All humans make mistakes. What determines a person's character aren't the mistakes we make. It's how we take those mistakes and turn them into lessons rather than excuses.”

Lily's story is one that I never wanted to stop reading. If I know that I'm going to need to read a book in multiple sittings (which was the case with this book), I usually try to find a good place to stop. One in which, nothing major is happening and nobody is facing some drastic/perilous moment. Well you see the problem with this book is the fact that there is literally NO. GOOD. STOPPING. POINT! None! There was never a part where I felt safe in letting this book sit overnight because I knew that the story and the what if's would play endlessly in my mind. So I stayed up and read it all in one sitting because I simply couldn't stop. Lily was someone that I connected to right from the get go. I knew as soon as the book started that I would like her, and that never once stopped while I was reading. However, I didn't realize how much her character would affect me while I was reading. As I said before, after I was finished reading, I couldn't have been prouder of her decisions. The strength she had throughout the story to go through what she did, but also her resolve and conviction just made me constantly cheer her on. Lily is truly one of the most admirable characters that I have ever had the pleasure of reading about, and that admiration goes extraordinarily deep. The first incident where he pushed her and hurt her was heartbreaking and I got so sad because she forgave him. Even after seeing her father do that to her mother, she still forgave him.Your authors note was just about as heart breaking as the story. I’m with you when you said you wanting to delete and start again. That you fell in love with Ryle. It was heartbreaking so read what he was doing. I felt the pain for both of them. But I think you were right in writing their story the way you did. The more these things are talked about, the more someone who hasn’t been in that position and start to understand, the more help there will be from normal everyday friends and family for people who end up in Lily’s position. And hopefully over time we can all help to break the cycle of things like this. Obviously the book wasn’t all about Lily and Atlas, we got to meet Alyssa and Marshall who were the sweetest couple ever.

Unfortunately, I was too far gone and too far in love with the idea of Ryle and Lily to make room for Atlas and because of that, I'm not sure if I'll ever be fully satisfied with that ending. I was happy that Lily was no longer a victim of domestic abuse. I'm glad that after all that happened between them, Lily and Ryle parted on good terms. I'll forever be heartbroken over the idea of what could've been. And I feel indifferent to Lily and Atlas. Sorry not sorry, Atlas. That basically sums up all my feelings in a nutshell. And it's hard to read because as a bystander I just wanted to help Lily and tell her that she didn't have to forgive him and that she deserved better than that. But that's how the story goes.. She forgave him and told him that if he ever did that again that she would know it wasn't an accident and she would leave him! With a delicate foiled cover, exclusive board and sprayed edge design, as well as an exclusive interview with Colleen and her mother, don't miss this beautiful collector's edition.Let me start by saying my 15 yr old daughter recommended this book to me. As a mother of two daughters I’ve spent their whole lives so far being very open and honest with them both about all things in life. The good, the bad and the ugly. I find it important to teach my girls about all things in life and not just the good stuff. We talk about relationships, friends, partners, sex, drugs, alcohol, love, money, school, banking, mortgages, the works. Anything and everything you can think of. My eldest daughter loves to read so when I come across a book that I feel shows the uglier sides of life, written in a way the is relatable to normally recommend for her to read it. It has become a good opening to conversations. So when she recommended I read this book. I brought it without thinking. She didn’t tell me what it was about, but it has now become a talking point for us. Rather than trying to sugarcoat my thoughts, I'm just going to be completely honest. I was 100 percent team Ryle from the very first time we met him. Just like Lily, I fell in love with every word and every gesture that rolled off of his body. I. WAS. HOOKED. It also didn't help that I kept fantasizing Doctor Mike as Ryle Kincaid. *heart eyes emoji* I loved his ambition. His personality. His confidence. To be honest, I think I might've loved Ryle even more than Lily did but that's another story for another day. That more than likely explains why I took the second half of this book like a blow to the gut. As the story progresses, we start to see little things here and there that makes us, or at least made me, see why she loved him. There are times I am angry and times I am sad. And then I'm both. And it's the worst because there is a war raging inside me, and the winning side keeps changing. How is it possible to switch from denial to sorrow to fury to acceptance in a heartbeat?"

With a delicate foiled cover, exclusive board and sprayed edge design, as well as an exclusive interview with Colleen and her mother, don't miss this beautiful collector's edition. Eventually when she does leave him she decides to tell her mother what happened and there's this thing that her mother said to her that moved me.. she said "I know you believe he loves you, and I'm sure he does. But he's not loving you the right way. He doesn't love you the way you deserve to be loved."Ryle is assertive, stubborn, maybe even a little arrogant. He's also sensitive, brilliant, and has a total soft spot for Lily. And the way he looks in scrubs certainly doesn't hurt. Lily can't get him out of her head. But Ryle's complete aversion to relationships is disturbing. Even as Lily finds herself becoming the exception to his "no dating" rule, she can't help but wonder what made him that way in the first place. The there's also the fact that he tells straight away that he doesn't want a relationship and is only looking for a one night stand but then ends up pressuring her and manipulating her into having sex with him. He begs her for it because he says he can't concentrate at his job so he just wants to get it over with so that he can get her out of his head.