If you have ever met me, you are likely well aware that I am a sucker for romance novels. Many of them, though, tend to be predictable:. easy, romantic, enchanting. However, this one is different, and I loved every second that I was left anticipating what would happen next. In short, Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover will leave you ugly crying, but in the most amazing way.
The novel follows Tate Collins, a recent college graduate who finds herself in San Francisco in search of work when she meets the handsome pilot (and her brother’s best friend) Miles Archer. Though the first impression is far from romantic, there is something about him that is beguiling that she cannot shake. They agree on an emotionless partnership based solely on physical attraction, with Miles only requiring two rules: “Never ask about the past; don’t expect a future.” Throughout the novel, we watch Tate fall deeply in love with him despite their pact, as well as slowly unpacking details in Miles’ past that leave you guessing what could cause someone to never want to love again.
For starters, I want to acknowledge the fact that I finished this book in two days. From the minute I opened it (making the mistake of doing so at ten p.m.), I found myself immediately immersed in this story. It is written in a first person point of view, each chapter alternating between Tate’s present and Miles’ past, which makes it even more magical. While in Miles’ past, we meet a young girl named Rachel who Miles immediately finds himself enamoured by. “She’s like poetry,” he describes, “like prose and love letters and lyrics, cascading down the center of a page.” (p.19) Throughout the duration of the novel, he speaks and thinks of Rachel in poetry, different from the casual and conversational paragraph formatting of any other moments, which is enough to win any readers heart as well as keep you wondering how a boy so romantic and sweet could have turned so mysterious and cold.
I will not spoil the ending, but I will share that none of my guesses were correct. Never could I have anticipated the twist Colleen Hoover gave us. Not only will this book break your heart into a million pieces, but it somehow also repairs it in the end.
How it has taken this long for a Colleen Hoover novel to cross my path, I am not sure, but it will definitely not be the last. There is nothing better than a book that you do not want to put down once you begin it, reading late into the evening until your eyelids cannot stay awake another second, and that is exactly the kind of breathtaking all-consuming text Ugly Love is.