Colleen Hoover - It Ends With Us

Colleen Hoover - It Ends With Us 

4⭐

Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Fiction, New Adult, Romance 

Pages:  376

Format: Paperback 

Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK 

Date Published: 2nd August 2016 

Book Blurb: 

SOMETIMES THE ONE WHO LOVES YOU IS THE ONE WHO HURTS YOU THE MOST

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, and maybe even a little arrogant. He's also sensitive, brilliant, and has a total soft spot for Lily, but Ryle's complete aversion to relationships is disturbing.

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.

With this bold and deeply personal novel, Colleen Hoover delivers a heart-wrenching story that breaks exciting new ground for her as a writer. It Ends With Us is an unforgettable tale of love that comes at the ultimate price.

This book contains graphic scenes and very sensitive subject matter...

My Review: 

Another one of CoHo’s books ticked off from my list! I know there’s so much BookTok and Bookstagram hype about It Ends with Us and honestly, I enjoyed reading this book. However, in my opinion, it is not the best of CoHo’s books. I rated Regretting You and Layla higher than It Ends with Us, as I just felt that the previous two books had much more defined plot and takeaway messages than It Ends with Us. It Ends with Us takeaway message either confused me or I am very silly since I took away two conflicting and contradicting messages from this book.

Nevertheless, Hoover's writing is superb. I just love her writing more than anything else. She just knows how to perfectly pull the right heartstrings at the right moments. Hoover writes in a way that let's reader experience a wide spectrum of different emotions just in one chapter and packs the book with a roller-coaster of emotions.

The story of It Ends with Us follows Lily who after her abusive father’s funeral meets a very charming neurosurgeon Ryle. They both instantly feel attracted to each other. At first, they don’t act on this attraction as both are ambitious to follow their career dreams and don’t have time for a relationship. However, they keep running into each other and matters get worse when Lily becomes best friends with Ryle’s sister Allysa. Then Ryle’s and Lily’s relationship starts developing quite fast and they end up moving in together and getting married. Then Lily gets to find out that there is a different Ryle from the one she knows, the abusive Ryle. Lily’s life gets even more complicated when the person she cared about the most comes back into her life. Atlas.

There was so much going on in this book that sometimes it was so hard to keep up with all of the topics and subjects that Coho wanted to address in this book, such as homelessness, abusive relationship, death, romance, and many more. I think if Coho chose one topic to explore in this book like she usually does in her books, it would have been an amazing book, but in this format it at times was too complicated.

I also know that many people find this book quite triggering because of the topics discussed in this book, especially abuse. For me, however, yes, some of the things that Lily's father did to her and her mum, as well as the things Ryle did to Lily were heart-wrenching to read at times but it is also quite educational, especially raising awareness on how to spot abuse and that abuse like that do happen in real life and victims most of the time are scared to speak up against the abuser because of the issues Lily discusses with her mum near the end of the book.

In terms of characters in this book. I loved how Lily’s and Atlas's story was told through diary entries. I liked Lily's and Atlas's relationship when they first met. Especially how nice and caring Lily was for Atlas and helped him as much as she could. She also learned a lot from Atlas and getting to know him changed her opinions about certain things such as homelessness. Lily was very empathetic toward Atlas and also knew that it is not fair that he has to be homeless because of his parents. She also wanted him to have someone, that's why she was kind and friendly so that he felt needed at least by someone. There was not much Atlas in this book at the present timeline but he is there in the background ready to help and support Lily if she needs him to.

Also, I loved Lily’s relationship with Allysa. She is such a great character. Allysa, although Ryle is her brother was the one who makes Lily aware that she should get out of the abusive marriage with Ryle and that no matter what she is going to support Lily.

In terms of Ryle, well…I neither liked him nor disliked him to be perfectly honest. For me, he seemed like someone who is not ready for a relationship or marriage or family at all and acted on the fact that Lily was a warm, kind and caring person, who he thought can help him manage his emotions and emotionally support him, whilst he builds his career. I think more of Ryle’s backstory would have made him a character that a reader could understand better, especially his motives for why he is abusive. Although, Ryle begging Lily for sex… that scene was just too cringy and awkward to read. He's a grown adult who is supposed to be a well-educated neurosurgeon but in reality, acts like a 16-year-old horny teenager. Lily being younger than him is acting more mature than him most of the time in this book.

Overall: I liked this book and I really enjoyed reading it. Like always I loved CoHo’s writing but this book for me is not the best CoHo book that I read. Nevertheless, I am looking forward to reading It Starts with Us and learning more about Atlas and hopefully more about Ryle too.

About the Author:

Colleen Hoover is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of twenty-two novels and novellas. Hoover’s novels fall into the New Adult and Young Adult contemporary romance categories, as well as psychological thrillers. 

Colleen Hoover is published by Montlake Romance, Grand Central Publishing and Atria Books. Colleen also has several indie titles, including Heart Bones.

In 2015, Colleen’s novel CONFESS won the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Romance. That was followed up in 2016 with her latest title, It Ends With Us, also winning the Choice Award for Best Romance. In 2017, her title WITHOUT MERIT won best romance.

Colleen founded The Bookworm Box, a charity subscription service and bookstore, with her family in 2015. The Bookworm Box is a subscription service that provides readers with an exciting opportunity to receive signed novels in the mail each month from authors all over the world. All profits from the subscription service are donated to various charities each month. To date, The Bookworm Box has donated over $1,000,000 to help those in need.

https://www.colleenhoover.com/about-coho/