Truly a great message behind the book but I had a hard time connecting to it — mainly due to the book’s summary not being a great representative. I wish it would’ve come with trigger warnings and that the last part would’ve been less rushed.
IT ENDS WITH US by Colleen Hoover. Wow! I couldn’t put the book down! What an deeply emotional, heartbreaking and uplifting story filled with drama, romance, family, friendships and deep love. It Ends With Us tackles the difficult subject of Domestic Violence. I laughed, swooned and cried, both sad and happy tears. I couldn’t help falling for all the main characters in the story. It’s a touching story and I was wiping joyful tears as it ended. A note from the author says that this story is different from her previous books. More as realistic fiction, inspired from personal experience, not only to entertain. I highly recommend it, just caution to anyone with triggers on the subject. It had many fun and empowering moments, as well as a hopeful and positive ending, too. I listened to the audiobook and the narrator did an excellent job. I truly enjoyed this story.
This book fell solidly into the “eh, it was okay” category for me. I’m not familiar with Colleen Hoover, but she appears to have quite a following. If you look around, you’ll see a LOT of 5 star reviews for this book. But it just didn’t do it for me.
First, the male lead’s name kept pulling me out of the story. Ryle. Is it pronounced “ry-lee”? Or like “kyle”? Either way, my brain went back and forth every time I read the name and completely distracted me.
We won’t even discuss the ridiculousness of Lily Bloom who wants to open a flower shop. Insert appropriate eye-roll here.
This is essentially a romance with some unhealthy parental relationships, homelessness, and domestic abuse tossed in. It’s a lot. There are a lot of coincidences throwing people together and a lot of problems telegraphed, making the author’s hand feel very heavy. And the ending was too pat by several magnitudes. Though I guess Lily makes the right decision in the end.
I don’t mind picking up a New Adult book from time to time, but I don’t think I’ll be rushing to get more of Hoover’s.
This book was excruciating in every good way. I have never felt so conflicted over a character as I was over Ryle. Definitely a great read for anyone, especially empowering for men or women involved in domestic violence issues.
Wow this book. What an emotional journey. This was one of the hardest and most raw books I’ve ever read. It was so real and riveting. I couldn’t get enough of it. I couldn’t stop reading yet I didn’t want to keep reading. Such a different experience. Reading a Colleen Hoover book is like going through an eye opening journey and this one was no different and was one of the hardest but most worthwhile to battle through. This is an extremely powerful story and it’s not what most people will be expecting. It gets its power from the singular first person narrative and we experience everything through Lily’s eyes. When she falls in love, we fall in love; when her heart is broken, our heart is broken; when she gets it all wrong, so do we.
The way that Colleen Hoover writes puts you right in the situation that Lily is in head first and makes you fall in love with both Ryle and Atlas. And it’s so twisted because of the kind of guy one of them turns out to be. In between this passionate love story that’s going on with Ryle and Lily we get these sweet innocent flashbacks of a life with a sixteen year old Lily and Atlas. Atlas who is this homeless boy who finds hope and a home in Lily. And Lily who is living a nightmare of home life and seeks comfort in him. Those stories were my favorite.
So perfect! I loved these characters, loved their history and their flaws and strengths. And the ending…..I have no words. Beautiful and bittersweet in the same breath. This novel is why CoHo is my favorite author. She tells stories in such a way that it makes you fell every emotion. I highly recommend it!
★★★★ // for the first time, hoover tries to tell a story that is meant to inform and not to merely entertain. i almost gave up on this because i hated the first few chapters, but i’m glad i stuck with it. despite that almost cinematic ending, i was still left with a happy and hopeful feeling for these characters.
A veces, me da por salirme del tipo de lecturas que siempre hago; los géneros que sé son cosa segura y leo libros de un género que me gusta poco o nada, con cero expectativas por supuesto, más si es del género NA o RA y eso que ha habido un par de ocasiones en que este tipo de historias me han gustado o, al menos, no han sido tan malas. Mi historia con Colleen Hoover no es larga ni fea, empecé a ver y escuchar y leer sobre ella hace un par de años y me quedó claro que sería difícil decidirme a leer algo suyo porque:
Libros suyos = DRAMA.
Y del fuerte. Del que odio con todo mi ser. Para no hacer más larga la historia, hace unos meses decidí que iba a leer uno de sus libros, estaba entre éste que hoy reseño y Maybe someday, ganó It ends with us y además ya me estaba decidiendo por ese porque recordé que Aidee me contó de que iba Maybe someday cuando ella lo leyó y que es un dramón gigante. Así pues, leí It ends with us que es el último libro de Colleen y la mayoría de personas parecen coincidir que es su mejor libro hasta ahora.
Me alegra haberlo leído porque ya no tendré la curiosidad de si serán buenos o malos los libros de Colleen Hoover, no me ha disgustado, de hecho me sorprendió mucho que no terminara siendo un bodrio. No me parece una maravilla como muchos afirman, tampoco creo que lea otro libro suyo pronto, quizá nunca lo haga pero ¡ey! no la tendré en la lista negra. Si les gustan los libros del género New Adult estoy segura que les gustara. El nivel de inglés es bastante básico y se lee rápido. Tiene algunas escenas algo fuertes a nivel emocional, aunque no me parecen echas específicamente para hacer llorar al lector. Además, deja un mensaje positivo que, aunque pudo ser incluso mejor, aún así es algo y yo lo apruebo.
This book is amazing! I went into it completely blind and holy crap, I was not expecting that at all. It's so different than her other books. I actually teared up at the end with like never happens!