Ruqayyah 's Reviews > It Ends with Us

This song and book were made for each other-
'Talking with my mother
She said, "Where'd you find this guy?"
Said, some people fall in love
With the wrong people sometimes
Some mistakes get made
That's alright, that's okay
You can think that you're in love
When you're really just in pain'

I am very ranty in this, so sorry if I come across as a feral animal; I am not hating but I am also not gushing.

First of all- never intended to read this and only read the last half with my friend (literally sharing the same book- thank you A. O) - as I knew the whole plot- and I know that's a little - a whole lot- weird and not how to read a book at all lol but I wouldn't do that normally but I just don't like contemporary all that much and some parts of the book were a little umm *cough*, so yep. There were also many problems in this book and Gloria does a lovely job of explaining it all, so please do read this because it addresses some very important points about the book, that are greatly overlooked by some:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

It highlights something important and I liked how it delineates that sometimes you love someone, even though they hurt you and how the cycle of abuse affects people and is hard to break- but it's not done in the best way, with so little representation and diversity but I hear that's a norm with many other of Hoover's books, so I have no intention of ever reading any other of her books. Though I might read the sequel, (or get someone to let me know what happens) as I want more conclusion from it all and (maybe foolishly) hoping it gets better for them all. (view spoiler)[ And I want Ryle to get better because he needs a lot of support- we say that kindly. (hide spoiler)]
Overall, I feel that this book is all over BookTok as a great book but I did not think it lived up to the 'hype' it garnered.
I did like the metaphors about the sea and some of the lines were better than others, it does have you wanting to read on- or maybe I just wanted to search for the 'good stuff' everyone was talking about and failed. The writing was just not for me and I won't go into more detail because I don't want to be negative (too late really) but this is contemporary so hey.
Though this book contains love, it is not a romance book- it contains abuse- I kindly ask that we refrain from romanticizing it- how on earth did it win the Romance Category is beyond me. No, literally, I am appalled and shocked and this needs to be addressed because if you see this as romance, guard your heart and think. This may not be suitable for everyone and is for a mature audience, some of BookTok may make it seem otherwise but please look up TW and content before reading.

Can't believe I actually skimmed read this.

Update: I haven't a care for any other CoHo book, don't know what I was thinking before. The act of using triggering content (that isn't labelled), as plot points is disgusting. This was the worst book of 2022 for me and in my top 3 worst books of all time, I don't have many but this for sure and mostly because of the content and problems. If anyone is wondering, I cannot physically rate anything below three stars, it feels mean. If you loved this book, cool! We all have our opinions and I respect that, so own them. I don’t like the book but that is not going to stop me from loving y'all, whether you liked it or not.
Edit #2: And there was going to be a colouring book!?!

If you are experiencing any sort of abuse please reach out to someone because you deserve better and you must protect and love yourself. Your body has you as its only home, take real good care of it. X