Center for Teaching & Learning

“There's no such thing as bad people. We’re all just people who do bad things.”

It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover is a romance novel that follows Lily throughout her life. But when her past begins intersecting with her life now, she must decide which life to live: her past or present.

Lily had the dream life when she was younger. Her dad was the town mayor and her family lived in a big house in a fancy neighborhood. It seemed perfect to most people, but Lily hated it. She felt trapped, mostly because of her dad; he could never control his anger and usually took it out on her mom. The only time she felt happy at home was when she was with her next door neighbor, Atlas. When an older Lily finds her journals from when she was younger, she starts question everything she thought she knew about her family and her old friend Atlas. She also starts to question her current life choices, including her choice to date Dr. Ryle Kincaid.

The book is told from two perspectives: one from Lily’s old diary pages, the other from Lily’s older, present point of view. This structure was effective because the major problem in the book is that Lily can’t move on from her past. Seeing these two storylines alternate helps the reader understand Lily and her past more deeply.

I rated It Ends With Us a 10/10, and I recommend it to anyone who likes romance. Hoover is one of my all-time favorite authors, and I think all of her books are worth checking out.

Morganne

Atria Books, 384 pages