| Title | : | It Starts with Us (It Ends with Us, #2) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1668001225 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781668001226 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 323 |
| Publication | : | First published October 18, 2022 |
| Awards | : | Goodreads Choice Award Romance (2022) |
Lily and her ex-husband, Ryle, have just settled into a civil coparenting rhythm when she suddenly bumps into her first love, Atlas, again. After nearly two years separated, she is elated that for once, time is on their side, and she immediately says yes when Atlas asks her on a date.
But her excitement is quickly hampered by the knowledge that, though they are no longer married, Ryle is still very much a part of her life—and Atlas Corrigan is the one man he will hate being in his ex-wife and daughter’s life.
Switching between the perspectives of Lily and Atlas, It Starts with Us picks up right where the epilogue for the “gripping, pulse-pounding” (Sarah Pekkanen, author of Perfect Neighbors) bestselling phenomenon It Ends with Us left off. Revealing more about Atlas’s past and following Lily as she embraces a second chance at true love while navigating a jealous ex-husband, it proves that “no one delivers an emotional read like Colleen Hoover” (Anna Todd, New York Times bestselling author).
It Starts with Us (It Ends with Us, #2) Reviews
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welcome to: “did this book really need to exist?” part 4343225.
alternatively titled: a bland man does the bare minimum and people eat it up like he’s an austen character.
i swore i’d never read another coho book, but it ends with us was the only one i could somewhat stomach so i decided to read it starts with us to see how it was.
yikes.
this review will be in bullet points. minor spoilers will be included, but read it anyway as a warning not to read this book.
edit: for those of you in my comments going “if you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say it at all!”: we’re allowed to critically consume literature? i’m allowed to write a glowing review of one book and a critical review of another. that’s why this is a book reviewing site.
like if you can’t handle seeing a one star review or acknowledging that people have different opinions, then don’t read one star reviews! there are thousands of five star ones you can read. go read those instead literally nobody is making you read this lmao.
• i don’t get why this book had to exist. it just feels like she is monetizing off the weird success it ends with us got on booktok, and it definitely reads like a cash grab as well.
• if it ends with us was about lily, why did colleen hoover work so hard to try and make atlas into a sexy hero? the only thing i could give it ends with us merit for was the message of breaking the cycle (even that is up for debate). this did not need a sequel at all.
• atlas is literally so bland. like i get it. he’s nice. he makes sure to say that he’d never hit a woman every five sentences. good fucking job atlas. you’ve reached the bare minimum.
• atlas writing lily letters and saying “i love you” in a thousand different ways to offset ryle’s character…balance doesn’t work like that.
• speaking of: stop writing her letters for the love of god i literally don’t know if my heart is cold and dead but we get it atlas, you love her and can’t live without her and she saved you. you don’t have to say it a hundred times!! what a waste of paper!!! give us some new content king!
• WHY IS LILY STILL WRITING TO ELLEN??? AT YOUR BIG AGE?
• atlas talking and defending himself about the age he and lily had sex was really breaking the fourth wall. coho definitely was trying to un-fuck up her mistake by making this a sympathy point.
• lily and atlas didn’t really have a foundation of their relationship (which is ironic because atlas talks about ryle and lily’s relationship this way as well) other than the fact that they both had a bad childhood. lily puts atlas on this pedestal because he was there for her at her most vulnerable.
• my theory still stands: colleen hoover, ironically, cannot write a good romance. i believe every single one of her books has these terrible, wild plot twists to cover up the fact that she cannot. lily and atlas had zero chemistry apart from them talking about how miserable they were when they first met and how they were each other’s saving grace.
• also. i did not buy this book, i borrowed it from a friend, so i don’t have a ground to say this but: she included so many flashbacks and used pages of writing from it ends with us? lower the price girl.
• a sequel, which is an outright romance, being written to a book (marketed as a romance which is so gross) about domestic abuse really throws me off.
• (the letters were basically coho saying “see they are in love! they’re not bland! they do have other things in common other than their trauma!) which is false.
• speaking of plot points manufactured to make lily and atlas seem like they had more in common: the brother thing came out of fucking nowhere.
• lily doesn’t have a decent support system. i know she says that she does, but having your abusive ex husband’s sister as your best friend (and literally only her, as lily mentions in the book), is just not? like yes it’s better than nothing but i really hated the way allysa acted in a bunch of scenes. like is she supposed to be a likable character?
• also. every time tiktok is mentioned in a book, an angel loses its wings. you're telling me lily knows about tiktok and gen z but she doesn't know that ellen is a horrible person? ok
• emerson dory kincaid is literally the worst thing lily blossom bloom has done.
in conclusion, sometimes you try things and they don’t work out colleen! for me it is ice skating, for you it is writing. and that’s ok!
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instagram: ellereadsomebooks -
5 stars
Let me start by saying this: there’s going to be a lot of hate for this book for the sole reason people just want to dislike this author for their popularity and there’s this hate train going on for the littlest things this author does so I already know people are going to just come out of the woodworks and find the tiniest thing to hate on this. That is not to say that this book is perfect or that your review will be disingenuous. Books are subjective-- therefore there can be books that I love you hate, and books I hate that you love. I just don't understand or stand for the unwarranted amount of hate that goes into BASHING books just for the way they are written. I have been reading Colleen Hoover since 2012- Slammed was my first book by her. I have had many misses with her along with many hits.
With that being said; I read It Ends With Us in 2016. I truly loved how it ended, I thought it was the end. I did not ever expect it starts with us and yet I could not think of what a beautiful and necessary addition this is.
It Starts with Us shows the after effects of abuse in every form. It shows how realistic, how tragic and how even a happily ever after is still shadowed by the ache and reminder of abuse.
I know people are going to be mad at how often Ryle shows up here but that’s the reality of how abusive situations are, they don’t just die or leave you alone— colleen did a fantastic job at showing how realistic this situation is, at how much of a gaslighter he is.
For the Ryle apologist and stans: I’m so glad Colleen wrote this book because there’s NO room for y’all’s bullshit. He is an abuser. This isn’t a dark romance. This is a contemporary romance where an abuser stays abusive, continues to be abusive in the tiniest ways and the cycles are broken. He truly and will forever be a terrible person and I’m so glad that this book continuously highlighted that. Abusers don’t “change” and even if they do, the cycle should be broken forever.
We get to see Lily and Atlas as an unit and we get to see them really fall in love with their love. I so deeply appreciated that aspect. We really do get to see them find their way back to each other and then fight for their love. This is THEIR story now.
I also want to add, I loved the side characters. Every single one of them. Theo and Josh stole my goddamn heart. The only thing I rolled my eyes at was Lily writing to Ellen still but alas a book can’t be too perfect.
Atlas has always been book boyfriend material but this book really cemented him as one of the good guys, and if not one of the top 10 book boyfriend’s in existence. I was not expecting this to get 5 stars from me, my favorite book by Colleen Hoover is Reminders of Him but this really deserves five stars for how thoughtful, realistic and just downright beautiful this was.
It ends with us was about Lily and her journey to end the cycle of abuse. It starts with Us is about Lily and Atlas navigating life after ending their own cycles.
We’ve reached the shores turned into You can come home now. -
I don't dislike It Starts with Us per se, but it does feel more like a long and unnecessary epilogue to It Ends with Us rather than the separate, worthwhile story it should've been.
I remember vividly the experience of reading It Ends with Us, how every page felt riveting and every moment essential. There were so many memorable scenes, so much emotion embedded in the pages. I sobbed my way through it, especially that ending that completely gutted me. To prep for this book, I reread the ending, and sure enough, it walloped me again.
So it's rather disappointing that this story didn't do anything for me. There was no emotional punch, no compelling conflict. It took me days longer to read this than I anticipated because I didn't feel any pull to keep going. And now having finished this, I'm already unable to point to a single memorable moment because there honestly weren't any.
But then, that's always the fear when an author gives in to fans and writes a sequel or prequel they originally had no intention of writing, isn't it? That the result would be mundane, at best an unnecessary add-on, at worst ruining the legacy of a previously amazing work. (I'm looking at you, Harry Potter and The Hunger Games.)
More spelled out isn't always better. Whatever I had imagined in my head for Lily's future, it was more interesting than what I got. And in fact, to spell out Lily's future in the way that this sequel did took something away from the difficulty of Lily's decision at the end of the first book. Part of what I loved about that book was the nuanced and flawed characters, while this book distilled everyone down to either just a good guy or a bad guy.
The other issue is that there is no real conflict or surprises in here. Sure, I enjoy reading a happy ending as much as the next person, but not for 300+ pages. It's clear without having read a single page of this book what will happen and who will end up happy. And sure enough, the story progresses and ends exactly the way you'd expect. And that just does not make for an enthralling read.
This all sounds rather harsh, but it's really not that bad. It was an alright way to pass a few hours if you're not quite ready to leave the world of Lily and Atlas. This pleasant and unexciting story won't leave you breathless, but it shouldn't offend either. Just be ready to forget about it almost as soon as you're done.
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See also, my thoughts on:
It Ends with Us
Verity
Reminders of Him
Regretting You
Ugly Love
Layla
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2.5⭐️
If you love Atlas individually or Lily and Atlas as a couple, this is the book for you, you’d love this. However, I don’t feel like a sequel was necessary. The ending in It Ends with Us was perfect! It left us to imagine our own ending for Lily and it was realistic! This book was strictly written for Booktok. This doesn’t happen in real life. Women don’t always have a Prince Charming waiting for them after they escape an abusive relationship. This is why these idiots on TikTok are romanticizing this shit, thinking this is some kind of love triangle. Ryle is clearly still ill and it shows in this book?? CAN WE TALK ABOUT THE FUCKING GASLIGHTING HE TRIED TO DO TO LILY?
”You won’t leave her with me overnight, but you’ll drop her off somewhere else when you want to get fucked? Great parenting, Lily.”
“You disappoint me Lily.”
“ I was happier before I met you.”
HOW DARE PEOPLE DEFEND THIS FUCKER? BECAUSE OF HIS TRAUMA? HE KILLED HIS BROTHER AND HAS BEEN BLAMING HIS ANGER ON THAT SHIT EVER SINCE. HE THREW HER DOWN THE STAIRS. HE SLAPPED HER FOR LAUGHING. HE BIT HER. THEN PATCHED HER UP LIKE A CABBAGE PATCH DOLL. OMG. DID NO ONE NOT FIND IT DISTURBING THAT THIS MAN WAS A SURGEON? AFTER HE HURT HER, SHE DIDN’T EVEN HAVE TO GO TO THE HOSPITAL, HE IS THE HOSPITAL. THAT IS SO SCARY. FUCK YOU RYLE AND FUCK WHOEVER IS OBSESSED WITH YOUR TOXIC ASS.
So clearly,
When I read It Ends with Us, I didn’t care about the romance or Atlas as an individual. Atlas is very likable, but it wasn’t about that for me. I was more invested in Lily’s healing process and her story, I still felt that way going into this book. I truly just wanted to read this to see if Ryle would end up in fucking prison. I wanted to see if he was still wreaking havoc. Maybe I thought in this book, Ryle would acknowledge he’s a fucking monster and he’d watch Lily flourish happily from the sidelines. I couldn’t wait for the moment Lily stood up to him, that’s all I was looking forward to. I was only emotional for those parts specifically, I really don’t care about Atlas and Lily y’all.
Theo making fun of Atlas was funny, I actually loved that because THE KEEP SWIMMING LINE WAS CORNY AS SHIT I DON’T CARE
“We finally reached the beach, my little whale.” LMFAOOOO
I wasn’t fond of the diary entries to Ellen in the first book and I especially didn’t like them here. It was cute when she was younger, but we’re grown folks now Lily. Ellen is not reading that shit, cut it out. Anyway, this was mid. Lily was too damn kind. Call me bitter, but if it were me, I’d leave Ryle to rot in hell and not let that man anywhere near my child.
↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓
My review before reading this:
Few more days, it ends with us isnt my fav by her, but I’m pretty excited to read this! -
2.5 stars
Well this was useless.
It Starts With Us in a nutshell:
15% of this book is a retelling of the first one through Lily's creepy letters to Ellen. Literally reused, word for word scenes. Was Colleen tryna reach a word count or smth?
35% is the vandalisation/ subplot which I desperately wished was Ryle's doing💀 imagine grown ass Ryle writing "ass whole" and "fuck u Atlass" as petty revenge. Because y'all know he is a wife beater with a sense of humour...
Ryle after another day of abusing and manipulating:You disappoint me Lily.
This is the opening line his drunk ass choose to text after having lily in a chokehold💀 why he is so extra
My biggest highlight of the whole read is
TJ saying this😭
Also Ryle three paragraphs later:have fun fucking the homeless guy.
Can y'all believe it took them THIS long to send that man to therapy?
Anyway, the tiny bit of 5% is Ryle being Ryle.....clearly🡹💀
and the other 45% is Lily and Atlas's dry ass hehe romance.
The first book was good for what it was. A story about domestic violence and abusive relationships. Ryle was the spine, without his character there would be nothing except another boring coho romance. Which is essentially what this book was. I will admit, I thought the plotline was interesting, but it wasn't nearly enough to keep my attention until the end. It Ends With Us had a purpose, a meaning, a story to tell. This didn't. -
if a man asks me wholeheartedly to become his fish on our wedding day, i am leaving him at the altar.
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Did this book need to exist? nope.
The mentions of tik tok and gen z felt like fan service
since the acknowledgments said this was written for booktok.
Should have been a novella, if anything, especially for how rushed the ending was.
Why is Ryle STILL in her life?
Why does the ABUSE get pushed aside?!?!?!?!?!
Why is she STILL writing letters to Ellen?
Why was Atlas trying to justify the age he had sex with Lily the first time?
This is all you get because I don't want to waste any more time writing an in-depth review.
Pre read:
I didn’t like IEWU, but i’m here for the Atlas POV -
‘twas a solid closure i’ll give you that☝🏽
also ps, ryle deserved much MUCH worse - it’s been 6 years since i read IEWU and the only thing he gained was the fucking audacity. lily treaTed him way better than he deserved. 💁🏽♀️
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the way that men acted when the joker came out
THIS 👏🏽 WILL 👏🏽 BE 👏🏽 MY 👏🏽 JOKER 👏🏽 -
jokes on everyone in the comments who was mad i rated this five stars before i read it. i read it. guess how many stars im giving it? ;)
original review: THIS OCTOBER. THE MOMENT WE'VE BEEN WAITING FOR. THE BOOK WE'VE BEEN ASKING FOR. IT STARTS WITH US. -
Might be because I’m very sentimental and I needed closure, but I adored this book (regardless of the Ellen letters and the Tiktok mentions) <3
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Previous review:
Colleen Hoover could publish her grocery list and I would still buy it 😌 -
I BEG YOUR PARDON ???
i'm screaming, crying, throwing up, pulling my eyelashes out, jumping off the roof and ripping my eyes out -
GIVING THIS MOTHERFUCKER 5 STARS ALREADY BECAUSE ATLAS CAN DO NO WRONG 😤
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when you have exams so you can’t read this
I will not be emotionally available for 8-12 business days after this comes out -
Didn’t read but the first was crap so decided to rate this
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haven’t read but i hate seeing colleen hoover fans happy
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3.5 I really liked it!
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i’ll be requesting a fat check from coho for making me waste my time reading this unnecessary book
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Read this book out of curiosity but I think I really should have just stayed curious .
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"want" to read lmao. i'm the clown with the big red nose reading this for the goodreads choice awards. HONK HONK
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I don’t think I have ever been so excited.
Excuse me for a second I’m going to scream for an hour and cry from happiness.
*already gave it five stars because let's be honest we all know this book can’t go wrong. -
– 2.25 stars
This book was not necessary and clearly fan service for BookTok. Colleen even said that herself in the Acknowledgement section.
I’ve read
It Ends with Us years ago and that book made me bawl my eyes out, because it was such an honest and realistic story about a women finally ending the circle of abuse in her family. IEWU had a purpose and meaning. Whereas, It Starts With Us reads like every other second-chance romance between two past lovers that shared a connection in their childhood. Reading Lily and Atlas romance gave me n o t h i n g. This was dryer than any cactus in the dept of the Sahara. Their interactions made me yawn, I’m sorry but Atlas was better as a side character in IEWU. Atlas is (maybe) the most unproblematic Colleen Hoover Hero, but imo that also makes him the most boring one.
“I don’t have a picture of her,” I say to Theo.
”So she’s ugly?” I toss the box of glass into the dumpster.
“She’s gorgeous and way out of my league.”
”Ugly would still be out of your league,” he deadpans.
12 year old Theo who talked like he was going on 50 was my favorite character in this book. And you know why? Because this little kid was pretty much bullying Atlas every time they interacted and I loved it. Some adults should be bullied more. 💅
You disappoint me Lily.
I was happier before I met you.
Have fun fucking the homeless guy.
Y’all can say anything nasty about Ryle and I would completely agree, but you also have to admit that this guy is nothing but ✨ consistent ✨ in his abusive behavior. My face was this 😐 emoji the whole time, except when it came to Ryle, cause at least that guy gave me some emotions.. his texts to Lily even made me laugh… Lily, sweetie I’m sorry but your ex-husband humor is immaculate 🤡🏃🏻♀️ Ryle kept me on my toes, cause I never knew what else would come out of his mouth or what would happen at the mercy of his fist. What an unpredictable king. 😌
There is this toxic belief that family should stick together simply because they’re family. But the best thing I ever did for myself was walk away from them.
Conclusion
It Ends With Us should have stayed a standalone. It had the perfect bittersweet ending that was on point with the whole book. This was just meh and didn’t add anything interesting or new to the overall story.
┍━━━━━━━━»•» «•«━┑
IT ENDS WITH US SERIES
#1 It Ends With Us – 5 stars
#2 It Starts With Us – 2.25 stars
┕━»•» «•«━━━━━━━━┙ -
1.5
In short, ‘It Starts With Us’ is nothing but an extended epilogue that could’ve been a bonus chapter. Everything about this book annoyed me; from lack of plot and bland characters, to commentary devoid of nuance and whole sections of the first book copied and pasted into the text. Something smells like a cash grab…
I’ll admit; the discussion around abuse in this book wasn’t AS bad as in ‘It Ends With Us’, but it still felt pretty one dimensional and pissed me off at times. I can’t for the life of me understand why this series is hailed as one about ending the cycle of abuse, since the cycle of abuse in the books doesn’t even end!
SPOILERS
I understand that it would be very hard for Lily to win over Ryle in court, and the ending was probably more realistic with him still being involved; but if that’s the case, it doesn’t “end” with you and your daughter! If Ryle doesn’t have Lily in his life to abuse, guess who his next victim is going to be?
Not to mention the fact that Lily’s closest friends are Ryle’s sister and his best friend; it is close to impossible to heal from abuse when you are still in such close proximity to your abuser. The way Allysa and Marshall talk about Ryle as if he’s a little kid who just gets mean sometimes, instead of the violent wife beater and attempted rapist that he is, is so strange…. Maybe I’m the weird one, but if someone I “love like a brother” were to push their partner down the stairs and bite them so hard they bled, I simply wouldn’t love them like a brother anymore!
Allysa in particular was extremely annoying in this book. “Why would Ryle hate Atlas if you didn’t cheat on him 🥺🥺” idk girl maybe it’s because he’s abusive, which you have known for years now! The whole “me cheating on my husband doesn’t count because I was 19 ✨” thing was also???????????
Idk man. Everyone in every Colleen Hoover book sends off massive alarm bells in my brain.
“Problematic” aspects aside; ‘It Starts With Us’ was just plain bad a lot of the time. I feel bad for anyone who was looking forward to seeing Atlas’ perspective since he has about as much depth as a paper plate. We get it; Lily saved his life and he loves her! Fascinating. Now stop talking about it every 30 seconds and grow an actual personality, for the love of God! Pages of love letters and wedding vows don’t make up for an absence of depth, and certainly not lack of banter and attraction between characters.
I don’t know if CoHo needs to go back to school or something, but there’s a biiiiiig difference between history and chemistry, and our main characters are missing the latter. News flash! Trauma bonding doesn’t mean you’re soulmates!! These people need therapy, not each other. I honestly think the story would’ve been more powerful had Atlas and Lily just been friends. Love cannot cure the trauma of an abusive relationship, no matter how strong it is.
Rapid fire nitpicks from yours truly include; Ellen Degeneres, confusing time jumps, this being categorized as romance, the fact that only Atlas’ wedding vows were shown, and Emerson Dory being named Emerson Dory!
Do yourself a good old favor and don’t waste your time and money on this ❤️ -
THIS WAS EVERYTHING I WANTED AND MORE. goodbye. i’m so happy.
“you’re going to drive five miles just to give me a hug?”
“i’d run five miles just to give you a hug.” <3 -
I don’t support burning books but this one is an exception.
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I have a question for collen rq WHY IS HE STILL HERE??? WHY DIDNT LILY SUE??? WHY ISNT THAT MAN LOCKED UP OR DEAD PLEASE. LILYS DAUGHTER DOSENT NEED HIM OR THAT INFLUENCE BABE. they don’t need co-parenting. He’s a literal psychopath. if this book ends and he’s still around and not rotting in a jail cell istg l will literally give this one star 😃
lily is the dumbass here idc -
yes, i know this sequel is 100% fan service and a massive cash grab, but i am exactly the fan whose cash CoHo is grabbing.
because my main gripe about ‘it ends with us’ was that atlas wasnt the main focus.
so give me all of atlas and she can have all my money. that seems like a fair enough exchange.except the jokes on her because i actually downloaded this off of zlibrary before she complained and got the website shut down.
thanks a lot, CoHo. love your books, including this one, but stay out of reader spaces. please and thank you.
EDIT: although it was a CoHo fan who posted about zlibrary on tiktok, it apparently wasnt CoHo herself who reported it (according to her statement on FB), causing the FBI to seize the domain. but do check the comments below for zlibrary alternatives to use instead. :)
↠ 4.5 stars -
not gonna read it just wanted to give coho 1 star because i hate her
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i sincerely apologize for the person i am gonna become when ‘it starts with us’ by colleen hoover comes out 😟
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maybe we got lost in translation, maybe i asked for too much
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This feels like nothing more than a cash grab. Atlas is a bare minimum decent human being (who slept with an underage girl) and doesn’t need to outshine the story of domestic abuse and survival like the last book portrayed.
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it’s 2022 why are we still writing letters to ellen degeneres
