It Ends With Us - Review

It Ends With Us

By: Colleen Hoover

Published: August 2, 2016 by Atria Books

384 pages

Source: Borrowed from snl

(Goodreads / Amazon)

Summary:

SOMETIMES THE ONE WHO LOVES YOU IS THE ONE 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, 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.

This book contains graphic scenes and very sensitive subject matter.

MY REVIEW:
I am a MESS, ya'll. After finishing this one I was ugly snot crying (doesn't help I've got a cold so there's extra snot already) but the "Note from the author" and "Acknowledgements" put me over the edge of the already ugly crying going on. (So don't miss out on reading those when you're done) UGH! I have so many emotions about this book I am not sure I will be able to coherently put them all here.

For those who are not familiar, this story deals heavily with abusive relationships. It's a very serious story, with lightness added in, a little humor, a LOT of heat and romance. But the tone of the book is very much overlaid with sadness and turmoil. Grab your box of tissues and be ready to finish this in a day or two!

Part of my emotions make me question what is wrong with me?!? Because part of me wanted a different outcome for Ryle (sounds like Kyle) and Lily. Just as Lily falls in love with him, man Colleen had me. Hook, line and sinker! I was Team Ryle even through his issues. How crazy is that?!?! I get that it's quite likely because this is fiction for me, not reality. Which is probably why Colleen's Note from the author was so touching to me. For those who share in this reality of life, I just can't even imagine the feelings they will experience from reading this story. In romantic fiction, the reader hopes for a best case scenario outcome. The hopeless romantic in me wanted there to be complete healing and reconciliation....of a different sort than what we are left with. My heart was truly torn in two. I could completely sympathize with the feelings from both characters - the distraught sadness, the glimmers of hope. Then comes the scene about 94% in that just did me in! It becomes much clearer at that point that love can conquer....perhaps just not in the way we usually think of it. A part of me still yearns, though, for there to have been a different resolution...one where there was redemption for Ryle, as well as addressing alcoholism and the person he became when intoxicated.

Told from Lily's POV we initially go between the present and glimpses of her past as she reads old letters she wrote in the form of a diary, but written out as fan letters to Ellen Degeneres from when she was 15/16 years old. Now as a 23 year old college graduate living in Boston, Lily meets a very attractive, slightly older (about 30) neurosurgeon finishing up his residency (Ryle) and as her feelings develop for him, she feels she has to find some closure over the only other guy she's ever loved, Atlas Corrigan.

Lily is strong and independent. She has goals and dreams and Ryle, unknowingly, helps push her to finally take action on one of those big goals. "It's a small world after all" and living in the same city brings Lily and Ryle back together time and again, even after months pass by in between each run-in. There are some things in life that even love can't overcome and this is a hard life lesson that Lily has to learn firsthand.

This is one of those books you finish and have to sit and think about where to go next because what book can possibly top the emotions that this one drew out of you?! Talk about a book hangover!!! I can't help but want to know what happens next? I know this is a standalone, but there's clearly more to the stories of these people. I NEED to know. More CoHo, more!!! I'm going to go sulk and pout and try to work through my emotions over this one.

Top 5 Favorite Quotes:
"There is no such thing as bad people. We're all just people who sometimes do bad things."

I think good comedic timing is one of the most important things about a person's personality.

What determines a person's character aren't the mistakes we make. It's how we take those mistakes and turn them into lessons rather than excuses.

I'm sure there's more substance in the love between two adults than there is between two teenagers. There's probably more maturity, more respect, more responsibility. But no matter how different the substance of a love might be at different ages in a person's life, I know that love still has to weigh the same. You feel that weight on your shoulders and in your stomach and on your heart no matter how old you are.

Just because someone hurts you doesn't mean you can simply stop loving them. It's not a person's actions that hurt the most. It's the love.

Language: 2 (medium)
Mature Content: 2 (medium)
Final Rating: 5 stars