Member Reviews

This one admittedly took me a minute to get through because I had a feeling it was going to wreck me, and I WAS RIGHT. What a perfectly achey romance that manages to run the gamut of emotion — sweet, sexy, messy, devastating — and all swirl together in a way that very few writers would have been able to pull off. I can’t wait for whatever Kuang writes next (and if I was excited for her to adapt Emily Henry’s books to screen before, I’m even more psyched now!). What an absolute banger of a romance novel.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this edition from the publisher via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

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Oof this one might be a doozie to review. Because I honestly don’t know what to say about this? In a few ways it was perfect. In others ways I was supremely mad. Like as a character driven reader, her and her family were pissing me off. And Grant had me so confused. But the writing style and the romance once they finally got together?! *chef’s kiss*

Ok so I guess I’m going to start with the characters. I had such a love hate relationship with them. I hated Helen because of the way she treated Grant. She basically was blaming him for killing her sister, when in realiity, I’m sure Grant would have preferred what happened to have happened to literally anyone else. She never stopped to think that this person was also fucked up about this whole situation and I thought that was truly effed up. And then Grant, Idk wtf he was thinking. Idk how they went from hating each other to doing what they were doing. It was like blink and you miss it. I don’t know when he forgave her, but I was glad as hell he did lol

The romance kind of came out of nowhere. They were enemies and then all of a sudden she was like having sex dreams about him. I remember rewinding it (since I read the audio) and was like Whoa Nelly where did this come from” lmao I was that confused. With him coming to the funeral I knew he had a soft spot for her so it was less confusing. I just thought he was finally acting on those feelings. With her tho, she literally hated his guts. It was very weird.

Everything else tho ate. I heard that the author is the screen play writer for Emily Henry and I keep thinking my gawd this movie is going to eat lol I was immediately, and I mean IMMEDIATELY sucked into this book. I was listening to it with my airpods in, outloud during dinner, out loud while working, etc. I had to like stretch it out so that I didn’t finish it overnight. It took me three days, but I also finished it in 3 sittings. Even Grant’s voice seemed so authentic. Idk it was captivating.

The only other thing I didn’t like was the ending. It dragged on until the end. And just when I thought I was going to get a really good groveling scene and maybe even one more smex scene, it was over. I just really felt like it was a bad place to stop. And that grand gesture was grand gesturing. I think she should have let him find that part on his own, but that would probably have given him control of the grand gesture and I kind of like the way it played this time.

This book was quite a surprise for me. I wasn’t going to read it because it was too close to the last book I read, but I saw it everywhere and just requested it from my library. It just so happened that it came right after that book, but I still read it. And I’m hella glad, because I would have been on the hold list forever lol That book ended up being picked for Reese’s book club. Which means I never would have gotten it lol

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This is not your typical BOTM romance. it starts off heavy and just kind of stays there. It tried to lighten up with the humor, but i think i need more comedy in my romance books, i like to escape real life when i read, not feel more depressed

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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!

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

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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.

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