Synopsis:
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.
My Review
It Ends With Us is one of the first romance books I’ve read that got me out of my over-a-decade-long reading slump. It’s still one of my absolute favorite books a year later and I often think about it and contemplate re-reading it.
This book is such a powerful story when it comes to abuse and really showcases the psychological aspects a lot of domestic abuse victims really go through. It starts with one “accident”, which is forgiven, which leads to another “accident” and the abuser saying it will never happen again, and it eventually continues to spiral and get worse each time. The victim is torn between their love for the person and extending grace in good faith they will change, or that they can help them heal, until it gets so bad they’re in a situation that isn’t so easy to get out of. It’s really a whole journey and I think this book helps readers understand abuse victims more and answer the question “why didn’t you just walk away”?
Something else I loved about this is that it showcases two very different types of love; love from a domestic abuser, and really true love from someone who treats you right. The author also highlights where the abusive tendencies come from within the abuser, which in the book was a deeply traumatic childhood experience the abuser never healed from, and I think this is true for many other unfavorable traits in reality as well. A lot of the negative characteristics in people can be pinned down to being rooted from unhealed experiences and generational traumas. I feel like this is why Colleen doesn’t define Ryle as a bad person in the book, because at the core, he isn’t an evil person or mean spirited in general circumstances. But his trauma runs very deep, and again, unhealed things, especially deeply traumatic things can cause people to do very bad things, and until abusers are willing to heal themselves, people with this level of trauma should not be in intimate relations with other people.
I really appreciated the variety of perspectives from this book, and I also really adored the relationship Lily had with Atlas, who displayed genuine, true love. She helped him during a time of great need as teenagers, and they developed such a strong, genuine love through this and he was there for her through her abusive upbringing, and they really bonded through these experiences. It was really beautiful reading through the perspective of this kind of love and was a very emotional read.
I can’t give this book enough stars. It was so well written, very emotional, and being able to see from different perspectives and compare an abusive relationship from a healthy one, I think it holds very powerful messages when it comes to abusive relationships, healthy relationships, and the dark reality of what trauma does to people. This book won’t be everyone’s cup of tea as it obviously covers some very sensitive topics, but for those unbothered by that, it truly is in incredible read. Highly recommend!
The Cozy Cat Rating: ★★★★★
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