Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover

3.65/5 stars

UGH, I AM SO CONFLICTED ABOUT THIS BOOK. COLLEEN HOOVER WHY DO YOU DO THIS TO ME.

The first and foremost thing that you cannot ignore is the smut. I am a firm believer in not adding smut to a love story unless it actively adds to the plot. Although the smut did serve the plot and the characters, it was like 60% of the book and I am not sure if that is what I am looking for. It seemed super excessive in my opinion (although I will say it was well written).

The entire time I was trying to decide if I was rooting for the characters or against them. I kept going back and forth which adds to my point of being conflicted about every aspect of this book. I am never EVER a fan of toxic men, in real life and especially in books, so Miles definitely did not get my seal of approval until the end when Colleen Hoover gave a chapter from his present-day perspective.

I did really enjoy that Miles showed character development and maturation towards the conclusion and worked to solve his issues independently and knew not to rely on Tate for help with his mental state. With that also being said I feel like I didn't truly understand or know how to read Miles as a character until the last few chapters. Within the second chapter, I genuinely thought that Miles was a stalker. The way he talked about his previous love interest was just downright SCARY.

When he first sets eyes on Rachel he says that his "heart forgets to wait and get to know a girl before it starts to claw its way out of [his] chest to get to know her. Rachel. Rachel. Rachel. She's like poetry. Like prose and love letters and lyrics, cascading down the center of a page. Rachel, Rachel, Rachel. I say her name over and over in my head, because I'm positive it's the name of the next girl I'll fall in love with."

And Colleen Hoover does this all with amazing and abundant use of form follows content to really set in the emphasis of how amazing Rachel is. She's 'like poetry'.

This is only my second time reading a work by Colleen Hoover but it seems as though she doesn't create very poignant female protagonists. They continue to underwhelm me with their blandness.

The really redeeming part for me was the last 4 chapters if I'm being completely honest. That is the only time in the entire book where I was truly set on routing for Tate and Miles because it was then when Miles decided to stop moping and solve his own problems.

Colleen Hoover is genuinely good for what it is. Her books are good quick reads, not very fluffy and cute, but nevertheless, good for what it is.

"It's the beautiful moments like these that make up for the ugly love."