Ugly Love is a contemporary romance novel, in which the story involves a 23-year-old nurse named Elizabeth Tate Collins. Tate has just moved back with her brother to California for work purposes. She meets a drunk guy as soon as she arrived at her brother’s apartment.
Later on, in the Ugly Love book, we know that the drunk guy is Miles Archer, Tate’s brother’s best friend. Miles doesn’t turn to be only Tate’s brother’s best friend; instead, he also becomes someone special in Tate’s life. Soon, both Tate and Miles fall in love at their first sights, and it all begins with Tate.
At first, Miles also feels the attraction. However, his attraction to Tate in the Ugly Love novel is highly physical in ways that it contrasts Tate’s romantic (a.k.a emotional) feelings toward him, making the relationship becomes toxic. Plus, Miles himself has a terrible past with her ex-girlfriend, who breaks up with him after his son’s death.
However, Miles and Tate continue to develop healthier relationships as the stories in Ugly Love progress. So, how will their relationships turn out to be?
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- Part 1: Meet The Characters Of Ugly Love
- Part 2: Story Of Ugly Love
- Part 3: Meet The Author Of Ugly Love
- Part 4: Alternative to Ugly Love
Part 1: Meet The Characters Of Ugly Love
Elizabeth Tate Collins
Elizabeth Tate Collins is a 23-year-old nurse who has just moved back to California with her brother, Corbin Collins. She is in love with Miles Archer, the handsome-looking pilot who appears drunk in earlier chapters of Ugly Love book. She is the first person to get romantically attracted to Miles.
Later on, in the Ugly Love novel, Tate is married to Miles. They have a daughter named Sam Archer, in which Miles decides to name the girl that way to remember his deceased son.
Miles Archer
Miles Archer of Ugly Love novel is the pilot whom Tate feels immediate attraction to. He is the typical strong and silent character who doesn’t speak much, at least in the first few chapters of Ugly Love.
From reading Ugly Love, I guess Miles behaves that way because of his traumatic relationships with his ex-girlfriend, Rachel. Rachel breaks him up after he loses his son, Clayton Archer, in a lake accident. So, he demands Rachel not to discuss his past (and not to expect future with him) as they delve deeper into a romantic relationship.
Part 2: Story Of Ugly Love
The stories of Ugly Love are focused around Elizabeth Tate Collins and her significant other, Miles Archer. I would say that the relationship between these two Ugly Love characters is highly complicated. After all, Miles doesn’t seem to be interested in Tate just as much as she is romantically interested (infatuated?) with him. And it continues until their marriage.
When we read the first few chapters, we will discover that Miles starts off as a drunk man in Corbin’s apartment. For your information, Corbin is Tate’s brother and also his best friend. I also get in a chapter in Ugly Love that involves a scenario with Corbin slapping Miles.
We know something isn’t quite right when the main female character’s relative and the main male character’s best friend is beating up the main male character because of what the main male character has done to the main female character. After all, the relationships between Tate and Miles in Ugly Love become even more complicated after knowing Miles’ terrible pasts with his ex-girlfriend.
So, the promise from the start of the relationship has already been broken. Yet, Tate and Miles continue to have a relationship. How will their marriage in Ugly Love novel turns out to be?
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Part 3: Meet The Author Of Ugly Love
The readers know the author of Ugly Love as “CoHo”. It is an abbreviation of the full name of the author: Colleen Hoover. Even though it seems like a real name of the author, the author’s real name is Margaret Colleen. Her maiden’s last name is Fennell. Hoover is the last name of her husband, Heath Hoover.
Right now, CoHo stays in the United States with her husband and three sons while writing novels, standalones, and short stories. Some of CoHo’s novels have been in the New York Times Best Seller lists. Based on her lists of written books, I would say that CoHo is a specialist in writing young adult and romance stories.
Ugly Love is one of the standalone romance books that CoHo has wrote. The two main characters, Tate and Miles, are already more than 20 years old since the beginning of the chapters. So, we can consider this novel as a (young?) adult romance story.
CoHo writes Ugly Love in ways that the relationship dynamics between two main characters become so tumultuous: From Tate experiencing immediate attraction to Miles, knowing “the forbidden knowledge” a.k.a Miles’ past with ex-girlfriend, Miles declaring that he’s not interested in Tate even after their marriage, and so on. No wonder this standalone novel becomes one of the best romance books in the internet, ever.
Part 4: Alternative to Ugly Love
Dreame also has lots of romance books that involve toxic relationships and best friends, just like what Tate experiences with Miles. One of Dreame books that I would recommend as an alternative is Ready For Flynn. I see several similar patterns in Dreame’s Ready For Flynn, and there are also some genderbend elements.
Valerie, the main female character of Ready For Flynn, is the younger sister of Martin, and Martin is Flynn’s best friend. Valerie of Ready For Flynn novel is romantically attracted to Flynn at the first sight, as soon as Flynn arrives at her house. However, all Flynn does is only to flirt with her without involving any loving feelings. Isn’t it so similar to Ugly Love?
Summary of Ready For Flynn:
Most of the chapters in Dreame’s Ready For Flynn novel are written according to Valerie’s POV. Valerie may be a 15-year-old schoolgirl; however, she has a curvy, adult-like body that makes her a “head turner”. Being a “head turner” means Valerie’s brothers, Kayden and Martin, have to go extra miles to protect their little sister.
Martin has a best friend named Flynn who has a terrible relationship with his life. One day, Martin takes Flynn to his house on holiday, and he wants Flynn to feel welcomed in his house. However, the relationship has gone too far since both parties seem to feel the spark right away. Valerie is attracted to Flynn’s handsome face, and Flynn is almost doing something physical to Valerie until Martin and Kayden interfere.
When we re-read the previous paragraph in this part 4 of the article, we will know that the patterns of this Dreame story bear striking resemblance to the CoHo-written novel. The attractions between Valerie and Flynn are also identical, and I would say that Ready For Flynn is like the chibi (teenage?) version of Ugly Love.