Stephanie Sullivan: Review - It Ends With Us

TITLE: It Ends With Us

RATING: ★★★★★

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Summary (from Goodreads): Sometimes it is the one who loves you who hurts you the most.

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

Ryle is assertive, stubborn, maybe even a little arrogant. He’s also sensitive, brilliant, and has a total soft spot for Lily. And the way he looks in scrubs certainly doesn’t hurt. Lily can’t get him out of her head. But Ryle’s complete aversion to relationships is disturbing. Even as Lily finds herself becoming 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, so do thoughts of Atlas Corrigan — 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.

REVIEW: From the book - “…I think about how easy it is for humans to make judgements when we’re standing on the outside of a situation. It’s easy when we’re on the outside to believe that we would walk away without a second thought if a person mistreated us. It’s easy to say we couldn't continue to love someone who mistreats us when we aren’t the ones feeling the love of that person. When you experience it firsthand, it isn’t so easy to hate the person who mistreats you when most of the time they’re your godsend.”

This book turned me inside out. I don’t know how else to describe it. I was in an abusive relationship for three years before I met my husband, and some of Colleen’s descriptions in this story felt as if she penned them straight from my heart. I tried so many times to explain to family members and friends why I didn’t end that relationship sooner, but there’s really no way to fully understand the reasons unless you’ve been through it. I don’t know what else to say other than I would recommend this book to everyone. My hope is that it sheds some light to those on the outside who are quick to judge a situation they aren’t involved in. I also pray it gives strength and courage to the women reading it who might be desperately searching for a way out.