Colleen Hoover is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Slammed, This Girl, Point of Retreat, Hopeless, Losing Hope, Finding Cinderella, Maybe Someday, Ugly Love, Maybe Not, Confess, and November 9. She lives in Texas with her husband and their three boys. She asks you to visit her at ColleenHoover.com.
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, and maybe even a little arrogant. He's also sensitive, brilliant, and has a total soft spot for Lily, but Ryle's complete aversion to relationships is disturbing. 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. With this bold and deeply personal novel, Colleen Hoover delivers a heart-wrenching story that breaks exciting new ground for her as a writer. It Ends with Us is an unforgettable tale of love that comes at the ultimate price.
To start with the positives—Hoover's writing surely is addictive. This story is super personal, as described in the author's note at the end of the story. There is power in the prose because it is so personal. Hoover is able to tap into emotions and complications of people who have been in Lily's situation, because of her proximity to these types of stories. I don't want to take anything away from the personal power of the story, the necessity of these types of stories, or the power of Hoover's prose. My biggest critiques come in the form of wondering about the craft and structure of the novel.
I found myself with more questions than answers. The first being, why structure the novel in such a way? The letters, specifically, that take readers into the past, feel immature and outdated. She wrote letters to Ellen DeGeneres, all the way until she was sixteen years old, in order to process her emotions living in a household wrecked by domestic violence. These letters felt immature, simply because I found it hard to believe a teenage girl would maintain a childish whim for so long. There seemed to be so much more potential in incorporating alternating chapters of Lily's present life with Ryle and her previous life with Atlas. This would have felt much more mature, revealed information in a way that maintained suspense during all times of the novel (not just when Hoover needed to increase tension at specific moments), and overall would have heightened the reading experience.
The second question I had was in regards to Ryle's character. I felt like there was a lot left untapped, specifically in the moment where he and Allysa reveal why Ryle is as aggressive as he is. Because this goes back to the first moment readers and Lily are introduced to Ryle, there could have been a more extended conversation and exploration of Ryle's past. Lily's past we get a whole look at, through her letters. I wanted more of that from Ryle. To clarify, not as a way to learn about his "excuses" and to see how he'd further "validate" his behavior—because that behavior cannot be excused or validated. I would have liked this look as a way to even further complicate everything, and to keep readers truly invested in Lily's future decision.
Similarly, I wanted to see more of Lily's decision to keep her baby. In light of everything going on today, I suppose that's why that's of specific interest to me. This was published years ago (2016 feels like ages ago), and yet I think even one could have said then that there seems no question that she would keep her kid after what Ryle did to her. The fact that there was no question, no exploration of a sort of decision like that, is saddening to me, because it does feel like a way to not complicate the storyline or the characters. This lack of complication of certain elements, while being fine to expand upon others and drag out the story, is what makes for a frustrating experience to me. I can see how Hoover's writing is addictive, but it feels not as developed and polished as it can be, with little concern for how some of this can affect readers' reading experience.
With all of this in mind, and also knowing how this book can be harmful to specific readers because of the way it's marketed and marked (no preface, "a romance that's not really a romance"), I unfortunately would not want to recommend this to friends, and must leave it all here at two stars.
For more from Colleen Hoover, visit her at ColleenHoover.com.
*This review can also be found on my Goodreads page*
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