It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover
A not romance book about a woman who writes letters to Ellen Degeneres and is in an abusive relationship.
⭐️ ⭐️ .5
Pros: fast read with no deep thinking required
Cons: a tad cheesy, stupid character names, potentially triggering, romanticizing abuse, stupid epistolary plot device
Trigger Warnings: Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Rape
Let me start this out by saying... this was my first Colleen Hoover book and I had no idea what to expect. The only thing I knew for sure was that she is very popular on TikTok and as a natural born contrarian, that had me apprehensive. How many times have I heard a large chunk of the population go on and on about something only for it to suck so entirely that I no longer feel safe in this world? Have we forgotten how much everyone LOVED 50 Shades of Grey? P.O.D.? Avatar?! Have you forgotten, because I know I sure haven't.
All that to say, this book was fine.
If you don't want spoilers, turn back now.
It Ends With Us follows the main character Lily Blossom Bloom - a recent college graduate - as she attempts to open her own flower shop in Boston (yeah) and falls in love with the "perfect" neurosurgeon, Ryle (what?) who ends up abusing her. How fun for a romance novel! As her life with dreamy, abusive Ryle starts to form, she stumbles across a plot device to help move the story along: letters she wrote as a teenager to Ellen DeGeneres.
Why have her looks back over her life be depicted as, oh I don't know... journal entries, dreams or hell, even just reminiscing when you can loop Ellen Degeneres and a Finding Nemo quote in there? C- for thinking outside of the box, I guess.
As she begins to sift through these incredibly cute and not at all embarrassing relics from her past, she is hit with a wave of nostalgia and longing for a boy she knew in her teen years named Atlas (again, these names had me grinding my teeth to dust) and she finds herself in an emotional pickle. I do not remember if she runs into Atlas first and then starts to go through the letters or the other way around but who cares? Let's move on. She does run into Atlas in a restaurant that he owns called BIBS which stands for Better in Boston which is an inside joke between him and Lily. Let's just get this out right now... I'm not eating in a restaurant named after a protective article of baby clothing. It may work if it was like a cajun/seafood restaurant because you need a bib to keep your clothes clean but I digress. She runs into him while on a date with Ryle so that's fun for all parties involved and the memories come flooding back.
Anywho, Lily opens her flower shop with the help of her instant best friend, Allysa, who happens to be Ryle's sister. Love that. She also moves in with and marries Ryle, all while daydreaming about her teenage love, Atlas. If that wasn't toxic enough, Ryle starts being violent with Lily, at one point he - no shit - pushes her down a flight of stairs and then gaslights her by telling her that actually… she fell down the stairs! To make matters worse and more concerning, a few days after this, Lily wanders into her flower shop all bruised, and Alyssa and Ryle are both there to meet her. Upon seeing her, Allysa says "Ryle what did you do to her?" Ma'am?! Hello?
She not only knew her brother is abusive but then turns to him and says, "tell her, she has a right to know, Ryle. She's your wife. If you don't tell her, I will." UH OH INCOMING BOMB DROP She then says to Lily, "I'm not asking you to forgive him, because I have no idea what happened last night. But just please, as my sister-in-law and my best friend, give my brother a chance to talk to you."
Brace yourself for impact because surely, what we are about to learn is going to shatter the earth and cleanse Ryle of any accountability for his actions. Apparently... as a child, Ryle accidentally shot his older brother while playing with a gun in their garage. Casual. He also talks about how he tried to put his head back together because he thought he could fix him. Now he's a neurosurgeon... I want to scream. So yeah, back to the abuse, right? Ryle wraps this up with "I would never tell you this because I want it to excuse my behavior" and "help me, Lily. I need you to help me" which successfully guilts and sways Lily into staying in this abusive relationship because ~i CaN fIx HiM~ No thanks, forever.
Ryle is a criminal and Alyssa is complicit in this, successfully tag teaming Lily Blossom Bloom into staying in an abusive relationship because childhood trauma is in fact a great reason to overlook abuse! I adore this so much!!! WHAT A ROMANCE!
To make matters worse... Lily gets pregnant. Love that and in the midst of all of this, she is getting closer to Atlas, calling on him at least once when she is overwhelmed and needs to get away from her gorgeous, abusive, neurosurgeon husband. At the end, I will say, I am glad that Lily chose to end things with Ryle. With this book being advertised as a romance and all of the events in the book leading up to the crescendo ending, I had zero faith that she would do the right thing and leave him. But… she did so bravo Colleen!
I also will say that the author's note at the end of the book did shed some light on how this story tied into Colleen’s own childhood and her mother's life. I do think it's important to share stories of trauma, abuse, etc. in order to connect and heal... but a romance? Side eye.
ALL OF THIS TO SAY, the writing was simple, the story's progression required minimal effort on my end and to be fair, sometimes you need that. Every now and then it is nice to just shut your brain off and enjoy a ride, even a chaotic, train wreck of a ride through abuse, gaslighting and Ellen Degeneres fan mail.
Her books are very readable but riddled with problems so they are not my thing, but if you enjoy them, I'm happy for you.