Author Colleen Hoover’s It Starts With Us doesn’t satisfy fans’ expectations after its much-anticipated release.

It Starts With Us is a sequel to It Ends With Us, which was released back in 2016. After It Ends With Us gained extreme popularity on TikTok in 2021, fans urged the author to continue the story.

Earlier this year, Hoover announced its sequel, and excited readers immediately pre-ordered the book months before its release. However, It Starts With Us doesn’t bring the wow factor many fans had expected.

The first book is the story of Lily Bloom, which delves into her life’s journey before and after facing domestic abuse. In the sequel, the story continues exactly where the first novel left off.

It Starts With Us is written from a dual point of view between Lily and her lost teen love, Atlas Corrigan. It navigates the relationship between the two as adults, especially after Lily’s divorce from her abusive ex-husband and her life as a new mom. Many fans thought Hoover was going to give her usual fireworks to an amazing love story, but it only brought tears of boredom.

Through its entire 37 chapters, every page turn seems to have the same, mundane writing. There are only slight moments of intensity, but not enough to satiate a true book lover. This is surprising since Hoover is known to write shocking plot twists in her other books.

The ending can obviously be expected, despite the author’s attempt to keep readers on a rocky edge with its outcome.

Though the book doesn’t have a spectacular story, it does does bring attention to heavier topics of domestic violence and child abuse.

Admittedly, the most interesting part of the novel is the long-awaited insight into Atlas’ past with his point of view. Moreover, readers can also notice Lily’s character development into a strong, single mother, but the lack of a good storyline cancels out any chance for the novel to be a success.

It Starts With Us isn’t worth the read and fans are better off only reading the first book.