It Ends With Us by American author Colleen Hoover is a heartrending novel full of pain, emotion, and awareness.
TRIGGER WARNING: This book contains content on relationships, domestic and intimate partner abuse and violence.
Life has not always been easy for Lily. As a child, she was the victim of abuse, watching her mother suffer from domestic violence for years at the hands of her father. Due to being around abusive behaviour and seeing her mother suffer, Lily vowed she would not end up like her.
Growing up in a small town in Maine Lily dreamt big. After graduating from college, she moved to Boston with the hopes of starting her own business, a florist shop. Now twenty-three years old she has come a long way from her childhood and has turned into a strong independent woman -confident and believing in her abilities to succeed.
When Lily meets Ryle Kincaid, a resident neurosurgeon, a relationship is the last thing on his mind, he has a rule in which he doesn’t date and prefers casual flings. Like Lily, Ryle has had a traumatic childhood and inner demons lie. Although there is an attraction, they part ways as Lily wants more than casual.
Six months later, Lily purchases the shopfront for “Lily Bloom’s.” She meets Allyssa, who volunteers to help her and they quickly become good friends. Unknowingly, Allyssa is Ryle’s older sister.
As time passes Lily and Ryle start to spend time with one another – Lily is besotted. She finds Ryle to be charming, energetic, smart, and determined to be successful.
Their friendship moves forward, and Ryle decides to explore and settle into a relationship with
Lily. She is thrilled; he is attentive, thoughtful, and crazy about her. He seems to be everything
she’s ever dreamt of in a partner. When she starts to see signs of manipulation and control, she
is concerned and revisits her past.
Fifteen-year-old Lily kept journal-filled letters to Ellen DeGeneres, who she idolised and entries about Atlas Corrigan, a homeless, eighteen-year-old boy who lived in the abandoned house behind her own home. He supported Lily through her mother’s abuse, when Atlas moved to Boston to live with his uncle, they promised each other one day they would reconnect.
They had an untouchable bond that no one could break.
That day came, she ran into Atlas and memories came flooding back. Now Lily is questioning
her future. Relationships are hard, and no one is perfect. Can some degree of uncertainty be
good for her? Does she feel safe with Ryle? Has she made the right choice?
This is an intense novel with compelling characters who are realistic and relatable. Ryle’s character is a prime example of an abuser; he is controlling, sadistic, and a bully. Lily is a strong woman but so vulnerable, I could not help feeling her pain, hurt and confusion, and cry along with her.
As a survivor myself, Lily’s character is an excellent illustration of a victim in an abusive environment. I loved the support Allyssa gave her, especially seeing her brother is the abuser.
It Ends with Us offers story after story dealing with the trials and tribulations women face in everyday life. The author presents that there are four areas that can damage the psyche of women: those being the mental, the emotional, the physical and the spiritual.
Based on true events from Hoover’s life, this book and her words will give hope and courage to many readers who are stuck in unhappy situations and will encourage them to look inward to find happiness. It is a good way to realise that everyone is the scriptwriter of their own lives and can create the life they have been dreaming of for themselves.
With a dramatic storyline, this powerful well-written novel kept me on the edge of my seat until the final page. I highly recommend this book and can’t wait for the next instalment – It Starts with Us.
Thank you, Beauty and Lace and Simon & Schuster for the opportunity to read and review.
My love of books started at a very young age. My mum has always been a reader and encouraged me to read, buying me endless book from classic fairy tales advancing to the world of Enid Blyton, CS Lewis, Louisa May Alcott, Kathryn Kenny, Carolyn Keene, Francine Pascal. In my adult years the list of authors is endless and every room in my house is filled with books.
One of my favourite novels is Narnia which has always has a special place in my heart. I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes in 1978 and when I was given this book to read it let me escape to another world where I felt like I was in the book with all the characters, it wasfun and exciting to escape from reality and eased the ups and downs of the disease at such a young age.
In books nothing is impossible and there is endless potential and hundreds of places to explore or being taken to places that are only made up from the authors’ great minds, the past and future to navigate, characters lives you step into taking you on an emotional rollercoaster ride or being scared out of your wits. I can experience things that I can’t in real life because they’re not possible or real. It challenges my perspective and mindset expanding my worldview.
I find joy, comfort and peace with books, many people may not get it, but I know bookworms like me truly understand. Reading makes my heart happy.
Colleen Hover’s ‘It Ends With Us’ is the most intense and highly evocative read I’ve had in a long time it was so naked and raw.
When growing up Lilly was witness to her father physically abusing her mother and was left feeling helpless to do anything about it. Lily is soon determined she will live life on her own terms and seemingly does – she moves to Boston and ends up meeting devastatingly handsome neurosurgeon Dr Ryle Kincaid. Everything seems to be falling into place for Lilly. She finds her thoughts drifting back to her first love and kindred spirit – Atlas Corrigan. Through her memories of Atlas, re reading her journal that she wrote when she was 15 years old (in the form of letters to Ellen DeGeneres), their chance meeting and the violent and stormy relationship she is experiencing with Ryle bring the past back to the present.
Lily claws her way to the surface – enough is enough! She takes her baby girl Rylee and leaves Her husband Ryle. She is determined that the violence her mother experienced and the violence she herself experienced won’t become the ‘norm’ for their daughter Rylee. Lily’s story leaves a strong, long and lasting impression on its readers.
Thanks to Beauty and Lace and Simon & Schuster for the amazing opportunity to read and review
Thanks to Beauty and Lace and Simon & Schuster I was lucky enough to review “It Ends With Us” by Colleen Hoover.
Lily grew up living a welloff lifestyle, her dad a successful real estate agent and the town mayor, her mum loved by all but she was lonely as she was an only child and could never have friends over as her father would abuse her mother behind the closed doors of their home. Lily never understood why her mother didn’t leave.
Atlas, the homeless boy, makes his new “home” in the abandoned home next to Lily’s house. They travel on the same school bus to go to the same school. Atlas is a little older than Lily. Lily decides to care for Atlas by taking him food and blankets, a friendship builds over time and they eventually have a special kind of love for each other, then Atlas leaves for the Military.
Years pass and Atlas never comes back as he promised he would, Lily grows up and meets the love of her life, neurosurgeon Ryle. It was a while before things became serious between them, Lily wanting the relationship and Ryle wanting the one night stand…until he realises he cannot live without her.
Life is great, she has the guy, a new business she has always dreamed of opening and her new best friend is her boyfriends sister. What could go wrong in her life.
She goes to a new restaurant in town and that’s when she sees him, that’s when Atlas reappears after all these years, she had no idea he was here in Boston. Why did he have to show up in her life now, why couldn’t he show up before she met Ryle.
Over time she falls madly in love and marries Ryle but things are never as they truly appear and life isn’t as she always dreamt it would be. Things need to change and she isn’t sure Ryle is what she needs in her life anymore.
I loved this book and am now itching to read the sequel of “Its Starts with Us”. Will definitely be recommending this one.
Thank you Beauty and Lace and Simon & Schuster for the opportunity to review “It Ends With Us” by Colleen Hoover.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and managed to read it in three nights. The main character Lily grows up financially comfortably but with her mum who is a victim of domestic violence at the hands of Lily’s father.
Lily struggles to understand why her mother constantly excuses her fathers behaviour and doesn’t leave him.
We follow lilys life as she falls in love and has her own dilemmas to face. Theoni
Thank you for this reading opportunity.
I was in a deep reading slump and struggling to motivate myself to read, and this book has helped me out of the slump from the first sentence. I think I enjoyed and appreciated the author’s writing style, which motivated me to continue reading this book.
There are Triggers, domestic violence, so be aware of that.
I enjoyed reading the book.
It was easy to follow and flowed well and was enjoyable. There are sad and happy times in the book. There’s also romance, thrills and everyday life.
I enjoyed this book and am going to try to read other works by the author.
Colleen Hoover, you would have to be my favourite author!
I love your style of writing and this book has such an easy flow and ebb to to it. Your characters are so real in their description and how they interact. This one is from the bottom of your heart and it wasn’t until I read the authors note that I realised how much so.
It ends with us was as much an eye opener as it was an easy read( I mean I couldn’t put it down) to a different way of thinking in such a situation. Everything is not just black and white.
Thank you for your insight and I cant wait to read “It starts with us”
Thank you for the opportunity to read and review It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover. This was my first read by this author and it definitely won’t be my last!
Colleen’s style of writing is incredible, the characters are so real and you absolutely cannot put the book down until you finish it!
Would recommend this book to everybody!
Thanks Simon & Schuster and Beauty and Lace for sending me “It Ends With Us” by Colleen Hoover to review. My first thoughts “WOW” what a powerfully written book, so raw and dealing up close and personal on such an important topic. I was immediately drawn into the book, well though out with the storyline not missing a beat and actually taking the reader into that tragic story. I like the funeral scene and thought how often victims would love to give such a eulogy. O thought the book actually dealt with how easy it is to live the same life as our parents or someone going through this and to “put” scenarios in place to overlook that history is repeating itself, but to also give the view of the person “in the moment” and to not actually realize that this is actually happening and happening to them.
I thought the ending was such a strong statement and a vision for anyone in this situation… sadly for many the story does not end so easily.
I would recommend this book to any woman or man, it is sad and it is painful in places, but it does show resilience in the face of such cowardly action by a few of the pollution. It also offers help that this type of behavior is now in the forefront of people minds and should not be tolerated.