It Ends with Us
‘’Sometimes the one who loves you is the one who hurts you the most’’
This was one of the first big bookstagram books that I read because of the hype around the book. I don’t even know where to begin with this review. So ill start by congratulating Colleen Hoover on making me cry at a novel. I am very fortunate in my life to never have experienced any of the trauma detailed in this book, but this book gave me such a great insight into the world of domestic violence.
Before I head into the reasons why I love this book, I'll get the few annoyances out of the way early on in. The first one isn’t so much an annoyance, but more a personal dislike. The letters. Yup, the ones to Ellen? I mean, that’s odd, right? They are a creative method of writing but why her? I would have liked it as much if they were diary entries. Other than that, the rest were just minor things like the unrealistic job sign in the window, and small peeves as opposed to big flaws. My previous review of another Hoover book, Verity, had issues with the consistency of the story, but that’s something that this story is very good at and I'm glad to see that it wasn't an issue with the author as opposed to the story.
So onto the positive parts, I started this book straight after reading Verity, as I was so hoping to give Colleen Hoover a second chance. And she didn’t disappoint. I enjoyed the start of this book, the way they met was refreshing with its twist on the romantic story, it's not a typical boy meets girl. I did really like Ryle as he wasn’t your typical romantic guy and felt that their meetings being unconventional added to the style of this story.
I don't even know what to write about the twist, wow I was so winded by that. When the story came out about his brother and the blackout it left me even more winded as I didn’t know how I was meant to feel. Even though Ryle was arrogant and stubborn, I did really like his character. Why do I find the scene where he goes to her house begging for sex, and then falls asleep so cute? It should be weird and annoying? Must be the scrubs. But overall this story and his character made me sad because I didn’t know how I should feel. I wanted it to work, as they have such passion and fire in them but realistically this wasn’t going to work with his job not to mention the elephant in the room.
“Lily,” he said pointedly. “There is no such thing as bad people. We’re all just people who sometimes do bad things”
And then there’s Atlas, oh Atlas. I loved him from the moment I met him. But when he reappears, it threw my heart into places I didn't know fictional characters could send it. It was panic, confusion, love and more confusion mixed into one. In the beginning, I wasn’t sure what his character added to this book, and at first, I was confused as to why this was needed when the romantic parts were already covered by Ryle and Lily. But when he appeared it all made such sense and I found that his background made me fall in love with him. I could go on and on about how great the interactions are but I don't want to spoil it. I’m very excited to learn that a new book it starts with us, which is atlas and Lily's story Is coming out this August.
‘’In the future…if by some miracle you ever find yourself in the position to fall in love again…fall in love with me’’
Overall, I adore this book, for so many reasons but mostly for the way it ended. The ending might be one of my all-time favourites because it wasn’t the cliche that I thought it was going to be, but it also isn’t the bitter ending It could have been. I never expected to love it, but I really did.
Characters:
Lily; I found lily character hard to feel anything for in the beginning. I did have a small annoyance at everything falling into place with her shop, the neurosurgeon and the flat. But as the story developed I liked her, the strength in the ending made me re-look over her character from the beginning and I liked her. It was hard to get a picture in my head of her as there isn’t a big description of her looks.
Ryle: where do I begin? I love him, even after everything I still really like his character. He is a very strong male leading character. I know readers are meant to hate him after the ‘incident’ but I felt like I fell more in love because of the way it developed. His character is very clear from the beginning and consistent throughout. He was very easy to picture, and the scrubs defiantly helped.
Atlas: atlas doesn’t form as a person until 2/3 of the way through the book, but by the time he does appear you already know everything about him and already love him. Again, there isn’t a great explanation of his character but you do form a very good idea of how he would look and act because of the explanations given about his character.
Allysa: she is Ryle's sister and becomes Lily's best friend. I know she isn’t mentioned in my review, but I feel like she deserves a mention as she is technically a main character. She’s very fun and bubbly and I like her charter's involvement and discussion at the end. I won't ruin it but it is a name that will come up a lot in the book.