It Ends With Us

by Colleen Hoover

[whisperingchapters]

This review was originally posted on Latte Nights Reviews.


I went into It Ends with Us having read the dedication and knowing that it dealt with a very serious issue, such as abuse. Knowing what I knew, I wasn't so surprised on a few things that happened. Unfortunately, starting off, I didn't have any emotional connection towards the story and I felt so bad! As I kept reading, I found myself slowly starting to feel until I reached the point of having an emotional connection with Lily and the story itself. When I read the author's note at the end, it changed everything for me. I mean, I read the dedication so I just knew. But reading the details of that dedication broke my heart and I viewed this story in a different light.

Lily is a character that goes for what she wants and she won't stop until she gets it. She opened a flower shop that's so very unique and if I ever find one like hers, I'm definitely making tons of purchases. Sadly, I didn't feel any connection with her through half of the book. I do have to admit that Lily and I agreed on the male characters. When Ryle appeared for the first time, I was taken aback by him, just as Lily was. I was so intrigued by his personality and I couldn't wait to find out more of him. I even fell for this guy's charm. He was so easy to like and it was easy to understand why Lily felt so attracted to him. Things aren't always what they seem and when they came to light in the story, Lily and I suffered the harshness of it all. And that's when I felt for Lily so much.

Lily would write in journals when she was younger and in this book, Colleen takes you inside those journals and it's how we meet Atlas. I wasn't sure what to expect from him, but boy did I ended up falling for him as well. He's someone that Lily helped without a second thought when he needed it the most. From there, they became really close until they fell in love in their teens. After not having heard from each other for years, he appears in Lily's life and that's when things got interesting and the plot started to thicken. I wish I had more of Atlas in the present time. He used to be such a huge part of Lily's life, that I wanted to learn more about him now.

Colleen moved the story in a direction I was not expecting. I do wish that things had been done slightly differently in the way the story was told. I felt like a lot of things happened way too fast! There wasn't much of an element of surprise when the tip of the iceberg broke very early on. I feel if it had been done slow, with a warning here, another warning there, and later on in the story go for the full effect of things, then I would have been so emotionally invested in the story. Still, I'm glad I was able to feel something.

This book opens your eyes to an issue that sometimes we don't understand. Hell, many times during the book I wanted to shake Lily, even in the after of things. But when I read the author's note and Colleen very specifically said not everything is black and white and went into details, that's when my eyes opened and I felt a little bit of understanding towards what so many go through with abuse. Of course, I can never put myself in those shoes. All we can do is not judge a person's thoughts or decisions and simply be there for them.

Overall, It Ends with Us is emotional, it will change the way you view all types of abuse, and it will be impacting, especially after you read the author's note (so don't forget to read it because you need to).This review was originally posted on Latte Nights Reviews.