Review: It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover

It Ends with Us
(It Ends with Us, #1)
Colleen Hoover
Publisher: Atria Books
Publication date: Aug. 2, 2016
Genre: New Adult
Rating:

Sometimes it is the one who loves you 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, 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.

Wow. I was not expecting that from this book. Unfortunately for me, I had spoilers going into the book and I was a little bummed to know what was going to take place. However, I think knowing what was going to come left me on the edge of my seat wondering every time “is this that moment?” So, this review is going to be as vague as possible so as to not spoil it for anyone else who hasn’t read the book yet.

This is the story of Lily. Sure there’s romance, and friendships, but ultimately, this is Lily’s story. She grew up with a father that beat her mother. Her mother has always made excuses for her father’s behavior. So, when Lily’s father passes away when Lily is a young adult, she’s relieved. No more suffering for her mother. No more suffering for her. On the day of her father’s funeral, she bumps into a guy who is also having a rough day and they seem to bond over sharing “truths”, things that they might not otherwise say out loud. For instance, that Lily wants to start a floral shop, but how corny would that be to have someone named Lily Bloom running a flower shop?

Fast forward and that’s what she does, opens a shop and runs into none other than the guy she met about a year ago. They catch back up and pretty soon a romance blossoms. Lily’s life has never been overly stable due to her father, and so it was nice to see Lily start to set roots and become established. As the story progresses you go with Lily on this journey that is filled with love, friendship, but also grief and doubt. It was such a roller coaster ride of emotions that I couldn’t make heads or tails of it most of the time. I was just always on the edge of my seat with my eyes wide open.

The author did an amazing job writing Lily’s journey. We got both the present time, as well as her past from her diary entries she wrote as a teenager. Which in the end gives the reader a really well fleshed out understanding of who Lily is. I never felt like things were put in the story just because. Nothing felt pushed or rushed. The build up was done really well that you really felt it when something would happen. Whether good or bad, I felt it all. Even in the end, the “bad guy” I just couldn’t seem to hate. They had their flaws, but they also owned up to them and I respected them for it. That’s not to say that all would be forgiven, but it put them in more of a grey area for me than just black and white.

This is a gripping novel about a young woman’s journey to adulthood and self-discovery. I will say that it does deal with some triggers like domestic abuse and rape, so do keep that in mind when reading this book.