WOW. This book was amazing. It covered incredibly difficult topics in a delicate way. I loved the story and couldn’t put this book down. A wonderful debut novel. Looking forward to reading more from this author!

I really enjoyed the beginning of this book SO much. It felt like I was laughing every other page. The plot/tropes had such solid potential to be something really messy and complicated. However, I got lost about 40% in when the two MC’s randomly started having chemistry and flirting seemingly out of no where? It just felt super insta love and like they really hadn’t talked about anything at all. I didn’t feel a connection to Helen or Grant on any deep level, and found myself being bored and annoyed by their actions. I think it’s a solid debut and was really funny, but I was just a bit taken out of the story because of several factors. Thank you NetGalley and Avon for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

In high school, Helen’s sister stepped in front of a car and died. Helen hasn’t seen Grant, her former classmate and the driver of the car since then. Now, Helen’s book is being adapted for TV and Grant happens to be one of the screenwriters on the show. The two must learn to work together and in the process they both confront the past and open up in ways they never have before. As they work together and grow closer, feelings start to develop, but how can they have a real future with such complicated and intertwined pasts?

What an impressive debut! This book was raw and emotional and both characters had such beautiful journeys of healing and growth. The way their relationship slowly developed into a romance was so well-written - I had no idea how it would work when first reading, but it was so well done. This book was surprisingly spicy as well and I was here for it. I am so excited to see what Yulin Kuang comes up with next!

Thank you to Avon Books and NetGalley for the advance copy.

A deput?! Yulin Kuang will be an auto buy author for me. Her writing is absolutely phenomenal and her storytelling made me laugh, sob crying, & feel absolute contentment. I could live forever in the words written on her book. The ending came too soon.

Grant Shepard?! Where do I find one of him? Helen & Grants chemistry was palpable on paper and I felt everything that Yulin meant for her readers to feel. She brought them to life SO WELL.

This was a top romance read for me this year and I’m so grateful to have been given an advanced copy! Thank you Avon & Harper Collin’s Publishing so much for the advanced copy!

My official review on my social media platform will be posted the week of 17th of April when I receive my physical copy. I will attach link when it’s posted. I posted on my social media story on publication day.

This book packs an emotional punch along with the romance. It’s a darker kind of angst and there is so much that has to be overcome in this book to get to the HEA. I liked it, it gutted me at times, enraged me at others, but overall felt very gratifying at the end.

How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang immediately caught my attention because Yulin is the writer for an Emily Henry screenplay, so I knew I had to check out her debut novel!

How To End a Love Story is a deep story about a Chinese American writer whose sister who was killed after getting hit by a car in high school. Now years later, she reconnects, in the writers room of her first tv show, with Grant Shepard, the boy who was driving the car that struck her sister.

I was struck by how great of a writer Yulin is. She took heavy topics: grief, suicide, ect and intertwined them in to a romance. The romance was beautiful, deep and real.

While this isn’t a light and fluffy romantic comedy, I highly recommend How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang. I can’t wait to read whatever she writes next!

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thank you to NetGalley, author Yulin Kuang, and Avon for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for my honest opinion!

As excited as I was for the EmHen movies already, I cannot WAIT now to see them knowing they are in Kuang's care!! I will be fully transparent in admitting that knowing Kuang was directing/writing the movie(s) was what made me pick up this book, but I'm glad that it brought me to this gem! You can tell that she has lots of experience as a writer because this did not read like a debut. I felt like the characters were well fleshed out, and I truly felt the enemies to lovers connection between Helen and Grant. I was surprised (in a good way) by how spicy it was, and I felt all scenes were truly sexy and written well. I loved the depth brought to the story by their high school connection, and if anything, I would have loved to see that explored a bit more. My biggest detraction from this novel was that it was mostly centered around the romance, so parts that I found more interesting (like Michelle, Grant's anxiety, Helen's friendship with the writers, etc) could have used a bit more spotlight to make this truly shine for me. However, I loved Kuang's writing, and I am so excited for her to write more novels in the future!

One of my writer friends said once that grief is love with nowhere to go, that love also lies in the waiting. I think there’s no better embodiment of that than HOW TO END A LOVE STORY—it’s earnest and hot and melancholy, a combination with a premise that sounds impossible on paper but needs Yulin Kuang to come to life. This is a book for the literary fiction girlies who crave solid writing on top of great character development, and for the eldest daughters who need a forehead kiss. Reading had me both kicking my feet giggling and in the deepest of feelings as I was reminded that there are no coincidences in life, that it doesn’t happen on a cookie cutter timeline, that families are…really complicated.⁣
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But, most of all, LOVE STORY found the soft spot I have for pining and slow burns and cozied right into the ranks of my favorite romances. Reading conjured that gut instinct that someone important has just entered your life—you don’t know why or how, but you’re excited, and your best friend is equally as invested as you are to see how this pans out. And still, despite the heaviness of grief or the nervousness you feel, the redemptive nature of loving someone deeply, intimately, and truly propels you forward, toward them, toward healing. It’s hard to believe that this is a debut, but Kuang’s background in screenwriting took LOVE STORY to the next level. She’s an expert in setting a scene and knows how long to linger before the moment becomes cheesy or trite. ⁣
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Long story short, this book got me so good and I’ll probably end up re-reading it in the next month. And I’ll happily snatch up whatever Kuang writes next. Thank you @avonbooks @harpervoyagerus for the #gifted copy! LOVE STORY is out 4/9 💗

Real life screenwriter/director, Yulin Kuang, takes us into her work world in her debut novel, How to End a Love Story.
Helen's a YA writer who's able to get a position in the writers room when her best selling novel is going to be turned into a TV series. She goes into the experience very naively, hoping for some inspiration to break her writer's block. Instead, she gets an immediate shock when she comes face-to-face with someone she hasn't seen in 13 years. I liked the behind the scenes experience of writing and producing the TV series and life in Hollywood. Helen's and Grant's characters were complex (although also muddled at times) and their relationship was equally complex. Be prepared for some steamy scenes (as the author warned her parents in the acknowledgements)!
How to End a Love Story tackles the difficult subjects of suicide, mental health and complicated family relationships. The focus on the impact of suicide on a surviving family member was especially interesting and well-handled. And...as a New Jerseyian, I'm somewhat intrigued by the setting in Dunallie!
Thanks to Netgalley and Avon/HarperCollins for the opportunity to read How to End a Love Story in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 stars. Thanks to Netgalley and Avon and Harper Voyager. ahhhh this book had me in a chokehold the whole entire time. The hurt of Helen the hurt of Grant Shepard. I loved everything about this book all the feelings that it made me feel they were just so raw

4 stars. How to End a Love Story is such a hard book for me to rate. The concept behind this one is super bold and audacious and I truly applaud Kuang for wring a love story where the characters are so linked by tragedy. If you're a fan of broken characters, this book is for you. Because Helen and Grant aren't just broken, they're BROKEN. But because of their shared tragedy, they're also the only people in the world that can truly understand one another.

I know that Kuang is writing the book to movie adaptation for one of Emily Henry's books, but if I had to compare How to End a Love Story to another book, it wouldn't be one of Henry's. It would be Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover. I didn't enjoy Ugly Love, but I appreciated what Hoover did. And in some ways, How to End a Love Story is a bit of an ugly love romance. That said, even though parts of this were difficult to read, I did ultimately end up enjoying this. My favorite parts of the book were when Grant, Helen, and her parents had honest conversations with one another. I also really liked the depiction of Chinese/American family and those parts of the book felt like some of the realest to me. However, the reason this was 4 and not 5 stars for me was because the pacing was a bit off in the middle for my preference, and I think its because that part of the book felt like the romance between Helen and Grant progressed a little too fast. That said, I also think there's something to be said about finding understanding in another human being that transcends conversation, and they did ultimately end up having those candid conversations I was looking for. All in all, I definitely enjoyed How to End a Love Story. I think Kuang is going to be a romance author to watch for and I'm truly excited to see what she pens next!

Thank you so much to Kuang, Avon, and netgalley for sending me an early copy of this one in exchange for an honest review

I loved this book! I feel like it combines many of my favorite elements of romance into one package. First, Kuang is such a fantastic writer. Her background in writing for the screen is evident, but how incredibly visual this novel was. I could picture many scenes, and the characters felt like they could walk off the pages. I also love that both Helen and Grant worked in the world of writing and Hollywood. I found learning more about the screenwriting and adaptation process interesting as a background plot to the book.

This book reminded me of Emily Henry's Beach Read (two writer main characters) and Nora Ephron's classic rom-coms (30-something, comfortably settled in their creative careers main characters). And I loved that! Plus, Helen and Grant had great chemistry, and I couldn't help but root for them the entire time I read.

This one was a little spicier than I prefer, but I thought Kuang handled these scenes well. If you don't love open-door romance, those chapters would be easy to skip over. Her open-door scenes reminded me a lot of Rachel Lynn Solomon, another rom-com author I love.

Overall, I loved everything about this book. It's been added to my list of favorite rom-coms, and I'll be looking out for what Kuang does next.

This romance read like a mix between a rom com and a literary fiction. The way the characters were connected to each other in the past and found each other in the future brought a really special connection to their love story. I really loved this characters and was rooting for both of them the whole time. I did find it a little bit weird during the middle of the book where it felt like their relationship halted and they just became friends with benefits because they didn't want to get into a relationship. They turning into more one dimensional characters who existed only to do the dirty with each other and leave. It got a bit better closer to the end but I wish we focused more on their emotional connection growing rather than physical. I will continue to think about these characters for a long time. As a debut, I loved everything that Yulin Kuang brought to the table on this one and will be looking forward to what she puts out next.

I will be pushing this book on everything this summer. The hype is well deserved and I cannot wait to read more of Yulin Kuang's work!!

Thanks to NetGalley and Avon for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review 🩷

This is rocketing up to one of my favorite reads of the year! And I have a feeling it will stay there!

Within the first 5% of this book I knew that it was going to be amazing. The writing style pulled me in. Kuang’s way with words perfectly captured every detail, from the setting to the characterization, and set the perfect pace for the story. Everything felt real. Every emotion, conflict, and roadblock felt necessary. I adore the romance genre, but my biggest complaint with many of the stories is that the third act conflicts/breakups sometimes feel like they were thrown in to check a box, and don’t fall in line with the rest of the story or character arcs. Not here. Here all the conflict and turmoil made sense and was necessary to the development and outcome. It was heart wrenchingly beautiful. I was rooting for our characters the whole time.

And let’s not forget our main characters!! I adored them with everything in my soul! Helen, our smart and brilliant eldest daughter of Chinese immigrants. She has spent a majority of her life working to live up to her parent’s expectations and cultivate an image they are proud of. She also has to compete with a terrible family tragedy that haunts her all the way into adulthood. Her journey to finding and establishing who she wants to be is so special. I adored her, and wanted to be her friend so bad.

And Grant. Grant f*cking Shepard. I will not be sharing my newest boyfriend, okay?! Grant is also linked to Helen by her family tragedy, which seems like an insurmountable obstacle to them ever becoming friendly. But he is just so sweet and kind and patient and 🥵.

And not giving anything away, but when I say that this is the supreme example of how to write the ending of a love story, this is it!!! Read it and you will know exactly what I mean. Everything about it is perfection. No notes.

Obviously all 5 stars. It is now my mission to force all my book fiends to read this book. I will be reading everything Yulin writes, and I cannot WAIT to see her adaptation of Emily Henry’s books, because I just know they are in excellent hands!!

A fabulous debut from a talented writer. Kuang has crafted likable characters that you want to cheer for. Her screenwriting chops really shined as the movement and characterization on the page really shined through. Can't wait to see what she writers next1

I hate to say it… but I’m DNFing 😬😬

I think that it’s just too spicy for me (which isn’t the case for most readers, so I’d recommend it to them! I made it about 50% in and just didn’t fall in love with it so I decided to move on.

If you like enemies to lovers, those with a shared past, Hollywood writing, this book is for you!

Short synopsis: Right before graduation Helen’s sister jumps in front of Grant’s car, now 13 years later they are forced to work together in a script for a tv series.

My thoughts: This starts off so tragic, and there are so many heartbreaking moments sprinkled throughout as each character is grieving from that night. Everything felt so real in this, the grief, hurt and pain, the tension, the family issues, the growth, the budding romance.

My favorite part was definitely the growth that each character went through towards the end of the book. I think they both needed to work through their grief separately, then together. It just felt so much more organic.

This was such a beautifully written book with soo much depth. What a great debut!

Read if you love:
- Enemies to lovers and forbidden love
- Workplace romance
- Complicated family situations
- Personal growth and forgiveness
- Hollywood setting

This is a very well written book. For the most part the story is good, our characters are interesting enough and it’s a pretty enjoyable read. I just get kind of stuck on the premise? It’s made to be such a huge life-altering deal, it’s a genuine reason for these two characters to not be together and it feels like it gets resolved too quickly? I’m really not sure how it should have gone, maybe just a chunk of pages more, but that would maybe be dragging it on? I don’t know but the resolution is kind of sticking in my mind.

I’m definitely going to read more from this author, her writing is so good.

EDIT a few minutes after writing and posting this review I’ve lowered my star rating from 4 to 3. I want to give all the credit to the writer for being a good writer! But! I just cannot believe they would end up together. I truly cannot. I have a personal similarity here, and I just cannot fathom falling in love or staying in love under these circumstances. That part just feels so disrespectful. It can certainly be framed as acceptance and moving on, and it certainly is attempted that way, but I just cannot believe this is what happened. I’ve never been so torn over a book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I'd like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me a chance at reading this.

Goodness.

I have faith in the screenplay and direction of Emily Henry's books. I think Yulin KNOWS how to write dialogue and full rounded characters. The main characters Helen and Grant felt real, defined, and relatable. I enjoyed reading Helen have / keep Chinese traditions and her family life was well represented (even in the flashbacks with her sister). The grief aspect was also well defined, too. Greg on the opposite side of the grief line in regards to the situation was sad, broken, and lost. So having them come together was an interesting twist to a sad situation.

However, there is a catch to all this:

- The Hollywood aspect could work for both characters just not at the same time. Either one or the other must have the Hollywood connection and I vote for Helen. Helen channeled her grief into writing, which lead to a book and her notoriety as a writer. Greg... was a football star and homecoming king, popular jock. Where on earth would he wind up working for Hollywood? Where is his connection? Nothing in his backstory lead me to believe that this would be the route he would go. So the COINCIDENCE they BOTH from the east coast end up with stellar jobs and in Hollywood was a STRETCH. Therefore, with me not believing this plausibility of Greg's Hollywood life. Sorry, not sorry.

Which then lead to the whole dating... I could SEE them grief bonding, I've seen in happen via my time in the medical field. HOWEVER, the rate and the interactions in which they came together was really sudden and at one moment it was a slow build and then somehow the veil was lifted and the wall came down and they were already touching, cracking jokes, and then fucking. The fucking was good, but I just felt that it was too much and it was just unimportant to the story. Sex needs a good build up and a reason to make it to the page, and for me, the build up and the relationship that got them there ... if it was non-existent to me, if made me feel nothing.

- I felt that I craved more of the Hollywood world, more pitfalls, road blocks, an issue to crop up. There was none. Nothing. It was so EASY. This must be in that alternate reality which gave birth to two people from the same school making their rounds in Hollywood at the same time. There should have been a villain, or the grief should have been more heavy - SOMETHING. It was all a garnish to the plot,

I really think the author has potential, I just think that this book could have (should have) been better than what ended up. People will love it, and people may dislike it. But in my eyes, I'm in the camp of 'I see the product, and understand the product, but I think that the experience was not as what I hoped it would be'.

I applaud the author for writing the book and giving a good female poc, and I'm excited for her adaptations of Emily Henry's books.