Romance

It Ends With Us

Author: Colleen Hoover

Average Rating: 4 / 5

Trigger Warnings:

Love means handing someone the ability to hurt you deeply and trusting that they won’t. It doesn’t always work out… 

Lily’s life hasn’t been easy, and her childhood wasn’t as charmed as everyone thought. But she won’t let that keep her from having the life that she wants. She got out of small town Maine and into college, moved to Boston and took the risk of starting her own business. When she meets a too-handsome-for-his-own-good neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, it seems like everything is coming together.  Or is he also too good to be true?

Ryle is a force to be reckoned with; he knows what he wants and he’s stubborn enough to get it. He’s also intelligent and cares greatly for his patients, not to mention how he looks in scrubs… The only problem is that he doesn’t do relationships. Period. Hard pass. But when Ryle can’t stop thinking about the girl he met on a rooftop, Lily finds herself becoming his one exception. Flattered by his interest, she also can’t stop wondering where the shadow behind his eyes came from.

As Lily tries to answer questions about what happened in Ryle’s past to shape him into the man he is, she can’t help but reflect on her own.  Particularly on her first love and protector, Atlas Corrigan, and the bond that wasn’t quite severed.  When Atlas renters her life unexpectedly, Lily is overwhelmed with doubts.  Will her relationship with Ryle withstand the test?

Corinna: 4/5

I ended up loving this book more than I expected. But I do believe there should be a trigger warning somewhere that the story deals with domestic abuse. Hoover does such an excellent job dismantling the intricacies of abuse and handles it with great care, but I know that many would want a warning before diving into this book. 

My initial reaction to the first few chapters was a bit of an eye roll. The devastatingly handsome neurosurgeon taking notice of the emotionally broken girl. But Lily’s character was so much more than that. She was resilient and headstrong, carving her own path despite not having an easy past. My initial opinion of the book being just another romance novel did a complete 180. Domestic violence is not often spoken of, and Hoover allows the reader to see why the situation is never as black and white as people on the outside feel like it should be. My heart broke with Lily and even for Ryle. We are all influenced by our pasts, both good and bad. I have recommended this book many times already and will continue to do so.

Lydia: 5/5

This book broke me, then put me back together, and then broke me all over again! I am a sucker for a Colleen Hoover novel and this one did not disappoint. It’s extraordinarily sad to read what Lily has to endure but it was refreshing to see how Hoover wrote her character and how the audience can grow with her. When writing on such sensitive subject matter, you have to be very careful not to cross the line, but to also make it as realistic as possible in order to speak to your reader. That is what I liked about reading this book. Hoover shows you the sad realities of domestic violence and tough childhoods and what that can lead to. 

This book is vulnerable and honest and I would recommend it a thousand times over – Just make sure you have a box of tissues available. 

Megan: 3/5

Romance is not a genre that I gravitate towards. The first few pages of this book reminded me why. I may have rolled my eyes a few times at the various physical descriptions of Ryle. However, the further I got into the book, the more I got sucked into the story. It was not at all what I was expecting.

Hoover does a good job writing about abuse and the struggles that the victim goes through dealing with it. Lily starts by justifying it because of the type of relationship her parents showed her. I loved reading her progress in coming to the realization that she has the power to make her own decisions and not follow the example that was left to her. There were times that the book was hard to read, as the author didn’t hold back in her descriptions. I did appreciate how she wrote some of the characters. Despite being family, there were those individuals who didn’t make excuses for Ryle’s behaviour and were there for Lily when she needed help.

This is the first Colleen Hoover book that I’ve read. With this not being my normal genre, I do think that I’ll pick up another one of her books in the future. This book was well written and it talked about a very difficult topic without trivializing or glorifying it.

Sharaya : 4/5

I feel like this is walking the line of spoilers, as there is nothing on the back of the book to indicate this aspect of the novel, but I believe that it is worth mentioning.  This book deals heavily with domestic violence and generational abuse.  Please be aware of that when you decide to pick this one up.  Hoover does approach this book with considerable care and does an excellent job of exploring the complexities of this topic.

This was my first Colleen Hoover book as I’m not typically found in the romance section (especially romances set in recent decades).  I like some spice in my books, definitely, but I prefer when it is a constructive, but not central plotline. And I don’t appreciate shallow sex scenes with no emotional intimacy that do nothing to move the plot forward (besides towards more sex because that IS the plot).  Just not my thing. So I was a little curious of what I would think of this romance (and tbh, I was also a little worried that I wouldn’t like Lydia’s #1 Favourite Author).  However, as I outlined in the beginning of my review, this book had an added layer of depth and seriousness that I did not expect and brought this book to another level for me.  Having not experienced domestic abuse in even a tertiary way, I have a hard time understanding why someone would stay in a situation like that.  After reading this book, I do feel like I have a better empathy and understanding for the tension and struggles that are involved.  Who knew I would learn something from a “fluffy romance novel”?! And for that reason, I would recommend this book to others who are not romance readers. 

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