It Starts with Us
2022
- contemporary
- romance
- friendship
- fiction
- young adult fiction
- collectionid:nyt2020s
- american literature
- contemporary romance
- new adult
- domestic violence
The story
**Before It Ends with Us, it started with Atlas. Colleen Hoover tells fan favorite Atlas’s side of the story and shares what comes next in this long-anticipated sequel to the “glorious and touching” (USA TODAY) #1 New York Times bestseller It Ends with Us.** Lily and her ex-husband, Ryle, have just settled into a civil coparenting rhythm when she suddenly bumps into her first love, Atlas, again. After nearly two years separated, she is elated that for once, time is on their side, and she immediately says yes when Atlas asks her on a date. But her excitement is quickly hampered by the knowledge that, though they are no longer married, Ryle is still very much a part of her life—and Atlas Corrigan is the one man he will hate being in his ex-wife and daughter’s life. Switching between the perspectives of Lily and Atlas, It Starts with Us picks up right where the epilogue for the “gripping, pulse-pounding” (Sarah Pekkanen, author of Perfect Neighbors) bestselling phenomenon It Ends with Us left off. Revealing more about Atlas’s past and following Lily as she embraces a second chance at true love while navigating a jealous ex-husband, it proves that “no one delivers an emotional read like Colleen Hoover” (Anna Todd, New York Times bestselling author).
What it’s like
Short, direct chapters alternate between Lily and Atlas, so the book moves in quick, emotionally charged bursts that suit a late-night read or a weekend with the phone nearby. The voice is conversational and intimate, close to the characters' heads, with a lot of interior reflection on attraction, guilt, and the weight of old history. The mood is warm and hopeful at its core but edged with anxiety, a low hum of unease that comes from a jealous ex who keeps intruding on a new romance. Its people are shaped by second chances: a woman rebuilding trust after a painful marriage, and a man slowly opening up about a difficult childhood and why he has held himself back. Intensity is moderate. Domestic abuse is discussed in the backstory and surfaces in tense, sometimes frightening moments, with some violence and emotional cruelty, though it stays largely off the page in graphic detail. Romantic and sexual content appears, handled with a fairly frank but not explicit tone. This suits readers who want an emotional, dual-perspective romance with real stakes and a comfort-read ending, and who can handle heavy themes without needing gentleness throughout.
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