Reviews with content warning for Alcohol - Ugly Love

Tate was the dumbest, most pathetic main character I've read about. She has no self-worth, self-esteem, or self-respect because, despite knowing how she feels about Miles, she agrees to a casual sex relationship and then turns around and whines about it. Over and over, she tells the audience how she’s a “strong, independent woman who doesn’t let men treat [her] badly,” yet she goes to insane lengths to excuse Miles’s behavior.

No matter what he did, she stuck around even while she acknowledged how her feelings were being hurt. She’s passive to the umpth degree, allowing Miles and Corbin to control her life, and we never learn anything about her. She’s a nurse and she likes orange juice and she’s not a virgin. That’s it. Oh and Miles. I didn’t understand her obsession with this guy who made it clear up front that he didn’t want a relationship. She was so pathetic that she hung around, hoping and wishing he’d change his mind on relationships, so how is she mad that he keeps her at a distance? She agreed to the friends-with-benefits arrangement so she has no room to be angry! Why stay? Is she that desperate for Miles that she lets him walk all over her? The answer is yes.

The amount of double standards and sexism in this book was insane. Corbin being over possessive over Tate left a really bad taste in my mouth especially since he sleeps around. He sees no problem with this yet has a conniption over any man sniffing around Tate. And the one instance that Tate calls this out, we get no response from the idiot. And why are they all warning Tate away from Dillon? If he’s such an awful person, why are you all friends with him? Tate never calls this out either, and the only reason he gets booted out of the group is—gasp!—he touched Tate’s hip. Also Corbin pulling the “you don’t get to tell me not to be mad! You aren’t a brother!” when he finds out about Miles and Tate made me want to VOMIT. Why would be friends with someone you don’t want your sister around? Hmmm.

Colleen Hoover couldn’t write herself out of a paper bag, let alone write something that doesn’t come across as trauma porn with overdramatic reveals thrown in for the sake of drama. Her style is mediocre, simplistic, and really, really childish. I could care less about Rachel and Miles and Tate, and while all the Booktok girlies were bawling their eyes out over oh my god, Rachel, mine were decidedly DRY. The drama was contrived, the characters unlikeable and bland, and the sex scenes were flat-out laughable.

Ugly Love is more like a bad sitcom only there’s no comedy.

Content Warnings

soobooksalot's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

juliettebn's review against another edition

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emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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thelibraryofanolive's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

really good book i just think it got kind of repetitive and colleen hoover makes me want to rip my eyes out

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laheath's review against another edition

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emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I finally decided to see why everyone was talking about this author and just chose the first audiobook available from my library. It's one of her older ones, though, so it may not show much about her current writing style. Although the cast of characters was brief, I felt they were pretty well-developed and intricate. The premise of the story sounds shallow, but it quickly becomes apparent that the male lead is hiding a past in which he suffered a life-altering pain so severe that he believes he'll never be healed. That secret is so heartbreaking, but he finally manages to see past the pain with the help of those closest to him. Told in alternating chapters by Tate (female lead, present time) and Miles (male lead, six years ago), this book takes the reader through all the emotions. Keep the tissues handy!

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sierrabowers's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I thought this book was better than the ones I have read recently. I liked the mix of character personalities and the switch from past to present as you learn more about Miles’ past. This book kind of reminded me of “It Ends with Us” in a way. The cheesy inside jokes between the two characters, and the sad side-plot. I definitely predicted what happened to Miles’ but I liked the ending. It was cheesy, but still was good enough to hold my attention and make me finish 200 pages in a day. Not 5 stars, but still good.

Content Warnings

lazybooklover's review against another edition

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emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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littleacorn10's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

SPOILER REVIEW:

First Colleen Hoover book. Figured it was time to see what all the hype was about. I certainly wasn’t expecting to enjoy it as much as I did.

Although the writing itself, minus the explicit content, could be considered YA in dialect and style, I didn’t find myself too distracted by it. I was invested in the story, not the writing.

The switching POVs was enjoyable and kept the plot moving at a good pace as it allowed for time gaps between chapters. I also enjoyed the prose inspired chapters. Some might say it was a tad overdone, but I liked it because it got to the *point* of those moment. It told us exactly what we needed to know without buffering it with unnecessary details.

The happy ending was a tad corny, but I wouldn’t have liked a non-happy ending. I just personally didn’t think we had to see the proposal or any of that, it could have been open ended.

Finally, I did like the message of the book

that love is worth the pain.

That part resonated for me and will certainly stick with me.

All in all, I enjoyed my day binge-reading this book. Maybe I will pick up another Hoover book sometime in the future.

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