Review: Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover

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.

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Whenever I get an email saying another Colleen Hoover book is available at the library, I get very excited. So far, all of her books have been addicting, swoon-worthy and tragic and always fill my need for a good romance. This book did not disappoint in that respect. It was extremely addicting, frustrating and I just had to know what happened to the characters. The story follows Tate, a nurse who recently moved to San Francisco to get her masters degree and start her career. She moves in with her pilot brother, Corbin. She soon discovers Corbin has a sexy neighbor, Miles Archer. While they are extremely attracted to each other, Miles has some serious baggage that he doesn’t want to discuss. He doesn’t want a relationship and yet he can’t stay away from Tate. While Tate has never done a no-strings attached relationship, she is open to the idea with Miles. She’s too busy for a relationship anyway, right? As their feelings for each other grow, their arrangement becomes more complicated. Tate gets mixed signals from Miles, he’s hot and cold and refuses to speak about his past. Yet she is falling for him, hard.

Okay! So, I did enjoy this book and even though I had to endure an entire book of irrational actions and relationship frustration- I love how the book ends.

What I liked about the book:

Tate! Tate was a strong, intelligent and confident character. I love how she was comfortable with herself, but still had moments of self-doubt and confusion in her relationship with Miles. She seemed so real and I definitely related to her.

The setting. While we didn’t get too many specific locations, the book took place in San Francisco, which I loved! It helped me imagine Tate wandering around the city.

Sexy, steamy scenes. Miles and Tate certainly have some steamy scenes together. Their attraction and sexual tension is palpable throughout the book and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

What I didn’t like:

I both liked and disliked Miles. I really wanted to like Miles and I gave him chance after chance, just like Tate. If Miles and Tate had a strictly sex-only relationship, I would have been OK with that. The problem is Miles refused a relationship but would then follow Tate around like a love-struck teenager. I hated the hot and cold behavior! I know it played into the overall story, but Miles’ behavior really frustrated me.

While I did love how the story ended, part of the ending still bothered me. I won’t go into details, but it had to do with Miles revelation with his past and what he needed to do to move on.

The Miles POV chapters. What was up with the overly poetic writing style? Miles didn’t strike me as a very poetic guy so the writing confused me. I did enjoy the mystery of his past slowly being revealed through his point of view. It all culminated to a climax both from Miles’ past and in the present with Tate, and it was very well done.

Overall, not my favorite CoHo book but still extremely enjoyable. She never fails to deliver well-developed, interesting characters, often with a tragic past. As soon as I finished Ugly Love I was still craving some CoHo writing so I immediately picked up November 9, which MIles and Tate actually made an appearance in! Ugly Love is a must read for contemporary lovers or Colleen Hoover fans.

3/5★