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This year (2025) finds me with 53 years of teaching “under my belt.” I have taught all levels from pre-K “(library lady” or “book lady”–volunteer) to juniors, seniors, and graduate students enrolled in my Advanced Writing class at the university where I have just completed 34 years. My first paying teaching job was junior high, and I spent 13 years with ages 12-13, the “difficult years.” I had some of the “funnest” experiences with this age group. When I was no longer the “young, fun teacher,” I taught in an elementary school setting before sixth graders went on to junior high, teaching language arts blocs, an assignment that was a “dream-fit” for me. After completing graduate school in my 40s, I went on to community college, then university teaching. This past fall I accepted a part-time teaching job at Apogee Gulf Coast Schools in its first year at the Alvin campus. After my Better Half died n 2022, I achieved a lifelong dream: opening a bookstore of my own, Rae’s Reads. A year later, I sold the house we had lived in for 47 years and moved into the bookstore. My goal is to circulate and repurpose books. Just as teaching is “in my blood,” so is a passion for reading, writing, libraries, and everything bookish. This blog will be open to anyone who loves books, promotes literacy and wants to “come out and play.”

IT STARTS WITH US by Colleen Hoover: A Review

A student recommended I read It Ends With Us, a book she had just read. When I looked it up on Amazon, I saw the author had written two books, the other titled, It Starts With Us. Naturally, I ordered Starts first, only to discover it was the sequel to Ends! Go figure. Luckily, Starts, published in 2022, reads well as a stand alone novel and the author cleverly fills the reader in on the doings in the first book, Ends.

Our story begins two years after the first novel. The main characters, Atlas and Lily run into each other after a long separation. Ryle, Lily’s ex-husband suffers under the mistaken notion that Atlas is the reason his marriage to Lily ended. Actually, it was an abusive relationship. The love between Lily and Atlas is rekindled in spite of all the both of them do to try to avoid “a situation.” It is obvious to the reader that the two are truly in love and belong together. Secondary characters are drawn especially well, as in the case of Ryan’s sister and Leo, Atlas’s twelve-year-old “therapist.”

There are some fairly graphic love/sex scenes, but there is nothing offensive. In her forward, Hoover tells us she wrote this novel to satisfy the demands of fans who wanted to know how things turned out for the star-crossed lovers.

It is a fast-read, an entertaining plot with enough twists and turns and miscommunications to keep things interesting, and a good summer read.

RAE 6/19/23

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2 responses to “IT STARTS WITH US by Colleen Hoover: A Review”

  1. Deb Nance at Readerbuzz Avatar
    Deb Nance at Readerbuzz

    I’d hoped to do some light reading this summer, but the light reading I’ve done hasn’t been sitting well with me.

    Funny about the titles!

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. Rae Longest Avatar
      Rae Longest

      I understand. Sometimes it’s SO light, you wonder if the author is an airhead. LOL

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