Review: Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover

Ugly Love

Colleen Hoover

Publication Date: August 5, 2014

Paperback, 322 pages, Atria Books

Genres: New Adult, Contemporary

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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.

My Review

This is my second Colleen Hoover book. Was I impressed? Yes. Was it better than 99.9% of all other NA books out there? Yes. Was it one of my favorite books ever? No.

I’m sure you’ve all realized that new adult books are pretty much the same story. Girl meets hot boy + girl likes hot boy but hot boy won’t admit his feelings for her + something happens and feelings get shared = happily ever after. Add some sex scenes in there every once in a while and BAM! you have yourselves the makings of a new adult novel. So I wasn’t expecting anything different from this book. And for the most part, I didn’t get anything different. It still had the basic storyline, but it added some heart-wrenching scenes and topics.

Tate, the main character, is a young woman with a steady career goal in mind. She’s funny, and kind, and smart. However, she doesn’t know when to call it quits. That made me mad. She should have given up on Miles looooong before she did. He was an a$$hole. I understood that he had his reasons—which were totally predictable, btw—but he needed to take a step back and do some yoga or meditation or something.

I have to admit though, that despite these issues, this book did have me wanting to read it wherever and whenever I could. I actually took it on my bus ride, which is less than ten minutes. And of course I had to stop reading it once I realized I was getting to the naughty parts ‘cause that would have just been awkward.

Those naughty parts are another issue I have with the NA genre. There’s usually too much sex and not enough actual story and character development in NA books. So while there was a story and some character development in this book, another chunk of character development was missing with Tate. She never really changed during the book.

All in all, Ugly Love is a book that will have you crying tears of absolute anguish, but it’s also a book you might want to be wary of reading, especially if you’re like me and you get very fed up with the repetitiveness of the new adult genre, because while Ugly Love is different, it’s not that different.

*Note: I borrowed this book from my local library.