Search

Graphic Novelty²

Open Search
Tag

Colleen Hoover

Verity

This is my third Hoover book in as many months, and I feel the same way about her as I do Ruth Ware, that she is a solid enough writer but not to my taste. After the saccharine It Ends With Us/It Starts With Us, I was ready to tackle this book as I heard it was a departure from her previous romantic books. In one way it was, as this thriller kept me engaged the entire time. But, I had issues throughout the novel- spoilers ahead.

This Jane Eyre-inspired narrative has a novelist, Lowen, who accepts a contract to finish a set of novels that a famous author Verity is too sick to complete. Lowen has a meet-cute (or more accurately meet-horrible) with the author’s husband Jeremy who is a hottie, and then implausibly stays for weeks at the author’s grand house to look thru her manuscripts but finds a scandalous autobiography of the author who is now in a vegetable state. Verity’s autobiography details her lack of love for her three children, the death of her twin girls, and her obsession with her husband. Lowen is torn if she should show this manuscript to Jeremy, who she is falling in love with and she also suspects that Verity is not truly incapacitated.

There were so many times you need to have a suspension of disbelief- how quickly Lowen and Jeremy get involved, how Verity could fool others, plus the plot device of sleepwalking and locks on the doors. But my biggest issue was Jeremy and his amazing dick- that two women would be so infatuated with him because of how good he was in bed. The concluding pages have the requisite twist, throwing everything you assumed about Verity into question. Although I was rolling my eyes at this stage, I do admit that I liked this change-up for it makes you think about the story afterward. Considering the lackluster thrillers I have read recently, I’d rate this above many. Overall, it gets a thumb up by me, but it will probably be my last Hoover book.

5

It Ends With Us & It Starts With Us

Many of the author Colleen Hoover’s books are on best seller lists, so I decided to request her most popular one and give it a go. The novel proved to be a mixed bag for me- I thought the domestic violence angle made what I thought was going to be a typical love triangle storyline much deeper, however, I still had issues with it. *Some spoilers ahead*

It Ends With Us

Lily is a new college graduate who is new to Boston and left reeling from her abusive father’s recent death. She has a meet-cute moment with cocky surgeon Ryle and then re-meets him months later when she implausibly opens a florist shop and hires his sister who becomes Lily’s best friend. During this time she is re-reading her HS journals that detail her relationship with her first love Atlas, who also came from an abusive family. Lily and Ryle start dating, so of course, she bumps into Atlas who is a chef at a trendy restaurant he recently opened. But she stays with Ryle and marries him, who is charismatic but has anger issues, that eventually boil over into several instances of domestic abuse.

As I too had an abusive father, I could relate to Lily and thought it was sadly realistic how she kept on excusing Ryle’s behavior and staying with him. But I took affront to Lily’s extended decision on whether to leave him, as I found the distance he gave her and the access to money and the apartment highly unrealistic. Most women when trying to leave an abusive partner have extremely limited options, and that’s why so many women stay. In an afterword, Hoover shared IRL that her mother had to leave her father and was poor while she struggled to get back on her feet, so I found this perfectly crafted ending a disservice to real abused women who don’t have that luxury when leaving.

Nevertheless, I do plan on reading the sequel. I loved Atlas, and want to read his side of the story. I also want to see how Hoover chooses to portray Ryle, who made my skin crawl even before the abuse started. 

It Starts With Us

This sequel is the author’s gift to fans who fell in love with Lily and Atlas. Hoover was already a popular author, but readers on TikTok (aka BookTok) catapulted her books onto the best-seller list with their online recommendations. I heard she hadn’t planned on writing this book, as the first book established that Lily and Atlas would have a HEA, so this is basically a thank-you to readers of her books.

Almost a year out from Lily’s daughter’s birth and her divorce from Ryle, she remeets Atlas and they quickly fall in love again. Of course, there are the speedbumps of Ryle’s jealousy and that Atlas takes in his previously unknown preteen half-brother. But their renewed love story is sickeningly perfect and the novel concludes on their wedding day.

I don’t wish to be overly critical, for I too shipped Lily and Atlas, and I thought the domestic violence angle of the first book made what I first thought was going to be your usual love triangle narrative more engaging. I appreciated that Hoover didn’t try to overtly redeem Ryle in this story, he remained an abuser who needed to radically change his ways. Overall, this was a sweet romantic book that all Lily and Atlas fans will enjoy!

Header image from Time article

4

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑