Colleen Hoover has recently taken social media by storm with the influence of her books, including the first of a series called It Ends With Us. After reading this first one, and then moving to the second, I truly wondered if it was going to live up to first, in the way that the tension between Ryle and Lily and then Lily and Atlas made my heart pound out of my chest as I wondered what was going to happen between the two. Both books had this love triangle in a way I haven’t yet seen before, and it was quite refreshing to not see an overused trope once again. 

It Starts With Us, by Colleen Hoover, the second in this series, was a remarkable book, but it fell flat at some parts. There was a lack of dynamic tension as the first book had, that just turned into flat out aggression between Ryle and Lily as they fought over custody responsibilities. I didn’t get the same feeling as if I was the one in this fight as I had experienced in the first book. 

One thing that I did love about this book was the fact that as I read, I was able to see the development of a positive relationship, which is monumental given the theme of domestic violence. After Lily’s struggles with Ryle, I was curious whether or not she would begin another relationship, and how her previous one would influence the new. I think that if there is one thing that CoHo did right in this book, it’s that she acknowledged after domestic abuse, it is still possible to have a real, healthy relationship even if it seems impossible. As readers we got to see how real relationships are meant to work, with compromise. 

A relatively important part of the first book that was carried over to the second was Lily’s letters to Ellen DeGeneres as it represented the innocent relationship that Lily and Atlas had as teens/young adults, and used that as a deciding factor in a major life decision. I love Hoover's development of these letters though, and how it further developed Lily and Atlas’s relationship. But, the letters made me physically cringe every time I would reach a part. I couldn’t handle the second-handed embarrassment that I would receive from these that I would end up skipping entire parts. 

And It Starts with Us had the ending that most dedicated readers wanted to see, and it was predictable. But, is it exactly what the people wanted to happen? Did Colleen write what she thought the readers would like, or did she write how she views someone living through domestic abuse? Overall, this book was the conclusion that I needed about the life of Atlas, Lily, and Ryle—but I was left wanting more. Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone who has read the first to get closure on the life of Lily, Atlas, Emerson, and Ryle, but I wouldn’t go as far to say someone should absolutely read this series in order to get to the second book.