This contemporary romance, focusing on the relationship between 19-year-old Beyah and 20-year-old Samson, is one of two dozen titles by the East Texas romance author. Beyah comes from a background of abject poverty, which she escapes only when her mother dies, allowing her to move from rural Kentucky to her biological father’s beach house in South Texas. There, she meets her new neighbor, Samson, a tall, handsome youth who announces he will be leaving for the Air Force Academy in August. The poor girl and the rich boy at first seem to have nothing in common but secretive personalities and a desire to remain emotionally distant from one another. As their relationship develops through multiple stages of different kinds of intimacy, they must deal with the social and legal disparities created by their class differences. Like the fictional Beyah, Hoover lived as a child in a single-parent home in a trailer park. Her work regularly features flawed characters in various conflicted relationships, and these topics appear in Heart Bones as well.

Atria, a subsidiary of Simon & Schuster, published Colleen Hoover’s Heart Bones in 2023 after the novel was originally self-published by Hoover Ink in 2020. By the time of the book’s publication, Hoover had become the bestselling romance author in the US. This guide refers to the 2023 Atria paperback.

Other works by this author include It Ends with Us, Reminders of Him, Verity, and Ugly Love.

Content Warning: This guide refers to substance addiction, death due to overdose, and physical violence that feature in the source text.

Plot Summary

Beyah Grim, a recent high school graduate, comes home from her shift at McDonald’s to find her mother, Janean, dead from a drug overdose. The police chief, Buzz, advises Beyah that the funeral home must take care of her mother, Janean, at no cost so long as they do not make any arrangements. Beyah learns from Gary Shelby, her mobile-home-park landlord, that her mother was three months behind on the rent and he is evicting her. Beyah calls her father, who agrees that she can spend the summer with him. Dakota, Buzz’s son, who also pays Beyah for sexual favors, agrees to take her to the airport, so she can fly from Kentucky to South Texas.

When Beyah lands in South Texas, her father, Brian Grim, picks her up. Together, they take the ferry to the Bolivar Peninsula on Galveston Bay near Houston, where Brian lives. On the ferry, Beyah runs into a young man taking photos, whom she immediately dislikes. There, Beyah meets her stepmother, Alana, and stepsister, Sara. Sara introduces Beyah to Marcos, her boyfriend, and his friend Samson, who lives next door to Brian. Beyah does not mention she has already encountered Samson on the ferry (he was the young man taking photos) and disliked him. Beyah rides with Sara, Marcos, and Samson to a Walmart to buy herself clothes and other necessities. On the trip, she has several conversations with Samson, deciding that though he is rich, he also is a person of integrity. That night, she goes to the beach for the first time, though she does not enter the water.

For several days, she pretends to be ill to avoid interacting with her new stepfamily. She has not told them that Janean is dead or that Janean used the rent and discretion money meant for Beyah to buy drugs. Walking on the beach, she rescues a stray dog and takes it home to feed it. Samson, who is replacing shingles for an older woman, Marjorie, calls Beyah onto the roof. There she sees a magnificent view of Galveston Bay. Descending, she meets Marjorie, who convinces her to name her new dog Pepper Jack Cheese.

That night, Samson persuades Beyah to walk into the ocean. They draw close together, with him holding her, and are having a conversation when Beyah is stung by a jellyfish. Samson carries her out of the water to the outdoor shower in the lower level of her house, where he sprays vinegar on her leg. Beyah cries out for him to stop. When her father hears this, he assumes Samson is assaulting her and punches him in the face. Beyah, Sara, and Samson convince Brian that Samson was helping Beyah with her injury, not assaulting her.

From the bathroom, Beyah and Samson listen to the conversation between Brian and Alana. Brian says he fears he broke Samson’s nose and that Samson will sue him. Then Brian asks Beyah if she is on birth control. The awkward scene ends when Samson goes to his house. Beyah finds the memory card she took from his camera when he took her pictures on the ferry and takes it to his house. She tells Samson her mother died of an overdose and that she has a volleyball scholarship to Penn State. Samson tells her that his mother died when he was five years old. They kiss, which sets off emotional alarms within Beyah. She remembers the inappropriate relationship she had with Dakota and leaves.

Beyah goes onto her balcony to watch the sunrise and finds Samson waiting for her; he leaped from his balcony to hers. She persuades him to walk down the stairs. They encounter Brian in the kitchen and explain that Samson did not spend the night. Beyah tells Brian that she is going to Pennsylvania in the fall and that her mother skimmed most of the money that he sent for Beyah. He is proud of her, though she remains bitter that he has not been more a part of her life.

That evening Marcos, Sara, Samson, and Beyah go to a seafood restaurant. Their meal is interrupted by a sketchy-looking young man who calls Samson “Shawn” and asks him when he got out. Samson leads him away from the table. When he returns, Sara quizzes him about his past and Beyah protectively changes the subject.

The romantic relationship between Samson and Beyah intensifies, with Samson breaking off his relationship with another girl to be with Beyah. Samson also sends away Beau, an obnoxious youth who expresses sexual interest in Beyah. Samson and Beyah ritually watch the sunrise together from her balcony.

Samson suggests they take a golf cart to a secluded beach one afternoon. After kissing in the ocean, they head home, only to realize that P. J., the dog, is missing. They find him digging at the skeleton of a human being in the dunes. Samson recognizes the clothing as belonging to Rake, a sailor who perished during Hurricane Ike and whose body was never found. He tells Beyah to take the cart home, saying he will care for the skeleton. Four hours later, weary and very dirty, Samson shows back up at the beach. Samson motions for Beyah to come to his house, where he gets into the downstairs shower. She helps him clean off the sand and dirt and sexually pleasures him.

On July 4, the four friends climb to Marjorie’s roof and watch fireworks over Galveston Bay. Samson refers to the ocean as Darya, commenting on its beauty. He had told Beyah that Darya broke his heart, and she assumed Darya was a girl. She now realizes that it was the ocean.

Beyah challenges three strange boys on the beach who have put up a volleyball net. Claiming the least athletic of them as her partner, she engages in a fierce volleyball game. Samson comes out of his house and watches, cheering her on. Beyah notes that this is the first time anyone has ever cheered for her, and she is overwhelmed. The pair shower together again, and Samson pleasures Beyah. After, they decide that they’re going to get tattoos. Each chooses the other’s tattoo, which holds symbolic meaning. Samson gets a tattoo of a hurricane on his forearm while Beyah gets a pinwheel on the inside of her wrist.

Deciding that they are ready to take their relationship to the next level, the couple tells Brian and Alana that Beyah is going to spend the night with Samson. That night, Beyah and Samson have intercourse for the first time. Beyah finds this experience beautiful and entirely different from the sexual encounters she had with Dakota.

In the middle of the night, they awake to find police officers in the bedroom, who handcuff Samson. When Beyah dresses and goes downstairs, she encounters a young family who says this is their house and they have no idea who Samson is. At the police station, Beyah learns that Samson has been a fugitive for some time and there are numerous charges against him. Her father believes Samson is nothing but a con artist, though Beyah believes he is a worthwhile person.

Because he is indigent, Samson cannot afford legal counsel. Beyah begs Marjorie, who is fond of Samson, to contact her son, Keith, an attorney, to represent him. Beyah visits him the next day in the Galveston County jail. Samson confesses everything he has done and explains why he did it. Rake was his father. Samson has been on his own since he was 13 years old. He tells Beyah to break off all contact because he wants her not to focus on him but to go to Penn State and live her life.

Upset because Samson refuses any contact with her, Beyah decides she will stay in Texas and work to get him released. She finds a list he made of everyone whose house he entered, all the repairs that he did, and the food that he ate. The attorney and her parents gradually convince her that Samson is going to prison and that she needs to think about herself, the very thing Samson told her to do. Eventually, Beyah decides that she must go to Penn State.

After four successful years at Penn State, having had no contact with Samson apart from talking with his lawyer, Beyah shows up at the penitentiary the day Samson gains release. He is overjoyed to see her. She tells Samson that she is now in law school and wants to work to provide criminal justice for indigent clients. She drives him back to the beach, and he runs into the ocean. Afterward, they call his attorney, who tells him that Marjorie left her house to Samson when she died. The two go up on the roof to look out at the bay one last time and confess their love for one another.