REVIEW: It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover

Title: It Ends With Us
Author: Colleen Hoover
Genres: New Adult, Romance, Contemporary
Pages: 384
Publisher: Atria Books
Synopsis:Lily hasn’t always had it easy, but that’s
never stopped her from working hard for the life 
she wants. She’s come a long way from the small 
town in Maine where she grew up—she 
graduated from college, moved to Boston, and 
started her own business. So when she feels a 
spark with a gorgeous neurosurgeon named Ryle 
Kincaid, everything in Lily’s life suddenly seems 
almost too good to be true. 
Ryle is assertive, stubborn, maybe even a little arrogant. He’s also 
sensitive, brilliant, and has a total soft spot for Lily. And the way he 
looks in scrubs certainly doesn’t hurt. Lily can’t get him out of her head.
But Ryle’s complete aversion to relationships is disturbing. Even as Lily 
finds herself becoming the exception to his “no dating” rule, she can’t 
help but wonder what made him that way in the first place.
As questions about her new relationship overwhelm her, so do thoughts of 
Atlas Corrigan—her first love and a link to the past she left behind. He 
was her kindred spirit, her protector. When Atlas suddenly reappears, 
everything Lily has built with Ryle is threatened.

My heart is broken but it has also been pieced back together. I was expecting to love this because: Colleen Hoover. I was not, however, expecting to get punched not just in the feels but in the heart.

Lily is such a strong character and I love her so much. Her struggle seemed so real to me and I wasn’t expecting it. I wasn’t expecting to feel such an emotional attachment to her or any of the characters. She was so loveable and even though she maybe made some decisions I didn’t agree with, I could understand why she made them. My heart hurt for her and her relationship with Ryle  because she so obviously loved him.

I wanted to love Ryle, and I did for nearly all of this book. Even though what he did was so horrible and inexcusable, I kept hoping for him to change and to be the good guy he could be all the time. I really loved Ryle and it made so sad that he couldn’t love Lily the right way.

I also loved Atlas. This whole book I wanted him to show up. I wanted Lily to choose him. He was so loving and caring and sweet. I loved the flashbacks/journal entries and seeing how he had grown and changed since he was that 19 year old homeless kid. The way he looked after Lily just had me smiling so much and squealing AWWWWWWWWW BE WITH HIM.

I absolutely adored Allyssa and her friendship with Lily. It made me so happy to see them stay friends even with what was happening between Lily and Ryle. Allyssa was always on her best friend’s side while still loving her brother. I also adored Allyssa’s husband, Marshall. He was just so loveable. All of the characters in this book are insanely loveable and they just made me so happy.

"There is no such thing as bad people. We're all just people who sometimes
do bad things."
pg. 17

I went into this, not really sure what it was about. I knew it featured some kind of abuse and that’s about it. I didn’t look at it on Goodreads before I started it and I’m glad. There are some negative reviews floating around because I think this is the kind of book you either love or hate. It Ends With Us deals with such a serious and prominent topic; that being domestic violence. I think Colleen Hoover handled this subject so amazingly well. I felt so much for Lily and her mother in the scenes featuring abuse; my heart just broke for the two of them.

I will say, this book is not for everyone. It does focus on an extremely sensitive subject that can be hard to read at times. But it is so important. I haven’t experienced this kind of domestic violence but it gave me a totally new perspective and for women who go through it; not just those who leave but those who choose to stay. I really do recommend this to all of you and hope you give it a chance. It’s powerful, emotional, heartbreaking and raw but it is so wonderful and was totally worth all the tears I shed.

** I would definitely recommend reading the Author’s Note after you’ve finished the book.

"Just keep swimming."

★★★★★