It Ends With Us
Summary
Lily has always been determined to build the life she wants, despite the challenges she’s faced. She’s come a long way from her small-town roots in Maine, graduating from college, moving to Boston, and starting her own business. When she meets the charismatic and brilliant neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid, it feels like everything is falling into place. However, Ryle’s reluctance to commit to a relationship raises doubts in Lily’s mind. As she tries to navigate her feelings for Ryle, she can’t help but be drawn back to memories of her first love, Atlas Corrigan. When Atlas reappears in her life, the stability she’s found with Ryle is put at risk, leaving Lily torn between her past and her present.
Colleen Hoover’s ‘It Ends With Us’ has become a household name among readers, taking their reading experience by storm as is evident all over social media, book communities, readers, bookstores, literally everywhere! On the surface, it might look like your typical romance novel. But it is much more than that. The book explores the traumatic experiences of domestic abuse and violence, weaving together a story of love, resilience, and the will to break free. The book was inspired by Hoover’s mother’s experience and took over Tiktok, amassing a sudden surge of new readers, becoming a New York Times bestseller and Goodreads Choice Award winner.
Lily has just graduated from college and moved to Boston to set up her florist business. Her life hasn’t been easy, and her determined personality is hopeful of a change. In Boston, Lily meets a charming neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid. At first glance, her life suddenly seems perfect. Ryle is funny, assertive, charming, but also caring, smart, and fond of Lily. However, his strong dislike for being in a committed relationship worries her. Even though Lily becomes an exception to his rule, she wonders what in his past made him feel this way. While Lily tries to make sense of her new relationship, her past love – Atlas Corrigan enters the scene and her relationship with Ryle starts to shake, as dire consequences lurk.
Lily is a character readers will instantly sympathize with. Her vulnerability in love and her internal battles between fear and hope will keep one glued to the pages. While we get a character to dearly love, Hoover also makes sure to slowly but gradually unveil the charming antagonist – Ryle Kincaid. Ryle’s charisma draws us in, which makes the reader all the more unprepared for the unsettling revelations. Colleen Hoover explores the emotional turmoil and insecurities that fuel Ryle’s erratic behavior bordering on abuse and violence. In contrast to Ryle’s character, Atlas emerges as calm and stable. As Lily’s first love, he represents a haven, a reminder of the love and freedom she once knew. His presence challenges the choices Lily makes and forces her to confront her desires. Both the main characters are poles apart and soon readers will have to pick one. And then there’s the warm, sweet, smart, and wise Alyssa; who happens to be Ryle’s sister and Lily’s best friend and colleague. Personally, I liked her best.
Even though the majority of the story unfolds in Boston, readers do get glimpses of Lily’s troubled past in her hometown Maine. Her childhood home is described with a bittersweet nostalgia for her parents and the lingering echoes of her first love, Atlas. It is in stark contrast to the chaotic city life she lives in Boston. While Boston offers her everything – fulfilling her dream of owning a flower shop, becoming independent, leaving behind her past, fresh relationships, new love interest, and also, encounters with her former love, Maine becomes the haunt of a traumatic past that she is eager to forget. Boston’s bustling and chaotic atmosphere is metaphoric of the impending chaos and thrill in Lily’s own life. Hoover’s writing can be seen as a deliberate symbolism she tries to paint with these locations.
Hoover’s prose is loved especially for her lyrical, easy-to-read writing that comes together beautifully to narrate the story. Her writing is simplistic and mirrors the everyday language, conversations, and reflections of her readers. Her dialogues and emotive articulations bring out the humane characteristics in her characters, making the prose real, raw, and effective. She takes immense joy in vividly describing the different emotions of joy, sadness, fear, betrayal, and love, through inner dialogues in italics. And hence, there’s a lot of inner dialogue throughout the book. The themes of suicide, domestic violence, unstable and insecure relationships, urge to rebuild an identity, stay mainstream in her story making it an engaging read but these will surely act as triggers for some readers. Beware! Lets face it – the plot of ‘It Ends with Us’ isn’t fresh or free from cliches – but the writing and language set it apart, and that has had Hoover’s readers glued to the pages.
‘It Ends With Us’ is a bold and beautiful novel that goes beyond the boundaries of typical contemporary romance. It is a story of resilience, survival, and the importance of recognizing and breaking free from toxic relationships. While the subject matter is heavy, Hoover’s skillful storytelling and relatable characters make it an engaging read. The story can be a moving read for many; with the events around abuse and violence, but this is intentional – to highlight sensitive issues and how to address them. There’s much to learn and takeaway from the novel as we live in a world where physical abuse and domestic violence are prevalent; now more than ever.
Now a major motion picture starring Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni, and Brandon Sklenar.
Author Profile
Colleen Hoover is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of twenty four novels and novellas. Hoover’s novels fall into the New Adult and Young Adult contemporary romance categories, as well as psychological thriller. Colleen Hoover is published by Atria Books, Grand Central Publishing, Montlake Romance, and HarperCollins Publishers.
In 2015, Colleen’s novel CONFESS won the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Romance. That was followed up in 2016 with her latest title, It Ends With Us, also winning the Choice Award for Best Romance. In 2017, her title WITHOUT MERIT won best romance. Her novel CONFESS has been filmed as a series by Awestruck and is available on Prime Video via Amazon and iTunes. Katie Leclerc and Ryan Cooper star in the series.
Colleen founded The Bookworm Box, a charity bookstore and book signing event, with her family in 2015. The Bookworm Box hosts a book signing (Book Bonanza) each year which features over 200 authors as well as an annual auction to raise funds for food banks and other charities across the nation. To date, The Bookworm Box has donated over $1,000,000 to help those in need.
Have you read ‘It Ends With Us’? What did you think?
