It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover Review

very moving and life-changing story

Colleen really did amazing work for this book. Everything in this book was truly beautiful. Lily, Ryle, Atlas, Allysa, Allysa's husband (sorry I forgot his name), Lily's mom, Ellen DeGeneres, and even Dory from Finding Dory. I felt in love with Ryle just like Lily did and I really feel how deep Ryle's love to Lily. 

“It stops here. With me and you. It ends with us.”

Actually, before I read this book, I feel like the title is cliche. Like, it ends with us? Okay... *cringe* *insert fluffy teddy bear and cotton candy here*, plus all of the previous CoHo's books left me a similar taste like that. But after finish reading it, it turns out that I was wrong! THAT CLICHE TITLE WAS NOT MEAN FOR CLICHE AT ALL! It was totally different and left me a bitter taste and raw feeling in my heart every time I think about it. This title is so powerful! At some point in this book, it was quoted by Lily and I just couldn't think there are any different words that deserved more than 'IT ENDS WITH US' for this book title.

Below is the spoiler part, please do not continue reading if you don't want to be spoiled. ☺✌

Let's talk about Ryle and Asa from Too Late, another Colleen's book. They are both have abusive tendencies but they are way too different! While Ryle purely loved Lily, I don't feel Asa loved Sloan. I think he just saw Sloan as his property, not a life-partner.

As I said before, I instantly felt in love with Ryle just like Lily did and it makes everything's hard for me to read the second part of this story. Even when my heart a bit waiver at Lily's past memory of Atlas, my heart still craving for Ryle more. Atlas is Lily's past and now Ryle is the one at the present here. My heart was broken over and over, I was disappointed with Ryle but I still can't undo my love for him. I keep on reading because I want them to fix their relationship especially when I found out Lily's pregnant. And I was like, that's it, I 100% ship them together!

Until the very end, I was still rooting for Lily and Ryle. So when I got to the ending, everything was quite unexpected but it was understandable. In my wishful thinking, I don't think Colleen could do a harsh ending because I expected no less than some cute rainbow ending, judging from her previous works.

And now when I'm thinking about it and writing this review, two weeks later, I'm still rooting for Ryle. That's why I can't bring myself to give a 5-stars ending.

I know if I happened to be in the abusive relationship I won't root for Ryle. And I hopefully never in the future because I think I couldn't let myself move away just like Lily did in the end. That's a very brave action!

There's a small chance to have a different ending, there are some treatments nowadays where maybe Ryle could try it to heal himself for the sake of Lily and Emma, but yeah, we will never know. :')

When I read the note from Colleen, I sort of understand that this is the most real ending we could get from Lily and Ryle story. I didn't cry for the whole book but her note made me sobbed. Knowing this is her mom's personal story, I guess a reality will hit you harder than the fiction and Colleen really did pour her heart out for this book.

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

Originally posted on my Goodreads page, December 22, 2016