Colleen Hoover and “Haunting Adeline”. What 18-year-olds most often bought through the “eBook” program

In the first quarter of 2025, 18-year-old Ukrainians spent almost 68 million hryvnias on books within the framework of the eBook program.

This was reported by the Ukrainian Book Institute.

The gender distribution of recipients is as follows: 64.52% are women, 34.48% are men. As of May 1, 2025, 23 million hryvnias remain unspent in the recipientsʼ accounts.

Participants in the eBook program prefer online bookstores as opposed to brick-and-mortar stores: 66.58% versus 33.42%, respectively.

In addition, the total number of books purchased is 214,978, including 3,135 electronic ones.

The most popular bookstores within the program:

• "Yakabu" (28.30%);
• "Bookstore E" (25.41%);
• "Family Leisure Club" (24.06%);
• "Ridit" (5.90%);
• "Knygoland" (4.02%).

The most popular publishers:

• KSD (20.86%/44,854);
• Vivat (14.36%/30,876);
• BookChef (13.10%/28,171);
• "Morning" (5.88%/12,650);
• VSL (3.71%/7,982).

The list of the most popular books is dominated by foreign authors (88%), of which romance and young adult literature prevail. Among Ukrainian authors, there are best-selling authors — Volodymyr Stanchyshyn, Illarion Pavlyuk, Andriy Semʼyankiv. There is a high interest in books on psychology, in particular those that touch on mental health topics. Increased demand for book series: many bestsellers are parts of cycles.

The top ten most popular books are as follows:

• "Leave It If You Love It," Colleen Hoover;
• "A Game of Cat and Mouse. Book 1: Haunting Adeline," by H. D. Carleton;
• "The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo," Taylor Jenkins Reid;
• "That Mountain Is You. How to Turn Self-Sabotage into Self-Improvement," by Brianna West;
• "Go where itʼs scary. And youʼll have what you dream of," Jim Loveless;
• "A Game of Cat and Mouse. Book 2: The Hunt for Adeline," by H. D. Carleton;
• "Punk 57", Penelope Douglas;
• "Stay If You Love Me," Colleen Hoover;
• "Walls in My Head. Living with Anxiety and Depression," Volodymyr Stanchyshyn;
• "If He Were With Me," Laura Nowlin.

Here is a link to a complete list of the most popular books.

"eBook" program

"eBook" is a state support program under which Ukrainians who have reached the age of 18 can, upon reaching the age of majority, receive state assistance for the purchase of books within a year.

The amount of this assistance is UAH 908.4. You can apply for the program from the day a person turns 18 until the day they turn 19, and the funds can be used within three months exclusively to purchase paper, electronic, and audio books in Ukrainian in bookstores and publishing houses participating in the program.

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