Unfortunately a DNF from me. I couldn't get into the writing style. I had high hopes due to the praise online and the plot sounded really interesting but after several attempts the first few chapters were unable to hook me in.

Omg I’m obsessed! At first I wasn’t sure about the style of writing because it’s just different to what I’m used to but after the first couple of chapters I couldn’t put this down! I was intrigued by the characters and their past from the very beginning it was an emotional roller coaster but one I didn’t want to end. I enjoyed how we got to explore the characters individually and there were side plots other than the romance it made this book a much deeper read than most romance books.
Overall I highly highly recommend this book it is one of my favs for the year for sure :)

I absolutely adored this book. It is SO MUCH MORE than a romance, it handled topics of grief and loss so so well and I don’t think I’ve ever read a book that made me understand those topics so well. (at least as much as I could since I haven’t personally experienced it) I thought that the characters had so much depth to them, I always love when the MCs have history together prior to the events of the book and this book really took that to the next level. I loved seeing them both grow independently and together, and even though there was a third act break up it didn’t bother me in the slightest? It was just all done SO well and I can’t recommend this book enough!

A heartbreaking and light story all in one. I really liked the main male character.



This book was a four out of five star read for me.

With any romance book I read now, I hope that I enjoy it just as much as the last. There is a need for new and exciting narratives in romance (instead of the same story that has been told a million times) and I picked up this book extremely excited.
After 13 years, two writer's meet again after attending high school together and facing a tragedy that they both are connected with. They now work together as co-workers on a television show—Grant is a writer on based on Helen's novel.

This book was 'okay' and I found myself invested once I got into the thick of it. While I did enjoy it, I was hoping I would find myself unable to put it down when I started it, but it did take me a while.
I loved the storytelling aspect of the book. I felt like the dialogue was done very well and easy to follow!

While I did enjoy it in the end, I did struggle a bit. There was a LOT of drama in the book and some of the things that happened were just confusing. I wish I could say I absolutely loved the book, but I didn't. I enjoyed it, but I wouldn't rave about it. It also took me a month to read which is very unheard of. I felt like the characters were hard to connect with and it didn't motivate me to read.
As it is also third person, it made it way harder than it should've been.

All together, it was okay. But it's not a book that I would remember.

Themes:
- invisible strings
- creative industry couple
- situationship > relationship
- mental health awareness
- forced proximity
- forbidden love

Trigger Warnings:
- suicide
- mental health struggles
- substance abuse
- panic attacks
- car accidents/trauma
- grief

I really liked the concept of this story, however I had a bit of difficulty when it came to the ending of the book. It seemed really fleshed out up until about 70% of the story and then I feel like things became a bit rushed. Or perhaps it was more the resolutions of certain parts felt a bit rushed. The scenes between the two main characters in the build up were quite interesting, and I wish that witty repartee continued throughout the book. There were some scenes that have stayed with me thanks to the descriptions associated within those parts, be it the environment or emotions. This book definitely had me thinking, and discussing choices made by the leads.

While it’s got the key conventions (aka tropes/themes etc) of a romance, I’m not sure that this book was overly romantic.

Is there heat. For sure. Is there steam? Absolutely. But the bond between these two characters is steeped in trauma which kind of makes the whole thing a little awkward. Imagine thinking someone is responsible for your sister’s death and then going ‘well actually you’re a bit of alright, let’s hook up!’ Or the flip side, feeling immense guilt for accidentally killing a teenager with your car and then being attracted to her older sister (later on in life - don’t be ick)
Still you get the point. Big Trauma.

I didn’t mind Grant. I actually felt sorry for him. Carrying the weight of taking a life - even if she suicided in front of his car - must be horrible. Helen, not so much. And I wasn’t really convinced of her affections, therefore the chemistry.

Again, a bond forged by shared trauma, is not exactly romantic. Perhaps this book should be marketed as a tragic love story instead of a romance…

Moving on. The writing. And this is a hill that I am very much willing to die on.
Contemporary. Romance. Should. Be. Told. In. First. Person.
ESPECIALLY when there’s dual POV.
ESPECIALLY when there’s so many italics phrases to signify internal thoughts.
Using Third person this way is too limiting and puts too much of a barrier between the characters and the reader. And it created more tell instead of show.

It wasn’t until after I read this book that I learnt that Yulin Kuang is a screenwriter, and it kind of makes sense now. I’ve read a TON of novelisations of screenplays and that is how this book reads. Like it’s waiting for the actors to breathe life into in the characters in the adaptation.
I’d watch the hell out of this story!

In the end, I didn’t hate this book, but I was expecting something different. Apologies, but this one wasn’t my cup of tea.

This was such a fantastic romance book!!! Yulin Kuang writes such a real and grounded story about two sad, damaged characters falling in love - I absolutely adored it. The discussions on grief, anxiety, mental health, and the intricacies of being the eldest daughter of an immigrant parent were all written so so well. The tension and chemistry between grant and Helen was so so believable. I loved every aspect of this book and it just seems so crazy to me that this was Yulin Kuang's debut!! I will be recommending this book to all my followers and my friends <3 (full review will be posted on my instagram / goodreads very soon!)

📖 ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
🌟 Yulin Kuang weaves a poignant narrative that tugs at the heartstrings. “How to End a Love Story” is a masterful blend of raw emotion and delicate hope, capturing the essence of a complicated love with the backdrop of a shared past tragedy.
🖋️ Helen and Grant are characters as flawed as they are endearing. Their journey from pain to passion is etched with a realism that resonates deeply, making their story not just readable, but relatable.
💔 Kuang doesn’t shy away from the messy, painful aspects of love and loss. The book’s strength lies in its honest portrayal of grief and the tentative steps towards healing..
📚 Final Thoughts: With a solid 4 out of 5 stars, “How to End a Love Story” is a testament to the enduring power of love amidst life’s inevitable sorrows. It’s a must-read for anyone who cherishes a love story that’s as real as it is romantic.

"Grant Shepard. Grant F–king Shepard, good in a room, great in a bed, and the improbable love of my damn life."

- Enemies to secret FWB
- Went to high school together
- Workplace: working on her book’s TV script
- Black cat x golden retriever
- He falls first
- Dual POV
- Narrated by Katherine Chan and Andrew Eiden

How to End a Love Story is… not what I was expecting.

Firstly, it took me a hot second to get into this book, primarily because of the writing style—the third-person POV changes mid-chapter. I think listening compared to reading helped me adapt to the different style.

But at around 20%, I got a bit more interested in Helen and Grant’s dynamic. They’re the epitome of black cat/golden retriever energy. She’s very cold towards him because of something that happened in their past that changed both of their lives forever, but he slowly makes his way through her impenetrable wall and into her heart.

They go from enemies to reluctant friends bonding over shared trauma to friends with benefits.

Which leads to another thing I didn’t anticipate – the spice. It was spicier (and hornier, tbh) than I expected. But I also felt the amount of spice didn’t fit the story, and Grant’s dirty talk didn’t fit his character. I did like the marker scene, though, not gonna lie.

Finally, this didn’t pull at my heartstrings as much as I expected, either. It definitely got angstier towards the end, and I liked the character development, seeing them forgive themselves and Helen overcome her imposter syndrome and confront her family, but there were no tears in sight.

My feelings for this book are as complicated as Helen's feelings for Grant, clearly 😅.

Because, like, this man was down BAD: "You don’t have to be completely healed to be everything I want. To be mine. I love every part of you, you silly, infuriating woman. I love the parts of you I haven’t even met yet."

This was a very different romance to what I have read before. I loved the complex background of the characters and getting to see their relationship develop out of shared trauma. I loved the setting of this book, with the idea of an author and a screen writer adapting her book.

I struggled to get in to this one.

I didn't like the FMC. I do think the MMC shouldn't have been treated the way he did, but I get it, grief makes you blame everyone else, particularly in this situation. Still....I thought the FMC should have stood up for him a bit and I was not a fan of her trying to get him fired or whatever because of 'what he did', yet the situation which essentially brings these two together, isn't really discussed or talked about. They have both suffered because of this trauma and are still suffering, yet there doesn't need to be at least a discussion about it?

This story maybe might have felt different if the POV it was written in was different, i.e. there was a lot of inner monologue type situations which could've come off a bit differently.

I don't think either character has any tangible development and I feel like their relationship didn't either. The relationships goes from 'no', to go, to pause, to stop, to keep going and I just didn't feel any chemistry. I honestly couldn't think of anything other than her liking the way he smelt that connected the two.

I am not a fan of third act breakups which are over stupid things which could have been avoided if literally one conversation, text message, email, or note taped to the door was had. Also, the FMC is right, the MMC deserves better than her.

Two writers with a complicated history end up working on the same TV show ... can they write themselves a new ending? How to End a Love Story is a new romantic comedy from the acclaimed screenwriter and director, Yulin Kuang (the screenwriter and director on a couple of upcoming Emily Henry films). The story opens with the female MC’s sister dying by suicide when they are in high school. The male MC was involved in the incident and her family places a lot of blame on him, even though he didn't even know the sister or cause the event. So right at the start I have a problem with this story and sadly, I found it too difficult to get over and wrap my head around events from there on. I think I am turning away from the enemies to lovers trope because if it’s not done right I just don’t buy into it. Many readers love this book as it is an emotional, steamy (very steamy) love story - sadly I was not one of them.

i love this book so much and i already know this book is going to be one of my favourite books of this year.

if i had to summarise this review into one sentence it would be: compelling characters yearning for one another in a book that is written wonderfully which also includes commentaries on grief, the writing industry and the asian home life.

i loved following helen and grant through their struggles and eventually their journey into healing. the title is really fitting for this story because of the way helen and grant know each other, their complicated entanglement in their work life and personal life makes the situation even more complicated. this book kept me on my toes, not knowing if the two were going to end up together but that makes the spicy scenes just top tier because of all the yearning.

this book is more than a love story, it encompasses topics that hit kind of close to home if you grew up in an asian household like helen, learning and teaching your family how to say “i love you”, it also talks about grief and the different way people deal with it and how it’s okay to be selfish sometimes especially when it comes to love and the people you love.

the characters are written so beautifully that it makes it hard for me to find a flaw in them and it made me think that if someone came up to me with the premise of this book i would never have been able to imagine it and executed it as well as yulin kuang. i can definitely say that she is now one of my favourite authors. i am so glad to have read this book and i’m looking forward to her adaptations of another one of my favourite authors.

i wish i could say more but i don’t want to spoil the book because i definitely recommend you to pick up a copy and read it for yourself to understand why i’m so blown away by this novel. although as a bit of a content warning: this book talks about death and mental health, so skip it if you’re not in the right headspace to read about these topics.

themes: workplace romance, grief, family, yearning, healing

I thoroughly enjoyed this book!! I was pleasantly surprised to hear this was Yulins debut book! This is everything I want from a rom com! I enjoyed the anxiety representation in both MC’s. It was a little slow to start and I will say I wish the chapters were cut shorter / there was more of an obvious shift between the characters thoughts. I’ve not read a book before that’s third pov but also dual. (Hopefully that makes sense)

Overall I loved this book and can’t wait for everyone else to discover and enjoy this

Being Emily Henry's screenwriter on one adaptation project and director for another has propelled Yulin Kuang's debut romance into the spotlight. Additional push has been given by some big-hitting authors blurbing it, so the book was bound to get attention. Unfortunately, I just couldn't get on board the Hype Train.
The fact that I put this book down literally in the middle of the scene when the main characters first actually have sex (after some admittedly hot encounters that amped the temperature) is testament to how much I did not care about them or their love story. I have DNFed at 62%, much, much later than I normally would for an ARC and this was mainly due to me wanting to give it a fair shot.
Our female main character Helen is a prickly customer. I think in trying to make her so very Not Like Other Girls the author has leaned a little too far on the negative emotions and actions side of things and though I want to like Helen I just can't. Yes she's been through some shit (the death of her teenage sister by suicide AT THE HANDS OF THE MMC in a vehicular accident is the lynchpin of her relationship with the MMC) but at best she's a loner with a gift for writing, at worst a fairly bland and irksome woman lacking in personality.
Grant the love interest somehow manages to be the most beige romance hero I've read in a while - even while being hellishly attractive, charismatic, extremely capable and having a tragic backstory. I just wasn't interested in him, and something was missing that would have made me more interested in them as a couple once they clashed then came together.
I can't quite put my finger on what I didn't love here except that the story initially hooked me with its premise of being set in a writer's room and the MC's antagonism towards each other, but failed to keep me interested as things progressed. I put the book down one afternoon to pick up another one and realised after a few days I have no desire to see where the story went or how it ended.
Overall, it was just really mid for me.

This was a heavier romance read, but such a beautiful and complex book!

It was a slow start for me and the writing style took a minute for me to adjust to (or maybe I’m just not really a third person gal!).

But, I hit 25% and then really started to enjoy it and felt it got better and better.

I loved the storytelling and felt like I could really visualise it. The tropes of forbidden love, forced proximity and workplace romance were really well written.

I really appreciated the complexity of family dynamics being highlighted. It spoke to the cultural expectations, but I also felt it deeply around any expectations that can come from family.

I felt like my heart broke several times for both Helen and Grant as the story unfolded.

The third act breakup did have me in a panic that there wasn’t going to be a HEA, but rest assured there is.

I’m excited to see what else is to come from this author.

What a gorgeous book! I absolutely loved How to End a Love Story. Helen lost her sister Michelle to suicide as a teenager, and this story follows her navigating life without her. Helen has an extremely complicated relationship with her parents, she holds a lot of trauma from her sister's suicide, and her feelings about Grant, the person driving the car that Michelle stepped in front of, overwhelm her.

This book has a great storyline, once which could stand on its own and still be excellent. What elevates this story is the characters, their complex relationships and the exploration of loss, grief, love and forgiveness. Plus the CHARACTER GROWTH. You could see Helen's journey from start to finish, watching along as she came out of her shell and stepped into being the person she hasn't felt comfortable being. Her relationship with Grant develops over time, and it was just so sweet.

Honestly I loved this book, it was fantastic. I highly recommend it, particularly to fans of Emily Henry, The Seven Year Slip, and all those other incredible contemporary romance books that make you feel all the feelings.

ALSO, side note - the author is actually a screenwriter and director, and has been working on Emily Henry's book to screen adaptions (People We Meet on Vacation/Beach Read), so she has first hand experience that relates to the storyline in this book, which is actually so cool.

This was a lovely romance with two not perfect people trying to fix themselves without trying to fix each other.
Helen and Grant had great chemistry together and I really enjoyed their story and the concept of second chances.
There were a couple of points that decreased this from a four star read for me. Changing POV mid chapter with zero indication was one, along with time jumps (next week, next day etc) within one chapter instead of from the end of a chapter to the next. It didn't make for a smooth read.
A note to the publishers as well - please please consider making these e-arcs as EPUB files rather than PDFs because reading PDFs on kindle is awful. The formatting is non existent, the chapters blend together. It ultimately does the book a disservice.

That aside, I'm grateful to Harper Collins and Netgalley for providing me with this arc.

I read this ARC in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
I think this might be the best romance I've read that's been written in third person. Maybe because I'm part Asian, I know exactly what Helen's parents are like. Luckily my own family is not like that.
To fight for love after their tragic back story, it really is love in my eyes. The author does a great job of making every interaction they have believable. Work, home, it's all written really well.
At times you want to scream at Helen for being so emotionally constipated, but it pushes Grant to show her how much he loves her, so it makes sense.