Hey friends!
Sorry this is coming a bit late! This moving thing has completely thrown me off of just about everything lol.
It’s time!
Over the last two weeks, Amanda recommended some books to me and I picked one to read, and now, my friends, it’s time to share my thoughts on the book that I picked!
The book:
Title: It Ends With Us
Author: Colleen Hoover
Publication Date: August 2, 2016
Genre(s): NA, Romance, Contemporary
Source: Library
Pages: 376
Add to Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository
Synopsis
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
So, Colleen Hoover was definitely an author I was a bit nervous to dive in to. I’ve seen several reviewers praise her works and plenty tear them to shreds.
It Ends With Us is a book that started off a bit shaky for me. About 20% of the way in I was cringing a bit and noting several things that were red flags and extremely problematic.
That being said, I ended up liking this one a lot more than I was initially anticipating.
TW/CW: Domestic violence, attempted sexual assault
What I Liked:
I like how Hoover presents the relationships in this book. Though there were things in the first half of the book that were problematic and enough to give me some serious red flags, by the end of the story everything was addressed.
The way Lily’s relationship progressed felt incredibly realistic, as was the way she handled the situation.
One thing I really want to applaud was how everything was resolved. Personally, I felt like it could have been more punitive, but other than that, I was pretty happy.
What I Disliked:
I felt like the abuser in this book got off a bit too easily and was given way too much of a pass.
I know that this is a work of fiction, and the safety of the abused is the most important, but I also felt like the ending gave the abuser way too much of a pass.
Also, as I mentioned before, some bits at the beginning that were just incredibly problematic. Some played into the later abuse, but some did not.
Lastly, there was a big reveal from Ryle’s pass that kind of made me roll my head. I don’t know, it seemed a bit too dramatic and out there that I had trouble sympathizing with it and him. Maybe that’s just because I’m a bit cynical.
Final Thoughts:
I went into this book expecting it to be okay or fine but was pleasantly surprised with the narrative I read. This wasn’t a book that completely blew my mind, but I did end up liking and I can see why other readers like it too.
If you like realistic contemporaries and/or hard-hitting books, this is one for you.
Coffee Cocktails & Books 📖 
2 thoughts on “Summer Blogger Promo Tour // Week 5 (Book Review)”