Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover | Book Review

(Stand-Alone)

Published: August 5th 2014

Synopsis:

When Tate Collins meets airline pilot Miles Archer, she doesn’t think it’s love at first sight. They wouldn’t even go so far as to consider themselves friends. The only thing Tate and Miles have in common is an undeniable mutual attraction. Once their desires are out in the open, they realize they have the perfect set-up. He doesn’t want love, she doesn’t have time for love, so that just leaves the sex. Their arrangement could be surprisingly seamless, as long as Tate can stick to the only two rules Miles has for her.

Never ask about the past. 
Don’t expect a future.

They think they can handle it, but realize almost immediately they can’t handle it at all.

Hearts get infiltrated.
Promises get broken.
Rules get shattered.
Love gets ugly.

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My Rating:  4/5 (Really Good)

Book Information

Publisher: Atria Books

Genre(s): Romance, New-adult

Page Count: 322

Format: Paperback

ISBN: 1476753180

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This was used for the Popsugar challenge: A book with antonyms in the title.

I’ve heard so much about this book in the past couple of months. I’ve read so many glowing reviews on this, talking about how emotionally heartbreaking this book is. How much it impacted them. Naturally, I was curious to see what exactly the hype is all about. And so I finally read it!

Quick Summary

When Tate Collins moves into her brother’s apartment, she finds herself immediately attracted to her brother’s friend and neighbor, Miles Archer, and soon finds out he’s attracted to her as well. As a result, they get into a deal to have a no-love, sex-only relationship. Miles only has two rules for Tate: Not to ask about his past or expect a future. But when rules are broken, things get ugly.

Plot

The plot was hooking. I don’t know, there was something about it that just compelled me to keep reading. I wanted to know what happened next, and everything just flew by really quickly. That was the aspect of the plot I liked, how involved it made me feel, how fast I went through the whole story. I can’t say I approve of what the main storyline comprised of (Tate and Miles’s decision to have a sex-only relationship) but this book did take me on an emotional roller coaster I really enjoyed. I couldn’t stop reading it, and although some parts could be considered predictable, I found most of them to be surprises and enjoyed the plot overall.

Characters

The characters was my major issue. I suppose when it really matters I’d be able to overlook them, but there were a few factors in the characters that really got to me. Miles, was, different, to say the least. I can definitely see the appeal in him, and I won’t lie and say that I didn’t like him. He’s the character, out of him and Tate, that goes through most development, and the way that that development was executed was interesting. You see, this book is written in two POVs, Tate’s in the present, and Miles in the past, 6 years earlier. We are shown how broken Miles is from his dialogue in the past, and then what Tate notices and sees in the present, the consequences of whatever broke him 6 years before. As we reach the end of the novel there’s a huge difference in Miles from everything we’ve learned and noticed, and that development was great.

Now, that being said, I did have an issue with Miles. Which was how crazy obsessive and mental he sounded from his POV in the past. I don’t know if that’s intentional, but I didn’t like it all that much. Supposedly, Miles fell in love with his former girlfriend, Rachel, basically the moment he saw her. Ignoring the fact that that statement on itself is unrealistic, what Miles says and does is kind of creepy and weird.

Rachel.
You’re gonna fall in love with me, Rachel.
{…}
She’s gonna have all my babies.

Okay… please, no. The past Miles came off as touchingly broken, yes, but also quite stalker-ish and creepy. Speaking of, I’m actually kind of confused as to why Miles was like that. I mean, I get that he’s broken and all that, but wasn’t that after Rachel and everything? I’m not quite sure as to why he was so emotionally fragile 6 years earlier. In fact, if any of you who read this book have an answer to that, I’d love to hear it. Call me stupid, but my brain can’t compute what was with all that.

Of course, I did still like Miles, I sympathized with him and his story did really touch my heart, and the present-day Miles was way different than his former self. His interactions with Tate were really fun to read and cute. (One of those moments was this one.) By the end of the book, I really liked him.

“I just don’t like being gone so much, especially knowing you’re right across the hall from where I live. It makes me want to be home all the time.”

Anyway, then we have Tate. She was by far the biggest issue I had with this book. I did not approve of her decision to go into the sex-only relationship with Miles (one of the reasons because it protrays women as only objects for sex) but what really bothered me was how weak she became after spending more time with Miles. We’re told that Tate was a strong, independant woman, but then we’re shown something entirely different. She lets Miles walk all over her; I think if she had more of a backbone, I would’ve appreciated her character a bit more. As such, I couldn’t bring myself to like Tate as much as I would’ve liked.

I know all this makes it seem like I didn’t like the main characters, but I still did really enjoy them. I loved seeing Miles’ development, and finding out why he was so quiet and detached from everything was great. The characters weren’t perfect, and I wouldn’t have minded if some aspects were handled differently, but overall they were really good.

As for where the other characters are concerned, we didn’t see as much of them, obviously, but from what I did see, I liked them. I especially really liked Cap, he was a comedic relief and also an interesting character. I also liked Tate’s older brother, Corbin, he’s very protective of Tate and obviously really cares for her, which was sweet.

Writing Style

The writing style was one of the best parts of the book for me. As I’ve mentioned above, the book was written in the perspective of Tate, present-day and Miles, 6 years earlier. While Miles’ inner dialogue and thoughts were pretty disturbing and odd (once you think about it, at least), it was set up in a different format that was interesting to read. I especially enjoyed what I learned from these parts. I really liked how the scenes from the past tie in with the present to explain why present-day Miles is like he is. It was unique and delivered smoothly. I also really enjoyed how everything was slowly built up, in both past and present, to the climax, which, what some readers may find predictable and boring, to me, was overwhelming (in a good way) and great to read!

Book Trailer

Overall…

A very enjoyable story with a unique, quotably writing style, Ugly Love had its special moments. It was addicting, and I flew through it all, which is why I added the extra .5 star, making my rating 4 stars. I hardly noticed I was staying up late reading this book, and I’m sure if I had enough time I would’ve finished this in a day. After finishing this it stuck with me for a long time, but unfortunately I didn’t enjoy the characters as much as I wish I did. Again, for my first time reading CoHo, it wasn’t bad and I really liked it, but there were several aspects that just didn’t do it for me. I really liked this book though, overall. I’ll definitely be trying out CoHo’s other books.
So do I recommend this? I’d say it’s more on a case-to-case basis. This does have mature content, so I’d say around 15-16+ would be the recommended age. If you enjoy New Adult romances, or a story that will tug on the heart strings and portrays the ugly side of love, then I’d definitely say ‘go for it!’ but otherwise you should be a bit wary. Just remember to keep your expectations relatively low, so you aren’t met with disappointment!

What did you think of this book? I know the majority of you who read and loved this more than me are probably throwing things at me right now, (LOL) but I’d love to know your thoughts. Do you agree with anything I said? What do you disagree with? Who knows, your perspective may make me realize something about the book myself.

Hopefully your love for this book won’t turn ugly! This was a really tasty meal.