Inspired by the film adaptation of It ends with usColleen Hoover has taken the top three spots in the official UK top 50 – the first time an author has achieved this feat in almost a decade. Hoover’s triumph means that her main UK publisher, Simon & Schuster, has taken the top three spots in a weekly bestseller list for the first time since accurate records began.
Hoover’s original paperback of It ends with us grabbed the top spot, selling nearly 25,000 copies across Nielsen BookScan’s Total Consumer Market. The book had previously topped the charts for two weeks straight at the height of the BookTok-fueled “CoHo” craze in August 2022. It starts with us rose from fourth to second place on the week, selling 15,143 copies. The companion issue, It Ends with Us – featuring Blake Lively on the cover – sold 14,130 copies, retaining third place. Meanwhile, two other Hoover titles, Truth (ball) and Ugly Love (S&S) returned to the top 50 with positions 44 and 47 respectively.
The last author – or rather authors – to take the top three spots were Jason Hazeley and Joel Morris during Christmas week 2015 with a trio of their adult Ladybird parodies. How it works: The husband (Michael Joseph) was at the top with just over 57,000 copies sold.
While Hoover took the lead role, it was another outstanding week in an outstanding summer for Freida McFadden. Never lie Return and The perfect son (both Poisoned Pen) made its debut, the American thriller author had an impressive seven titles in the top 50 last week, led again by her breakthrough hit, The maid (Little, Brown) in sixth place. Since the beginning of June, McFadden has sold nearly 325,000 copies through TCM; the only novelist to surpass her is Hoover (329,000 copies).
There was a big change in the original fiction section, with the top five titles entering these charts in their launch week, the entire quintet in the science fiction and fantasy section – three of which were featured in the August promotions from subscription box services Fairyloot and Illumicrate. Fairyloot’s August picks for adults, Sarah Rees Brennan’s Long live evil (Orbit) took first place in OF with sales of nearly 9,000 units.
The top spots for adult non-fiction remained pretty much unchanged in the summer, with the hardcover charts being topped by Kay and Kate Allinson’s Prise Nom Air Fryer (Bluebird) and paperbacks from Rory Stewart’s Politics on the brink (Vintage). While the Pinch of Nommers recorded their eighth non-consecutive HBNF summit last week, Stewart’s quest for an eleventh pole position on the paperback list was halted by Dominic “Yungblud” Harrison, the Doncaster-born singer-songwriter and provocateur for people who think Imagine Dragons are a bit too edgy. Yungblud’s You must exist (Ebury) – a pretty clever mashup of a scrapbook for fans and Keri Smith’s evergreen Destroy this diary (Penguin) – sold nearly 6,500 copies in its launch week.
Lauren Roberts’ Reckless (S&S Children’s) scored its third children’s book success of the summer, selling just over 4,000 copies. The top newcomer was the latest Ladbaby picture book by Mark and Roxanne Hoyle and illustrator Gareth Conway. The funniest unicorn in the world With sales of 3,067 units, it took pole position in the preschool products for children segment.
Overall, it was another solid week at the box office for UK booksellers, with TCM taking in £30.6 million, up 5.4% on the previous seven days and a slight increase (0.8%) on the same period in 2023.
