Book Commentary|| It Starts With Us- Colleen Hoover

It Starts With Us

“I’m exactly where I belong, being loved by Atlas Corrigan.”

It Starts With Us is a romance novel written by Colleen Hoover, a sequel to her best-selling novel It Ends With Us. It is written for the audience who wanted to see Lily and Atlas endgame.

The story follows Lily Bloom, a single mother who is trying to move on from her ex-husband, Ryle. Time and coincidence play a part in Atlas and Lily's lives when they meet after two years. When Atlas asks her out, she says yes, but she ponders the fact that even though she and Ryle are divorced, he is still a big part of her life because of their daughter, Emerson. She also fears his reaction when he finds out about her relationship with Atlas. The book also shows Atlas's abusive childhood with his mother and stepfather. He also meets his stepbrother and we follow the story of how he gets his custody from his mother and bonds with him.

It beautifully portrays how they try to rekindle their childhood love. Their love is naive, sometimes cheesy (like when they quote Finding Nemo), and sometimes full of inside jokes.

My favorite character throughout both books is Alyssa, but Marshall surpasses her when he comforts Lily during her breakdown. Theo’s one-liners are what takes the cake in this one and “I Wish For You To Be My Fish” will go down in history as THE quote from this novel.

When the line "Men Written by Women" comes up, everyone will remember Atlas Corrigan. It is like Colleen Hoover made a perfect man without any flaws, someone who is perfectly calm and collected in every situation. This makes us fall irrevocably in love with him, even knowing that there is no one like him in reality.

Atlas's way with words has definitely created a swarm of butterflies in the pit of my stomach. He made me fall in love with the lines he uses to express his love.

"I can draw a seedling with two tiny branches. Yours and mine. We'll be on our own brand-new, tiny family tree—one that starts with us."

Going through the story, most of us will fall in love with Atlas and be angry at Ryle because he becomes more obnoxious day by day. Ryle is a person with a complex past, and he expects Lily to stand with him to overcome his problems and issues. However, as Lily says, "He's a broken man, but he isn't broken because of me. He was broken before he met me. Sometimes people think if they love a broken person enough, they can be what finally repairs them, but the problem with that is the other person just ends up broken, too."

There are no chapters that depict Ryle's point of view. I started to dislike him by reading Lily and Atlas's POVs. After that, I realized that "There are no bad people, there are just good people who sometimes do bad things." Maybe if we got to know the story through Ryle's point of view, we wouldn't have such disdain for him, because the likes and dislikes depend on the point of view from which we are viewing the story.

Overall, It Starts With Us is a heartwarming story about two people finding love and redemption. Lily and Atlas' relationship is beautifully portrayed, and their love for each other is undeniable. This book is a must-read for fans of romance, but it is also a great read for anyone who enjoys a well-written and moving story.