It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover

Synopsis:

This is a fiction book about Lily Bloom. She is twenty-three years old and moves to Boston to start her own floral shop. Lily grew up in a household with a father who was physically abusive towards her mother and was resentful towards her father and towards her mother for staying with him.

Atlas is her childhood friend and first love who also grew up in a household with an abusive parent. Lily first meets Ryle, a neurosurgeon, the night of her father’s funeral and they begin dating. The first time Ryle hits Lily, he apologizes and Lily tells him if it happens again she will leave him. One night while at a restaurant with Ryle, Lily discovers that Atlas is the owner and head chef there and reconnects with him which makes Ryle jealous. Atlas sees Lily’s bruised eye and Ryle’s bandaged hand and finds out Ryle is abusing her and begs Lily to leave Ryle.

Eventually, Lily and Ryle get married. After they are married, Ryle finds Atlas’s number in Lily’s phone and pushes her down the stairs. He also reads her childhood diaries and believes she is having an affair with Atlas and attempts to rape her, knocking her to unconscious when she tries to defend herself. After Lily wakes up, she escapes the house and calls Atlas and Atlas takes her to the hospital. Lily finds out at the hospital that she is pregnant with Ryle’s child but keeps it a secret from him.

Lily tells her mother about the abuse, and her mother begs Lily to leave Ryle and not make the same mistakes she did. Lily ends up telling Ryle about the baby and gives birth to a daughter, whom she names Emerson, after Ryle’s brother that died. After giving birth to her daughter, Lily tells Ryle she wants a divorce. She asks him what he would say to their daughter if she was being abused by her partner. Lily leaves Ryle to break the cycle of abuse.

Review:

This is a very powerful and thought-provoking book. I loved the character of Lily and her courage and bravery it took her to finally leave Ryle and break the cycle of abuse.

“And as hard as this choice is, we break the pattern before the pattern breaks us.”

“Preventing your heart from forgiving someone you love is actually a hell of a lot harder than simply forgiving them.”

“Just because someone hurts you doesn’t mean you can simply stop loving them. It’s not a person’s actions that hurt the most. It’s the love. If there was no love attached to the action, the pain would be a little easier to bear.”

“Maybe love isn’t something that comes full circle. It just ebbs and flows, just in and out, just like the people in our lives.”

“Cycles exist because they are excruciating to break. It takes an astronomical amount of pain and courage to disrupt a familiar pattern. Sometimes it seems easier to just keep running in the same familiar circles, rather than facing the fear of jumping and possibly not landing on your feet.”