Has anyone read "It Ends With Us" or "It starts with us"?  I was blown away with how good "It Starts with us" was & decided to read the prequel (it ends with us). Both books are completely unavailable on PBS & must be wishlisted. The best selling prequel has an almost cult-like following & is being made into a film. It hit a nerve with me bc h & h met as teens & they were both from abusive families. 

If you've read either of these books or others of hers, are her other books as good?

Anybody?

Heyo, Claudia, this my first visit into this forum in years.  Bad on me.  Anyway, your thread was on top and as I've read both books, thought I'd poke my nose in and see what was trending on the topic.  As for me, I didn't care for the two books quite as much as you obviously did.  They're well written, I just didn't care for the characters that much and the situations portrayed.  I've read one or two other Hoover books but can't recall which ones.  She writes well, just don't always like the story lines.  

As for my return to this forum, I came here to start a thread looking for a title and/or author for a book I read years ago.  Figure there's a better chance someone in this forum may recognize the plot points I post on than would see this same thread in CMT.  

Thanks for the reply, rjvagabond. I can certainly understand why  the child & domestic abuse theme wouldn't appeal to some people. I have a tendency to like books that are very emotional & have a strong attraction to "wounded" heros & did this ever fit the bill! As far as the characters go, I liked Lily, hated Ryle & absolutely LOVED Atlas. I love the flawed hero's that have had to overcome a big problem & manage to turn their life around. He shows a lot of character development & is so gentle, kind, accepting & protective of the people he loves. I'd love to know more about what inspired the character of Atlas. 

I think my fave part of the book is when he meets Justin & finds out he has a little brother he didn't know about. Although he knows little about Josh. he does know his childhood must have been sheer HELL while he lived with their mother. He sees his mother slap Josh so hard he falls to the floor & hits his head on something & Atlas makes an immmediate decision that he will NOT allow their mother to abuse & torture Josh the way she did him. He removes him from his mother's apartment, takes him to the hospital.  Then he makes a plan to get custody of Josh & amazingly, he succeeds. I fell in love with Atlas right there. I grew up with a very abusive father who beat the shìt out of me (nearly) every day. I tried to run away, but they found me & dragged me back. I can't tell you how many times I wished that someone--an uncle or other relative, a teacher, a neighbor, the police would rescue me from him, but nobody ever did. My mother just covered up for him & denied we were abused. In the end I actually began provoking him in the misguided hope that he'd kill me so my suffering would be over. 

I like Colleen's writing style. She draws you in with an emotional story & her character development is so strong that you feel like they're not just characters, but real people you know well. Parts of the book were heart wrenching & VERY difficult to read, however, so I can understand how it might not appeal to the typical romance reader. The ending to It Ends With Us was more bittersweet than HEA. You can tell that Colleen is writing from personal experience. She says it was the most difficult book she has ever written.