I mentioned last episode how much I love Colleen Hoover. This was actually the first book of hers that I’d read since reading Slammed in 2012. I’d just bought myself a new iPad and wanted something gritty and quick. This was one of the most read books on Goodreads. It had close to a 4.5 star rating with over 2 million reviews, so I figured I’d probably be in good hands. As I mentioned last week, I love a good contemporary fiction read – romance or not – and I love when the characters aren’t all sugary sweet and everything goes perfectly for them. I got exactly what I wanted with this one. I figured it would be good. I didn’t realize how good it would be.

This isn’t an easy read, and trust me when I saw you’ll want to punch a certain character in the crotch more than once, but that’s what I loved about the book – and every book of hers that I’ve read thus far – she makes you feel very strong feelings toward her characters, both good and bad.

This is the first in a two-part series, and If you’ve not read this book but plan to, I need to warn you that it deals with domestic abuse. It’s not pretty, but as we all know, domestic abuse happens. It’s an awful thing, and we see just how awful it is. We also see how the abuser is able to so easily control those they abuse.

When the book begins we meet 23-year-old Lily Bloom. Lily just graduated from college and has returned to Boston after attending her father’s funeral. Lily had a complicated relationship with her parents because her father was horribly abusive toward her mother and Lily often witnessed the abuse. It’s in the first chapter that Lily meets Ryle Kincaid on a rooftop of a building. Ryle is a charmer, but he’s made it clear that serious relationships don’t suit him, so Lily makes a mental note to not bother with him if she wants anything serious.

As you might have expected, Lily and Ryle can’t stay away from one another and eventually begin dating, but things get complicated when Lily happens to run-in to Atlas Corrigan, her first love. Atlas was homeless when Lily met him when she as a kid. He camped out in the old abandoned house behind hers. She gave him food and blankets and some of her dad’s old clothes. The two of them developed a very sweet relationship. That is until her dad found out and attacked Atlas, sending him away for good.

To say that the reemergence of Atlas causes issues between Lily and Ryle is an understatement. This is when Lily starts to experience abuse of her own. Of course, Ryle makes excuses. He didn’t mean to hit her. She caught him off guard. He didn’t push her down the stairs. She tripped. She must have hit her head and is now confused as to what really happened.

When Lily finds herself pregnant with Ryle’s child it makes it even more clear that she has to protect both herself and the baby, less she fall into the same cycle of abuse her mother endured for so many years.

The book is told from Lily’s POV and flips between modern day and when she was a teenager and first meets Atlas. It’s beautiful, it’s raw and it’s heart wrenching, but oh-so-good. I gave this one 5 out of 5 stars on Goodreads. If you’ve not read this one, but intend to, you might want to skip the next review since “It Starts With Us” picks up right where this book ends.

It was recently announced that Blake Lively will be playing Lily in the movie version and Justin Baldoni will play Ryle. At the time of the recording it’s not yet been announced who will play Atlas.

When I read the book I pictured Emma Stone as Lily. Anytime the female is a redhead I tend to picture either Emma Stone, Lily Collins or Bryce Dallas Howard. I pictured Theo James as Ryle and I think that’s because when I was reading the book I was also watching season two of The White Lotus. I pictured Oliver Jackson Cohen as Atlas. He was in The Haunting of Hill House and he plays the husband in the AppleTV+ series “Surface. He is great at playing haunted and tortured. Regardless of the case, I look forward to seeing the movie.