tristatereader 's review for:

How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang

3.5

challenging emotional hopeful sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Grief. Grief is a bastard. It can truly destroy a person. And grief was eating my girl Helen aliveee. She was smack dab in the middle of struggle city with no way out. Her poor heart was so closed up… seemingly non-functional as a result of generational trauma, the traumatic loss of her younger sister, and intentional isolation. 

And then Grant fucking Shepard waltzes back into her life. Handsome, popular, former high school homecoming king, and the person behind the wheel when Helen’s sister tragically died by suicide. The last thing Helen wants is to work side by side with this man. And even less of an interest is how kind, considerate, and “human” he is. And she certainly could never fall for this man, right?

This was an impressive debut, writing wise. I really enjoyed the writing style and the epistolary parts. I liked Helen and Grant, but didn’t love them. And I didn’t really connect with any of the side characters. All in all, I think there was just too much going on in this book. I’ll definitely be on the lookout for the author’s next release though.