Author: Colleen Hoover
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 3 out of 5
Pages: 385
Date Started: 12 April 2022
Date Finished: 15 April 2022
I have been hearing a lot about Colleen Hoover's novels and this is the third book I am reading that is written by her. With all the hype about her books, I thought I would read all the books written by her!
The summary of the book is - Lily hasn’t always had it easy, but that’s never stopped her from working hard for the life she wants. She’s come a long way from the small town in Maine where she grew up
— she graduated from college, moved to Boston, and started her own business. So when she feels a spark with a gorgeous neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, everything in Lily’s life suddenly seems almost too good to be true.
Ryle is assertive, stubborn, and maybe even a little arrogant. He’s also sensitive, brilliant, and has a total soft spot for Lily. And the way he looks in scrubs certainly doesn’t hurt. Lily can’t get him out of her head. But Ryle’s complete aversion to relationships is disturbing. Even as Lily finds herself becoming the exception to his “no dating” rule, she can’t help but wonder what made him that way in the first place.
As questions about her new relationship overwhelm her, so do thoughts of Atlas Corrigan — her first love and a link to the past she left behind. He was her kindred spirit, her protector. When Atlas suddenly reappears, everything Lily has built with Ryle is threatened. (Excerpt from Goodreads)
Out of all the characters in the book, I really liked Lily's character. She is trying to get out of the abusive relationship and yet, trying to make things work with Ryle. She doesn't want to give up easily because she truly loves him. I felt that her thoughts were very rational and thinking for her daughter is what made her strong.
I was glad it was over and felt that it was a bit of a drag with the narration of letters to Ellen, and her time spent with Atlas. The story was never boring and kept moving fast. I like the way Lily talks to everyone and to herself in a rational way. Getting out of an abusive relationship is not easy. I didn't cry ever while reading the book, but there were many scenes where I gasped for air! The dialogue with her mother at the end of the book was heartfelt and loved the idea of the mother opening up to her daughter.
Favorite lines from the book:
I feel like everyone fakes who they really are, when deep down we're all equal amounts of screwed up. Some of us are just better at hiding it than others.
There is no such thing as bad people. We're all just people who sometimes do bad things.
But the more I'm around death, the more it just becomes a part of life.
Instead of helping others, people use the worst-case scenarios to excuse their own selfishness and greed.
All humans make mistakes. What determines a person's character aren't the mistakes we make. It's how we take those mistakes and turn them into lessons rather than excuses.
I think about how sometimes, no matter how convinced you are that your life will turn out a certain way, all that certainty can be washed away with a simple change in tide.
Imagine all the people you meet in your life. There are so many. They come in like waves, trickling in and out with the tide. Some waves are much bigger and make more of an impact than others. Sometimes the waves bring with them things from deep in the bottom of the sea and they leave those things tossed onto the shore. Imprints against the grains of sand that prove the waves had once been there, long after the tide recedes.
Maybe love isn't something that comes full circle. It just ebbs and flows, in and out, just like people in our lives.
I read somewhere once that 85 percent of women return to abusive situations.
Preventing your heart from forgiving someone you love is actually a hell of a lot harder than simply forgiving them.
I am a statistic now.
Hatred is exhausting.
Every incident chips away at your limit. Every time you choose to stay, it makes the next time that much harder to leave. Eventually, you lose sight of your limit altogether, because you start to think, 'I've lasted five years now. What's five more?'
And the hard as this choice is, we break the pattern before the pattern breaks us.
Cycles exist because they are excruciating to break.
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