5.5 stars 
 It Ends With Us is so much more than I was expecting, and I have a pretty high bar set when it comes to Colleen Hoover. She has said this is her most personal work yet, and that's pretty much the extent of what I knew before I started reading. I would recommend people go into this book with as little prior knowledge as possible. It really does mean more that way. I would go so far as to say this is Colleen Hoover's most powerful book yet. 
 The journal entries from high school set up Lily's first love. It is unexpected, sweet, everything young love entails. It also set the stage for Lily's disenfranchisement with her parents. While Lily is reminiscing about her first love, she is also at the start of a new relationship, and this new one is equally as sweet. 
 When her first love and her new love collide, Lily has some decisions to make. Serious, life-altering choices. 
 I spent much of the book wanting to shake Lily. But that's the natural, outsider's reaction to parts of her situation. But listening to her narration, her reasoning, I found myself wavering just like she was. For the first time, I understood. 
 This was at times hard to read, and so emotional I had to pause to collect myself, but I did not want to put it down. It is full of hard truths, honest, beautiful, and harsh. I wish there was more to the ending, as it felt rushed. I wanted to see the happy at the end, but I also realize that this is as much Lily's story as it is a love story, if not more so. Reading this as one woman's journey, even the ending is perfect. It is less important where she ends up than it is that she gets there and how. 
 This was heartbreaking and poignant, uplifting and hopeful. I love how the circle closes, but love that not everything about the story is pretty. 
 "When I grow up, I want to be you." 
 I was gifted a copy in exchange for an honest review.