'It Ends With Us' Author Colleen Hoover Says Lawsuit Overshadowed Book

Colleen Hoover has published nearly two dozen books in the past 13 years, but none received more mainstream success than It Ends With Us . The romance novel marred with domestic violence, trauma, and emotional abuse was released in 2016, became a BookTok hit during the pandemic, and was later adapted into a film starring Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni . On paper, it was a great success for Hoover. But the legal battle between Lively and Baldoni that followed the film’s release has made her reluctant to embrace it.

“I can’t even recommend it anymore. I feel like [the lawsuit] has overshadowed it,” Hoover said in a recent interview with Elle . “I’m almost embarrassed to say I wrote it. When people ask what I do, I’m just like, ‘I’m a writer. Please don’t ask me what I wrote.’”