It Starts With Us by Colleen Hoover

*minor spoilers ahead* 

This book is the sequel to It Ends With Us as it picks up where the epilogue left off with Lily and Ryle settling into co-parenting their daughter. Lily then suddenly runs into Atlas which is 2 years after they last spoke. This encounter sparks old emotions and so this story focuses on Lily and Atlas’s relationship, whilst handling Ryle’s toxic behaviour.

This was written in demand of the social media community who blew up It Ends With Us as a sequel was never intended when the first book was written/published, which may explain the unrealistic happy ending. This book definitely gave readers what they wanted in terms of happiness between Lily and Atlas but at times this story became unbelievable especially compared to the behaviours of the characters from the first book.

I did enjoy learning more about Atlas’s past as this was not explored much in the first book and it was nice to read more about the romance between Lily and Atlas as they rekindle their love for each other. One of the best additions to this book was the storyline with Josh and his relationship with Atlas as this showed another angle to Atlas and his personality. There were many wholesome interactions which were nice to read.

I do find Hoover’s writing cringe at times, and in this book, it was most prominent with the continuation of Lily’s diary entries to Ellen DeGeneres which I was hoping would be left in the first book. Despite this, It Starts With Us is very easy to read, albeit quite predictable.

On the whole, I found the ending of the book very rushed, especially when the proposal was completely brushed over. It made me feel like this sequel was not necessary, especially after finding out that continuing the story was not the intended purpose. I am glad I got around to reading it as I did enjoy It Ends With Us but unfortunately, it was not one of my favourite Hoover reads.

3/5 stars