite among Hoover’s fan base since its release in December 2019. The novel is about a young mom, Morgan, who is trying to find herself after the death of her sister and husband due to a tragic car accident, and fighting through her own heartbreak and never ending feeling of guilt and loneliness, but also trying to raise her 17 year old daughter Clara through grief, and to repair their strained relationship. This book shows and exemplifies the deep and powerful connections grief can form and build among family and friends.
Some of my favorite novels are ones written by Colleen Hoover, so when the announcement came out that she was turning Regretting You into a movie, I knew I had to mark Regretting You off my ‘want to read’ list before I went into theatres to watch the movie. The novel definitely did not disappoint and I absolutely loved the book. The book raised my level of excitement to watch the movie. In my opinion, the movie was phenomenal and carried out all the best parts that the book fans loved, but one thing that disappointed me was some parts of the book seemed rushed and felt as if they were just trying to fit all the big milestones into the 2 hour movie. The novel is very detailed and expresses such emotion in the characters that you become attached to them, but I didn’t feel that same connection with the movie characters because the audience didn’t get as good of an inside look into their personal struggles and emotions. On the other hand, I think the movie did a good job of showing the relationship between the characters and how it evolved over the length of the movie. Also, the movie did a good job of including a lot of the same ideas and moments from the book that make it unique and loved by fans, which is one of the reasons Hoover’s book fans fell in love with her writing and movie adaptations.
