It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover
5 stars!!
“There is no such thing as bad people. We’re all just people who sometimes do bad things.”
So, this is what the morning after the night before feels like… no I was not wasted on alcohol or drugs (I’m tee-total and never touched drugs in my life) but this is an all new experience for me, a serious major book hangover. This was a book that brought me to my knees, both literally and figuratively. A book that was so all-consuming I could not put it down, not for one second. If I wasn’t reading it, I was listening to it.
“Just keep swimming.”
This is the book that kept me awake for most of the night as what transpired on those pages was dissected and analysed piece by piece. As my thoughts, feelings, opinions and emotions were spun around in my brain like a washing machine on full spin. These were the characters that never left me alone for a minute while my heart broke and my head hurt multiple, multiple times. This book was seriously that good and extremely thought provoking. This is a book that deserves to be read.
“Everything is Better In Boston.”
Colleen Hoover never ceases to amaze me. She is one of the few authors that I insist on going in blind, no synopsis, no reviews, nothing. She is the one author that I can guarantee will dazzle me with her natural, gifted talent. Writing that is pure, emotional, thought provoking, mesmerising, honest and multi layered. Layers upon layers of beautiful prose that you cannot help be consumed by and characters that are so realistic, so relatable that they consume you from first to last word. I lived and breathed It Ends with Us, raw, unadulterated story-telling at its finest. Colleen Hoover went above and beyond with this one, this was from the heart, from life experiences, I felt the honesty, the pain, the passion, every word, every sentence, every paragraph, every page, every chapter was written in Colleen Hoover’s blood and you knew it and you most definitely felt it. This was Colleen Hoover in words. This woman who is the epitome of humble, selfless, generous put herself out there and it is one book that I will never, ever, forget.
“…I have never felt this alone. This broken. This angry. This hurt.”
Lily Bloom was a stunning character, like Colleen Hoover herself, she was selfless and humble. She put others before herself, her personality was intoxicating and Colleen Hoover did an amazing job bringing her to life. While her story definitely has its ups and downs, Lily dealt with them maturely and with all the best intentions, while trying to keep herself and everyone else around her happy. Heart breaking decisions that were tough to make and harder to break, but made her stronger. Lily was a woman that learned from past mistakes, made by herself and those around her, she soaked up life experiences like a sponge and her positivity and empathy made her the woman she was. She was endearing, lovable she was just darn perfect.
“One monumental life-changing thing at a time. Got it.”
This is not a love triangle, far from it. This is a story about a woman that has only ever loved twice, and when she loves, she loves completely. Atlas was her first love, a boy that had nothing but gave everything. A boy that was her best friend, her confidante, her boyfriend until life wrenched him away. He had to do what he had to do but it didn’t make his loss any easier to take.
“You saved my life, Lily…And you weren’t even trying.”
Ryle, I adored him, despite his flaws, he was a man that wanted to be better, to be the man that Lily deserved. He had never loved, never wanted to, nor thought he deserved it, but meeting Lily changed everything, she was his game changer. What he had always thought was out of reach he grabbed with both hands. He loved hard, he loved fierce, he was passionate, protective and just a stunning human being, but even the biggest diamond has its imperfections.
“It’ll destroy him for life, that’s what it’ll do.”
The naked truth? Colleen Hoover destroyed me, one scene in particular I have running around my head on repeat and as I am sitting here typing I have streams and streams of tears running down my face. As much as I was uplifted and totally consumed by Lily’s story I had a deep sense of foreboding throughout. What I thought would happen, didn’t, thankfully, but having that in the back of mind constantly only added to my sense of unease and with each page turned I felt more and more sick. But and this is a huge BUT, nothing could have prepared me for how this book turned out. Definitely the right ending, but the raw, emotional out pouring onto those pages decimated me. My heart physically ached, I was distraught and at the end I wanted more. It may have ended with It Ends with Us (that title is PERFECT, the meaning behind it, gah, brought me to tears yet again) but all these characters have more to give, more life lessons to make and I’m hoping that Colleen Hoover can find it in her emotional arsenal to write more.
“It stops here. With me and you. It ends with us.”
Once again I bow down to the greatness that is Colleen Hoover, how can I read a book after that?
“You can stop swimming now, Lily. We finally reached the shore.”
It Ends with Us
4.7 | 384,226 ratings
Price: 17.71
Last update: 01-11-2025
Top reviews from the United States
DonnaC
One of my favourite CoHo books, amazing!!
Reviewed in the United States on August 3, 2016
AmazonCustomer
A powerful and eye opening read that's a MUST for anyone.
Reviewed in the United States on August 31, 2016
AmazonCustomer
Reviewed in the United States on August 31, 2016
It Ends With Us is about a girl named Lily. She’s had a troubling childhood, but that’s not to say that there weren’t some good moments. As it goes though, it ends too quickly and she finds herself in her twenties, moving to Boston, and dreams of starting her own business. Needing a quite space Lily hunts for a quite rooftop and ends up meeting a guy named Ryle. Instantly there’s a connection. As introductions are made she finds out that he’s a neurosurgeon who’s dedicated to his job and at becoming the best in his field. She too reveals things about herself that she would never normally confess to a complete stranger, but they begin to develop an honest line of communication with these “naked truths.” This pulls them closer together and Lily knows that this could be a whirlwind romance and she’s not ready for it so they agree to take things slow. But as her and Ryle get to know each other better Lily can’t help but think back to her first love, Atlas. Homeless, Atlas stumbled into the abandoned house behind hers and this is where things got intense and deep really quick. We see pieces of him appear daily and it seems that he’s left breadcrumbs trailed throughout her life. So when he reappears it threatens what Lily and Ryle have built.
This is all I’m going to say about the plot. Like I said, I don’t want to spoil anything for you, but what I can do is talk about how amazing and real these characters are. First up, Lily. I loved that we were able to flip between her past written as journal entries to Ellen (yes that Ellen) and her present. It was so well done because something with this type of flashback and be distracting or confusing, but this was quite the opposite. It was enjoyable and revealed more of Lily’s character each time. She’s such a strong character and I was so proud of her when she took the leap of faith and started her own business especially because it was something that she had been dreaming of. One key to her success was a girl named Allysa. An incredible friendship formed between these two. It was easily to see why with Allysa because she’s funny, goofy, a huge supporter, and honest. My favorite line from her mouth was that she is a “Pinterest whore.” It killed me. What girl in her teen-mid twenties isn’t?! Ryle was quite the rollercoaster for me. At first I swooned and adored him, then something changed. He became a character I detested and it was crazy to watch the 180 degree flip, but I also felt bad about it. You’ll see why, but Atlas. Sweet sweet Atlas. He’s got to be one of my favorite male characters ever! Like I said, he was sweet, thoughtful, kind, and filled with so much love. The relationship between him and Lily developed slowly and quite innocently and as it progressed it turned into something so deep that it was overpowering and charged.
Now there were moments when I found things to be a little too predictable, but like a good CoHo book there was a shocking twist ahead. I didn’t see it coming. It punched me in the gut. I wanted to be wrong. I cried. It made me angry that this whole situation happened. I found myself questioning morals and IT. WAS. HARD. What was amazing though was that CoHo was able to weave moments of love, laughter, and swoon worthy moments into all of the heaviness. Just when your heart can’t take any more the ending hits you. It leaves you stunned and wanting more, but the ending is perfect. And the authors note at the end punched me in the gut. Don’t skip ahead. This MUST be saved for last. You can yell at me later.
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