Book: It Ends With Us
Author: Colleen Hoover
Pages: 367
Read: The paperback copy
Read in: 4-5 hours over two days
Plot Summary: 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.
Things I Liked:
1. I really enjoy Colleen Hoover's books. She writes sweet love stories but her stories always shine a light on a social issue of some sort. This is book is no different. She shines a light on the very private side of domestic violence. Through her characters Lily and Lily's mom, she tries to show how victims of domestic violence rationalise the violence, giving the perpetrator more and more opportunities to abuse and torture them.
2. The characters are all very likeable and well crafted. Lily, Atlas and Alyssa were my favourites!
Lily is such a nice, warm and sweet person. She has seen and experienced so much as a young person but still had the courage to move out to Boston and start her life all over again. Her reactions to Ryle and her experiences with him before and after their marriage are understandable and easy to understand. Since this book is about domestic violence, Colleen Hoover has tried to get inside the mind of the victim and the abuser to help us outsiders understand what goes through their minds when faced with such situations. She does a good job through Lily- someone who has seen her mom deal with domestic violence and how she reacts to Ryle inflicting the same on her.
Atlas is just pure love! He is, again, a person who has been through neglect and abuse as a child and who made his way in the world through sheer grit. He is kind, thoughtful and helpful. He wants to do so much to help Lily when they run into each other but he gives her her space to figure things out on her own, whilst providing her with a safe haven.
Alyssa her husband- Marshall- are nice, warm and funny people. I love how Alyssa supports Lily when it really matters.
3. This is a book about a difficult and triggering topic- domestic violence. I quite liked the very human, everyday perspective with which this story has been written. The abuser is not some evil villain and the victim is not some spineless, helpless person. There are reasons that drive victims to stay in abusive situations and Hoover has tried to get readers to understand those reasons and not judge.
4. This book is also about friendship- about what being a good, supportive friend means... how opening up about our struggles to our friends only helps us. I really liked reading about Lily and Atlas' friendship as well as about Lily and Alyssa's friendship.
5. Lily's diary entries from her teenage years are also very entertaining to read. She wrote the diaries as letters to Ellen DeGeneres and these letters show her tense home life, her time with Atlas and all her inner turmoil and thoughts. Using this style of a diary in the form of letters was a great way to reveal the past.
Things I Didn't Like:
1. The only thing I had an issue with is showing Ryle as this all around good guy apart from his tendency to hit Lily and get uber-possessive of her! I am not saying that he should be painted as a black-hearted knave but his violent tendencies are ONLY and SOLELY reserved for Lily and no one else. That is not realistically plausible or accurate.
Rating: 4.5/5
A great book to read if you love love stories with a strong social message.
Lily is such a nice, warm and sweet person. She has seen and experienced so much as a young person but still had the courage to move out to Boston and start her life all over again. Her reactions to Ryle and her experiences with him before and after their marriage are understandable and easy to understand. Since this book is about domestic violence, Colleen Hoover has tried to get inside the mind of the victim and the abuser to help us outsiders understand what goes through their minds when faced with such situations. She does a good job through Lily- someone who has seen her mom deal with domestic violence and how she reacts to Ryle inflicting the same on her.
Atlas is just pure love! He is, again, a person who has been through neglect and abuse as a child and who made his way in the world through sheer grit. He is kind, thoughtful and helpful. He wants to do so much to help Lily when they run into each other but he gives her her space to figure things out on her own, whilst providing her with a safe haven.
Alyssa her husband- Marshall- are nice, warm and funny people. I love how Alyssa supports Lily when it really matters.
3. This is a book about a difficult and triggering topic- domestic violence. I quite liked the very human, everyday perspective with which this story has been written. The abuser is not some evil villain and the victim is not some spineless, helpless person. There are reasons that drive victims to stay in abusive situations and Hoover has tried to get readers to understand those reasons and not judge.
4. This book is also about friendship- about what being a good, supportive friend means... how opening up about our struggles to our friends only helps us. I really liked reading about Lily and Atlas' friendship as well as about Lily and Alyssa's friendship.
5. Lily's diary entries from her teenage years are also very entertaining to read. She wrote the diaries as letters to Ellen DeGeneres and these letters show her tense home life, her time with Atlas and all her inner turmoil and thoughts. Using this style of a diary in the form of letters was a great way to reveal the past.
Things I Didn't Like:
1. The only thing I had an issue with is showing Ryle as this all around good guy apart from his tendency to hit Lily and get uber-possessive of her! I am not saying that he should be painted as a black-hearted knave but his violent tendencies are ONLY and SOLELY reserved for Lily and no one else. That is not realistically plausible or accurate.
Rating: 4.5/5
A great book to read if you love love stories with a strong social message.
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