It Ends With Us, Colleen HOOVER

Lily hasn’t always had an easy life, but that never stopped her from working hard for the life she wants. She’s come a long way from the small town where she grew up: she graduated from college, moved to Boston, and started her own business. When she feels a spark with a handsome neurosurgeon, Ryle Kincaid, everything in her life seems too good to be true.

Ryle is assertive, stubborn, and perhaps a little arrogant. But he’s also sensitive, brilliant, and has a particular soft spot for Lily. How he looks in scrubs certainly doesn’t hurt. Lily can’t get him out of her mind. But Ryle’s complete aversion to relationships is concerning. Even when Lily becomes the exception to his “no dating” rule, she can’t help but wonder what made him that way in the first place.

As questions about her new relationship overwhelm her, thoughts of Atlas Corrigan also come to mind, her first love and a link to the past she left behind. He was her kindred spirit, her protector. When Atlas suddenly reappears, everything Lily has built with Ryle is threatened.

Genre: Contemporary romance with social commentary.
Tone/Atmosphere: The book explores the complex nature of love, relationships, and past traumas in a way that is both moving and raw.