It Ends With Us

Since It Starts With Us is out today, (18th October) the highly anticipated sequel to It Ends With Us I thought it was fitting for the first book on the blog to be this highly popular Colleen Hoover book. 

Colleen Hoover is a well known American author. She is Number 1 International and New York Times bestselling author in many genres such as romance, young adult, women's fiction and paranormal romance (GoodReads, 2022). A very talented woman if you ask me. Anyways... onto my thoughts :)   

SOME SPOILERS ARE INCLUDED!!!!! you're welcome x

A bit about the book: 

Lily Bloom grew up in a small town in Maine and after graduating college she decided to move to Boston in the search of a new start to escape the difficult abusive family life she had experience. She has the dream of becoming a business owner by opening her own flower shop. She meets dreamy neurosurgeon, Ryle Kincaid and instantly connects with him and finally she feels like everything is falling into place. However, he is not a relationship kind of guy and is very stubborn and ego driven who starts to "care" for Lily ignoring his strong principals regarding dating. As the book progresses, lily questions her past and current relationships and this starts to affect the life she is building with Ryle, especially when she bumps into old school friend and first love, Atlas                         Corrigan. 

Thoughts:

Where do I begin with this book.... I don't even know lol. I found it was an interesting read filled with a wide range of emotion. This book will break your heart, excite you, make you question your thoughts throughout your read. Colleen Hoover, explores quite heavy themes throughout the book: jealously, abuse, love and relationships. I like how polar opposite some of these are but they're linked really well together to produce a powerful story. 

The way the book links the past and the present made me feel like I was apart of Lily's journey. You experience this through her POV throughout the book. You find at the start she is quite a timid person who is not strong minded and she does not have a big support unit. Progressing through the book you learn about Lily's past by reading letters Lily wrote during High School. I found this unique because it really emphasised that Lily didn't have many people to talk and found it hard to communicate her true feelings when dealing with problems in her family home (witnessing abuse). These letters also provided a good insight on how Atlas and Lily's relationship developed and how much Atlas and Lily depended on each other. This highlighted their strong connection to me as he was her only real friend. However, as you get to see Lily grow and her attitudes change as she becomes more independent and confident. You want the best for her and you feel all the different emotions she feels. 

There are different types of relationships in this book that I really liked and I really didn't like. At the start of Lily and Ryle's relationship it was the classic omg they will be so cute blah blah blah. Do not let this fool you!!! Colleen Hoover subtly shows Ryle's true colours at the start of the book but I kind of disregarded them. For example: 

“There is no such thing as bad people. We’re all just people who sometimes do bad things.”

"Naked Truths aren't always pretty."

I don't think these are normal things to say to someone when you're first getting to known them. This made me think Ryle is hiding something or trying to justify his actions. 🚩🚩 So I was not surprised when things started going horribly wrong in. Heartbreaking I know!! I think this relationship really helped Lily grow closer with her own mother as she now understand why her mum couldn't easily leave her dad. It also helped Lily find the courage to recognise that her relationship was not normal. 

"Brave and bold."

In contrast, Ryle's sister and brother in law, Alyssa and Marshall were really fun. Their relationship was filled with love and I really enjoyed the parts go the book with them. I am glad that Lily had Alyssa's unconditional support.

Colleen Hoover really knows how to channel emotions in her books. This was a powerful read and a book that got me into reading as I could not put the book down! I will admit I have not read any of her other books yet but they are definitely on my "to be read" list and I will be starting It Starts With Us ASAP.

Book rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Hope you enjoyed the first book review and feel free to leave a comment about your thoughts if you have read this book.