Reviewed by Willow and Donna
**ARC received for honest review**
Instead of doing a joint review for this one, we 've done separate reviews. These were written totally independently yet the book evoked the same thoughts and opinions in us, which is testament to what a fantastic book this was, that you may find similarities in our reviews. Happy reading!
What Willow says ~ 5 I loved it to life Stars
" Love isn't always pretty, Tate. Sometimes you spend all your time hoping it'll eventually be something different. Something better. Then, before you know it, you're back to square one, and you lost your heart somewhere along the way."
Wow, Wow, Wow! Yep, It's that good! Emotionally charged and beautifully written, you will laugh - a lot, and you will cry - big fat ugly tears. Colleen is a master with words that suck you in and make you FEEL everything. I don't think my review can do this book justice and convey just how much I loved it! I went into this book not knowing anything except the title and that it was by Colleen Hoover. I was totally unprepared for the emotional rollercoaster I would go through over the next few hours ~ I couldn't put it down!
There were so many scenes and favourite lines in this book that made me swoon, laugh out loud and make my heart break and I marked them all. Here's what my book looked like when I finished it.....
The main characters in this book are Miles & Tate ~ "The Invader and the Infiltrator." The book starts being told from Tate's pov. She is moving in with her brother for a while whilst she looks for a job. Only when she gets to her brothers apartment, she can't get in - there's a drunk guy asleep, propped up against the apartment door, after a very funny scene that had me laughing and smiling, Tate eventually gets into the apartment. However drunk guy - named Miles - seems to think Tate is someone named Rachel and something he feels he has done to Rachel is obviously eating him up inside.
The book jumps back 6 years earlier and is then told from Miles' pov. We get to see when Miles met Rachel. The chapters alternate between Tate, here in present and Miles, 6 years in the past. You see what you are actually getting here is two stories. The story of Tate & Miles and the story of Miles & Rachel. Both of them have highs and lows with plenty of laughter and plenty of heart break!
Back in the present, once Miles is sober, Tate & Miles do not get off to a flying start. Tate finds Miles non expressive, unfriendly and closed off.
"Jesus Christ, this man. Does he not realize that facial expressions are supposed to accompany speech?"
But it soon becomes undeniable that they are attracted to each other....
"You make it so hard to breathe"
Miles does not want a relationship though, he can't, but he still wants to taste Tate. They agree to a sexual relationship only and Miles sets two rules for Tate ~ don't ask about his past and never expect a future. When they finally give into attraction there are some very hot sex scenes and a very hot kissing scene up against a bathroom wall! But this book isn't really about sex. Its all about the emotion!
Although Tate agreed to Miles' rules, Its harder than she thought it would be, she desperately wants to know his past, know about Rachel and the scars Miles carries, but more than that, she is slowly hoping for a future that Miles is continuing to remind her she can't have.
"If I were capable of loving someone..... it would be you. But i'm not capable"
Colleen has done an amazing job of making you feel the highs and the heart breaking moments Tate goes through whilst trying to justify and work through the decisions that keep her continuing to see Miles. Now I realise I've not mentioned much about Miles and Rachel's story, but make no mistake this is not just a side story, this is a brilliant story in it's own right and pivotal to Tate and Miles' journey. I just don't want to give anything away so I'm keeping quiet about it!
I can't finish this review without mentioning Cap, an eightyish year old man who assists people with the lifts in Tate's apartment building. I loved his character, he was funny and wise and I'm sure will remind some people of a sweet old man they used to know.
Once again Colleen has delivered a beautiful complex story, well two stories, that will suck you in and spit you out once its got every single emotion out of you. I know I'm going to have a book hangover now and it's become one of my favourite reads. I cannot recommend it enough.
"I feel it. All the Ugly parts of it. It's in my pores. My Veins. My memories. My future."
“Sometimes a man’s spirit just ain’t strong enough to withstand the ghosts from his past…maybe that boy just lost his spirit somewhere along the way.”
OMG, just WOW and WOW and WOW, I just didn’t think that Colleen could get better but each and every book she writes just manages to elicit more, more emotion, more angst, more love, more pain just more. This book is all about “the feels,” my favourite part of a book, as I have said many a time in my reviews, I want to live and breathe a book, I want to feel it all, the passion, the heart break, the angst, the love, just give me sensory overload…it is what I crave, what I love and this book delivered it in spades. I was emotioned out by the end, devoid of all emotion, just that ache, that feeling deep down in your gut when you know you have read something amazing, something that is going to take a while to recover from, something that will eat at your brain and you won’t stop thinking about it for days…yep you get it…major book hangover! This book decimated my heart, it was shattered, scattered tiny fragments that were slowly pieced back together as this book progressed, but it was so worth it. This is a piece of literary genius, something that Colleen always manages to deliver, something so unique, so thought provoking and a book that I can say with 100% certainty is her best book yet.
“He leads. I let him. Because he’s a solid and I’m a liquid and right now, I’m just his wake.”
This isn’t just a book, it is a journey, a journey that you will live and breathe for the hours that it takes you to devour. Make sure you have the time set aside to read this in one hit as you will not be able to put it down. Miles will steal you away, you will “fly” with him and his heart breaking story, you cannot help but be sucked into this emotional vortex that disguises itself as a book, this book deserves your undivided attention, live it, breathe it, inhale it and devour it. I did.
“…don’t you dare try to tell me you’ve been clear from day one, because you are the murkiest goddamn man I’ve ever met.”
This book centres around Miles and Tate, Miles is a pilot and Tate is a student nurse. This book starts with Tate moving in with her brother until she can find a job to support herself while she is training and studying. Her brother is also a pilot and is Miles’s best friend. When she arrives at her brothers apartment there is a drunk propped up at the door and she cannot get in. Scared for her safety she calls her brother and finally manages to get herself in. It turns out her brother knows the said “drunk” and tells her to drag him in and make sure that he is OK. Between the sight of him and his drunken ramblings, Tate realises that there is something eating away at him, something so bad that he has tried to mask it with alcohol. After caring for him and making sure that he cannot choke should he be sick, she goes to bed. The next morning “the drunk” is awake and the mask is in place, totally devoid of any emotion, Tate is finally introduced to Miles. To say they don’t hit it off in the beginning is a bit of an understatement, but there is an undercurrent of simmering chemistry, Tate knows it but does Miles? Is Miles willing to recognise it? Can Miles even recognise it?
“Don’t ask about my past,” he says firmly. “And never expect a future.”
This book is like two stories in one, the present is told in Tate’s POV and the past in Miles’s POV. There is a reason for Miles’s mask and slowly but surely Colleen eeeks this out. It is obvious that something happened to him in his past, something that was so bad that he felt that he didn’t have a future and that he didn’t deserve a future. It was painful to read at times, because you felt so bad for him. Through the glimpses of his past, you saw the real Miles, you knew what he was capable of, and you knew that the “present” Miles was in no way a true representation of the “past” Miles. You just wanted to get inside his head and tell him, you deserve this, you need this, and you are so much more than “this”. He had a fortress around his heart, guarded by heavy artillery, he was letting no-one in, he was impenetrable…or was he? Could that special someone manage to “Infiltrate” his defences? What would it take for someone to make Miles realise that he does in fact have a future and that he is worthy. He was so worthy, he was just damn perfect!
“You make it so hard to breathe.”
Tate was totally and utterly adorable. Throughout this book, she puts her own feelings and heartache on the back burner while she tries to get to know Miles better. She knows there is more to the man than the little slithers and scraps he throws out there. He is the master of “the mask” but every now and then she sees little glimmers, little shards of light that give her that faint ray of hope that maybe just maybe Miles feels the same about her as she does about him. Miles has “Invaded” her heart and her head, she cannot help it, her heart calls for him, she wants him, she needs him, she loves him, but is he capable, can he give her what she craves, can she fix him?
“If I were capable of loving someone…it would be you.”
This is a heart breaking story about a man that is so caught up in his past he cannot live, he just exists. A barren apartment that is a complete reflection of his heart and his soul…barren, nothing, just desolation, empty, devoid and bereft, so twisted and tangled he cannot escape the “Ugly Love” the invader needs to be infiltrated, but is Tate the woman for the job?
“I didn’t fall in love with you, Tate. I flew.”
This book is flawlessly written, it packs such an emotional punch, one that will leave you breathless. But this book is also a new side to Colleen, this is hot…there are some steamy scenes in there and she nails them, not too much and not too little, that perfect balance, just enough for you to connect to the characters even more, you feel their passion, their chemistry, you just feel, feel and more feel.
Once again I cannot salute Colleen enough; this woman amazes me every time she puts pen to paper or fingers to keys. I went into this book blind, all I knew was that it was Colleen Hoover and it was called Ugly Love, but that is enough, it says it all, it says 1click now, it screams perfection and it was. SO DAMN PERFECT!
“I love you to life.”
Buy Links:
No comments:
Post a Comment