Giselle's Reviews > Ugly Love

There's one thing I don't understand with romance novels.. When the characters and plot doesn't actually remind me of a love story. This is pure lust and obsession. There's a trope that everyone is familiar with: the man who doesn't want to commit and the woman who wants to change him for the better. It's not new, it's not exciting, it's just boring. This one had it all and I was terribly not impressed. Sprinkle that with sex scenes and this is what you get. I was more interested in Miles' past and I had many theories, but I wasn't truly accepting of him being super in love with a girl he laid his eyes on for 5 minutes. He literally falls in love at first sight. But if you read it, it's more like an obsession. 

“She's in everything. Every single thing has just become Rachel. It's consuming me. My new favourite flavor is Rachel. My new favourite thing is Rachel.”

I was expecting a shrine dedicated to her. I couldn't stop rolling my eyes.. Not only is Miles the wounded hero with the tortured past, he was also just blah. This man had no expression and I get he had an invisible wall but still.. I just couldn't find his character attractive.

Tate is also just as bad in my opinion. She will literally talk about how his hand is touching her or his foot or knee and I could not keep my eyes from rolling. Please just stop Tate. You are attracted to his body. You barely know a thing about him and you say it's love? This isn't love. It's lust with a little bit of like. You like him because he's mysterious and I applaud you for not giving up on him but really??? A relationship hardly starts with just sex involved.

More quotes from Tate:

“I'm not Tate when I'm near Miles. I'm liquid, and liquid doesn't know how to be firm or stand up for itself. Liquid flows.”

Tate is literally obsessed with Miles. Miles used to be obsessed with someone else. Definitely not a love story I would enjoy. I'm upset I didn't like this more but the characters were all tortured and obsessive and addicted to one another. We all know that is not remotely healthy at all. I just also didn't care about them. It was all lust and sex. Where was the romance?? And that ending????? WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT? After 6 months??? Ugh I did not find it entertaining at all. I was bored and pretty much sped read through most of the sex scenes.

First time reading Hoover's work and I had such high expectations, maybe I should have started with another of her books because I'm seriously disappointed.


RATING 1/5

QUOTES

"I've always found guys more attractive when they put less effort into trying to appear attractive." (58)

"That's how it is when a person develops an attraction toward someone. He's nowhere, then suddenly he's everywhere, whether you want him to be or not." (59)

"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." (82)

"Addiction is an illness, and it pains me to see people forced to live this way because they're unable to help themselves." (132)

"I've wondered how someone could make me so incredibly happy if God didn't exist. And I realized…just now…that God gives us the ugliness so we don't take the beautiful things in life for granted." (142)