Review of It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
DESCRIPTION
Sometimes it is the one who loves you who hurts you the most.
Lily hasn’t always had it easy, but that’s never stopped her from working hard for the life she wants. She’s come a long way from the small town in Maine where she grew up
— she graduated from college, moved to Boston, and started her own business. So when she feels a spark with a gorgeous neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, everything in Lily’s life suddenly seems almost too good to be true.
Ryle is assertive, stubborn, maybe even a little arrogant. He’s also sensitive, brilliant, and has a total soft spot for Lily. And the way he looks in scrubs certainly doesn’t hurt. Lily can’t get him out of her head. But Ryle’s complete aversion to relationships is disturbing. Even as Lily finds herself becoming the exception to his “no dating” rule, she can’t help but wonder what made him that way in the first place.
As questions about her new relationship overwhelm her, so do thoughts of Atlas Corrigan — her first love and a link to the past she left behind. He was her kindred spirit, her protector. When Atlas suddenly reappears, everything Lily has built with Ryle is threatened.
REVIEW
“Fifteen seconds. That’s all it takes to completely change everything about a person. Fifteen.”
I am utterly wrecked. WRECKED.
How many of us can think of a person we care for that has done wonderful and terrible things? All. Of. Us. How many of us have excused those terrible things with the wonderful things? All. Of. Us. Why do we give these people hall passes for their bad actions because we know they’re capable of good? Everyone is capable of good. Those people shouldn’t be allowed a pass for doing what we are all capable of.
This book closely examines what it is to love the person who hurts you the most and navigating that hurt. How many of us have wondered what goes through the head of a victim of abuse? How many of us have heard, “Why don’t they just leave them?” or “I would never allow that to happen to me.” How many of us have thought those words ourselves? I like to think I’m at a place in my life that I don’t allow myself to judge in this manner or make these assumptions. But I know I am guilty of speaking these words in the past. And I know I can look at the person I love most in the world and cannot honestly tell you what I would do if I were faced with the type of abuse portrayed in this book.
This is my first Colleen Hoover novel and I knew going into this that it would affect me deeply. Well. This is one of those books that can change you. I constantly found myself a confused bundle of emotions through much of this book and I am so damn grateful for it all.
I too was charmed by and came to love a certain character. At one point I WANTED them to be redeemed. But then I thought: Why does this character deserve to be redeemed? They don’t. I love redemption plots. There are some really wonderful characters out there that have been given and deserve redemption. But guys, some characters don’t deserve redemption. Perhaps this character received a modicum if redemption toward the end but damnit he had to work for it and he is going to suffer for every second and inch of it he is allowed.
This book is beautiful and poignant and absolutely one of the best things I’ve ever read. It’s also one of the most devastating and emotionally gutting things I’ve ever read. I hope I never forget it.
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Library in the Country 
Wow! This sounds like an incredible book! The Five People You Meet in Heaven had similar feels for me, have you read that?
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