How to End a Love Story

A Novel

by Yulin Kuang

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Pub Date Apr 02 2024 | Archive Date May 28 2024

Avon and Harper Voyager | Avon

Romance | Women's Fiction

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Description

In this brilliant debut novel from an acclaimed Chinese-American screenwriter and director, a woman must work with a man from her past and grapple with the tragedy that binds them together, even as generational loyalties keep them apart.

Thirteen years after her younger sister’s death, Helen Zhang is doing alright. Better than alright, if you don’t look too closely. She’s the bestselling author of a young adult series that’s being adapted into a TV show, and she’s scored a coveted spot in the writers' room. Never mind that she’s used to storytelling in solitude and is convinced she’ll be revealed as an imposter any minute. Or that she only jumped at the opportunity to move to LA to avoid her writer’s block. Helen has a few months to figure things out, in a fresh-start city where she knows exactly no one. No one, except…

Grant Shephard hasn’t seen Helen since high school, when their lives were tied together forever by the car wreck that killed her sister. He’s done everything in his power to move on, and while the panic attacks have never quite gone away, he’s universally well liked around town as a screenwriter who can be counted on to deliver both on the page and in a writers room. He knows he shouldn’t have taken the job on Helen’s show, but working as the showrunner’s right-hand man will open doors to developing his own projects.

Grant’s presence comes as an unwelcome surprise to Helen, and he’s exactly as she remembers him–charming, funny, popular, and lovable in ways that she has never been. Helen’s exactly as Grant remembers, too—brilliant, closed off, and undeniably beautiful. The more time they spend together, the more undeniable the pull between them becomes.

But working together is fraught and sometimes messy, and Helen’s parents, who have never forgiven him, have no idea Grant is 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. For these two very different writers, the key to making peace with their past—and themselves—just might lie in holding on to each other in the present.

In this brilliant debut novel from an acclaimed Chinese-American screenwriter and director, a woman must work with a man from her past and grapple with the tragedy that binds them together, even as...

Advance Praise

"I was hooked on the very first page of How to End a Love Story, the absurdly delicious debut from Yulin Kuang. The chemistry between Helen and Grant is pure magic, as is Yulin's gorgeous writing. I need seven other books from her ASAP. Don't miss this one!" — Carley Fortune, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author

"An utterly compelling debut complete with romance secret sauce—a couple with a real reason to stay apart...and simply can't. Emotional, relatable and binge-worthy." — Tessa Bailey, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author

"Impossibly tender, funny, sexy, and heart-wrenching, How to End a Love Story is a gorgeously original romance -- and so much more -- that will leave you laughing, sobbing, and desperately wishing that it would never end. This is the kind of glorious gut-punch of a book that you'll want to share with all your friends, and reread over and over. I fell in helpless love with Helen and Grant's unforgettable story, and I wouldn't have it any other way." — Lana Harper, New York Times Bestselling Author

"Yulin Kuang's How to End a Love Story is a smart, sexy, and powerful page-turner. The insider's look at Hollywood is just as fascinating as the complicated characters who work in the writers room. I couldn't put this book down--but also didn't want it to end!" — Jill Santopolo, New York Times Bestselling Author

“Two complicated people in an impossibly complicated situation, drawn to each other in spite of a deeply complicated past: How to End a Love Story is moving, compelling, and heart-flutteringly sexy. Yulin Kuang writes with a sure-footed confidence here, with impeccable knowledge of who her characters are...and how to get them to their hard-won happy ending.” — Kate Clayborn, author of Georgie, All Along

“Yulin Kuang has a wonderful voice, poignant and funny, she grabbed me from the first paragraph. I stayed up way too late reading this!” — Jill Shalvis, New York Times bestselling author

"How to End a Love Story is a sharp, sexy debut. Fans of Emily Henry and Colleen Hoover will love Yulin Kuang's wistful second chance romance." — Elissa Sussman, bestselling author of Funny You Should Ask

"How to End a Love Story is everything you need in a romance novel: Complex characters, hilariously witty banter, and that spice level? Off the charts! If you need me, I'll just be over here dousing myself with cold water. And then reading it again." — Colleen Oakley, USA Today bestselling author of The Mostly True Story of Tanner and Louise