It Starts With Us Book Review

The book "It Starts With Us" is the sequel of the highly recognized book "It Ends With Us" by Colleen Hoover. After the movie adaptation of the first book of the sequel, the popularity of the first book has increased. Naturally, there were also many readers who knew about the series way before the movie came out and also liked the second book, which mostly focused on the relationship between Lily and Atlas besides many important topics.

To summarize the storyline of this book briefly, it can be said that Lily's efforts to step into a new relationship with Atlas while raising her child with her ex-husband Ryle is the subject of the second book. Colleen Hoover gave her readers the opportunity to experience the feelings of Lily and Atlas at the same time by writing the chapters from each of their point of views. Ryle's process of adjusting to divorce and becoming a father were also one of the main topics of the book.

In the first book, Atlas's personal past wasn't analyzed very detailed. In "It Starts With Us", his personality growth and past were handled more deeply. He literally won the hearts of the readers with his patient and loving nature in his relationship with Lily, especially after the traumatic moments she has experienced.

The themes, which the novel focuses, are highly important and empathy building. With handling the themes like "recovery after trauma, self-love and acceptance, setting healthy boundaries in relationships, the challenges of being a single parent, rebuilding life after toxic relationships, relationships based on trust and respect, second chances and new beginnings" the novel makes its readers feel seen and understood by processing all of these on Lily and Atlas. Atlas is shown as the symbol of a healthy and supportive love, while we follow Lily's process of finding the peaceful relationship she deserves after her turmoil with Ryle.

Obviously, the emotional intensity of "It Ends With Us" higher than "It Starts With Us", because as readers, we have read Lily's whole traumatic backstory, struggles and efforts to break her family's generational trauma cycle from her point of view. But also it was really heartwarming to read Lily and Atlas finding peace, love and healing in each other's existence many years later.

The story of both of them is thus completed in a warm and hopeful way, and Hoover offers us the happy closure that we readers have been waiting for after reading the first book.