I'll start my review with a confession - I'm a Colleen Hoover fan. A big one. Huge in fact. I've loved all the books she has written up until now, with each one making me think "wow, that's her best book yet. I love these characters" and "It doesn't get any better than this". And therein lies my problem. My fear in fact, that at some point, I'm going to pick up her new book and just think "oh", that I'm going to be disappointed, feel that I'm missing the intensity of Hopeless, the character connection of Slammed or the romance of Maybe Someday. No one is capable of writing novel after novel that just keep getting better and better, right? Wrong. In my opinion, Ugly Love is Colleen Hoover's best book to date. I was instantly drawn to the characters, wanted to find out more of their story and share their emotions with them as I turned every page of this incredible book. It is an utterly beautiful story. Let me try to explain why I love it so much... We already know from the book's blurb that Miles Archer is not your typical Hoover lead character. Not looking for love, with a ban on questions regarding his past and promising no future HEA, he's hardly Prince Charming material and could, in all honesty, come across as cold, clinical and somewhat heartless. The genius of the book is the balance you get with the alternating chapters. We skip effortlessly between present day, told from our female lead Tate's POV, to chapters written from an eighteen year old Miles, some six years previously. It is in these flashback chapters that we meet the real Miles. This warm, open, loveable, heart-on-his-sleeve eighteen year old, who is so ready to give and receive love, shows us that deep down, present day Miles is not the cold, emotionless character we have been led to believe. Given that Miles was once such an incredibly warm and loving guy, we can only speculate that something unbearably painful must have happened for him to close down emotionally in the way he has. It is this fact that draws you to the character, and keeps us with him throughout the book. I found myself reading the present day chapters, hoping against hope that glimpses of the old Miles would shine through, and of course, every now and then they did, before he would catch himself and reign himself in. As much as I loved the flashback chapters and the joy of seeing such a loveable, poetic side to Miles, I must confess, I read them with a growing sense of dread as I waited to find out just what could have happened in his life to change him so drastically. I loved Miles, I truly did, but there were also times when I was so mad at him for the, albeit unintentional, pain he put Tate through. Tate Collins is a fantastic character. Independent, kind, warm and fun, we get to see all sides of her via her various relationships, be it her good humoured, sibling bickering with Corbin or her hilarious and touching interactions with Cap (seriously, who writes the BFF for their female lead as an 80 year old male lift attendant?! Genius!!) to her intense attraction to the dark and moody Miles. Tate is an every girl and I think this is why we love her. From the moment the connection is made with Miles and the ground rules are laid out, you hope that she will be able to follow them without getting emotionally attached and hurt but you fear that may prove impossible. I think sometimes we try to kid ourselves. Hold an internal chat that says "this is going to be fine, we can do this" whereas deep down, we know we are lying to ourselves. This is why Tate is so real to me and where I think Colleen's writing excels. The hurt, embarrassment and anguish you feel for Tate during this book is so brilliantly observed and wonderfully written, that your heart breaks for her again and again. I fully expect some readers will criticise Tate's character for being weak, but I think she's far from that. I just find her reactions so true to life. Now I agree, in real life, if Tate were my best friend, and she told me all about her relationship with Miles, I would be advising her to run for the hills, to find someone more deserving of her love and to move on. However, come on, we've all been there, haven't we? When you are the person in the relationship, it is not so easy to just detach your emotions and follow the cold, logical path, is it? We would be robots if that were the case. People make their own decisions, right or wrong, based on emotion and feelings, and that's the type of character I want to read about in my novels, not someone who behaves as though they live their life following The Optimum Relationship Guide for Dummies manual. I really do not want to give away much of the actual storyline, so I'll say no more about how the book unfolds. I will just say this story has a different feel to it from other Colleen Hoover books. It's a little darker, not containing quite the amount of humour we've seen in her other books although there are light moments, particularly involving the brilliant Cap. It's certainly sexier without being unnecessarily graphic. Even in her sex scenes, there's a wonderful truth to how she writes. I mean honestly, how often in other stories have you read that the hero "rips off" the girl's panties and though "Really? What were they made of, paper? I'm quite sure mine wouldn't give way so easily without first doing an impression of a cheese cutter slicing through a lump of Cheddar", so I love her for injecting some humour into that scene. Ugly Love is a gorgeous book that both broke my heart and had me crying with joy. Emotional, poetic, gut-wrenching, beautiful and oh so real, it goes to the very top of my favourite books of 2014 list.
Read more

after years without reading, I was struggling to pick up reading again, as nothing really kept me hooked. A friend recommended It starts with us and I fell in love, I devoured both books in less than a week and then was left feeling lost as to what to read next. I decided since both books were great, that I'd try another of Colleens books. Good choice! Colleen's writing is always engaging, not once did I find this book boring. And it makes me wonder how can colleen think of so many random/different storylines to each other? Ugly love is completely different to It starts with us, the storyline is different (there's A LOT of spice) and a lot of complex feelings. I love all characters and love love love the ending.. On to Verity now xx
Read more

I really hate to give a CoHo book anything but 5 stars, but, it is what it is.. For starters, I really did end up enjoying the story. It took me a while to get there, with a lot of frustrations and irritations along the way, but by 70% or so I found myself zooming through the pages, dying to know where the story was leading to. It's just unfortunate it took nearly three quarters of the book to get there.. For a lot of the book I felt like it was going to be your typical friends with benefits story that will ultimately lead to a relationship and everybody would live happily ever after.. yeah, I couldn't have been more wrong. Upon meeting there is an undeniable attraction between Miles and Tate. They both want each other, but neither of them want anymore than that. No strings sex is their agreement, with only two rules to follow. "Don't ask about my past, and never expect a future." Of course Tate agrees to this, never believing that it would come back to bite her on the arse. I found it pretty repetitive at times. There's only so many times you can read about two people sneaking around, having sex, denying their feelings and repeating.. I know I should enjoy the build up, the anticipation, but for whatever reason it just felt too much here. Miles was keeping major secrets about his past from Tate, which explain why he is so against love and relationships, but I was getting fed up waiting to find out what they were. I felt like I needed to skim/skip to get to the juicy parts, which happened around 70%. Once we got to that part I was hooked and couldn't stop reading until I finished. Those last chapters are what stopped me rating this book only 3 stars. They were brilliant. Beautifully written and so emotional that I was in tears. It was what I had been waiting for throughout the whole book. "If I were capable of loving someone.. It would be you." My biggest dislike throughout the book was the writing style. It's not the fact that it's written in dual POV or that the book is told in both past and present. My issue was the way in which the past chapters, in Miles' POV were written. I have no idea the real term for it, but I will just refer to it as 'poem style writing'. I do not wish to read a book written with words on random lines. So, I guess I am crap at poems, but that was exactly how the book was written in my eyes. I found his chapters so distracting being written like that and it really put me off the book. I didn't enjoy them at all, which is a shame because Miles' past was the most interesting aspect of the story. I just couldn't connect to him with the writing as it was. Overall I did enjoy this book, even though it took me a while, I would just prefer to read books in a normal writing style in future.
Read more

i read this book in 4 hours,i couldn’t put it down and the end was beautiful would definitely read it again
Read more

Es un libro que te ayuda sanar, es cautivador lo leí en un día no podía parar. Me rompió el corazón pero también lo sano.
Read more

Interesting plot
Read more

This book is truly impressive in every way. The hardcover not only adds durability but also gives it a premium and elegant feel, making it a delight to hold. The pages are of excellent quality thick, smooth, and well-crafted which enhances the reading experience. This is the kind of book that feels like a treasure, both inside and out.
Read more

The book came in perfect condition, I dived right into it. I am loving drunk Miles so far!
Read more

الكتاب وصلني كأنه جديد ومره نظيف ومافيه عيوب خوذوووه
Read more