Warning: To me, a no spoiler book review means I don’t give away any of the major plot points, but character names, themes, and a general idea of what to expect from the book is revealed in the following review. 

Plot Overview: Lily Bloom moves to Boston with the dream of opening her own flower shop. She quickly falls in love with a handsome stranger who changes her life. Soon enough, a figure from her childhood re-emerges, uprooting everything she had once known. Based on the relationship between Colleen Hoover’s parents, the novel explores abusive relationships and the cycle of domestic violence.

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Is it worth it?

This book is both amazing and terrible, and I’ll tell you exactly why. 

We’ll start with why it’s amazing. First of all, it genuinely made me smile. It was cheesy like a Hallmark movie, and parts of it felt safe and comforting. It was funny at times. It also made me cry. Lily’s relationship with her mother and the women in her life is particularly moving. I also think the book pretty accurately portrays the mixture of love and fear that comes with being a woman in a relationship. Overall, Hoover did a good job of eliciting emotion in her readers.

On another note, I really like that Lily had a backbone. A lot of YA female protagonists can be pushovers, so it was refreshing to see Lily’s bold, fiery personality. It also added another layer of complexity to the fact that she ended up in an abusive situation–it reinforced that abuse can happen to anyone. The central message in the novel was that we as society need to stop blaming the victims of domestic abuse for not leaving and start focusing on why the perpetrator committed the violence, which I appreciated. 

Now for the less great parts. The writing at times was questionable. Some of the scenes seem a lot more carefully crafted than others. And to add to that, Hoover has a very casual, stream-of-consciousness writing style. It’s definitely the style of the romance genre, but I think that casualness paired with such a serious topic felt jarring at times. To be more direct, the first half of the book read like smut. It’s super sexually explicit, which is totally fine for cheesy romance novels, but that paired with the high emotional intensity of the abuse scenes felt a little disjointed. I found myself debating whether Hoover did this on purpose–to show how someone can fall into a whirlwind relationship not realizing it’s becoming abusive–or because sex sells and she’s used to writing hot and steamy sex scenes. With great writers, it’s usually clear when certain scenes are used to move along the plot or show the dynamic between the characters, but with this book, I found myself questioning how intentional everything was. I get the feeling a lot of people read this book because they think it’s hot, and not because they’re interested in learning about the reality of abusive relationships. Either way, I’m a bit on the fence.

Again, it’s extremely cheesy. I know I said this was a good thing because it was entertaining, but some of the cheesiness drew me out of the book. First of all, her name is Lily Blossom Bloom and she’s a florist. I’ll give the book credit, Lily’s character is pretty self aware and briefly addresses the absurdity of that coincidence, but when I found out her middle name I actually had to stop and reassess my life choices for a second.

Now for some things that weren’t necessarily amazing or terrible, but are good to know. Number one, as a member of Gen Z, this book has very millennial energy. My main point of evidence (besides all of the millennial sarcasm) is that for some reason Lily is obsessed with Ellen DeGeneres. I won’t go much further into that other than saying there are so many Nemo references. Number two, while the novel is moving in many ways–it shows abusive households, toxic romances, and the ability to survive and remain resilient through it all–its messaging is very surface level. It says exactly what it means. But in a way, I find that kind of refreshing.

Overall, if you’re looking for a sophisticated novel with a carefully crafted representation of an abusive relationship, this isn’t it. This book is cheesy, dramatic and smutty. I would compare it to a soap opera. However, it’s also moving. It’s romantic, it’s fun, it’s passionate. And then it absolutely breaks your heart. Before reading this book I was super skeptical, but after finishing it, I have no regrets. Everyone has their own opinions on “It Ends With Us”, but it’s definitely best to form your own. If you’re at all interested, I would definitely check it out.