Wonder by R. J. Palacio is a novel about August Pullman, a ten-year-old boy with a facial difference who goes to school for the first time in fifth grade. For readers who want the plot, the narrators and the book's lesson on kindness.
It Starts with Us
2022 · 336 pages · Summary updated 24 October 2026
It Starts with Us is Colleen Hoover's sequel to It Ends with Us, told by Lily Bloom and Atlas Corrigan as they try to build a relationship while Lily co-parents with her abusive ex-husband. For readers who want to know what happens after book one.
The gist
It Starts with Us picks up where It Ends with Us left off. Lily Bloom, a single mother in Boston, runs into Atlas Corrigan, her first love, and they decide to try again. The obstacle is Ryle Kincaid, Lily's ex-husband and the father of her baby daughter, Emerson. Ryle has a history of violence and a deep jealousy of Atlas. Atlas has his own crisis: someone keeps vandalizing his restaurants, and his estranged mother reappears with news about a brother he never knew. Told in both Lily's and Atlas's voices, the novel argues that breaking a cycle of abuse is only the start, and that the harder work is building something safe in its place.
Key ideas
- 01
Leaving an abuser is not the end of the story
In book one, Lily leaves Ryle. In this book, she discovers that leaving does not remove him from her life, because he is Emerson's father. Hoover shows the work that comes after the exit: boundaries, custody rules and constant care. The example is Lily's rule that Emerson will not stay overnight with Ryle until she is old enough to talk and tell her mother if something goes wrong.
- 02
Co-parenting with an abuser means constant calculation
Lily must stay polite to a man she fears. Every choice about her life, including whether to date Atlas, has to account for how Ryle will react. Hoover makes this daily pressure visible. The example is the scene where Ryle walks into the flower shop while Atlas is visiting, and Lily hides Atlas in a closet rather than risk Ryle's anger.
- 03
Two narrators give Atlas his own voice
The first book was told only by Lily. Here Atlas narrates half the chapters. Readers see his restaurants, his patience and the childhood that made him who he is. Hoover uses his voice to show what safe love feels like from the inside. The example is his choice not to push Lily after her first cautious reply, even though he wants to see her.
- 04
Atlas recognizes himself in a hungry vandal
When someone vandalizes his restaurants and steals food, Atlas does not call the police. He was once homeless and hungry himself, and he guesses the culprit may be in the same position. Hoover uses this choice to show how Atlas's past shapes his kindness. It also sets up his storyline about family, because the vandal turns out to be linked to the mother he left behind.
- 05
Safety is the foundation of real romance
Ryle offered Lily passion and danger. Atlas offers calm, honesty and patience. Hoover presents the second as the better kind of love. The novel's romance is quieter than the first book's, and that is the point. The example is how Atlas responds to conflict: he talks, waits and listens, which is the opposite of the pattern Lily grew up with and married into.
- 06
Lily sets boundaries Ryle must accept
After Ryle attacks Atlas and then assaults Lily in a jealous rage, Lily stops managing his anger alone. She meets him only with Allysa and Marshall present and sets her terms: anger management classes and supervised visits with Emerson. Ryle is furious but agrees. Hoover shows that boundaries work best when they have witnesses and consequences, and that a survivor does not have to protect her abuser from them.
- 07
Atlas chooses to raise his brother
The vandal is Josh, Atlas's eleven-year-old half-brother, who has been searching for him. Atlas means to return him to their mother, Sutton, but changes his mind after seeing her mistreat Josh. He seeks custody, and Sutton agrees, on the condition of regular family dinners. Hoover mirrors Lily's story: both adults break a cycle by protecting a child from the harm they suffered themselves.
Full summary
The sequel readers asked for
It Starts with Us is a romance novel by Colleen Hoover, published in 2022. It is the sequel to her best-known book, It Ends with Us (2016). Hoover has said she wrote it as a thank-you to fans who wanted to see what happened next. It became her publisher's most pre-ordered book ever and one of the best-selling novels of 2022 and 2023.
The first book was told only by Lily. This one alternates between Lily Bloom and Atlas Corrigan. The shift matters. Readers of book one knew Atlas mainly through Lily's teenage journals. Here he speaks for himself, and the reader sees his past, his work and his fears from the inside.
You can read this book without the first one, but it assumes you know the story. The next section gives a short recap.
Spoilers: what happened in It Ends with Us
This section reveals the ending of It Ends with Us.
Lily Bloom grew up in Maine watching her father abuse her mother. As a teenager, she helped Atlas, a homeless boy hiding in an empty house near hers, and the two fell in love. Lily's father beat Atlas when he found them together, and Atlas left to join the military.
Years later, Lily moves to Boston and opens a flower shop. She meets Ryle Kincaid, a neurosurgeon, and they fall in love and marry. Ryle's sister, Allysa, becomes Lily's closest friend. But Ryle becomes violent. Each time, he apologizes and Lily wants to believe it will not happen again. Atlas, now a successful chef, reappears in her life.
Pregnant with Ryle's child, Lily leaves him. After their daughter is born, she decides to divorce him so her child will not grow up the way she did. She names the baby Emerson, after Ryle's older brother, who died in a childhood accident. The title refers to Lily's choice to end the cycle of abuse with herself. The book ends with Lily running into Atlas on a Boston street, with the hope of a future together.
Lily and Atlas meet again
It Starts with Us opens just after that meeting. Lily is a single mother with an eleven-month-old daughter. She runs her flower shop and shares custody with Ryle, who has Emerson on some weekends. Their encounter on the street is cut short, and Lily cannot stop thinking about it.
She is afraid to reach out. Ryle is still part of her life because he is Emerson's father. She knows how he reacts to Atlas. Any relationship with Atlas could set off his anger and make co-parenting harder.
Atlas, meanwhile, owns restaurants in Boston. He has a quiet life built through hard work after a childhood of neglect and homelessness. A young boy named Theo, the son of one of his employees, acts as his unlikely adviser and pushes him to text Lily. Her first reply is short and cautious. Atlas is disappointed but patient.
Slowly, they start to see each other. They talk about the years they spent apart. Atlas reads Lily's old journal entries about him, and the two rediscover the bond they had as teenagers. Lily's friendship with Allysa, Ryle's sister, adds another layer of tension: Allysa loves Lily, but she also loves her brother.
Co-parenting with Ryle
The novel's central tension is Ryle. He wants more time with Emerson, including overnight visits. Lily refuses for now. She says Emerson will not stay overnight with him until she is old enough to talk and tell her mother if something is wrong. She also asks Ryle to return her apartment key.
Ryle often arrives without warning. In one scene, Atlas is visiting the flower shop when Ryle walks in, and Lily hides Atlas in a closet out of fear. Ryle also becomes suspicious about Emerson's middle name, Dory, which he connects to Atlas because of a film the two teenagers loved.
Hoover uses these scenes to show what co-parenting with an abuser feels like. Lily must stay civil with a man she fears. Every decision about her new relationship has to account for how he might react. She is free of the marriage but not free of him.
Atlas's family
Atlas has his own storyline. Someone is breaking into his restaurants and vandalizing them. Atlas notices that food is missing and chooses not to call the police. He remembers being homeless and hungry, and he suspects the vandal is someone like the boy he once was.
Then his estranged mother, Sutton, contacts him after many years. Atlas wants nothing to do with her. She neglected and mistreated him as a child, and she was part of the reason he ended up homeless. Sutton tells him something he did not know: he has a much younger half-brother, Josh, and the boy is missing.
Atlas's chapters show a man who escaped the same kind of home Lily did, and who now has to decide how much of his past he can face. His storyline mirrors Lily's: both are trying to protect a child from the harm they suffered.
Allysa in the middle
Allysa is one of the most interesting figures in the book, because she has no easy side to take. She is Ryle's sister, and she loves him. She also saw what he did to Lily, and she is Lily's closest friend. She helps with Emerson, and Lily trusts her with her daughter when she goes out with Atlas.
Hoover uses Allysa to show how abuse affects a whole family, not only the person who is hurt. Allysa wants her brother to get better. She wants her niece to know her father. She also wants her friend to be safe and happy. These wishes pull against each other. Her husband, Marshall, is a steadier presence, and the couple act as a buffer between Lily and Ryle.
The book does not make Allysa choose in a single dramatic scene. Instead, it shows the slow, uncomfortable work of loving someone who has done harm, while refusing to excuse it.
Characters
- Lily Bloom: a florist and single mother who left her abusive husband and is learning to trust again.
- Atlas Corrigan: Lily's first love, now a restaurant owner. He narrates half the book.
- Ryle Kincaid: Lily's ex-husband and Emerson's father. A neurosurgeon with a history of violence toward Lily.
- Emerson: Lily and Ryle's baby daughter.
- Allysa: Ryle's sister and Lily's best friend, caught between the two.
- Sutton: Atlas's estranged mother.
- Josh: Atlas's younger half-brother, whom he has never met.
- Theo: a young boy who gives Atlas advice about Lily.
Themes
After the cycle ends. The first book was about leaving. This one is about what comes after: co-parenting, setting boundaries and learning to feel safe in a new relationship.
Co-parenting with an abuser. Lily cannot simply cut Ryle off. Hoover shows the constant calculation of a woman who must share a child with someone she fears.
Safe love. Atlas offers the opposite of Ryle: patience, honesty and calm. The book treats safety as the foundation of real romance.
Childhood trauma. Both Lily and Atlas grew up in harmful homes. Both are determined that the children in their care will not.
Chosen family. Atlas's story asks whether family is defined by blood or by who shows up.
Spoilers: the ending
This section reveals the ending.
Atlas catches the vandal at one of his restaurants. It is Josh, his eleven-year-old half-brother, who has been looking for him. Atlas takes Josh in. He plans to return him to Sutton, but he changes his mind after seeing her mistreat the boy.
Ryle's jealousy also turns on Atlas. He goes to one of Atlas's restaurants and attacks him. Atlas does not fight back. He tries to calm Ryle down, and Ryle eventually leaves.
Lily and Atlas spend their first night together after a wedding they attend. Atlas leaves early the next morning to look after Josh. Ryle comes to Lily's apartment, sees the signs of the night before and assaults her in a jealous rage. Lily gets away, picks up Emerson and goes to Atlas's home, where the two of them commit to each other.
Lily decides she will no longer manage Ryle's anger alone. At Emerson's first birthday party, she refuses to talk with him alone. She speaks with him only with Allysa and her husband, Marshall, present. She sets firm terms: Ryle must take anger management classes, and his visits with Emerson must be supervised. Ryle is furious but agrees.
Josh at first wants to live with his father in Vermont. After Atlas takes him there, he changes his mind and asks to live with Atlas. Sutton agrees to give Atlas full parental rights, with a weekly family dinner at his restaurant. Six months later, Atlas asks Lily to move in with him, and she says yes. The last chapter jumps ahead about a year and a half: Theo helps a nervous Atlas practice his wedding vows to Lily.
What the critics say
Some early reviews praised the sequel's warmth and its picture of a safe relationship, while others found the writing flat and the tone too sweet after the first book. Hoover's handling of abuse has drawn criticism across both books: some readers and critics argue that they frame domestic violence as the backdrop to a love triangle, and the planned It Ends with Us coloring book was canceled in 2023 after online backlash.
Who should read it
Read it if you finished It Ends with Us and want to see Lily and Atlas together. It is gentler than the first book, but it still deals with domestic abuse, child neglect and an abusive ex-partner, and it contains a sex scene.
Do this week
Flashcards
12 cards
Quiz
Question 1 of 5
What does It Starts with Us change from the first book's narration?
Questions this book answers
What is It Starts with Us about?
- It Starts with Us is Colleen Hoover's 2022 sequel to It Ends with Us. Lily Bloom, now a single mother in Boston, reconnects with her first love, Atlas Corrigan. They try to build a relationship while Lily co-parents with her ex-husband, Ryle, who was violent toward her and is jealous of Atlas. Atlas also faces his estranged mother and news of a brother he never knew.
How does It Starts with Us end?
Atlas discovers that the vandal at his restaurants is his half-brother Josh and takes custody of him. After Ryle attacks Atlas and then assaults Lily, she sets firm terms: anger management and supervised visits with Emerson. Ryle agrees. Lily later moves in with Atlas, and the final scene shows Atlas preparing his wedding vows to her.
Do you need to read It Ends with Us before It Starts with Us?
- It helps a lot. The sequel begins right after the last scene of It Ends with Us and assumes you know what happened between Lily, Ryle and Atlas. Most readers start with the first book. A short recap is in the summary above, inside a spoiler section.
Who narrates It Starts with Us?
- Lily Bloom and Atlas Corrigan take turns. This is a change from It Ends with Us, which Lily narrated alone. Atlas's chapters show his restaurants, his patience with Lily, his difficult childhood and his storyline with his mother and half-brother.
What is the theme of It Starts with Us?
- The main theme is what comes after leaving an abuser. Lily must co-parent with Ryle, set boundaries and learn to trust safe love with Atlas. Other themes are childhood trauma, protecting children from harm the adults suffered, and chosen family through Atlas and his half-brother.
Related books
Ugly Love is Colleen Hoover's romance about Tate Collins, a nursing student who agrees to a no-strings affair with a guarded airline pilot, Miles Archer, whose past is a closed door. For readers who want a steamy, emotional love story with a heartbreaking backstory.
Zora Neale Hurston's novel about Janie Crawford, a Black woman in early 1900s Florida who moves through three marriages in search of real love and her own voice. For readers who want the plot, the themes and the meaning of the title.
The Wife Upstairs is Rachel Hawkins's 2021 thriller that retells Jane Eyre in a wealthy Alabama suburb, where a broke dog walker falls for a widower whose wife vanished on a lake. For readers who like twisty domestic suspense.
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