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What Is ‘It Ends With Us’ Book About? Ending Spoilers and More Ahead of Movie Release
Before It Ends With Us was a highly-anticipated movie starring Blake Lively, it was a popular 2016 novel written by Colleen Hoover. Inside the book’s plot, including ending spoilers, ahead of the film’s release.
What Is ‘It Ends With Us’ the Book About?
It Ends With Us is the story of a 20-something named Lily Bloom who falls in love with Ryle Kincaid, an aspiring neurosurgeon in his final year of residency, while living in Boston. The two meet while Lily is seeking solace on the rooftop of Ryle’s building after the death of her abusive father. Ryle comes onto Lily and tries to convince her to have a one-night stand with him, but the moment is interrupted by a work call and they part ways.
Back in her apartment, Lily reminisces about her past with the guy she lost her virginity to, Atlas Corrigan, who used to live in a condemned house near where she grew up. Through Lily’s old diaries, we learn that she started bringing Atlas food and they struck up a friendship on the school bus.
Six months later, Lily is fulfilling her dream of opening a flower shop and hires a woman named Allysa. While they’re setting up the shop, Lily hurts her leg, which leads Allysa to call her husband, Marshall, and brother over to help. It turns out Allysa’s brother is Ryle, who helps Lily to her car before they part ways again.
Since she has to stay off her foot for several days, Lily finds herself looking back at her old diary entries once again. The story with Atlas continues as she begins to invite him to her house after school before her parents are home. She finds comfort in him amid her father’s abuse of her mother, and later learns that Atlas was the victim of abuse too. Lily begins to take bigger risks with Atlas, even sneaking him into her house and letting him sleep in her room on colder nights.
Ryle surprises Lily at her apartment and begs her to sleep with him because he can’t get her out of his mind. He ends up falling asleep while she’s in the shower and apologizes the next morning. They don’t see each other for more than 50 days, but when the flower shop officially opens, he’s the first customer. Then they meet again at Allysa’s birthday party, and although they have their first kiss, Lily asks him to prove that he likes her by not rushing into sleeping with her.
While Lily and Ryle are out to dinner with her mother, she is shocked to find that Atlas is their waiter. Lily doesn’t mention their past in front of her mom and Ryle, but they have a brief private conversation. In Lily’s diary entries, her friendship with Atlas starts turning into more, but he eventually moves to Boston to live with his uncle. When he returned for a visit on Lily’s 16th birthday, her father caught him and beat Atlas up. It was the last time they saw each other before the Boston reconnection.
Things progress emotionally and physically between Lily and Ryle. But during one night together, Lily can’t stop laughing after Ryle burns his hand in the kitchen, resulting in him pushing her and leaving her with a bruised eye. Just seconds later he’s apologizing and groveling, and she forgives him because she knows he needs his hand for a huge upcoming surgery.
After the incident, Lily runs into Atlas again when she, Ryle, Allysa and Marshall return to the restaurant he works at. She finds out he’s actually the chef and owner of the establishment. Atlas sees the cut on Lily’s eye and immediately knows what happened. Ryle catches Atlas and Lily talking in the bathroom together and the men have an explosive argument. Now it’s Lily who’s apologizing to Ryle, insisting there’s nothing going on between her and the man from her past.
The next day, Atlas comes to Lily’s shop to apologize for the fight and to give her his cell phone number in case she ever needs it. Lily and Ryle elope in Las Vegas, but six weeks later, he finds Atlas’ cell phone number and pushes her again. This time, she fell down the stairs after the shove.
Ryle finally explains that he has anger issues because he accidentally shot and killed his older brother when he was just 6 years old. Despite fears that she was emulating her mother’s past behaviors at the hands of abuse, Lily forgives Ryle and stays with him. During their next fight a month later, Ryle walks away to cool off instead of letting things get physical.
However, he eventually finds her old journals and reads about her past with Atlas. Then he finds out that Atlas’ restaurant was inspired by her after reading a newspaper article on the establishment. This leads Ryle to hurt Lily again.
How Does ‘It Ends With Us’ the Book End?
This time, Lily calls Atlas for help. When he takes her to the hospital, she finds out she’s pregnant. Her old friend takes her back to his apartment and she spends two days there.
When she returns to work, she comes face-to-face with Ryle, who reveals that he’s going to England for three months. Lily does not tell him about the baby.
Lily finds out that Atlas came to her college to find her after leaving the Marines. However, when he saw her looking happy with another guy – someone she only dated for six months – he left and signed up for another tour. When Atlas brings her home, he tells Lily to find him if she’s ever ready to fall in love again.
Ryle returns from England to tell Lily he’s taking a job in Minnesota, but then tries to get her to take him back when he finds out she’s pregnant. This time, Lily doesn’t give in. A few weeks later, she lets Ryle help her set up the baby’s nursery. Lily says she won’t deny Ryle a relationship with his child but says he has a lot of trust to rebuild first. When it comes to their marriage, she’s not ready to make a decision yet.
Ryle starts sleeping on the couch and is there when Lily goes into labor. She gives birth to a baby girl and then tells Ryle she wants a divorce. After realizing that he’d never let his own daughter endure abuse at the hands of a man, Ryle knows it’s the right decision.
Nearly a year later, while Lily is headed to drop her baby off at Ryle’s, she runs into Atlas. Lily and Ryle are in a good place as coparents. After she leaves the baby with him, she goes back to find Atlas and tells him she’s ready to be with him. The book ends with them ready to start their new chapter together.
Who Is Cast in ‘It Ends With Us’ The Movie?
In the film version, Blake is playing Lily, while Ryle will be played by Justin Baldoni and Atlas is portrayed by Brandon Sklenar. Jenny Slate plays Allysa, with Hasan Minhaj as Marshall. The younger versions of Lily and Atlas are played by Isabela Ferrer and Alex Neustaedter.
