How to End a Love Story: A Brilliant New Voice Delivers a Heartstrings-Pulling Love Story Paperback – April 9, 2024

First, I loved this book. I thought the concept of the story was well thought out and uniquely written. What I didn’t care for was the cat and mouse back and forth between the characters. That part made me realize how old I am and what a different place I am in life. At nearly 55, I have reached the age where I wanted to scream at the characters about how short life is and to stop dilly dallying around and stay together. I think that realization felt like a compliment and an insult all rolled into one. I am finally to a place where I feel like I am living life the way I want to live it and that is a compliment. But the fact that my age has made me realize how short life can be was like an insult.

This is Contemporary Romance Lit excellence. We've all read a lot of great Romance/RomComs and a lot of terrible ones. While tonally incredibly different, How to End a Love Story, hits in a similar way as the first time you read, The Hating Game, and you sit back and know the author made all the right choices.How to End a Love Story is a dream to read. It's delicious, grounded, funny, sexy and has such beautiful lines and prose you can't imagine how it could be written better.And it's so damn romantic!I was hesitant that the subject matter would be too heavy, but it wasn't.I was hesitant, as I am in starting any RomCom/Romance, that the 3rd Act Break UP would be too frustrating (as is SO often the case), but this 3rd Act Problem was a real problem, it was so grounded in something true and understandable that you're not mad at the characters, even as you continue reading with a broken heart, waiting/wishing/pleading to get back to the good part.This is a real romance novel by someone who seems so deft and well-versed in the genre.I will let Yulin Kuang break my heart and put it back together again and again, I trust her.

Let’s start with the good: this story is stunning. It’s emotional, layered, and honestly beautiful. Helen and Grant are messy, complicated people, and that made them feel real. Their connection didn’t come out of nowhere—it built in a way that felt authentic, and their individual growth was compelling to watch. Even the third-act breakup, which I usually hate, made perfect sense here. It actually improved the ending instead of derailing it.The romance unfolded naturally, and I loved that their healing didn’t depend on each other, but being together still made them stronger. Plus, the backdrop of the writers’ room and show development was such a fun layer. I think about that kind of behind-the-scenes process all the time, especially now with so many books getting adapted.Now for the part that really dragged it down for me: the writing style. It was rough. Technically it’s third-person, but it lacked clarity and consistency. I was constantly confused about whose POV we were in, and I had to backtrack way too often just to follow the narrative. It pulled me out of the story over and over. This book was begging to be written in dual first-person—it would’ve solved so many of those issues. The POV switching got slightly better after the halfway mark, but the damage was done. That confusion really hurt my reading experience and is the main reason I couldn’t give it a higher rating.

The author did a good job of handling the emotions of the family after profound loss. This book isn’t really about suicide but it is. That sounds strange, I write these reviews for myself. So that I can look back and refresh my memory on what the book is about. This is a love story of a couple that’s relationship grows in a “writers room”. It was interesting to read about the daily antics of a best selling novel be turned into a TV show. How the screen writers have to dig deep into their inner selves to help develop the characters that are already written for them in the best selling novel. I liked learning the intricacy’s of producing a movie and all the job titles involved. The “writers room” was what grabbed me into the story.For a first time author Yulin Kueng wrote a good story about love, friendship, nationality culture, producing a movie, writing a novel and suicide. I can see why she was fired from working in a Hallmark Movie lol and I look forward to watching her work in Beach Reads mini series. Her background bio references her as a screen writer. Now it makes sense on how real it seems in How To End A Love Story. Since that’s where she started her career. I love when first time authors bring their past experience into a novel. It teaches unknown aspects of life, this book was a bit of an education on screen writers as well a good love story.

My favorite read of 2024 so far! WOW! I absolutely loved this book. It's as heartbreaking as it is hilarious. The writing is fantastic, from the character building to the expertly written slow burn and chemistry. And the spice was spicin', y'all!I love a good angsty story, and this one was packed with it. I'll never forget the yearbook scene (iykyk) and I just about combusted into flames by the time these two finally gave in. Add in the tragic story of their past and the very glaring reasons why they couldn't be together, it left a pit in my stomach as I held onto hope and fell hard and fast with them.I really appreciated the raw vulnerability of our main characters, how they both had a little bit of "messed up" in them and they knew it. Those things they still needed to deal with kept them from being 100% healthy and adjusted together and I totally understood that. It was a great new adult book.I also LOVED that the characters are my age, they graduated the same year I did, and all their high school memories lined up with mine. That brought a nostalgic feel to it that I adored!Now, I'm going to go play "In Your Atmosphere" by John Mayer on repeat because I'm convinced it's their song. I'm not quite ready to leave them yet. Five stars. I highly recommend this one to angst lovers!