This story had me in a chokehold! Helen's sister died when they were in high school. She stepped in front of a speeding truck, driven by Grant, a classmate. Understandably, everyone was traumatized. Helen's parents blamed Grant - but it wasn't actually his fault.

Helen and Grant coincidentally meet up later in life and are forced to work together and there are sparks and tension.

The characters were very well fleshed out and I felt like I knew them. I'd definitely read more about Grant and Helen.

A well written romance novel that deals a lot with grief and trauma and healing. I liked the story, but found the book to be excessively long and repetitive. If it had been shorter and moved a little more quickly I could've really loved it. I think the sex scenes were pretty good, not overly graphic but also not too tame either.

I enjoyed this one overall. I didn’t *love* it, but I’m glad that so read it. I enjoyed the build up between the MCs, but I think that they didn’t really address the issue of her sister’s death very deeply before getting into their relationship. I was rooting for them, it just felt like a more meaningful conversation was needed.

How to End a Love Story hits all emotions starting with hate with a slow burn with some spice to enjoying the end. This one had to sit with be a bit before letting the plot line take over. Struggling winter gets job moves cross country to hate new boss. Then quite gets hit by car and the story start to develop nicely.

Thank NetGalley for another amazing audio.

This book wasn’t for me. Started out with an intriguing premise- writers forced to work together 13 years after one was unintentionally involved in the death of the other’s sister- but the author never satisfactorily plumbed the depth of the struggle to deal with increasing emotional attraction to the one person most closely tied to the worst day of your life. It felt like a missed opportunity to explore two people really wrestling with that tension between guilt/anger AND intense attraction.

What’s inside:

Mental health struggles, suicide, death of a sibling.
Behind-the-scenes view of a screenwriters’ room.
NYC, New Jersey, and LA
Family dynamics and dysfunction
Child of immigrants- Chinese heritage
Forbidden love- enemies to lovers - friends with benefits.

What (didn’t) work for me:

Felt like the writer tried to unsuccessfully mash together two different genres (spicy romance and women’s fiction).
I never warmed up to the main characters- they felt disjointed.
FMC did grow but rather than writing that growth like a dimmer switch slowly illuminating a room, it read more like an on/off switch suddenly flicked on.
I never felt like I wanted to root for their relationship.

Thank you NetGalley and Avon Books for the ARC.

I really struggled to get into this. We mostly follow Helen, who is a writer going to go work on the TV show based on a series of YA books she wrote. Despite her successful career, her personal life has pretty much stayed the same since her sister died. In a twist, the person whose car hit and killed her sister is going to be working in the same writer's room. But her sister died by suicide, so it's a little bit of a more complicated puzzle.

There is a love story, it takes a long time to bloom. It's worth it, but I almost didn't make it to the beginning of the love story. It's also interesting because the writer's room is described a lot but there's not a lot of time actually spent in it, with dialogue, and I think that would have made for a different, slightly more fun book.

One of the best things I've read in years - lyrical, solid, enough time to bond with the characters and understand their motivations, and a real arc. Loved it.

it was the katharine hepburn and jimmy stewart impressions that got me

many thanks to avon and harper voyager and netgalley for the advance reader copy.

Cute enough. I loved so many parts, but then others dragged on and felt repetitive. There also was a lot of unnecessary, mundane details that didn’t contribute much of anything to the story other than length. The ending went on far too long. In summary - liked, didn’t love, would read the author again.

Thank you Avon and Libro FM for my gifted copies. All opinions are my own.

This was so good! I couldn’t believe it was a debut!

How to End A Love Story was a lot more serious than your typical romance, but it worked so well with the storyline.

Grant and Helen know each other from high school in the worst of ways. Grant was the driver whose car Helen’s sister jumped in front of to die by suicide. Of course there are extremely tense if any relationship between Helen and Grant. Then they’re forced together when they’re both in the writer’s room for the upcoming tv adaptation of Helen’s novel. Helen is pushed outside of her comfort zone in many ways and was very relatable. She and Grant were able to develop a friendship that develops into more. They also support each other through tough times.

I can’t wait for more from Yulin Kuang!

Beautifully written, clever, insightful and achingly sexy. My only quibble was that a lot of plot got stuffed into the final 10%, and there were perhaps one too many coincidences surrounding Helen and Grant, but I really did root for them to be happy, and appreciated their ambition and talent being key to the story and their attraction to one another.

How to end a love story is the first book of Yulin Kuang, and she did not dissappoint.
The book is relatable at all terms for an introverted girl.

This was nothing like I thought it would be. The premise of the main relationship kind of gave me the ick, to the point where it was hard to be immersed in the love story. They steamy bits also felt gratuitous and out of place. Not my favorite romance and definitively not comparable to Emily Henry IMHO

For fans of Emily Henry and Jenny Han, here's a glorious debut following Helen Zhang and Grant Shephard - two lovers connected by a tragedy that changed both their lives. Heartfelt and emotional - can't wait for what else Kuang has in store for us.

After learning that Yulin Kuang, who is currently attached to a few adaptions of Emily Henry novels, was writing a debut novel herself, I was thrilled to receive the ARC for Kuang's debut HOW TO END A LOVE STORY in exchange for my honest review. Big thank you to NetGalley and the publishers, Avon and Harper Voyager | Avon.

HOW TO END A LOVE STORY tells the messy, heartfelt, beautiful story of Grant and Helen. I adored these characters, really enjoyed the dual-POV, and ultimately couldn't put this book down. This has been a favorite of mine so far this year and I wholeheartedly recommend it! Kuang's writing is sharp, genuine, and lovely, and her characters feel so real and fully fledged. I loved reading Grant and Helen's story and didn't want it to end!

UGHHHHHHHHH this book. I loved it with my whole heart. I was so looking forward to Yulin's debut and it did not disappoint.

A very complicated love story about forgiveness. Although the premise was a bit difficult for me to accept at first, I was able to move past it and accept the characters for the flawed people that they are. Very angsty and messy, but with lots of heart.

WOW! Never has a book hooked me so immediately. My jaw was on the floor at the first chapter. This was such a unique romance and the invisible string tying these two together was so powerful. This will be in my top reads of 2024.

You’re probably seeing this new romance all over Bookstagram - and for good reason! Netgalley gave me a digital ARC and then Avon Books asked to send me a physical copy! Libro’s influencer program also gave me the audiobook! So I have this fantastic romance in all formats now and couldn’t be happier about it.

Grant killed Grace’s sister with his car when they were in high school. They haven’t seen each other in over a decade and are now paired to work together on the screen adaptation of Grace’s novel. They get along in ways neither of them saw coming - but there’s no way Grace’s parents can find out Grant is on the show.

As y’all know, I love a romance with depth and this one DELIVERS. There’s a lot of reality and hard topics addressed from suicide and mental health to family. I really loved Grant and Grace together - their chemistry and their growth (personal and together) was so good. And steamy!!!! This was almost 5⭐️s for me but I have some issues with the ending (DM me to discuss.) Overall, I really loved this one and look forward to her screen adaptations of Emily Henry’s work.

✨Content Warnings: Suicide, Sexual Content, Panic Attacks, Car Accident, Mental Illness

This was a good easy beach read. Sweet story and good characters. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC,