Never heard of Colleen Hoover? Then you’re not up on your romance and YA novels, because she’s one of the most prominent authors with more than 20 million books sold. Incredibly, she’s never had one of her books adapted for the screen until now with the upcoming film It Ends with Us, starring Blake Lively.
The first in a two-book series, It Ends with Us centers on Lily, a young woman with a traumatic childhood who is torn between two men: her current boyfriend who reminds her off past abuses, or her first love who has reentered her life unexpectedly.
Lively is joined in the cast by Justin Baldoni, who was the first to option the rights to Hoover’s novel and also directs. He previously directed two other romance films, Five Feet Apart in 2019 and Clouds a year later. Brandon Sklenar, Jenny Slate, Alex Neustadter, Hasan Minhaj, and Amy Morton co-star. Lively’s buddy Taylor Swift has a song in the trailer, too.
Here’s the synopsis: “IT ENDS WITH US, the first Colleen Hoover novel adapted for the big screen, tells the compelling story of Lily Bloom (Blake Lively), a woman who overcomes a traumatic childhood to embark on a new life in Boston and chase a lifelong dream of opening her own business. A chance meeting with charming neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid (Justin Baldoni) sparks an intense connection, but as the two falls deeply in love, Lily begins to see sides of Ryle that remind her of her parent’s relationship. When Lily’s first love, Atlas Corrigan (Brandon Sklenar), suddenly reenters her life, her relationship with Ryle is upended, and Lily realizes she must learn to rely on her own strength to make an impossible choice for her future.”
It Ends with Us hits theaters on August 9th.