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allerssi's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
sad
tense
medium-paced
0.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Alcoholism, Adult/minor relationship, Hate crime, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Incest, Stalking, Cannibalism, Child death, Abortion, Bullying, Miscarriage, Death, Child abuse, Addiction, Sexual violence, Pedophilia, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Ableism, Rape, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Grief, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Kidnapping, Domestic abuse, Car accident, and Abandonment
revolverreads's review against another edition
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
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
Graphic: Sexual content, Child death, Incest, Gaslighting, and Toxic relationship
chandra_kiran's review against another edition
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
Graphic: Gaslighting, Death of parent, Toxic relationship, Car accident, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Death, Sexism, Pregnancy, and Child death
hrichards's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Everything was great, the off and on and the emotions where awesome
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Child death, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Death, Death of parent, Cursing, Car accident, and Gaslighting
rosedustgirl's review against another edition
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
0.25
Absolutely dull. I really don't understand the hype. Predictable plot, lack of emotional turmoil, themes are lacklustre regarding main characte, typical gaslighting and emotional tropes. I only finished as it was a group read.
Couldn't care less what happened to all characters involved.
Couldn't care less what happened to all characters involved.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Car accident, Medical content, Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Child death, Gaslighting, and Sexual content
madalina0_0's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Gaslighting, and Sexual content
Moderate: Violence, Child death, and Death
gmbooks11_'s review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
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
Graphic: Medical trauma, Car accident, Gaslighting, Death, Grief, Child death, Medical content, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Mental illness, and Toxic relationship
ankiaisreading's review against another edition
emotional
medium-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
0.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Suicidal thoughts, Incest, Child death, Grief, Cursing, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Violence, Alcohol, and Mental illness
nesxreads's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.25
Very toxic romance as usual from CoHo, a bad exemple, I wouldn’t recommend this to a teenager
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual violence, Gaslighting, and Mental illness
Moderate: Child death and Car accident
Minor: Incest
gabi_w21's review
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
This is my first CoHo book, and I am completely and ridiculously simultaneously bored, underwhelmed, and disgusted.
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
Graphic: Car accident, Pregnancy, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Child death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Toxic relationship, Sexism, and Sexual content
Moderate: Homophobia, Gaslighting, and Alcohol
Minor: Abortion and Death of parent