Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - Ugly Love

Have you ever wondered what monstrosity would come into existence if the Folgers Christmas commercial had a baby with the step-sibling sexual tension from "Life with Derek"?

If you answered no, then congratulations; you're never going to see this review because you know better and will never read this novel. Unlike us, who will now be spending an additional hour with our therapists trying to understand why something like this blew up to be as popular as it is.

The story starts off with olympics of red flags. Tate Collins is in the process of moving into her brother's apartment and finds a drunk man causing a whole nuisance outside the door. She decides the ONLY course of action is to let the STRANGE man sleep it off on the couch. Right off the bat, as a reader, you're completely aware that Tate neither listens to nor watches any true crime documentaries. You can almost forgive it because the decision is most likely based on the fact that he's hot, but then you get to read her inner thoughts.

Unless you're Jasper Hale with a PhD in being an empath, you don't know why someone would drink themselves into a stupor. However, Tate can practically tell from the ZERO information she gets from Miles Archer that there is something deeper bothering our lead male protagonist.

The story unfolds in two timelines: one in the present, narrated by Tate, and the other (far more painful to read) is in the past, revealed through Miles' perspective. Miles sad, Miles bad, Miles put a big balled baby into stepsister Rachel, and yes, Miles inner thoughts like caveman. It’s such a painfully garbage attempt at prose or poetry, that you almost have to laugh at how hard Colleen Hoover tries at making this seem so deep. Even Dan Humphries and Serena Van Der Woodson had the sense to not be romantically involved when their parents were married. But, high school seniors Miles, and his step sister Rachel (who he JUST recently met), with frontal lobes that are not fully cooked yet, decide they know what is best and believe themselves to be in love after just a few quick encounters together.

Obviously, they fridge the baby with the big balls, and yes, they have a whole conversation about this newborn baby having his fathers big balls. Once again, information that we could have gone our entire lives without knowing. Our therapy bills should be mailed to Colleen Hoover at this point.

Tate oversteps every boundary that Miles wants to set in their fuck buddies arrangement. Quite literally from the moment he mentions that their dynamic won’t be anything other than sexual, Tate makes it her mission to change this man.

It’s a novel that we wish had never been chosen, or even written, full of what we assume are attempts at being funny, but just come across as elder abuse, or just fall flat. If, like us, you have suffered through Colleen Hoover’s atrocity Ugly Love, then you might be eligible for some compensation, or some sort of class action lawsuit, but she can’t be allowed to get away with the absolute crimes against readers. If you feel some type of way about this book, whether good or bad, come check us out at Revolver Reads: A Bookclub Russian Roulette on your podcast platform of choice, or simply @revolverreads on Instagram and let us know what you think. If you’d like to email us any future book suggestions for our roulette wheel, feel free to send them to [email protected].

Content Warnings

chandra_kiran's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

2.5

like all colleen hoover books..... it's gripping, enticing, made me sob like a baby, but it's also overflowing with sexism, toxic relationships, pregnancy tropes, and is often described as "trauma porn" which I have to agree with. I seem to keep reading her books out of morbid curiosity and end up with the same result each time- I cry a lot, I have to find out how the story ends, and I'm usually livid by the time the book is over. Also, I need to know WHY the step sibling forbidden love plot was necessary. It added absolutely zero substance to the story and just made it slightly nauseating to read.

Content Warnings

c_marie226's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring sad tense 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

1.75

I don’t think this author is for me. I found the guy insufferable and the girl barely written. There is a lot of trauma and it feels like it is done just to make the book more dramatic.

Content Warnings

hannag4's review

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dark emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

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

3.0

Content Warnings

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