Colleen Hoover, with her poignant and thought provoking words, has written her best book yet. In a whirlwind of a nasty book funk, I found myself falling in love with every perfectly, imperfect detail of It Ends With Us! This little piece of treasure, with its emotionally stunning and multifaceted characters, impacted me in ways I never even saw coming. 

There is definitely no sweeter feeling than finding a book that grants me the opportunity to step out of my preconceived beliefs and reconsider my outlook on a delicate subject matter I normally see as very black and white, as actually having a myriad of gray areas. Between these pages, the old adage, “nothing is ever as it seems” has never been truer. When you observe this dynamic beyond the surface level, you'll quickly notice that when it comes to Ryle, Lily, and Atlas’ journey, the solutions aren’t as simple as one may think. With so many shades of gray, there is no concrete, right answer. 

In true Colleen fashion, no baby steps were taken in ripping off the band aid and wreaking havoc; she wasted no time leaving me a complete and utter chaos of logic and emotions. Ryle, Lily, and Atlas with their intricate and palpable histories wrecked and shredded me a few times over. Each scene spent with them either left me aching, broken, or breathless, sometimes all three spanning in a matter of seconds. Then there were the plethora of heart stopping moments where Hoover made me sigh with love and happiness, mending my heart—well, for a few seconds anyway. I was never sure what was coming up next on the crazy train of feels. All I knew without a shadow of a doubt was these three moved into my soul, taking over every inch of it. Their discovery, their pain, their happiness, their love, and their deception was all consuming!

I loved each one of these flawed and broken souls but Atlas, without a shadow of a doubt, stole my heart. I won't sugar coat it, Ryle had nothing on Atlas. He was my favorite from start to finish. Kim described him best when she said, "Atlas could say a lot in one sentence." This man broke me in two while showing such compassion and dedication to Lily, even with his damaged past. Not to mention, his perseverance, demeanor, and the way he loved had me falling so head over heels for him; I couldn't help but root for his HEA.  If anyone deserved a world filled with peace and happiness it was definitely him.

This is a book to just go into blind and follow along where it takes you. It weaves in two love stories present and past. It is told in Lily's point of view in the present and the past via journal entries.

This is Lily's journey of survival, growth, love, and resilience. Her first love, Atlas had personal issues, but they had a strong bond that made a huge impact on each other's lives. They protected and understood each other. Her new love, Ryle is charming, successful, fun, but being in a relationship is new for him. I found myself falling for both of these men along with Lily in various times in her life. There was so much good in both of them even though like in real life, neither was perfect nor were the circumstances.

There are challenges, growing pains, issues, and decisions along the way. Emotions run high. Mistakes are made. There are missed opportunities and changes in life courses. Lily has to decide what she really wants and what she can handle. Her choices are hard with no perfectly right answer.

This is a story with highs and lows, tragedies and triumphs, love and hate, and joy and anger. But it is very real, raw, intimate, and current.

It explores the theme of there being good and bad in all of us. It is at times funny, sweet, and romantic, and at other times heartbreaking, frustrating, maddening, and tragic. I felt like I lived these events with Lily. I had a hard time deciding what the right choices were along with her.

Lily was a wonderful, tenacious heroine. She showed so much growth, maturity, and self awareness during the book. Even at times when she made questionable choices, she was doing it on her own terms. But she had inner strength and determination and could realize when she needed to reassess. She had to deal with hard truths, pain, and disappointments, but she managed to push through with the help of her support system. I fell for the side characters of Alyssa and Marshall as well.

This was a unique, powerful story of choices, compromise, sacrifice, self worth, strength, and true love. The characters had depth and felt like real people with flaws, personal struggles, and broken or changing plans. This is Colleen Hoover at her best and it will be a top read for 2016. It has her trademark humor, emotion, and layered plot, but it was also such a compelling, unpredictable journey. It had me full of so many conflicting feelings. There are naked truths and harsh realities. But the topics are so important and she dug deep into them in a deep and compassionate way. I am still in a book hangover. The characters are all burned into my heart and I am really not ready to let them go.

I was gifted a copy in exchange for an honest review. 

 

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