Reviews with content warning for Alcoholism - It Starts with Us

Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

It Starts with Us by Colleen Hoover

36 reviews

alexisgillogly's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Overall I'd say it wasn't quite as powerful as the first book in the series but it wasn't a dud by any means either. I enjoyed it. I'm glad it was written. The back and forth in narration was wonderful, I loved hearing things from Atlas POV. There was one chapter in particular that was so emotional I had to stop everything else I was doing and just listen (I read the audiobook version).

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sarahstyles28's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

loved to see how their stories ended
really lovely story which has the powers to spread the words of DA and realities of true love.

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issyd23's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Surprisingly enjoyable after detesting the first book 3🌸

NB I picked up this book expecting to hate & make fun of it, but ended up liking the story. I found it really satisfying & empowering to see Lily call out Ryle’s abusive behaviour & get a second chance of love with Atlas. There are still Ellen DeGeneres diaries but thankfully not as much as book 1 + the inclusion of Atlas’ perspective was a good addition.

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jessamess's review against another edition

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1.0

I swore I would never read another one of her books again, but I decided to read it because I had to know what this book was actually like since it’s gotten so much praise on Booktok. Funnily enough it’s very clearly written purely because of the popularity of It Ends With Us on Tiktok. First and foremost, this book is full of regurgitated passages from It Ends With Us, and flashbacks to scenes we had in the first book. So much of this book is repeated content and that alone makes it completely unnecessary. Second, I spent so much time skimming this that I don’t even know if I can say I truly read it. It was just the same nagging storytelling of any other CoHo book. The woman is sad and damaged and a man comes along to fix her by doing the bare minimum that a partner should do. At least It Ends With Us had some kind of emotional storyline. It Starts With Us takes the same story from the first book and tries to make it a “new” perspective. I get that abuse is a cycle and I get that it’s not easy to break out of it, but if you want to write about that, do it. Don’t make these romance books about a man being the hero to the story, make them stories about the reality of living in a cycle of abuse. No part of abuse is romantic, even if a man swoops in to “save you”.
TLDR: It Starts With Us is so much of the same story we hear in It Ends With Us that it’s not even worth opening the book. A relationship isn’t going to save you from abuse or break the cycle. Atlas is not the hero here.

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