It Ends With Us

It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover

This was not the book I expected, but that’s okay.  I expected something a little more “thriller” after reading her book Verity.  That is not what this is.  

Trigger warning – domestic violence.

The Premise: This is the story of Lily and the two loves of her life.  Her first love, Atlas, whom she met when she was 15.  They became great friends and fell in love, each helping the other overcome burdens no child should carry. But as is common with young love, circumstances intervened. Atlas had to move away, and they each had to grow up and lead their own lives. 

Lily meets her 2nd love, Rile on a rooftop.  Just a brief encounter until she meets him again a year later.  It turns out Rile is the brother of Lily’s lovely new friend and employee.

Rile and Lily are made for each other – they fall head over heels in love.  Everything is going great, until maybe it isn’t.

Hoover does an awesome job showing how easy it is to excuse behaviors and forgive someone you love for hurting you.  If you’ve ever known a victim of domestic abuse and wondered “why does she stay?”, then pick up this book.  This is a lovely book about trauma and mental illness. “Lovely” may seem like an odd choice of words, but I think it fits.  This book is about human emotion, frailty and proves that good people do bad things.

While it was not at all what I expected it to be, I thoroughly enjoyed it.