Reviews with content warning for Medical trauma - It Ends with Us

Lily is a young woman who has grown up in an abusive household where her father regularly would beat her mother and the book starts with the death of her father, for which Lily feels no grief. After the funeral, she meets Ryle who is a charismatic neurosurgeon and they have an instant attraction but he is opposed to commitment and therefore the relationship does not progress.

Later, Lily achieves her dream of setting up her own floristry business and becomes friends with a rich friend Alyssa, who she later discovers is Ryle's sister, thus her relationship with his restarts. This progresses to a serious relationship, resulting in the couple moving in together and later getting married. However, during this time there are frequent episodes of Ryle getting angry and assaulting Lily, echoing the behavior of her father during her childhood. Whilst the relationship is blossoming, Lily recalls her first true love who was a boy named Atlas, who she met when he was homeless and living in an abandoned house next to her when she was 15. The flashbacks feature how the support she provided to his of food, clothing and eventually a warm place to sleep developed romantically, but was cut short when Atlas had to move in with his Uncle in a different state. Atlas was also the only person who knew of the abuse Lily's father inflicted and was even the recipient of the abuse when he was attacked by

Atlas reappears in Lily's life as a restaurant owner and he instant she is living with and urges Lily to leave her husband, which she eventually does but when she finally leaves, she discovers she is pregnant. Atlas initially provides a safe lace for Lily to live, however she eventually returns to the house she lived in with Ryle and the relationship restarts.

When the baby Emma is born, Lily finally sees that she needs to break the cycle of abuse of the women in the family as 'It ends with us' , so leaves Ryle for good. In the epilogue Lily has the baby and is separated from Ryle. She again bumps into Atlas and can see that finally they can be together.

Content Warnings

ivi_reads_books's review

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emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

This is not a love story!

I kept waiting to find out why so many people love this book and after reading it I still don't know.
Everything in the protagonist's life revolves around men. The supporting characters only serve to get her together and stay together with the male lead who is manipulative among other things. She is the stereotypical white girl who suprisingly realizes that not everyone is as fortunate as she is.
The plot was very predictable and the way the topic of

domestic violence

was handled seemed forced and irresponsible. In the post-interview the author reveals that she wanted to write a book based on her mom's experience with this topic which explains why it came a cross as forced to me

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rad_reads_123's review against another edition

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emotional funny sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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tiffany_hynes21's review

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dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

Was a good book to get into after not doing much recreational reading for a long while. The book leaves you wondering "what will she do" often. Well written. Covers some hard triggering topics well with some beautiful reflections.

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skxk929kd's review

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

the way that lily acts towards ryle when he claims he would change made me extremely mad, like leave him permanently!! but overall it was a rollercoaster of emotions and made me EXTREMELY tense during some parts and those are the kind of books that i LOVE. it displays acts of physical abuse from spouses/partners and also tells you options on what to do. i love how this book displays what some women/men have to go through. according to me overall, i give this book a perfect 5 according to the storyline and pace! (took me 3 nights to read it whole because of how the book had me CLINGING) but according to my emotions, a 4.75 because of how often i cried (not joking.)

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