After New York Times Best Selling author Colleen Hoover’s book It Ends With Us gained Tik Tok fame in January 2022, fans begged Hoover for a sequel. On October 18th, fans’ dreams came true with the release of It Starts With Us. 

Starting right where It Ends With Us left off, It Starts With Us follows the story of Lily Bloom and her first love, Atlas, reconnecting. Since the last book touches on the subject of abuse in Lily’s family and her marriage, Hoover notes, “I wanted to deliver a much lighter experience.” In the “Colleen Hoover Books” Facebook group, fans that gravitate towards Atlas have claimed to love this book. In contrast, some fans who neither liked Ryle nor Atlas had mixed feelings about reading it. After reading the book, all reviews are positive, and fans that didn’t care for Atlas before have grown to like him. While some that have complained about the lack of a plot understand Hoover’s intent to have a light, enjoyable read.

As the first book brought up the conversation and shed light on abusive relations and abuse in general, the second book portrayed the struggles of escaping an abusive relationship and encouraged others to leave their abuser. Hoover is overall “grateful to all of you who found Lily’s story to be as empowering as I find my own Mother’s.”