He relates to the vandal because he too was once a hungry homeless kid. She also asks for her apartment key back that Ryle has, and he begrudgingly gives it up.Ītlas's restaurants are being vandalized but he chooses not to report it to the police because he discovers some food missing. She says Emmy will not be allowed to stay at Ryle's apartment overnight until she can speak. He reveals he wants to start having overnights with Emmy. When Lily returns to her apartment that evening, she finds her ex-husband and daughter inside. Theo encourages him to text her, but when Lily responds rather shortly, Atlas gets disappointed.

However, she is hesitant to text Atlas anticipating the negative reaction of her abusive ex-husband and father of her child.Ītlas talks to his coworker/friend's son, Theo, about what happened with Lily. After dropping Emmy off at Ryle's apartment, Lily returns to work unable to stop thinking about her run-in with Atlas. Lily and Atlas run into each other unexpectedly on the streets of Boston, but the encounter is short because they are both running late. Lily's daughter Emerson, who she had with the father and neurosurgeon, Ryle Kincaid, is 11 months old now. The love story continues with Atlas Corrigan and Lily Bloom through It Starts with Us nearly a year after their last encounter. The novel alternates chapters between the first-person narration of Lily and Atlas. The novel continues from where It Ends with Us ended and centers on the relationship between Lily and Atlas. Hoover wrote the novel as a 'thank you' to fans of the first novel.

It became Simon & Schuster's most pre-ordered book of all time. The sequel was first announced in February 2022. It is the sequel to her 2016 best-selling novel It Ends with Us. It Starts with Us is a romance novel by Colleen Hoover, published by Atria Books on October 18, 2022.

Colleen hoover it starts with us series