After talking to my sister and seeing many posts on social media about Colleen Hoover books, it seemed appropriate that my next book review would be a book written by Colleen Hoover. I asked my sister to pick what books she would like to read, then I would order them, read them, review them and then give them to her to read. She chose two very popular Colleen Hoover books. I chose to read It Ends With Us first.
I don't even know where to start with this book. From start to finish, I was hooked. I read it in a few days and could not put it down. The characters were intense. Colleen Hoover did not hold back with this one. It was so well written and I was engaged the entire time. There were parts of the novel that I had my hand covering my mouth because I was in shock with what I was reading. There were parts of the novel that my chest felt tight because I felt anxious what the characters' were experiencing. There were parts of the novel that felt relatable but also parts that I was not able to relate to. Those that have dealt with or know of someone who has dealt with domestic violence, this story hits all levels of that. Colleen Hoover delivers it as if she was writing from personal experience. Maybe she has, or maybe she hasn't, but it is very well done.
Have you ever loved, hated and felt sorry for one character all at once. That was what I felt about one of the main characters, Ryle Kincaid. I won't go into too many details because I do not want to give any spoilers, but Ryle's character was completely fascinating, confusing, and infuriating. I was so mad at him, but loved him too. There were parts I wanted to cry for him. So many emotions for one character. Lily who is the narrator of this novel, is brilliant, passionate, sweet, friendly, and incredibly brave. She was brave as a teenager, and she was brave 10 years later.
Throughout the story, Lily writes letters to Ellen Degeneres. I loved that. It was a way to connect her present time to her past. I can relate because I loved writing letters in a journal growing up as well. But I would just write the letters to myself. Lily as a teenager writes the letters to Ellen as if she's telling Ellen everything that is going on in her life. Lily went through A LOT for a 15 year old. I could not imagine having the life she had. And even the life her friend Atlas had too. But their friendship is beautiful. Atlas came back into Lily's life and stirred things up a bit. There is a line he says to Lily, that I literally put my hand to my chest and my heart melted. I was told that there is a second part to this story. I look forward to reading that, and hope there is a lot more Atlas in it. Lily deserves Atlas. ***UPDATE: I just looked it up, when part 2 is available to buy and it will be available on October 18, 2022. It is confirmed that there will be A LOT MORE ATLAS, and I am very excited about that. The title of part 2 is It Starts With Us and apparently is through the perspectives of both Lily and Atlas. YAY! Who wants to read this book with me?!?
For most of the book, I struggled to understand the meaning of the title "It Ends With Us". The events happening in the story were not lining up to what I thought the title meant. It wasn't until the very end of chapter 35, that it was revealed to me. It all made sense. I ended the book saying "ohhhhhh, the title makes sense now". Like I said before, hooked from the beginning to the end. Lily's character changes so much. I'm not really sure the timeline of the events or how long it all took place. Definitely a few years. The epilogue adds more time to that too. I might have to look that up. Between chapters, there's a good amount of time that passes. It took me a bit to catch on to the quick time jumps especially since some of the chapters were super short (35 chapters, an Epilogue and 367 pages).
If you are interested in an intense, emotional, fast paced novel, than this is the novel for you. It is so well written, the characters are addicting, and Lily is such an incredible role model. It is by far one of the best books I have ever read. If you have read this or will read this, let me know. I wanna share thoughts. Especially, on the character Ryle. I'm curious if others have the same mixed feelings about him as I had.
Thank you so much for reading!
Susana
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