Book Review - Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover

2.5 UNDERWHELMING STARS ★★☆ 

   

“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.”

I’m not even sure if I’m more upset that I’m actually rating a CoHo book less than 5 stars or the fact that almost everyone loved this book but me :( :(

This was definitely one of the most anticipated releases for me this year & as a huge fan of CoHo, I was so ready for her to blow me away again with her writing that could bring me to unimaginable places where my heart would squeeze thinking about her story and feel her characters’ emotions & let the story sink in my mind for days.  
But 
I 
Felt 
Nothing 
Here.
 
FOREWARNED: Do not read further if you don't want spoilers!! Because I can’t possibly express my thoughts without revealing major parts of this story.  


****** SPOILERS AHEAD ******


What majorly ruined the book for me: 

1.The writing style & the whole alignment/poetry style. 

 Prior to the book release, I was already aware of this new alignment style CoHo was gonna adopt into the book for Miles’s POV. The first chapter of Miles POV, I found it bearable & I thought he was an adorable dork for an 18-year old as he experienced his first love with a girl named Rachel. But what I truly didn’t anticipate was that it was written in that style for the ENTIRE POV of 18-year old Miles. I think I could have lived with it, would it have just been emphasizing certain emotions (like in the Slammed series, which I LOVED), but it was a total overkill to my brain for it to be in every chapter for almost an entire length of his POV. I felt that the short sentences were distracting & annoying and it didn’t help at all to enhance my connection to Miles at all :( 

 

2.Tate 

I didn’t like her at all. I found myself really annoyed with her and her thoughts. You know that first kiss in the bathroom? She sounded like a 15-year old when she says things like this:

Good Lord. He’s kissing me. Oh, my God, his mouth is so possessive. His fingers are splayed out again, digging into my hip. Holy hell, he just groaned. His hand moves from my waist and glides down to my leg. Kill me now. Just kill me now.

Sorry but that just COMPLETELY ruined a supposedly good scene D: I cringed and I find myself wondering if I’m listening to a 24 year old woman or a 15 year old raging hormonal teenager. It would have been so much better if it was more of a descriptive scene instead of making me hear her hyperventilating thoughts.

And correct me if I’m wrong, but this would be the first time CoHo writes a doormat heroine like Tate. I’ve always loved CoHo’s heroine characters which is one of the main reasons I love her books, and seeing Tate offering herself to Miles for a no-strings attached relationship, I just couldn’t bring myself to like her =\ I tried to find reasons to justify Tate acting like this but I couldn’t feel any sexual tension between them & with Miles initial cold demeanor towards her, I’d like to think she would have had more dignity & respect for herself. And again, she says things like this:

No, Miles. I follow. That’s how it is with us. You’re solid, I’m liquid. You part the waters, I’m your wake.

Seriously? I can’t even…

 

General thoughts 
I’m heartbroken that I didn’t experience any ugly crying or any tears throughout reading this because it makes me feel like a heartless bitch reading Miles’ past :( I agreed that I found it heartbreaking and my heart genuinely ached for him. However, the whole writing style ruined it for me to able to relate to Miles’ pain when reading in that so-called poetic manner. Perhaps if it was written in a proper descriptive manner, I’m quite sure I would have sobbed.

****** END OF SPOILERS ****** 

Overall, I found it to be rather cliché, ending was a little too rushed & I couldn’t relate to both MC’s. Completely underwhelmed by my initial expectations of how I wanted this story to play out. I wanted to fall in love with this story but sadly it didn’t work for me. After all the ugly things, there are still parts that I could say I enjoyed and it would be the scenes where Cap (Sam) was inside. I loved the things he said & it was the only thing that reminded me why I love CoHo’s brilliant writings in the first place :)

If you’re a fan of CoHo, I still definitely recommend you to try this out. This book could be either a hit or miss, depending on your reading preference ;) Even though this book didn’t work for me, I’m still a fan of CoHo & will be checking out her future writings no doubt.