It Starts With Us by Colleen Hoover

Summary:

Lily and her ex-husband, Ryle, are adjusting to their new lives as coparents. When Atlas enters Lily’s life again, she realizes her life is still tied to Ryle in so many ways and Ryle is far from Atlas’s biggest fan. Atlas gets the chance to share more of his life with Lily and maybe this is Lily’s second chance at love.

My Thoughts:

Even though Atlas wasn’t the focus of It Ends With Us, I loved him as a character and was happy to know I would get a store with him and Lily.

This story is definitely mainly a Lily and Atlas love story. It is everything I wanted from their story: patient, kind, caring, loving, supportive. All while navigating life’s curveballs and the complications of having to coparent with a domestic abuser. 

Beyond their love story, I think the story fell a little flat for me. The book felt like it was padded with unnecessary material including some of the letters from the first book. There was also a little too much hindsight perspective from Lily and Atlas to make me really believe this was being told from the timeline intended. I appreciate the author wanting to create a love story that pleased readers who loved It Ends With Us, but I feel like in doing so there was an absence of passion from the story. 

I think this was a good read for fans of It Ends With Us but ultimately was not a great book overall.