Review: Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover

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Ugly love by colleen hoover

• Publisher: Atria Books < Simon & Schuster
• Genre: Contemporary Romance
• Audience: New Adult
• Pages: 324 (paperback)

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With four Colleen Hoover books already under my belt (and all four carbon copies of one another with very menial alterations to plot and character), I expected much of the same with Ugly Love. 

Fortunately, most of my assumptions (and intense worries) were proven wrong. Unfortunately, Ugly Love still wasn’t a book for me.

Having read five Colleen Hoover books now, I’ve noticed she likes to do her best to encapsulate the good and the bad, the pretty and the ugly side of relationships. 

She tries to make it real, but in trying to do so, all of her stories end up being complicated and full of betrayal or heartbreak. She tends to fall into two tropes so far: (1) make a deal of some sort in which a rule is the two can’t develop romantic feelings — then make the man the only one able to uphold that role and in turn breaking the heart of the woman OR/AND (2) cheating cheating cheating. 

As both of these tropes make me angry and frustrated (and are by far NOT my favorite by any means), I haven’t enjoyed many Colleen Hoover books I’ve read in the past. I was skeptical about Ugly Love from the very beginning because of the title. Because having read All Your Perfects, November 9, Confess, and Maybe Someday prior to starting Ugly Love, I consider ALL of those books to be cases of severely ugly love. 

So needless to say, I was nervous for just how ugly this love story would be. 

And man, was it ugly.

As we learn from the very first chapter, Miles has a former flame named Rachel whom he seems to be struggling to move on from. 

Throughout Ugly Love, we get a dual POV that switches between present-day Tate and past Miles (from years ago when he met Rachel). While Tate’s POV was alright for me, I absolutely could not tolerate Miles’ POV.

Nothing was more annoying to me in this book than the melodrama of Miles’ perspective (which, by the way, is at total mind-boggling odds with the present-day Miles from Tate’s chapters). Miles’ perspective is, for some reason, presented as some sort of speech or monologue towards Rachel. Not only does he occasionally say “you” before drifting back into his own thoughts and experiences — thereby making the perspective not quite first person and not quite second person (but some murky area in between) —  but he says and thinks the name “Rachel” about a million times. Often several times consecutively.

I counted: Rachel’s name showed up 294 times in this book that’s, for your own context, 324 pages long. For more context, Tate is the main character and her name only showed up 190 times throughout the book.

Let that sink in and let it affect you as it will.

But the repetition of Rachel’s name isn’t where it stops. No.

This is where the cringe-worthy melodrama of Miles’ perspective really comes into play. Miles repeats several of his thoughts once over, twice over, sometimes three times over. As if saying it once isn’t enough, he has to go the extra mile. Over and over again. 

I got it the first time, Miles. There was literally no reason to repeat anything over again even once. You were dramatic enough the first time.

Miles in general just annoyed me.

I am very particular about my romances, some of these particularities being I don’t like (1) romanticizing cheating, (2) romanticizing abuse whether emotional or physical, or (3) romanticizing leading someone on who clearly has feelings for you (and clearly not giving a f**k). Yeah, I know, high expectations.

Not.

Miles had literally one job: for me to like him. And he epically, epically failed. Being in something for just sex, leading a girl on for months and still continuing to have sex with her even though she likes you and you don’t like her = undeniably shitty behavior. And totally NOT romantic WTF. He had guilt, yes, but it was SO surface level. If he truly felt guilt for hurting her like he was, he would’ve ended it as early on as he could. But he didn’t. And he sucked.

As for Tate, I liked her well enough. 

Thank goodness she didn’t have the same obsession with repeating Miles’ name over and over again like Miles’ obsession with Rachel, and Tate wasn’t melodramatic to the caliber that Miles was. And I really felt for the girl. She was put through so much, and it truly was ugly. And I can see why she stayed in the agreement with Miles even though it was hurting her, why she held hope for him even when he continuously shut her down. It was relatable and realistic, which made her character that much more rounded in my reading experience.

That’s as far as the characterization went though. 

Despite Rachel being basically a main character in the book for as much as Miles thought of her or how many of his flashbacks she was in, we never really got much development on her part until the very end (and even then it was very little). And even Tate’s brother, whom she lived with throughout the entirety of this book, was so forgettable because we learned virtually nothing about him other than he’s overprotective of her and quite a player himself. I don’t even remember his name, though, that’s how relevant he ended up being in the story. 

In the end, I find Ugly Love to be one of Colleen Hoover’s better books, but still not quite a good one. I will keep trying though, as I’ve still got Verity and It Ends With Us left which are some of her most hyped. 

Otherwise, I don’t want to discredit Colleen Hoover. I tend to struggle with rating her books because on one hand, the content makes me extremely frustrated and angry because her romances are so unromantic and actually triggering to me. But on the other hand, her writing style is quick, easy, and addictive. She writes well, and I think if she wrote about more amiable content — instead of content containing abusive, stalkerish, or pro-cheater romances — that her books would definitely become something I could enjoy.

But Ugly Love? Not for me, Rachel, not for me. 

Rachel Rachel Rachel Rachel Rachel 

Extra tid-bits worth mentioning

• Teen pregnancy
• Secret/forbidden romance
• Emotional, quick read
• Overrated
• Dual POV
• Death
• Unrequited love

OFFICIAL rating

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Let’s Chat in the Comments!

Have you read any Colleen Hoover books? Which was your favorite and which was your least favorite? If you’ve found yourself angry by past Colleen Hoover reads, for what reason? I’d love to hear about it!