Blake Lively stars in Boston romance movie

Movies

Based on the hit novel by Colleen Hoover, “It Ends With Us” stars Blake Lively as a woman in Boston trying to break a cycle of personal trauma.

Given that her romance with husband Ryan Reynolds bloomed in Boston, it’s fitting that Blake Lively (“Gossip Girl”) is the star of “It Ends with Us,” the upcoming Boston-set romantic drama that debuted its first trailer on Thursday.

Based on Colleen Hoover’s best-selling novel of the same name, Lively stars as Lily Bloom, a flower shop owner who is trying to leave a traumatic childhood and an abusive father in the past and start anew. She soon meets Ryle, a charming neurosurgeon, and the two begin dating.

But Ryle has a dark side, and Lily begins to worry that she will be stuck in the same cycle of violence that has haunted her entire life. When she runs into a childhood sweetheart (Brandon Sklenar, “1923”) Lily “realizes she must learn to rely on her own strength to make an impossible choice for her future,” according to a synopsis released by Sony Pictures.

Despite the aerial shots of the Boston skyline and the Zakim Bridge, “It Ends with Us” was primarily filmed in New York and New Jersey.

Hoover’s novel was already a pretty big hit following its 2016 release, selling close to a million copies. However, after going viral on BookTok (the literary community on TikTok), “It Ends with Us” topped multiple best-seller lists in both 2022 and 2023, pushing the book’s total to more than four million copies sold.

Also starring comedian Hasan Minhaj and Milton native Jenny Slate (“Parks & Recreation”), “It Ends with Us” hits theaters August 9.

Watch the first trailer for “It Ends with Us”