✰ Bianca ✰ Janeane ✰ 
COLLEEN HOOVER
UGLY LOVE
• 400 pages
When Tate Collins meets airline pilot Miles Archer, she knows it isn’t love at first sight. They wouldn’t even go so far as to consider themselves friends. The only thing Tate and Miles have in common is an undeniable mutual attraction. Once their desires are out in the open, they realize they have the perfect set-up. He doesn’t want love, she doesn’t have time for love, so that just leaves the sex. Their arrangement could be surprisingly seamless, as long as Tate can stick to the only two rules Miles has for her.
Never ask about the past.
Don’t expect a future.
They think they can handle it, but realize almost immediately they can’t handle it at all.
Hearts get infiltrated.
Promises get broken.
Rules get shattered.
Love gets ugly.
Tate (who is obviously a girl ☺ the first few minutes I thought Colleen was now writing m/m romances!) has just moved in with her Pilot brother Corbin in San Francisco. She's glad to live with him, that way she can save up for her own place while she's working as a nurse and going to school to get another nursing degree.
Across the hall from her brother lives Miles.
Miles with no Smiles.
He's friends with her brother and also a pilot.
The way they meet is really funny .... but kind of sad too...
There's this huge immediate attraction between Miles and Tate. Well at least it's on Tate's side. She can't read him at all. But he seems to be looking at her a lot.
For whatever reason Miles doesn't want anything serious - well - that's not really the surprising thing - most guys are like that. But Miles asks only 2 things of Tate - to basically not fall in love with him and expect a HEA and to not ask about his past.
"Don't ask about my past, and never expect a future."
His past.
The book is told from both POV's - but where Tate is telling us what happens in the present - Miles tells us what happened six years ago. Six years ago when he met the love of his life - Rachel.
He fell in love with her in their last year of high school - but unfortunate coincidences make it very hard for them to be together...
And whatever happened six years ago is the reason for Miles being and acting like he is and does.
But of course their attraction is way too strong to resist...as long as Tate keeps following his rules they can have this 'thing' for a while....
He tightens his grip on my neck . . . and then he kills me. Or he kisses me. I can't tell which, since I'm pretty sure they would feel the same.
And even though Tate knows she's having this going-nowhere-fling with him - she's still secretly full of hope that he might change his mind - and if he doesn't, it's still better to have this amazing person for as long as she can, than to never have him at all.
I don't want to spoil too much . . .
__________________________________________________
This was such a beautiful & moving & sexy story!
Told from both perspectives - but in different times - that was something completely new. I liked it. I didn't think I would at first - but the mood that Miles created with his words was just so sad and beautiful.
Not only did I cry for the last 25% of the book, but I think I started crying the first time Miles starts telling his story. Nothing bad was happening and still you just knew that there had to be something - there had to be some kind of major thing that happened to him and you just felt so bad for him all through the book. Ok - sometimes you might have wanted to slap him too for not saying - Eff it - it's been six years, whatever happened, I should've gotten over it, or at least learnt to live with it....
But we don't really want to slap his beautiful face!
The way Miles 'writes' in those six-years-ago scenes is just so poetically amazing - reminded me a bit of poetry-slamming Will from Colleen's older books. I loved it!
He puts soo many feelings into his words. And they are really simple words or sentences sometimes, like the diary of an 8-year-old. But that's exactly what makes them so special, so full of emotion.
a little example:
I close the door.
It's the saddest door I've ever had to close
I liked the setting too - I'm a fan of San Francisco & San Diego ☺
I think this was really one of those rare perfect Romances.
It had everything a good book needs.
LOTS of feelings - funny moments - sexy moments - moving moments...
And it had this special extra person every novel needs. Cap - an 80 year old elevator-button-pusher who lives in their building. He's the one Tate goes to when she needs someone to talk to. Because Miles obviously doesn't talk to her.
And Ugly Love is not exception.
She is fighting a battle between her head and her heart and neither of them seems to be winning. My heart was always being ripped apart, only to be put back together and ripped apart again.
When Tate Collins meets airline pilot Miles Archer, she knows it isn’t love at first sight. They wouldn’t even go so far as to consider themselves friends. The only thing Tate and Miles have in common is an undeniable mutual attraction. Once their desires are out in the open, they realize they have the perfect set-up. He doesn’t want love, she doesn’t have time for love, so that just leaves the sex. Their arrangement could be surprisingly seamless, as long as Tate can stick to the only two rules Miles has for her.
Never ask about the past.
Don’t expect a future.
They think they can handle it, but realize almost immediately they can’t handle it at all.
Hearts get infiltrated.
Promises get broken.
Rules get shattered.
Love gets ugly.
Tate (who is obviously a girl ☺ the first few minutes I thought Colleen was now writing m/m romances!) has just moved in with her Pilot brother Corbin in San Francisco. She's glad to live with him, that way she can save up for her own place while she's working as a nurse and going to school to get another nursing degree.
Across the hall from her brother lives Miles.
Miles with no Smiles.
The way they meet is really funny .... but kind of sad too...
There's this huge immediate attraction between Miles and Tate. Well at least it's on Tate's side. She can't read him at all. But he seems to be looking at her a lot.
For whatever reason Miles doesn't want anything serious - well - that's not really the surprising thing - most guys are like that. But Miles asks only 2 things of Tate - to basically not fall in love with him and expect a HEA and to not ask about his past.
"Don't ask about my past, and never expect a future."
His past.
The book is told from both POV's - but where Tate is telling us what happens in the present - Miles tells us what happened six years ago. Six years ago when he met the love of his life - Rachel.
He fell in love with her in their last year of high school - but unfortunate coincidences make it very hard for them to be together...
And whatever happened six years ago is the reason for Miles being and acting like he is and does.
But of course their attraction is way too strong to resist...as long as Tate keeps following his rules they can have this 'thing' for a while....
He tightens his grip on my neck . . . and then he kills me. Or he kisses me. I can't tell which, since I'm pretty sure they would feel the same.
And even though Tate knows she's having this going-nowhere-fling with him - she's still secretly full of hope that he might change his mind - and if he doesn't, it's still better to have this amazing person for as long as she can, than to never have him at all.
WHAT WiLL HAPPEN TO TATE & MILES???
WHAT HAPPENED SiX YEARS AGO??
WiLL THERE BE A HEA???
WiLL THERE BE A CLiFFHANGER???
WHAT HAPPENED SiX YEARS AGO??
WiLL THERE BE A HEA???
WiLL THERE BE A CLiFFHANGER???
NOPE . . .
I'm not telling you ☺
I don't want to spoil too much . . .
__________________________________________________
I REALLY LOVED THE BOOK!
This was such a beautiful & moving & sexy story!
Told from both perspectives - but in different times - that was something completely new. I liked it. I didn't think I would at first - but the mood that Miles created with his words was just so sad and beautiful.
Not only did I cry for the last 25% of the book, but I think I started crying the first time Miles starts telling his story. Nothing bad was happening and still you just knew that there had to be something - there had to be some kind of major thing that happened to him and you just felt so bad for him all through the book. Ok - sometimes you might have wanted to slap him too for not saying - Eff it - it's been six years, whatever happened, I should've gotten over it, or at least learnt to live with it....
But we don't really want to slap his beautiful face!
The way Miles 'writes' in those six-years-ago scenes is just so poetically amazing - reminded me a bit of poetry-slamming Will from Colleen's older books. I loved it!
He puts soo many feelings into his words. And they are really simple words or sentences sometimes, like the diary of an 8-year-old. But that's exactly what makes them so special, so full of emotion.
a little example:
I close the door.
It's the saddest door I've ever had to close
I liked the setting too - I'm a fan of San Francisco & San Diego ☺
I think this was really one of those rare perfect Romances.
It had everything a good book needs.
LOTS of feelings - funny moments - sexy moments - moving moments...
And it had this special extra person every novel needs. Cap - an 80 year old elevator-button-pusher who lives in their building. He's the one Tate goes to when she needs someone to talk to. Because Miles obviously doesn't talk to her.
UGLY LOVE was an amazingly beautiful & moving Romance. Be sure to stock up on tissues!
ARC received via Simon and Schuster UK for an honest review
I have been impatiently waiting for Ugly Love to be released, green with envy of the people who had received and advanced copy, so when presented with the opportunity to read my own ARC copy, I may have done a huuuge happy dance (though there is no evidence of such dance, so that means it didn't really happen!!)
Colleen Hoover is a master of the emotional read. Every book I have read of hers so far (and I admit I haven't got to all of them yet!) has left me an emotional wreck.
And Ugly Love is not exception.
From the first minute you meet Miles Archer you just know that he is going to break your heart one minute and make you swoon the next.
And he sure as hell does that.
When Tate Collins moves in with her brother, she didn't expect her life to change as dramatically as it does when she meets the beautiful blue-eyes stranger outside her brother's apartment. As annoyed she is with him, she is intrigued.
Miles is a complex, complex man. Beautiful smiles hide a broken man. Emotionally shut down, he can't help but be attracted to his best friend Corbin's sister. His mood swings are enough to give a girl whiplash. There is a strong attraction between Miles and Tate, but as much as they don't want the attraction, they can't fight it.
“It’s not that I don’t like you, Tate… I just don’t want to like you. I don’t want to like anyone. I don’t want to date anyone. I don’t want to love anyone.”
Ugly Love is told in dual POV’s and also in past and present tense. As the story from Miles' past gets told, his present begins to make more and more sense. While I was reading the past tense, I was nervous. I needed to know what happened, but I was dreading it at the same time. I had a ball of tension in my stomach every time it switched to past tense.
And boy, it does make us understand the man Miles has become, and why he is so shut off to love.
Tate is such a strong woman to put herself through what she does for Miles.
“I’m so screwed. Everything he says should send me running, but instead it makes me want to wrap my arms around him and give him whatever it is he’s willing to take from me. I’m lying to him, and I’m lying to myself, and I’m not doing either of us any good”
She is fighting a battle between her head and her heart and neither of them seems to be winning. My heart was always being ripped apart, only to be put back together and ripped apart again.
The first 75% of the books seemed to be the same thing - let's be friends, sex, push her away, let's be friends. Lather, rinse, repeat. I wanted to slap Miles for being such a douche to Tate, and slap Tate for putting up with his BS But OMG the last 25% of the book really ramped things up and brought on the tears.
There are some great secondary characters. Love Tate's brother Corbin, even with all his hypocritical big brother posturing! And their friend Ian, I would have liked more about Miles and Ian's friendship.
And then there is Cap - the elevator operator at the apartments. He is the Yoda of this story, with all his wisdom and seemingly unrelated, out of place comments all falling into place later.
"You ever heard that expression, 'When life gives you lemons...?'"
"Make lemonade," I say, finishing his quote.
Cap looks at me and shakes his head. "That's not how is goes," he says. "When life gives you lemons, make sure you know whose eyes you need to squeeze them in."
Sage words, Cap!
Ms Hoover has done it again, left me an emotional wreck at 2am after reading her stories. Can't wait for the next one!
↓ LiNKS TO THE BOOK & AUTHOR ↓
Colleen Hoover's love for writing began in 1985 when she was five years old. Her first story was titled "Mystery Bob" and was a huge hit with her mother, who was really good at faking interest.
Colleen continued to write short stories for friends and family until December of 2011, when she decided to write a long story she titled, "Slammed." She self-published SLAMMED to Amazon in January, 2012 and it hit the NYT's bestsellers list in May, 2012. She has since signed with Atria Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, and now has six NYT's bestsellers. Colleen prefers to be called a writer, as the term "author" still terrifies her and makes this feel like a job with expectations. She doesn't work well under pressure and hopes writing will always remain fun and exciting.
Colleen's newest novel, UGLY LOVE, releases August 5th, 2014. She is currently working on a new novel, CONFESS, which she is writing as fast as she can before she wakes up from this crazy dream.
You can follow Colleen on Instagram and Twitter @colleenhoover. You can also find her on her blog at www.colleenhoover.com where she holds a daily book-a-day giveaway, or on her very active Facebook page at www.facebook.com/authorcolleenhoover where she loves to give away more free stuff when her husband isn't looking.
Colleen also wants the world to know that writing short biographies in third person is incredibly awkward.
Colleen continued to write short stories for friends and family until December of 2011, when she decided to write a long story she titled, "Slammed." She self-published SLAMMED to Amazon in January, 2012 and it hit the NYT's bestsellers list in May, 2012. She has since signed with Atria Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, and now has six NYT's bestsellers. Colleen prefers to be called a writer, as the term "author" still terrifies her and makes this feel like a job with expectations. She doesn't work well under pressure and hopes writing will always remain fun and exciting.
Colleen's newest novel, UGLY LOVE, releases August 5th, 2014. She is currently working on a new novel, CONFESS, which she is writing as fast as she can before she wakes up from this crazy dream.
You can follow Colleen on Instagram and Twitter @colleenhoover. You can also find her on her blog at www.colleenhoover.com where she holds a daily book-a-day giveaway, or on her very active Facebook page at www.facebook.com/authorcolleenhoover where she loves to give away more free stuff when her husband isn't looking.
Colleen also wants the world to know that writing short biographies in third person is incredibly awkward.
