I never thought I would like a book about abuse, not having experienced any myself, but I was wrong. Colleen Hoover has written a heartrending account of abuse and the cycle it perpetuates unless it is broken. The protagonist Lily believes that there are no bad people just good people who do bad things yet will she have to leave a man she loves and hates at the same time? She never thought she would turn into her mother but when she did she realized how strong her mother was. The title might be somewhat of a spoiler telling readers what Lily's decision will be but it is still a very poignant read which will tug at your heart strings.

TW// ABUSE AND DV
i read this a while ago and from what i can remember it was really good and i can’t remember what i had for breakfast today and i remember this book. i would definitely read it again. i will say though, and hopefully it’s not a *SPOILER* there is some abuse and dv and abusive relationship but it doesn’t last for long and it doesn’t glorify it either which is good
but i would definitely read this book and i plan on reading it again

**spoilers included** My actual rating is 4.5 stars. Naked truth? Ms. CoHo can write. This is my first CoHo novel and boy, am I impressed with her writing. This book is superlatively written and after reading the author's note at the end of the book, I think that CoHo wrote this novel as a love-letter to her mother. And what a beautiful, thoughtful and heartfelt letter it is. I felt all the emotions (and then some!), angst and joy that the author wanted me to feel in this book. While I did not agree with every decision Lily made within her relationship with Ryle or agree with some of the author's assertions, like, "There is no such thing as bad people, we're all just people who sometimes do bad things," I understand that there are varying degrees of and different types of the domestic violence the author describes in this book. CoHo was writing from her own parents' experience and this novel is not meant to be all-encompassing of all domestic abuse situations.

Some additional thoughts:
I don't understand the relevance of Lily writing her diary journals addressed to Ellen DeGeneres. Regular diary entries addressed to no one in particular would have served the same purpose. However, I loved that the diary entries gave readers information about Lily's background and her love story with Atlas. One thing that perplexes me is that fact that Lily grew up in an abusive home, one in which her father regularly beat up her mother and treated her poorly in other ways. With that in mind, I would think that realistically, Lily would have dumped Ryle after the first shove and not waited till after her daughter was born to break the pattern. Or at the very least, it should have been easier for her to break the pattern. Additionally, I feel like the author lost the plot with Atlas and didn't make significant use of him. More's the pity.

Overall though, I really liked this book. It was thought-provoking and made me feel really empathetic towards women who go through domestic violence situations.

The best part of this book is the author’s notes at the end of it. She relates her own personal story and how it ties in with the book.
Lily is hard to like. So are Ryle, Alyssa and Marshall. I couldn’t get past seeing them as fictional characters on a page rather than experiencing any of their personal sides. Hence, my lack of a stellar rating has more to do with the superficial characters, rather than the subject matter and the gravitas of needing to address it.

It took me a little over 5 hours to finish this book. In that time I casually cried four times, and sobbed twice. This books is everything I hoped it would be and more. Lily's character was strong, and was someone you can look up to. Ryle's character was so frustrating for me, and to many others I'm sure, because you wanted to love him! But he was so unintentionally destructive, and it just makes you so sad. Atlas was the PERFECT character. Seriously, the book ended just as I hoped. I hope Colleen writes a companion to this one so that we get more of Atlas. I need more. (This book is primarily about dealing with domestic abuse.)

This is one of my favorite books. I couldn't put it down!

Hard to put down and I love how she uses metaphors to describe observations of life that can easily be visualized. ie. people we meet throughout our lives are like ocean waves and sometimes they leave a permanent imprint like when a seashell is carried to the shore and sticks in the sand. Lovely! I didn't score it higher because some of the story seemed too far-fetched and coincidental for my liking. Overall, a very thoughtful take on how domestic abuse is so tragic and makes lives so complicated.

Reflecting what others have said, this is an excellent story. If you get a chance to borrow the audiobook from Overdrive, the narration and production is excellent. The narrator, Olivia Song, is very talented and captured the emotions superbly.

Like all of her books Colleen Hoover gripped me in and then ripped out my heart only to put it back together again. Solid read.

Recommended by Karen