The woman who is mostly responsible for Gen-Z reading, Colleen Hoover, never planned to write a sequel to “It Ends With Us”, and we resented her for it. But in the acknowledgments of “It Starts With Us”, Hoover explains #BookTok, the online petition, and countless messages forced her to give in and provide fans with some closure. But my pet peeve is when the series is painted as a spicy romance novel with a desirable male love interest, because it’s the opposite. The “It Ends With Us” series carries an important message around domestic violence, and “It Starts With Us” provides closure around the characters we loved, and the ones we hated.

I love when I’m reading Colleen Hoover at work and several women stop to talk to me about which one I’m reading or a man says “my wife loves those books.” Hoover brings women together. Her audience seems to be high schoolers and up, which is young for such heavy topics, however I think that’s what’s so impactful– girls are being taught to never blame the victim or question why they didn’t leave the harmful situation from a young age. The series is controversial, as many believe Hoover romanticizes and excuses domestic abuse. I think the opposite. She creates a realistic situation with a damaged man to smash the misconception that women who stay with their abuser for “too long” are weak or cowards. 

For “It Starts With Us” specifically, what kept me turning pages wasn’t constant dramatic scenes like in the previous book. The main character, Lily Bloom, is an adult now with a daughter to care for and broken pieces to pick up. Fans who stick around for the second book are invested in the characters’ lives and just want to see Lily and Atlas happy. Hoover gave readers the closure we needed, and I’m grateful for the full circle series that taught me real life lessons. I’m not talking about how to play hard to get or get over heartbreak, but that while domestic abuse traps someone, there is absolutely light at the end of the tunnel. For Domestic Violence Awareness Month, “It Starts With Us” is filled with that light as Lily begins her new life while balancing the past.