Thursday 1 June 2017

Ugly Love | Colleen Hoover


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Can you believe this is my first encounter with Ms Hoover? Can you also believe I gave this 2 stars?!

(ALSO, GUESS WHOS BACK, ITS ME!!! IM BACK!! I FINISHED ALL MY EXAMS SO NOW IM FREE TILL I START UNI IN SEPTEMBER SO YAY!!!!!!! I have all the time in the world to read now.)

Lets jump right into the review, I have a lot to say...

Lets start with the premiss of the book: 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.


This novel captured the moments and dynamics of a very random? relationship that kind of spurred together but captured the essence of raw intimacy and love. The one thing I liked about the book was that it stayed true to the rawness of 'ugly love' something not everyone experiences but something that many encounter. I know this is an adult contemporary novel but nothing really screamed realistic to me. The characters seemed very real but the situation and dynamics were very...strained, possibly even forced. I was not having any of it!

This is written in consecutive POV's, first Tate and then Miles (but Miles 6 years ago). I don't know how I feel about the structure of the book, I'm glad the POV's were in first person though so we were able to have a greater scope of the characters thoughts and feelings. Although, I hated how Miles's POV was written my GOD it was so bad. I'm assuming the point of it was to kind of like spill his thoughts out, kind of like word vomit; for it to be something poetic but it just didn't fly for me. Apart from that, I enjoyed Hoover's writing. I enjoyed all of Tate's POV's because it was written normal and like a typical first person point of view would be written, I liked that, we got to understand Tate's thoughts and motives (even though I disliked Tate).  Some people felt like Miles was an asshole and to a great extent I understand this logic because I didn't love him either but I felt like that is precisely how she should have been written cause it stayed true to his overall character.

A great part of the book is emotional abuse and how Tate chooses to stay with Miles even though he treats her like crap but the sex is great so lets just continue right? 

NO!

That brings me to another aspect I cringed reading. The fact that Tate is a character with all the ingredients to become a beautifully, empowering, well-crafted female main but NO we have to deal with her constant battle with her libido! I hated that so much. The fact she is a nuRSE FOR F'S SAKE yet she cannot control her sex drive and emotions towards a guy who is so average and treats her like shit. Where is the logic???!??! Hoover conjures up a beautiful character - Tate but just diminishes her conscience and independence? Like, Tate is a nurse but we never delve into the field of her life apart from the 2% we get and the 98% is thoughts filled with Miles and Miles this and Miles that and sex with Miles. I was so over it!

Moving swiftly on....there are steamy scenes in this book which I guess I knew before hand and they were written well, not that I had any kind of inkling of how sex in books should be written but it wasn't gross or weird or anything to thats a plus.

I'm so on the fence about reading another one of Hoovers book or to let her go entirely. I feel as though everytime this has happened my instincts and intuition is right and the author and their book just aren't for me. You guys have experience me go through that on this blog when I review The Summer I Turned Pretty series, to  To All The Boys I Loved Before by Jenny Han. Turned out, I hated the first book for a reason and I should have never decided to go ahead and read three more books by her and a short story from My True Love Gave To Me, because I don't like her writing, ideas or characters so I SHOULD have just saved myself the reviews and the wasted time reading.