It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover

It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover-376 pages 

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Lily Bloom has a complicated past with an abusive (to her mother) father who just died. She vows that she'll never be like her mother and stay in an abusive relationship. However, she meets Ryle Kincaid after moving to Boston and finally opening her own floral shop. They fall in love and he's mostly sweet and kind at first. Ryle is prone to fits of anger, though, and he hurts Lily a few times during these fits/episodes. Will Lily be able to leave Ryle like her mother couldn't with Lily's father? She has so many complicated feelings for a past love who she recently reconnected with and for Ryle, even though he's hurt her. What will Lily ultimately decide? This is definitely heavy material and not for those who are looking for a light read. That being said it is a good book and a good read. I wanted to read it in anticipation of possibly watching the movie based on the book.

Verity by Colleen Hoover

 Verity by Colleen Hoover - 336 pages

Lowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin when she accepts the job offer of a lifetime. Jeremy Crawford, husband of bestselling author Verity Crawford, has hired Lowen to complete the remaining books in a successful series his injured wife is unable to finish.

Lowen arrives at the Crawford home, ready to sort through years of Verity's notes and outlines, hoping to find enough material to get her started. What Lowen doesn't expect to uncover in the chaotic office is an unfinished autobiography Verity never intended for anyone to read. Page after page of bone-chilling admissions, including Verity's recollection of what really happened the day her daughter died.

Lowen decides to keep the manuscript hidden from Jeremy, knowing its contents would devastate the already grieving father. But as Lowen's feelings for Jeremy begin to intensify, she recognizes all the ways she could benefit if he were to read his wife's words. After all, no matter how devoted Jeremy is to his injured wife, a truth this horrifying would make it impossible for him to continue to love her. 

This was a fast read. Some parts of the book were hard to read. It had some heavy topics. I sat up way to late reading it though, I couldn't put it down. 

It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover

It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover, 385 p. 

TW: domestic abuse

"Lily hasn’t always had it easy, but that’s never stopped her from working hard for the life she wants. She’s come a long way from the small town in Maine where she grew up— she graduated from college, moved to Boston, and started her own business. So when she feels a spark with a gorgeous neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, everything in Lily’s life suddenly seems almost too good to be true.

Ryle is assertive, stubborn, maybe even a little arrogant. He’s also sensitive, brilliant, and has a total soft spot for Lily. And the way he looks in scrubs certainly doesn’t hurt. Lily can’t get him out of her head. But Ryle’s complete aversion to relationships is disturbing. Even as Lily finds herself becoming the exception to his “no dating” rule, she can’t help but wonder what made him that way in the first place.
As questions about her new relationship overwhelm her, so do thoughts of Atlas Corrigan — her first love and a link to the past she left behind. He was her kindred spirit, her protector. When Atlas suddenly reappears, everything Lily has built with Ryle is threatened."--Goodreads blurb

This was my first Hoover book and honestly, I WANTED to love it. It fell totally short for me, which I know puts me in the minority. I was expecting to be blown away by the story considering how much hype I've read over Hoover online. Her dialogue was great and the story did keep me interested, but it just didn't do it for me. I will try Hoover again, though.
 

It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover

It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover - 384 pages

Ok, where to start with this one.  Last year I read Verity by Colleen Hoover and it was a 5-star book for me, so I was excited to try another book by her. This one?  I wanted to throw this book against the wall.  My book club picked this for our June read, and oh boy, did we have some opinions.

The plot here sounds intriguing: a woman who grew up witnessing domestic violence in her home swears she will never allow herself to be in the same awful position her mother once was. 

And then guess what? Just guess where this story could possibly be going. If you guessed that she ends up in an abusive relationship with the perfect guy, bingo, you've guessed correctly!  Again, this could have still been an interesting storyline, but the execution missed the mark.  By a long shot.  

I didn't feel that one single character in this book had any redeeming qualities. Not one. They were annoying, one-dimensional, and I couldn't stand any of them.  The dialogue really got on my nerves. It seemed so unnatural, there was no flow between characters - it felt painful to get through.  

Our main character, Lily, shows us her past through journal entries.  Not a bad story building tactic, I think journals can be a great way to show a character's past.  Except here.  All her journal entries are written to Ellen DeGeneres because Lily was obsessed with the Ellen Show.  And it annoyed the living daylights out of me.  

I could go on and on about my many disappointmens with this book.  But most of all, it was just SO PREDICTIBLE.  Some of the ladies in my book club really enjoyed this read, and I'm glad they did!  The majority of the group was overall very unimpressed, and this definitely was not a book for me.