Review: Ugly Love

Title: Ugly Love
Author: Colleen Hoover
Publication Date: 2014
Genres: New Adult, Contemporary Romance

Synopsis from Goodreads:
When Tate Collins meets airline pilot Miles Archer, she knows it isn’t 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 Thoughts

I’ve been a fan of CoHo ever since I read Slammed, and her other novels didn’t fail to please either. Naturally, I got excited to read Ugly Love as well, expecting that I would get the same feels that I did before. But Ugly Love seems different now from all the others, and I’m still not entirely sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. Maybe it’s both.

I’ll start with what I don't like about it. It makes me really sad how Tate was so needy when it came to Miles. She kept on refusing to believe that she was just hurting herself by pursuing a relationship with him. What makes it worse is how Miles didn’t even have the strength to stop despite knowing that he was using Tate for all the wrong reasons. Granted, Tate was accepting of all that suffering, but that doesn’t make it any less cruel. He constantly reminded Tate that she shouldn’t expect anything out of their arrangement, but seriously, I think he’s smart enough to realize that that wasn't going to work out. He knew it from the start, but he just went on and on because… what? He needed Tate? He of all people should know how horrible it feels to be pushed away by someone you love, and yet that didn’t stop him from doing the same thing to Tate. Besides, how did Tate even fall in love with Miles when she hardly knew anything about him?

Then there are the things that I do like. For one, it doesn’t show the part of love that we’re all so used to seeing in novels by now. I actually appreciate this because it tackles more than the happy and simple aspect of love, making the whole thing more realistic. For Tate, I may not approve of the situation she got herself into, but I can’t deny that it’s something plausible, especially in the world today. The same goes for Miles—the change he underwent wasn’t abrupt, because it wouldn’t have been realistic if that were the case, and the eventual closure he got would’ve been less interesting to read about. The pacing was just right for everything to make sense.

Overall, I think the strongest point that Ugly Love has to offer is its believability—like love, it doesn’t skip the bad parts and focus solely on the good ones; it gives you a taste of everything, regardless if it’s what you want or not.