Ugly Love: A Novel

“I didn’t fall in love with you… I flew.”I am ruined.I would like to think that after more than half a dozen books read and loved, I could call myself a seasoned Colleen Hoover reader and thus be equipped for all her ‘mind trickery’, and yet nothing, nothing in this world could have prepared me for the emotional avalanche that is Ugly Love. This is a book like no other in this author’s impressive repertoire, a book that gets under your skin from the very first sentence, and then page after page, it just keeps stripping you of every semblance of control you might have thought you had over your own feelings. It’s a book that annihilates you from within, slowly breaks your heart into so many pieces you’ll need tweezers to pick them all up, and then it simply stuns you into silence with one of the most unexpected, soul-shattering book moments in history. Every element of this story is so brilliantly thought out, so cleverly executed, so skilfully assembled into one of the most perfect stories I have ever read. Colleen Hoover is on an emotional rampage this time around, and she will ruin us all in the best possible way.“Love isn’t always pretty… Sometimes you spend all your time hoping it’ll eventually be something different. Something better. Then, before you know it, you’re back to square one, and you lost your heart somewhere along the way.”The story is split into two parallel timelines, one in the present and one in the past, and it follows two distinct voices all throughout the book. They are each so vivid and persuasive in their impact on the reader, that it often becomes difficult to reconcile them in our minds and see how one can coexist with the other. In the present, our heroine is a young woman in her early twenties, a student nurse who has just arrived in a new city to pursue a postgraduate degree and find a job. Tate Collins has never put relationships before her professional aspirations, her career always coming first, and she remains determined not to let love distract her from her goals. But on her very first day there, as she is moving into her new home, she meets her neighbour Miles, a young pilot and a close friend of her brother’s, and from that moment onwards, her heart doesn’t stop doing summersaults every time they run into each other. But Miles is not interested in love, now or ever again, and while their attraction is sizzling and at times difficult to rein in, he remains clear on two points…“Don’t ask about my past. And never expect a future.”In the past, we meet an eighteen-year-old Miles Archer, at the very moment he meets his first love. Through brief but particularly attention-grabbing little snippets of that past, we get to witness firsthand the heartwarming experience of falling in love for the first time through the eyes of a young Miles and it’s the very innocence of it all, the untainted joy and excitement of those feelings, that stand in stark contrast with the events and the Miles we get to meet six years later.“It’s not that I don’t like you… I just don’t want to like you. I don’t want to like anyone. I don’t want to date anyone. I don’t want to love anyone.”While in the past we see our hero free-falling into love, carelessly and enthusiastically, in the present scenario we see him holding back every one of his emotions from the woman who each day reluctantly falls herself deeper and deeper in love with him. As emotions start bleeding through, blurring the lines of the friends-with-benefits arrangement they have agreed on, Miles and Tate’s relationship becomes more and more complicated as time goes by, bringing them each day one step closer to Tate’s inevitable heartbreak and disappointment. Unspoken questions keep piling up, unrequited feelings keep getting suppressed, and eventually all that is left between them is the ugly side of love.“Make me leave… You don’t need this… I just don’t know how to stop wanting you. Tell me to go, and I’ll go.”I will stop here and tell you nothing more about this story. This is a book that will keep surprising you, devastating you, leaving you breathless by simply never allowing you to relax or foresee what lies ahead, and I assure you that you will never see the next blow coming. They are all delivered with such precision, I felt like I was on the receiving end of a knife throwing act. It’s a story that shows the resilience of the human spirit, regardless of how terrifying the ghosts of one’s past may be, and the healing power of love. The sheer brilliance of this book also lies in the language used, in the quirky dialogues, in the unique monologues, in the word repetitions, even in the extraordinary visual arrangements of words aimed to imprint the meaning of those words into our souls and leave us shivering in their wake. Nothing is accidental and everything is just right.“I hope she remembers the momentshebecamemyeverything.”By the end of this book, my hands were hurting from being balled into fists for so long, my heart was aching and rejoicing at the same time from the countless emotions it had been exposed to, my body was hurting from not having moved an inch for so many hours at a stretch, and I had developed an unhealthy animosity towards italics in general. This is the sexiest, most heart-wrenching Colleen Hoover book to date—a book that shows us a brand new side of this author’s writing genius, and it is in my humble opinion, her best work thus far.I am so ruined… and I loved every single moment of it.“If I were capable of loving someone . . . it would be you.”[6 HEART-STOPPING STARS]

I have sat on this book and my thoughts now for more than a month. I was fortunate enough to win this book in a "Scavenger Hunt," at Book Bash 2014. I also, waited close to a month to read it. I wanted to make sure I could give all of my attention to Ugly Love, and the characters that evolve in this book. So without further ado, here are my thoughts....Colleen Hoover is the Mastermind of Fictional Literature. She has a way to manipulate your heart, a way to manipulate your mind, and most importantly your mind. Her words shake you to your core, but in the best way possible. She makes you FEEL absolutely everything. It isn't just a reading experience, it is a "Colleen Hoover Experience."Tate and Miles, are a pair of characters that, left me breathless. They are each in their own minds. They are both trying to choose their path in life, without disrupting anything. Basically, they are two people who are Workaholics. Two people are finding their way in life. But they aren't just that, they are passionate about their lines of work. They pour themselves into their work, and their interactions really show this. However, I feel Miles did more than Tate did. He has his reasons, in which we learn throughout this whole novel. It is slowly poured into the pages of who Miles is, and why he is the way he is. Miles is a man of few words, he's hot and cold. He has his head on straight. But he keeps himself guarded; even more guarded than Fort Knox. And Tate is more of any open book, looking to excel in life.Both Tate and Miles are similar, yet different. They want the same end game in life, but they also want more in terms of "comfort." Their comfort is like a rapid blazing inferno, sweeping away everything in its path. It is hot, it is sexy, and it makes me tingly just thinking about it. They have a hot desperate passion, they connect, but they also don't see eye to eye. I liked that they weren't able to see eye to eye though. It helped to develop more of their 'relationship.' It helps define them as characters. By defining, I mean, it helps us as readers to see them better. They each have their own walls, their own issues. But they both battle that inner demon.Colleen didn't write her usual, fluffy, hardly any sexual interactions, in Ugly Love. This book is raw, filled with intense feelings and passion, it is terribly heart-breaking, and extremely sexy. She poured that heat into her words. That heat, is one of those feelings I mentioned above. It is hot. It had me all sorts of discombobulated. Colleen has written her characters, that us readers can connect with. Most of her readers are adults, most readers have or are in these situations that come to light in this book, and most of her readers, including me, love passion. Colleen really outdid herself with this book. I have yet to read one of her books and become unhappy. I honestly feel that with each book, we get more of her. She sheds herself into these characters. It isn't just her heart and soul, it is something bigger than that. Miles and Tate will definitely show you this. They will give you so much. And this so much, will tear you up inside and out.With each book that Ms. Hoover releases, I fall more in love with her. Her writing style, especially in UL, is brilliant. She changes it up a bit with each story she gives us, but it is always that quality that leaves me wanting more. Each of her book possess a semblance of life. Ugly Love is an example of that. A HUGE example of that. Go into this book with your eyes wide open, absorb her words, let it resonate with you, and then slowly dissect the pages in front of you. If I had more then five stars to rate this book I would. It is more than freaking fantastic, it is mind-numbing, blowing, and superior to her other books that are out. This is a book that I will carry in my heart, forever.