⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I went between 4 and 5 stars on this one. The only reason I'd dock a star is the heaviness of the themes which made it hard to get lost in because my heart ached for the characters. But doesn't that just prove it was really good writing?

Helen Zhang is the first daughter of immigrant parents and their family is struggling through the grief of losing a daughter/sister from suicide and the love interest, Grant, is unfortunately attached to this trauma. In her writing, Kuang gives readers a glimpse into her delightful and witty characters who (like most of us) are buried beneath complicated experiences of grief/loss, anger, love, forgiveness, and complex healing. The unfortunate circumstances of Helen and Grant's history sets up a story of impossible love where you are cheering for their healing and growth so they can just love each other through the complexities of their lives.

🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ This book is very spicy BUT in her acknowledgments she suggests chapters that her parents should skip when reading this book which would also be super helpful for sensitive readers. So if you want a cleaner read, here are the chapters she suggests skipping: 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 24, and 35.

Read if you like these tropes:
•Forced Proximity
•Enemies to Lovers
•Forbidden Love
•Office romance
•Second Chances
•Destiny
•Impossible Love
•Multiple POV

3.5 stars
This story starts off great - the characters are well drawn, major trauma is handled deftly and with nuance, and the chemistry is hot! I really enjoyed the depiction of a writers' room and recognized a lot of the personality types there. Sadly, it kind of lost steam as it went along. Helen's parents are not given much depth and her issues with them are resolved in a way that feels both too easy and incomplete, making the main obstacle to the romance feel like a bit of a straw man, even though it decidedly isn't. And Grant's mental health challenges also sort of drop away without comment. I really liked the first half or so, wanted to like the rest more, and I will definitely look out for new books by Kuang in the future!

Yulin Kuang’s DEBUT novel BLEW me AWAY! How to End a Love Story ended up on my radar when I read that the author is the screenwriter for “People We Meet On Vacation” and the writer/director for “Beach Read”. I will consume ALL THINGS Emily Henry so if there’s something in the Henry-Verse I’m going to read it.

Helen Zhang is a widely successful YA writer and has just published the final book of her popular series. Grant Shepard writes for TV shows and gets hired to work on the TV show adaptation of Helen’s series. Unbeknownst to their coworkers, Helen and Grant are bonded by a shared trauma they experienced in high school.

This is truly an Enemies to Lovers romance. The trauma they share is heavy and it’s not something to easily move past. In the beginning there is so much hatred I constantly wondered how they could possibly move to the “lovers” phase!! Be assured that THEY DO. Expect pining, aching, and forced proximity. There’s so much heart in this novel, it hurt my soul a little. Yulin Kuang is going to be a MUST-READ author for me. I’m excited to see her work in other mediums as well!

How to End a Love Story is out April 2nd 2024.

Thanks to the Avon Books and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The Most Anticipated Romance Books of 2024

How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang
Release Date: April 9 from Avon

Many romance readers may know Yulin Kuang as the screenwriter adapting Emily Henry’s People We Meet on Vacation and Beach Read (and directing the latter), but I’ve been aware of Kuang since I Ship It, her short-lived TV series about bandmates who write songs about fandom culture. I leapt at the chance to read the ARC for her contemporary romance debut, based upon perhaps the darkest foundation for a love story: Helen Zhang lost her sister Michelle to suicide when they were teenagers, when Michelle ran in front of the car of homecoming king Grant Shephard.

Thirteen years later, Helen is a bestselling author of a dark academia series, and she’s nabbed herself a spot in the writers’ room of the forthcoming TV adaptation. The only problem is, one of her new coworkers is Grant himself, who is the definition of “good in a room”: annoyingly affable and a brilliant writer. As Helen and Grant work through their awful history to try and collaborate on something new, they are drawn to each other in dark, messy, heady ways. This book will twist the knife in your gut, yet give you every reason to root for these two, even when they don’t know how to fight for themselves.

This was a good read. While it had some unique elements, it did end up being pretty predictable. I also found the female main character hard to like at first. I found the plot hard to follow at times due to how it was written. However, it was a good book overall.
First off, this book does put a couple spins on contemporary romances. Grant and Helen’s past traumatic connection was one I hadn’t seen before and created a unique hurdle for their relationship. I also found the author working to adapt her book series into a tv show plot to be unique. It was interesting to see how this experience helped Helen grow as a person and a writer. However, the book still ended up being pretty predictable and followed your basic contemporary romance template.
I found Helen hard to like at first. I know grief is strange but the fact that she still held Grant accountable for the accident 13 years later and told him so to his face made me dislike her for a while. Maybe it was since the reader also got to see from Grant’s POV but it was obvious he was still torn up about it and she was way too harsh on him. Especially since later *spoiler* she seems to just get over it? Grant I liked right away. In fact I would have preferred if this book had been all from his POV.
That brings me to my next point. The plot was a bit hard to follow. The book would change POV’s suddenly with no warning. Sometimes we got to see what a character was thinking and others we didn’t. At least a couple times there was a time jump with no warning. A little more consistency and clear breaks would have been better.
Overall though, this was a good book. The plot was interesting enough to keep me reading and I cared about Grant enough (and eventually Helen) that I was rooting for them to have a happy ending. If you’re looking for a good contemporary romance with some angst I would recommend it!

Very well written romance of complicated nature. I cried a lot but that’s a good thing! Very interesting event connecting the main characters 😉

This book was wonderful. I'll be honest, I went in thinking it would be a little more romcom, but what I ended up reading was a beautiful story of two people who were damaged in ways only the other could understand. I know this author has a history in screenwriting and is only getting more famous, but damn. If she can keep writing books like this I will read every single one of them. I laughed, I cried, I had my heart broken. This book was like Normal People but honestly better and with a much more satisfying ending. (Sorry if you liked Normal People but I'm right on this one.) Anyway, please keep these coming, Yulin.

17 days into 2024 and I have already found one of my favorite books???

Kuang will be directing Emily Henry’s Beach Read so obviously I had high hopes. Felt like a great mixture of an Emily Henry and Ava Wilder book. A beautiful love story that had tension with characters that had big emotions and trauma to unpack. I obviously cried at 10pm last night finishing this one
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

📖 ARC REVIEW 📖

Thank you @avonbooks for an early copy of How to End a Love Story by @yulin.kuang. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. 🤍

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5/5
Release date: April 2nd, 2024

Blurb: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6...

🛑Read on with caution; review may contain spoilers🛑

How to End a Love Story is first and foremost an emotional love story that revolves around the trauma experienced and shared by Grant and Helen during their senior year in high school. They were never close, and haven’t spoken to each other in years, but when Helen’s book is being adapted into a television show and coincidentally with Grant as one of its screenwriters, they initially try to work with all the hostility in the air, mostly coming from Helen. However, they could not deny their mutual attraction with all the tension and emotions, their work and trauma have brought them closer together, and have made their already complicated relationship even more complicated.

Despite having a slow start, I couldn’t help but feel invested in the characters. Their pain and sorrow were expressed so thoroughly and deeply that I sometimes had to pause a bit and process (and cry internally 😪). As I mentioned, this is a heavily emotional novel (and I advise you to read the trigger warnings before starting this) and I highly applaud the author for handling the topics surrounding death, grief, loss, suicide, and panic attacks delicately and well. Regardless of the heavy emotions I felt reading this, the story was very well written. Grant and Helen are individually broken but have come together to comfort each other in their loneliness. Their eventual acceptance of the pain of putting everything in the past, and their pining and yearning for each other, only made the story even more beautiful. The spice (so much spice!) was also a bonus that I enjoyed. 😉

If you’re a fan of Emily Henry’s, Kennedy Ryan’s, or Annabel Monoghan’s works, you’ll surely enjoy this gut-wrenching beautiful romance!

A lovely debut romance that hits all the right notes and whose leads are charming in all of the frustrating ways. Grant and Helen have not seen each other since the tragic death of Helen's sister in high school. When Helen's novels are being adapted into a tv show, Grant is brought into the writer's room. As the two of them work to put their past traumas behind them and connect in the present, they find they have far more in common than high school and their shared past. Kuang's debut is marvelous and expands on the usual tropes to make a charming love story. Thanks to Avon and NetGalley for the ARC.

I went into How to End a Love Story pretty uninformed. I started it on a Saturday at home and when I got into it, I couldn't stop. My friend Kari would call this "romance with heft". It's the love story between Grant and Helen. They went to high school together and suffered different sides of a horrible tragedy. When they come together to work as screenwriters years later, they both struggle with their past. That tension and emotion and trauma bring them together but also kept me deeply invested in this story.

I read this reminded of Talking at Night and also of Ava Wilder's books. But Kuang uses words so well to tell Grant and Helen's story. I very rarely am aware of a writer's skill, but found myself wanting to highlight phrases and remember passages because they connected so well to life. I immediately texted friends to make sure they have this on their radar.

Kuang has crafted a rom-com with a really unique premise: falling in love with the man you blame for your sister's death by suicide. While this premise originally seemed a bit awkward and far-fetched, the story worked surprisingly well and was both believable and enjoyable. Fans of Emily Henry and Olivia Dade will enjoy Kuang's debut into the romance genre. Additionally, Kuang's background in screenwriting was really given the opportunity to shine here and readers will hopefully see more of her writing, both on the screen and page, going forward.

Wow what a wonderful ride! This was SUCH a great romance- if you love Emily Henry you will love this too! Enemies to lovers isn't usually my favorite troupe, but it worked so well with this story. Relatable and swoon-worthy!

I took way to long to finish this book because I didn't want it to end. I wanted to stay wrapped up in Helen and Grant's story, but I finally took the plunge (after milking the last 15% over like three weeks)!

Yulin Kuang is getting a lot of (well-deserved) hype for her attachment to two Emily Henry movie projects, but it is clear her work is uniquely her own and she is already a standout author all by herself. She has woven the most beautiful story of grief, forgiveness, and complex emotions while also making this a fun, spicy, and interesting book set in a workplace. Learning about the in's and out's of tv series creation, adapting a book for the screen, and the writer's room through the eyes of someone new to the experience was so interesting. I just really, really loved Helen and was rooting for her as she navigated a new work experience and learned how to manage her relationship with control in her life. Grant is complex and interesting too, but Helen is what kept me flipping each page. At the core of this book, the story is about Helen navigating life after her sister died by suicide when she walked in front of Grant's car when they were teenagers. Grant and Helen end up in the same writers room when Helen's teen novels are being adapted for TV. Kuang takes great care in navigating how Grant and Helen could possibly handle this situation and work together again and Helen's relationship with her parents and her parent's feelings about Grant considering the situation just add to the depth of this book.

This book certainly appeals to the romance lover in me, but more than that (and perhaps more importantly than that), it appeals to the "conceal don't feel" side of me and I just wanted Helen to win, win, win at it all and keep being a hottie inside and out while she did it.

<i>Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC</i>

THIS IS MY FAVORITE ROMANCE BOOK EVER. E V E R.

How To End A Love Story feels like a first kiss-- the anticipatory tingle, the butterflies going buckwild in your stomach, the electricity surging just beneath the skin. It’s all forbidden touches, desperate yearning, stolen moments. It is spiraling, spiraling, spiraling.

Basically, Helen Zhang, first-born daughter of immigrant parents and sister to a girl who killed herself by running out in front of a car, is now in Los Angeles developing her wildly successful YA series into a TV show. Despite her success, she finds herself isolated, wracked with imposter syndrome and a mountain of self-doubt. And the cherry on top: Grant Shephard is also in that writer’s room. Grant Shephard, driver of the car that killed her sister 13 years ago. Grant Shephard, most affable guy in the room who now suffers from panic attacks and imposter syndrome. Bound by shared trauma and forced proximity, Helen and Grant try their hardest to coexist. And maybe comingle. They are two people who aren’t meant to have a love story. Is this connection an accident? Or could it be fate?

This is a love story, but it is also the story of two broken people in an impossible situation, careening toward heartbreak. This is the story of two people who believe themselves to be insufficient, two people who delude themselves into finding comfort in their loneliness. Helen and Grant long for more, for something neither feel like they deserve. And How To End A Love Story beautifully shows how one can begin to emerge from under the burden of unrealistic expectations, of living for others, and perhaps just daring to live for yourself.

I mean it when I say And How To End A Love Story is the BEST romance book I have ever read. It is also one of my new favorite books. It gives “This Is Me Trying” combined with the most tender spice. I swear, all of you need to read this book. I have wanted to reread it every single day since I finished it, and I cannot wait to get my hands on a physical copy in April.

I was not emotionally prepared for a book with a child’s funeral as the opener. Stopped immediately.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for the ARC.

I REALLY enjoyed How to End a Love Story! What I liked most about the story was the emotional depth of the main characters. I loved Grant's character and his vulnerability. Although Helen got on my nerves at the end, I was happy with her overall character arc. I thought the build-up between Grant and Helen was fantastic. Kuang did a great job of creating initial tension between the two. I liked the movie/writing plotline (reminded me of Romantic Comedy by Sittenfeld) and the secondary characters. This is a must read for fans of Emily Henry and Abby Jimenez. Thank you to Avon and Harper Voyager for the ARC.

Emotional, spicy and full of great tropes. I am a sucker for enemies to lovers and mental health rep. This was jarring, funny and I loved every second of reading this. I will be adding Yulin to my auto buy list.

I'm not entirely too sure how I feel about Yulin Kuang's HOW TO END A LOVE STORY. I enjoyed it but I didn't love it and I had some issues with it. Overall, I liked the idea of the story. I really enjoyed the fact that it was about writers (YA writers and TV writers) and you can definitely tell that Kuang has experience with working on productions.

My biggest issue with this book was that there was no chemistry between the two love interests/main characters. You know the overused phrase "show me, don't tell me"? This suffered from that so much. You never really got to experience why these characters fell in love, we were just told that they were, which doesn't make sense when you think of the plot of the story. You're constantly told that Grant was charming but we never really got to see him being charming? I think sex scenes were used to make up for that fact, somehow. I'm usually not fussing about seeing the characters fall in love but in this case it was such a huge part of the story and we're constantly being told that they were falling for each other but we never saw it.

Overall, it was an okay read.

An emotional but also steamy and fun love story written by the screenwriter of Emily Henry’s PWMOV and director of the upcoming Beach Read film.

The story follows two people, bound together by tragedy, who end up in the same writers rooms after not seeing each other for 13 years. They aren’t supposed to fall for each other, but will their budding feelings help them make peace with the past.

While I found the beginning slow, I grew to really enjoy this book. I love when a hero is explicit about his feelings and falls first, and Grant does just that.

Read if you like:
-Enemies to lovers
-Screenwriting
-Heftier romances
-Shared trauma
-Open door

Thank you Avon for the ARC. Pub 4/2!