leigh mochi

2 years. I avoided this book for 2 years because 1) BookTok recommended it so much and 2) I knew it was going to be sad. I'm not particularly biased against BookTok, but we know how they can overrate books sometimes. This is not one of those sometimes. Reading the first few pages made me incredibly melancholic. Colleen Hoover has a way with her words - she's able to make the words bleed, the sentences and paragraphs ooze utter emotion. I have never left a review on a book, never. Nothing has ever left me in such a state of speechlessness such at this one that I am so inclined to say something about it. And the more I write this, the more I realize I have a lot to say. IEWU tackled the reality of many women, the reality in many relationships. And it was so realistic. I, thankfully, do not have the experience but as someone who knew people who suffered this pattern? I could tell how resonating this book could be to victims. The characters were so real, too. They were alive, and they were human. They had thoughts and they had actions that I could relate to, that I could see, that I could connect with. Lily, too, was so transparent. I was Lily. I was best friends with Lily. That's what the book made me feel like. I knew what she felt and I understood why she felt like that - the thought process behind her character, the reasoning behind her choices, they were all so real. And last of all? The closure. The closure was beautiful. It's amazing. I'm a sucker for closure and no matter how good a book may get in its plot, if the ending was nothing healing, nothing impactful, it affects my overall opinion of it. But this book, god forbid there be any other book that tops my love for this one. It Ends With Us is a story of learning and unlearning, of love and heartbreak, of happiness and sadness and the bittersweet taste of lemon and the pain of Band-Aid. It's everything and more that I could have asked for in a book. I cannot wait for It Starts With Us.