Goodreads Choice Awards Book Club discussion

Winner of Best Romance Award

It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover



Sometimes it is the one who loves you who hurts you the most.

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.

Hoover has a HUGE amount of fans, but she also has her fair share of haters. I have found that most people who read her stories either love or hate them.

Be warned though, this story is quite a bit different to usual Hoover. It's a lot grittier and controversial. She has also used a lot of her own experiences in life to influence this book.

I have never read this author before, but have this one on my list. Am going to try to get to it this month, but somehow I am behind still from last month. Oh well, never a shortage of good books!

I'm definitely more of a hater, but I'll give it a try. I mostly object to her depiction of women, but that's very common in romance in general (and after recently reading a kresley cole (?) novel, I've realized that there are authors which are so so so much worse when it comes to misogyny in romance.)

I'm waiting for my library hold.

In romance. Lost a word there.

edit: huh? seems like it's back? Must have been my phone cutting it off or something?

I'm not generally a Romance reader either, but this book was good. It had a lot of substance because of the subject matter . Colleen Hoover's usual fans might be a bit surprised with this one.

This was my first novel from Colleen Hoover, and I devoured it in one or two sittings. It's not normally the stuff I reach for, but I may read more of her work!

I really enjoyed this book and devoured it within 24hrs as well. I have no idea why this was placed in the romance category ... it reminded me of Jodi Picoult's work .. a book about family, relationships and their darker sides. I think she truly succeeded with what her goal in writing the book was based on the Afterword. I'm super glad this won the award as it is likely far superior to any of the other nominees .. simply because it doesn't belong in the category.

I think my only point of criticism .. as with the other books I've read by her .. were a few too many cliches when it comes to the characters. Since these were inspired by her own past, they felt somewhat real, but still played into stereotypes (the rich, young, successful doctor, the rich, young, successful programmer, the philanthropic, beautiful, young wife, the successful artist type etc). These are probably easier to write and possibly more interesting to write about, but also idealized.

So she finally won you over Janina! I did think if any of her books would, it'd be this one :)

Absolutely.

I personally struggled a bit with (forgothisname) the doctor part, but that's just me being weird. I generally don't get the attractiveness of doctors (apart from the fact that they tend to be rich if that sort of thing is important to you) .. all those hospital series (apart from House of course) and novels etc. I disliked the guy simply because he was a doctor as that tends to be my general reaction to (male) doctors. And there's no hidden trauma or anything .. I just think they're overrated ;)

But, yes. It's a very worthwhile read. I don't see myself putting a ton of Colleen Hoover books on my to-read list because of it, but I'll be more open to giving her books a chance in the future (unless there are doctors in it of course)

Janina wrote: " I disliked the guy simply because he was a doctor as that tends to be my general reaction to (male) doctors. And there's no hidden trauma or anything .. I just think they're overrated ;)"

I'm friends with a few and married to one, so I'm coming from a different place to you, but I struggled with him too - just for different reasons. He was written so totally...wrong. Not just cliches, but completely unrealistic, from what he wore to how he behaved - and not just him. Atlas was also ridiculously badly-written, and the plot was so predictable and formulaic that I spent the entire book muttering "oh ffs". (I've ranted a bit more on my review, but trust me, there was a lot more to it before I edited.) Having heard so much about Hoover, I was extremely disappointed.

You're not on your own Debstr, as I said in my first post Hoover has a huge amount of fans but also a lot of haters :)

Debstr wrote: "Janina wrote: " I disliked the guy simply because he was a doctor as that tends to be my general reaction to (male) doctors. And there's no hidden trauma or anything .. I just think they're overrat..."

I agree .. I think it's less my disliking of doctors (I do have friends in that profession and they are all nice and quite diverse people) .. it's that it plays right into those cliches and society's perception of them as a group. Atlas as well of course as the phoenix rising from the ashes due to his own strength and greatness. In my limited experience, Hoover's characters are all stereotypical and she does little to elevate them above those stereotypes. Luckily, with this book, it was less the women (though of course the main character is unrealistic as well), but the men. I get less offended if it's men who are put in a box especially since female boxes tend to be less about success, but about morals.

Nonetheless, I really enjoyed reading this book.

I'm 11% into the book. I can see I am going to read it fast. I was put off at first because the love interest was introduced like the second page and that is usually a put off for me in a romance. In the next chapter he disappears and more of the back story takes place in the 2nd chapter which is the way I like it.

I did end up reading this in about two sittings. I'm glad I read it. There were some romance cliches in it but I rated it 4 stars. My eyes are all swollen from crying through it.

I am sitting at 75% and literally had to take a break. Dang...
It started out kinda like a cliche with (view spoiler)[ Girl meeting Dr... Dr. not wanting relationship... Girl being so amazing he falls in love with her... you get the picture. (hide spoiler)]
But THEN! OMG... what just happened here. The story got very interesing and intense.
My stomach is in knots. I am scared to read on, but I can't stop reading.
I must finish tonight.
This was definitely NOT what I was expecting.

Vicki wrote: "I am sitting at 75% and literally had to take a break. Dang...
It started out kinda like a cliche with [spoilers removed]
But THEN! OMG... what just happened here. The story got very interesing an..."

Did you end up finishing it? I couldn't put it down either.

I did finish it and I loved it. I thought it was great that it wasn't what I was expecting at all. When I think of romance, I don't think of this. This was dark and sad and hard to read at times. I thought the perspective on (view spoiler)[Domestic violence (hide spoiler)] was good. I do not have first hand experience with that and I was able to emphasize and understand how it doesn't always feel like a black or white issue.
The whole book was tragic and heartwrenching for me. I didn't know what kind of ending I was hoping for, but I thought the author created a good one.
I enjoyed the author's note at the end giving her personal experiences and how it affected her writing the book.

I am debating between 4 and 5 stars though because there were aspects of the characters that were just so cliche that I had to roll my eyes. In the long haul though, it didn't affect my ability to enjoy the book.

Vicki wrote: "I did finish it and I loved it. I thought it was great that it wasn't what I was expecting at all. When I think of romance, I don't think of this. This was dark and sad and hard to read at times. I..."
That was the only reason why I went with the 4 star because of the romance cliches. I hadn't read one in a little while where I couldn't put it down. I love those books. The author's note at the end made the whole book even that much more poignant. I thought she definitely got her point across that it isn't so black and white.