Title: Ugly Love
Author: Colleen Hoover
Genre: New Adult // Romance // Contemporary
Publisher: Atria Books
Publication Date: August 5, 2014
Format: Physical Copy
Source: Library
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 (goodreads).
Ugly Love explore the nasty side of love, and it is beautiful.
Plot: Most romance novels have specific plot devices so nothing should come as a surprise. Tate just moved in with her pilot brother to attend nursing school where she meets her brother's friend, Miles. There is an immediate attraction and as Miles hasn't had sex in six years, this leads them to an arrangement. I consider this to be Miles' story more than everything. Tate's life and emotions are laid out of the table, while Miles has a mysterious past that I was anxious to get to the bottom of. After all, with a title like Ugly Love I knew it had to be something traumatic in his past. And boy, I cried. I cried at Miles' pain, Tate's confusion, and Miles' growth. The storytelling was downright flawless and I found that I had devoured the book in little over 12 hours, between the lyrical prose and the chemistry, I found myself unable to put this book down!
Characters: In the beginning I didn't care for Tate. I had pegged her as an emotional creature and I quickly judged her for agreeing to basically being Tate's booty call whenever he wanted. There was no way that she could be the person to have sex with no strings attached, and of course she proved me right. While I couldn't wrap my head around Tate's end game, I did like the chemistry she had with others from her friendship with an 80 year old elevator "pilot" to her sibling rivalry arguments with her only brother. I would have loved to learn more about the other secondary characters, but of course this isn't their story.
World Building: It's always hard to judge a contemporary novel's world building. Others have said that the amount of diversity create a more believable world. If that's the case, the world building here is abysmal. Even with the lack of diversity most of the action either happens in Miles' apartment or Tate's. When I first saw this novel, I noticed that Miles was a pilot and assumed that there was a lot of eh-hum, *Miles High Club* action going on. Nope, not at all. So don't expect that.
Short N Sweet: Sad, beautiful, and redeeming. Ugly Love is a book that will tear your soul apart.
Labels: 4.5 stars, atria books, book review, colleen hoover, review, ugly love
