It Starts with Us by Colleen Hoover - 4 stars

[Barbara M]

I really enjoyed hearing more about Atlas and Lily. At the beginning, I was very concerned that Ryle would abuse Lily more. The tension between them was very intense in the first book, and it carried on to this book, too. The book made it clear how important it is to have a good support system.

Each chapter starts with the name of either Atlas or Lily to let you know whose point of view you'll be reading from. Lily has her daughter Emmy to care for and as the book goes on Atlas finds out he has a brother he never knew about. He becomes something of a father figure. This adds a lot of depth to the story. Lily's flower shop tends to take second place in this story, it is more established and doing fine. In this story Atlas's restaurant is the business that comes to the forefront.

The story of the relationship between Atlas and Lily is great. It is almost too good to be true, Atlas is a foil to the character of Ryle. The ending is sweet and encouraging.