How to End a Love Story
Ratings17
Average rating3.4
15
Ratings17
Average rating3.4
Two writers with a complicated history end up working on the same TV show... Can they write themselves a new ending? A sexy and emotional enemies-to-lovers romance guaranteed to pull on your heartstrings and give you a book hangover from brilliant new voice Yulin Kuang
Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2024 by Entertainment Weekly · Today.com · Paste · Daily Waffle ·The Nerd Daily and more!
Helen Zhang hasn’t seen Grant Shepard once in the thirteen years since the tragic accident that bound their lives together forever.
Now a bestselling author, Helen pours everything into her career. She’s even scored a coveted spot in the writers’ room of the TV adaptation of her popular young adult novels, and if she can hide her imposter syndrome and overcome her writer’s block, surely the rest of her life will fall into place too. LA is the fresh start she needs. After all, no one knows her there. Except…
Grant has done everything in his power to move on from the past, including building a life across the country. And while the panic attacks have never quite gone away, he’s well liked around town as a screenwriter. He knows he shouldn’t have taken the job on Helen’s show, but it will open doors to developing his own projects that he just can’t pass up.
Grant’s exactly as Helen remembers him—charming, funny, popular, and lovable in ways that she’s never been. And Helen’s exactly as Grant remembers too—brilliant, beautiful, closed off. But working together is messy, and electrifying, and Helen’s parents, who have never forgiven Grant, have no idea he’s in the picture at all.
When secrets come to light, they must reckon with the fact that theirs was never meant to be any kind of love story. And yet… the key to making peace with their past—and themselves—might just lie in holding on to each other in the present.
Reviews with the most likes.
I was scared to read this because i knew the author is adapting Emily Henry's books. Hopefully she does better as a screenwriter than she did as an author. I understand this is her debut, but I believe as a writer of any kind - she even wrote fanfics apparently - you get the gist of a novel and how to properly write it
The first turn off about this book was the way the author consistently changed POVs. I don't mind dual POV, in fact i find them fun and interesting as they often give us both sides but here, in this book, it wasn't chapter by chapter but rather paragraph. We would be reading about Helen then suddenly it would shift to Grant, it was confusing and distracting in a way. I could immediately tell that a screenwriter wrote this. It felt like how you would transfer movie into books.
The second thing was the way Helen treated Grant in the beginning. Helen was aware that it wasn't his fault her sister killed herself but she was utterly rude and condescending. She could have been cordial at the least. We were told that she hated talking to people and crowds, but girl wasn't making the least effort even during room time. I really disliked Helen.
The romance was non-existent, to be fair. This was trauma bonding, there was no connection, no love, bo chemistry. Helen went from hating him, not even thinking about him to having wet dreams about him real quick?!
And what of her feelings with her parents? She finally says what has been bothering her and confronts her parents, and then suddenly shuts down and doesn't bring it up again?
The pacing was all over the place.
And lastly, the thing that really put me off was the third act conflict. I personally despise break up as thurd act conflicts, but more importantly, i hate when they go for months on end not seeing each other and suddenly patch up like nothing ever happened.
Loved it, very satisfying read, but I can't shake that there is some missed opportinuty that keep me from grading it 5 Stars.
I really liked the way the mmc was affacted by their shared trauma but the revelation of his difficulties to the fmc could have been a drama-feeled cathartic and beautul scene and it was not.
same thing goes for the writing room, the revelation of their shared trauma could have been an intersting scene and I was kind of waiting for it during the first half of the book and it never came.
But except this, I really liked this book and I feel like Emily Henry's futures adaptations are in good hands.
We Will Watch Your Career With Great Interest...
started off really strong. i literally laughed out loud a few times! i thought it would be a 5/5 but somewhere about halfway through it got iffy and i was just wanting it to end
Oh I this book was so good! I couldn't put it down. I felt like these things were happening to me instead of looking at a scene of these things happening, which is an extraordinary feat considering it's told from a dual 3rd person perspective.
This wasn't a slow burn, but the yearning was still so heartfelt and evocative! And finally, a contemporary hate to love arc that makes sense. I highly recommend this one.
