One Sentence Summary
It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover is an emotional romance novel about a woman’s struggle to break out of an unhealthy, codependent relationship and learn how to love herself again.
Book Genre
Romance novel
Main Topic of the Book
The main topic of the book is how to break an unhealthy codependent relationship and learn how to love yourself again.
Key Ideas
- Unhealthy relationships: It Ends with Us highlights the reality of unhealthy relationships and how they can be just as damaging to a person’s emotional wellbeing and growth as physical and mental abuse.
- Codependency: The book focuses on codependency and how to break out of it, by recognizing and accepting that it is an unhealthy pattern of behavior and needs to be addressed before it becomes damaging.
- Self-love: The novel explores how to accept and learn to love oneself, especially after being in an emotionally draining relationship. It highlights the importance of self-care in order to break out of unhealthy cycles and to be able to live a happy and fulfilled life.
Main Parts of the Book and a Short Summary
It Ends with Us is divided into two parts. Part One introduces the main character, Lily Bloom, and focuses on her struggles in leaving an unhealthy relationship and building a more fulfilling one with Atlas Corrigan. It follows her journey of self-discovery, as she learns the importance of healing from past traumas and loving herself. In Part Two, Lily has been successful in walking away from her old relationship and is now focused on developing her new one with Atlas. However, when Lily hears a secret from Atlas’s past and is presented with a difficult decision, she must grapple with a past she thought she had left behind.
Key Takeaways
- It Ends with Us emphasizes the importance of identifying and breaking out of unhealthy relationships, in order to be able to develop a healthy relationship with oneself and with others.
- The book highlights how important it is to take care of ourselves, in order to be able to build a strong foundation for a fulfilling life.
- It explores how individuals can learn to heal old traumas, learn from them, and move forward with a more self-loving attitude.
Author’s Background and Qualifications
Colleen Hoover is an American writer and a #1 New York Times best-selling author. She has published thirteen novels, and five novellas. She has won numerous awards, including the Goodreads Choice Awards for the Best Romance of 2015 for It Ends with Us.
Target Audience
The target audience for It Ends with Us is women in their twenties and thirties who are struggling to break out of a codependent relationship and to learn how to love themselves again.
Publisher and First Publication Date
It Ends with Us was published by Atria Books in 2016.