Shruti Nair

It ends with us is a novel by Colleen Hoover; this was my first novel that I read. That was written by her. I absolutely fell in love with it from the first page. The book evoked all the emotions in me; I cried, I laughed, and I also started questioning a lot of things in my own life. It Ends With Us is a deeply emotional and thought-provoking contemporary romance novel. The book delves into the themes of domestic abuse and its complexity, strength and resilience, love and sacrifice, generational trauma, and breaking cycles. The protagonist, Lily Bloom, is a resilient and ambitious woman who has faced many challenges but never allowed them to stop her from striving for the life she’s always dreamed of. Raised in a small town in Maine, Lily graduated from college, moved to Boston, and opened her own flower shop. Her life takes an unexpected turn when she meets the charming neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid. Suddenly, everything in Lily's world feels too good to be true. Ryle is assertive, stubborn, and at times arrogant, but he’s also sensitive, brilliant, and struggles with anger. Despite his strict no-relationship policy, he seems to break his own rule for Lily, revealing a softer side of himself. Even though everything is going well with Ryle, Lily can’t help but find her thoughts drifting back to Atlas—the boy who was her first love, the one who truly understood her in ways no one else ever has. And now, with Atlas unexpectedly reappearing in her life, the carefully constructed relationship she shares with Ryle feels threatened. I also love the way, the book takes the reader back to, when  Lily and Atlas were kids, how they met, and how they help each other to cope with life. I love everything about the characters major or minor details. I love,  how each character develops as the story goes on. It also shows us how, one can put a stop to a generational trauma, by breaking the cycle and setting an example for the next generation. Ratings 4.5/5

Looking for Alaska, deals with the universal questions of Love, Friendship, Truth, and the gray areas in between.This story is about Miles Halter (Pudge) who is in search of his great perhaps and is interested in famous people's last words. He attempts to reinvent himself in a new school, with new friends and activities. He moves to Culver Creek Boarding School in Alabama. He meets his roommate Chip (Colonel) who introduces him to Alaska Young. He also meets Takumi. As the days pass by the friendship between them grows deeper and Pudge has his first cigarette, first drink, first burrito, gets his first girlfriend, and becomes part of all the pranks. Alaska Young is a beautiful, witty, carefree, funny, a book hoarder and there's never a dull moment with her, She's got a personality with a mystery to it. She finds pudge cute but she's got a boyfriend.The story is very realistic, especially since John has portrayed the characters exactly as one would expect them to behave without parental supervision.  It seems at first that the book is about a high school romance, but it turns out to be much more than that. It’s more of a tale of how love isn’t as translucent as it seems.