Lily Bloom, a 23-year-old recent college graduate who is beginning a fresh, straightforward life in Boston when she meets neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid, is the subject of the slow-burning story. They end up falling in love after a few unusual encounters. But when Bloom re-connects with Atlas Corrigan, her first love, with whom she had lost touch years earlier, things get sticky between her and Kincaid. Because I was so preoccupied with Bloom and Kincaid’s current connection, I felt the tale to be slow-moving when it described their earlier relationship with Corrigan.

Buying Colleen Hoover’s “It Ends With Us,” the most read book on BookTok, made me uneasy. I was concerned that my opinion of this book might influence how I would evaluate other novels I discover on TikTok in the future. Writing a review for it made me even more anxious because, in my opinion, “It Ends With Us” set a higher standard for all fiction novels overall as well as all other new adult fiction books. I can see why this book’s characters and its plot have such a cult following now.

Every character in Hoover’s books captures the hearts of her readers. When the protagonist’s partner deceitfully utilizes and manipulates her love, the reader shares her sorrow. Hoover is renowned for incorporating significant story twists in her books and successfully maintaining the readers’ interest throughout. I had no prior knowledge of the book and could never have foreseen what the last few pages would contain. It wasn’t until I discovered that the plot was much more than just a straightforward boy-meets-girl tale that I knew “It Ends With Us” was far more than just a romance novel.

Before purchasing this book, I would advise you to research its trigger warnings because there was a passage where I wondered if I would have to put it down. Despite the delicate subject matter, Hoover managed to write painful sequences with such ease that I didn’t feel the urge to stop reading. I frequently require extra information in works with a lot of emotional upheavals to properly comprehend every nook and cranny of the protagonist’s thinking.

“It Ends With Us” is a love story, even if I don’t think it’s a romance novel. It’s a love tale about putting one’s needs before those of someone they genuinely care about, and about deciding to stop a cycle of violence that causes more harm than good.