I appreciated how raw and real this book felt. There was no sugarcoating it. Love gets ugly.
Rating: 4/5
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.
Trigger Warning: Death
After reading Colleen Hoover’s “not normal” books, Regretting You, Layla and Verity, I had absolutely no idea what to expect with this one. I knew it was a romance, I thought it would be a deeper steamier romance than we got in Regretting You, which I found to be light and fluffy. And since Layla and Verity were much darker reads, more so Verity, I wasn’t sure where this would fall.
Ugly Love is definitely somewhere in the middle. This was such a captivating read. After I started I couldn’t remember the summary, I vaguely knew it was about. This time though I did go back to the summary because I was a bit confused with the setup of the chapters. I needed a little help to understand what was going on. We follow Tate who falls for a pilot, Miles. However, he’s interested in a no strings attached sex only relationship. So not really friends with benefits, as they weren’t friends before. What could go wrong?
We follow the story over a dual timeline, the present where Tate and Miles are, and then the past when Miles is just 18 and in love. We see short glimpses of Miles’ past in between Tate’s perspective of interacting with Miles.
We follow the story over a dual timeline, the present where Tate and Miles are, and then the past when Miles is just 18 and in love.
I really enjoyed following Tate, she knew from the start this setup wasn’t going to work, she also was okay with just having fun for however long it lasted. Though I think she also knew that Miles was interested in more, he just wasn’t opening himself up to the possibility, and she held out for hope that Miles would change his mind.
I had a bit of a love-hate relationship with Miles, he was way too hot and cold. It was frustrating only getting these short snippets of his past. These small glimpses of what he went through and why he was so closed off about being in another relationship. By the end, I did understand, mostly. But, Miles was just so hard to follow both in his past and how he acted in the present.
I had a bit a love-hate relationship with Miles, he was way too hot and cold.
This book flowed so well. The chapters were on the shorter side, especially Miles chapters often only a few short pages. This allowed me to get fully immersed in these characters and this story. Even though I wasn’t a major fan of Miles, I was extremely curious to know what happened to him and why he was treating Tate with such mixed signals. And I already mentioned it, but I really loved following Tate. Seeing primarily her perspective for the present timeline, I loved her reactions to falling for Miles. Her inner monologue was so entertaining.
That being said, I didn’t enjoy everything about this book. I appreciated how raw and real this book felt. There was no sugarcoating it. Love gets ugly. But there were a few scenes that were just a little uncomfortable to read. It was hard to get through some of the actions Miles made or Tate’s reaction to them.
I appreciated how raw and real this book felt. There was no sugarcoating it. But there were a few scenes that were just a little uncomfortable to read.
Overall, this was a great read. I’m happy to finally see the “normal” for Colleen Hoover. I can’t wait to read her other books now. Even though the other books I’ve read from her were wildly different, I can see a similar writing style between this and the others. I love her style. I think anyone who enjoys steamy romances would enjoy this one!