It Ends With Us is a book published by #1 New York Times Best Selling author Colleen Hoover. Colleen Hoover is known for her young adult romance novels, including one of her most popular ones, It Ends With Us. This review might contain spoilers, but the book has been out for five years so you should expect nothing less. Do keep in mind this is a young ADULT book so it is for mature audiences only.

It Ends With Us was published in 2016 and received great reviews like many of Colleen Hoovers books. The book is about 23 year-old Lily Bloom and Neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid. Ryle isn’t known for dating woman but when he meets Lily Bloom rules gain exceptions.

The book itself is one that will tear your heart to shreds and I promise you’ll be on the edge of every seat in the room. Starting out Lily and Ryle meet in a very strange way. They both find themselves on the roof of Ryle’s apartment building after having a shared horrible day. Immediately Ryle comes off as the type of guy all woman should avoid. But somehow Lily is able to play along with him cooly and they part ways that night for what seems like the last time. As expected in all YA books, Ryle ends up back in her life when Lily unknowingly hires and befriends his sister, Alyssa or as they call her Issa. After encountering Ryle again Lily opens her door soon after to find him quite literally on his knees in front of her after knocking on 29 doors to find which apartment she lived in. Yet again Lily keeps her cool and rejects Ryle because she is focused on long term and is looking for a real relationship, one Ryle has openly admitted he can’t give her.

This back and forth ends when Lily goes to Alyssa and Ryle’s shared apartment for Alyssa’s birthday and see’s a distorted picture of her on the first night her and Ryle met on the rooftop hanging in their apartment. I can admit this all is extremely corny but the book gets far intenser whenever Ryle and Lily finally decide to make it official. One night of too much fun and a few too many drink Ryle picks up a casserole dish directly out of the hot oven with no protection on his hands. Lily finds this funny and it briefly slips her mind that his very important line of work depends on this hand. Once she realizes she stops laughing but it is too late and Ryle has already lost his temper. He pushes her down and she hits her head. He immediately apologizes but the damage is done when Lily has flashbacks to her father beating her mother and her past with abusive relationships. They both take accountability as she pushed him back as well and somehow she finds it in her heart to forgive him.

The next day they go to a restaurant where she see’s her first love, Atlas, who she never thought she would see again after their rocky history. Atlas see’s her head and Ryle’s hand and is able to put two and two together. He confronts Lily about it and the confrontation ends in Ryle and Atlas getting into a physical altercation and Lily and Ryle getting kicked out of the restaurant. The next day Atlas shows up at Lily’s flower shop and apologizes and says he knows whats going on with Ryle and hides his number in Lily’s phone case.

Flash-foward, after only six months of dating Ryle and Lily get married. Thing are great until they aren’t again. This time Ryle takes a step further in her abuse when he find Atlas’s phone number in her case. He breaks her phone and ends up pushes Lily down the stairs. At first he makes it seem as though she fell but she knows that she didn’t fall and tell him this. This causes him to share the fact that when he was a child a deathly mistake made by his parents causes him to kill his older brother. The affects of this is black out anger fits that cause him to abuse Lily. She somehow finds it again in her heart to forgive him and this part had me grimacing. They continue on and Alyssa ends up having a baby and they are married and happy.

This all completely falls apart whenever Ryle finds journals of Lily’s from when she was a teenager and was in love with Atlas. He finds out that the tattoo Lily has on her collarbone is a tattoo to him and the Boston magnet they have on their fridge in their shared apartment is a gift from Atlas. This sends Ryle into a complete black out and drunken rage where he goes so far. He beats and knocks Lily unconscious among many other vile things. This prompts Lily to finally leave him and she then finds out she is pregnant as well.

The books ends with Lily and Ryle having a good co-parenting relationship and her and Atlas end up in a healthy relationship as well.

This book is a great book and while it is full of corny YA stereotypical plot-lines the overall message of the book and the fact that it is loosely based on Colleen Hoover’s father and mother’s abusive relationship makes it one of the best I have ever read and I would recommend it to almost anyone. Do keep in mind this is a young ADULT book so it is for mature audiences only. The book in its initial release received alot of backlash on the way they made Ryle such a likeable character, but I think that is just another one of Hoover’s great story telling skills because that truly is how abuser’s are. They often are charming and what you consider Ryle and his issues is something I can only leave up to you, but I think Hoover portrayed his character perfectly and their relationship despite his deep personal issues and what he did to her, they were able to become great co-parents and their daughter is portrayed as a happy child. I am also glad that it showed her finding love again because I feel like it is common in those who have left their abusers to feel as thought love is a distant no existent kid, but she shows that they are more than that. This book is a great read and most of Colleen Hoover’s books are! Hopefully if you decide to read you enjoy it as much as I did!