Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover

Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover

Life can be cruel but with every painful experience we endure, somewhere along the line our lives are touched by a joy that can make your heart sing. The only thing is,we have to be able to not only recognise that joy but to welcome it.

Living a life full of nothing but sorrow is not living life at all, it is existing, but that has been the path that Miles Archer has travelled on every lonely day for the last six years because for every day that has passed he has remained firmly rooted in that day, in that one god forsaken day when his whole world crashed down around him – the day he lost his ability to love.

The story is told in two time frames – present day from the perspective of Tate Collins, sister to Corbin – who is a friend and a fellow pilot with Miles. She is relocating to San Francisco in order to complete her medical training and as temporary measure is moving in with Corbin. Turning up at the apartment she finds Miles drunk and asleep in the corridor outside the apartment – hardly the most auspicious of introductions but when Corbin finally manages to ascertain who the guy is and tells Tate to let him in – she gets more than she bargains for – this drunk stranger, sobs on her shoulder as he cries himself to sleep on the sofa– leaving her none the wiser as to what the hell is going on.

Miles has the whole distant brooding thing going on from what Tate can see, the only thing is- it is not an act!

This seriously hot guy, has the constructed the highest, most impenetrable of walls around him, because pain like he has experienced is a once in a life time thing for him – falling in love again is not on his agenda. He hasn’t been with a woman for the last 6 years and until the morning he wakes up on Corbin’s sofa and meets Tate, nothing and no-one had given him reason to question that.

Tate has a pull towards Miles that is instinctive, he isn’t the most communicative man but she feels a connection with him that she cannot shake. Neither of them can, so when Miles finally gets his head in the game, the only option he has is a twisted sort of Friends with Benefits – and he has two very specific rules.

”Don’t ask about my past,” he says firmly. “And never expect a future.”

Can Tate accept his terms to have the man that she feels so strongly towards and can she live with the fact that she might never get to see and know the whole man.

Well it is worth a shot – only time will tell!

Miles’s point of view makes up the other perspective but much like Miles it is not told in present day – like Miles it takes us back 6 years to the time in his life when he had his future not only ahead of him but cradled in his arms.

The story of Miles and Rachel was so touching, the story of young lovers fighting the odds and trying to forge a future for themselves despite the adversity and obstacles that are put in their way. The love they shared was so complete I could see why Miles had refused to move on, to start over – his heart had been decimated by the events of six years ago and coming to terms with pain is never easy. Moving on was not an option because he felt that to move on he was forgetting what had happened and who he had left behind. .

I liked the fact that by alternating the chapters between the past and present we got an inclusive yet staggered view of the whole situation. The details of teh whole Rachel and Miles situation is slow to emerge but it is timed to perfection, just when Miles and Tate have reached an impasse in the present – Miels is left with no option but to see that unfortunately in order to have a future he has to address the past.

It takes the step back to show Miles that it is Ok to move on and the only person that can show him the way is the one person that understands his pain – Rachel.

The chapter where he visits her was just breath-taking, the emotion and intensity that emanated from the page was beautiful to read, the empathy between the pair of them came across so beautifully it broke my heart, the two of them sitting on the floor crying and holding each other was so vivid, I could see them before me.

The remainder of the book is told in present time, but has Miles left it too late? Tate has moved out and is now living on her own. Can he convince Corbin to tell him where she is and can he convince her that she is his future? Will letting her in on his past mean that he can finally have the future he deserves?

Well what do you think!

Tate loves Miles – she always has but sticking by his rules has cost her dearly and leaving him almost destroyed her but when she finds him on her doorstep this time, sporting a black eye – supplied by of Corbin, she knows that this time is different – this time her future is holding his hand out to ask her to join him.

“I didn’t fall in love with you… I flew.”

The epilogue was fabulous and rounded the book off in a truly fitting fashion.

The story may not be everyone’s cup of tea but for me it was simply superb – emotionally charged and most of all beautifully written. It was a journey through the highs and lows of life, in one man’s bit to find not only himself again but to accept that sometimes, bad things happen to good people – Life is learning what to do when you happen to be the good person on the receiving end !!

Rating 5 out of 5