I chose the first one after reading the summary and seeing it had a good average rating on Goodreads. But, I was deceived. Ugly Love tells the story of Miles, a pilot who suffers a great loss and decides to never love again, but after six years of doing this, it proves to be more difficult when she meets her new neighbour, and his best friend's sister, Tate.
As if this is Twilight (minus the whole vampire thing), they just can't contain their attraction for each other, but Miles isn't willing to let go of his promise to never be completely happy again, and so it begins Tate's suffering. You see, I don't it's right to portray an abusive relationship as if it is the most romantic thing ever, which is what happens with this "love" story. I mean, I see the point of Miles's journey to love again and accept his mistakes, but after seriously abusing Tate, I don't think it's enough to redeem his character. If this book is in the hands of inexperienced teenagers, then they'll grow up thinking that it is okay to be "a little" mishandled because it is "romantic" and that is just not right. So, I didn't really liked the book but managed to finish it. And after reading an excerpt from Hopeless by the same author I decided to give it another go.
Oh, how mistaken I was. ¡It was even worse than the first one! I don't have a problem with reading about strong themes, like sexual abuse, but it has to be treated with the respect, caution and understanding it deserves, not as a medium to get to a romantic storyline. I read a third of this book and skimmed the whole way to the end... I just couldn't bring myself to finish it. It was so bad.
Anyway, I normally don't like to trash someone else's job, but the whole thing where we romanticize abusive relationships has to stop.
If you have read anything by Colleen Hoover, please let me know. I'd like to know what other people think.
Cheerios!
