Published by Atria Books on August 2, 2016
Pages: 376
Goodreads
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.
This book absolutely shocked me. It seems like a lighthearted read at first, but as more secrets are uncovered, the plot gets much more serious. There are multiple deep topics discussed throughout the book, so if that’s not the type of book for you, stay away from it!
TRIGGER WARNING: Abuse
It follows the life of a twenty-something-year-old girl named, Lily. At this point of the story, she’s currently working on opening up her very own flower shop and is trying to cope with her lack of feelings after her dad’s death.
One night, at the very top of her apartment building, she meets a neurosurgeon named, Ryle. They hit it off at once and she eventually leaves, expecting to never see him again.
Obviously, their paths cross once again, and soon they decide to get into an official relationship. As a perfect couple at first, it seems as though nothing could go wrong until it does. No longer are they sunshine and rainbows, but instead, something much worse is in store for Lily.
While this story continues, simultaneously, Lily’s teenage diary entries are revealed. They mention her first true love, Atlas, and her life within her parent’s ab*sive home. This ends up becoming a huge part of Lily’s life and only complicates matters.
It’s been clear that I can’t reveal too many details about this book without spoiling it. Colleen Hoover has a great way of writing stories that really take advantage of all your emotion and it was absolutely heartwrenching.
Every time I thought that Lily’s hardship couldn’t get any worse, something would happen, shattering my hopes. It truly made me feel emotions I don’t usually get from books, and truly helped raise awareness for others in Lily’s situation.
Since the beginning of the book, I was hooked and I never wanted to put it down. Even though it has a “slower start” (although I wouldn’t consider it slow, just slower than the rest of the book) I constantly wanted to learn more and figure out what was going to happen.
If you’ve ever read anything by Colleen Hoover before, you probably know about the beautiful plot twists in most of her books. It Ends With Us was no exception, you’re jaw will continue to drop the further you get into the book.
Going into it, I didn’t truly understand what the book was about or what reading it would entail. By the first hundred pages, it seemed like a “perfect” love story with little red flags.
This greatly changes through the course of the book…
Soon this lighthearted novel becomes one with serious topics and becomes quite a heavy book. Personally, I liked the change and overall the book taught me A LOT. The author did a terrific job of truly transferring you into Lily’s body.
You feel all her emotions and begin to understand why she chooses what she does, even if it is the obvious wrong decision. It’s something I definitely didn’t understand going into the book, so I think it’s a great book for someone trying to broaden their perspective through the eyes of a different person.
My only concern would be the pace of the diary entries. It is an interesting take on retelling the past, but sometimes the format of the book got me annoyed when I felt I wanted to learn more about the present. This is especially during the beginning when the diary entries are explaining the background of the background story. This is a mild complaint and does not hurt the overall book, but it’s definitely something to be aware of!
Overall, this was an amazing book! I would rate it 4.5/5 stars and recommend it to anyone looking to question the way that they think or their empathy towards other characters. Happy reading and have an amazing day!
“Just because we didn’t end up on the same wave, doesn’t mean we aren’t still a part of the same ocean.“
Colleen Hoover (It Ends With Us)
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