It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover - 5 Stars and a <3

[Regina Lindsey]

by Colleen Hoover - 5 Stars and a <3

Lilly, an aspiring flower shop owner, and Ryle, a rising neurosurgeon, meet on a rooftop of a Boston apartment building one evening after they've both experienced stressful days. Starting a game of what will become known as "naked truths" they confide in each, allowing each to work through the day's issues and, ultimately, get to know each other. Most importantly, they discover they each want different things out of life. She is looking for her "Holly Grail," relationship and he, while admitting an attraction, has sworn off relationships of any sort. Parting, they think they will go their separate ways until Lilly's path crosses Ryle's sister's, and the two become instantaneous best-fiends. As Lilly and Ryle's relationship blossoms (pardon the pun) Lilly revisits her high school journals and reflects on falling in love for the first time while witnessing an abusive relationship between her parents.

NEVER IN A MILLION, GAZILLION, BILLION, JILLION YEARS WOULD I HAVE THOUGHT I WOULD LIKED THIS. I hesitated to give any synopsis because if someone had described the book to me or characters I really would have rolled my eyes and passed. There was even a moment during the courtship phase I almost put it aside. But it was picked for book club, and I'm all in at book club right now.

I'm not giving anything away because you realize very early that the book is about domestic abuse. But, this isn't a cut and dry, good vs. evil kind of tale of two-dimensional characters. "There is no such thing as bad people. We're all just people who sometimes do bad things." The characters are very well drawn psychologically even if on the surface their actions might not seem believable. Yeah, I know what you're thinking. I don't care what she does or what his excuse is that behavior is unacceptable. I agree. But, Hoover digs deeper and gets into the mind of the victim. If you have ever cared for someone who was in an abusive relationship or witnessed one and screamed, ether figuratively or literally, "WHY DO YOU STAY?!" this gives you a peek into what you might not understand. Hoover is not trying to defend abusers. So, don't let that dissuade you from reading it. It is more in the vein of early Jodi Picoult books without the alternative perspectives and better writing. Much better writing; it's raw and emotional, haunting, sad, and beautiful."