Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover

Description

Tate Collins doesn’t expect to get involved with her brother’s best friend, airline pilot Miles Archer, when she moves into her brother’s apartment in San Francisco. Their one rule was that they couldn’t ask about the past, make commitments for the future, or fall in love. Tate accepts, thinking that she can keep her heart safe for exactly seven days. But as their strong connection kicks off, seven days swiftly turns into an emotional battlefield that neither of them saw coming.

Tate and Miles feel a strong desire for each other from the first electric touch, even though they know it’s not safe. Tate, who just got out of a relationship that ruined her career, finds comfort in the reckless abandon of their closeness. Miles, who is still haunted by a tragedy he won’t name, utilizes their physical connection to dull the pain that is always with him. But as their nights turn into mornings, Tate discovers that no rule can hold back how deeply she feels. Every kiss and every murmured “good night” breaks down Miles’s carefully built walls, making him face the “ugly truth” behind his self-imposed isolation.

Hoover tells the story in a nonlinear way, switching from Tate’s point of view in the present and Miles’s painful memories. Each discovery adds to the suspense. We find out that Miles won’t love again because he lost someone he loved more than himself in a terrible way. The memory of that grief is so strong that even thinking about being close to someone else feels like betrayal. His voice, full of agony and remorse, takes readers through hallways of grief: hospital hallways where hope turned to despair, rainy evenings when forgiveness seemed unattainable, and lonely flights across continents that only made him feel more empty.

But Tate’s open desire to understand him breaks down the walls around his heart. She pushes past his six rules: no calling him after 2 a.m., no anticipating a clean future, and no touching hands in public. Eventually, the lines between want and love become blurry. Their clandestine breakfasts in the hospital chapel, whispered confessions on empty airport tarmacs, and tear-stained fights under hotel room windows turn every dangerous moment into an act of bravery.

Ugly Love is really about how sorrow from the past affects our ability to love and how real connection requires us to be open and honest. Hoover’s lyrical writing, which is full of poetic metaphors and line-through-text asides, portrays the pain of hidden bereavement and the thrill of first love. She doesn’t shy away from the rawness of emotion: Tate’s heartbreak is as real as Miles’s guilt, and their regrets are as palpable as their desire.

In the book’s heartbreaking denouement, Tate and Miles have to choose between breaking every rule he has ever made for love. Will Tate leave to keep her heart safe? Or will Miles put everything on the line, even his own emotional health, to show that love can be beautiful even if it starts off ugly?

About the Author

Colleen Hoover is a #1 New York Times and international bestseller celebrated for her deeply emotional contemporary novels. Since her debut in 2012, she has sold over fifteen million copies worldwide with titles such as It Ends with Us, Verity, and November 9. Known for her raw, unflinching exploration of love’s complexities, Hoover lives in Texas with her family.

Product Details

• Title: Ugly Love
• Author: Colleen Hoover
• ISBN-13: 9781476753188
• Publisher: Atria Books
• Published: August 5, 2014
• Pages: 352
• Binding: Paperpack