It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover

 

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 where she grew up—she graduated from college, moved to Boston, and started her own business. And when she feels a spark with a gorgeous neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, everything in Lily’s life seems 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.

I am sure I am one of the last booklovers to pick up It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover and yet although I have seen it everywhere I managed to avoid all spoilers so I went into this one with no expectations other than expecting it to blow my socks off with the amount of praise it has received.

Lily Bloom didn’t have the easiest childhood and we begin to build a picture of her younger years through her diaries. She always dreamed of opening her own flower shop and through hard work and being Brave and Bold she made her dream come true. Life is looking up for Lily and when she hires her first employee who becomes her best friend and through her she didn’t expect to be reunited with someone she met briefly. As she opens her heart too when she meets Ryle, a career focused handsome man but what looks like a perfect relationship on the outside soon begins to feel like history repeating itself on the inside.

This wasn’t the breezy read I was half expecting to find inside this book is packed with hard hitting trauma and what I appreciate the most is the way the author has dealt with tough situations in such a raw, dignified and honest way rather than sugar coating it. It really raises awareness and gives insight into abuse and how your mind jumps through different thought processes from anger to hurt to then forgiveness and self-blame too.

For me the ending of this book is what really stood out for me and one that is praiseworthy, I never expected the book to end the way it did and now knowing there is another book that follows on to this one I am intrigued to see where this storyline heads next.