Reading this was so much fun! I loved the setting and how the story unfolds. The fact, that it’s written in dual POV made me even more invested and I was hooked almost immediately. I did enjoy the first half a little more than the second one, because I didn’t expect this book to be so smutty and felt like it got a bit repetitive since there where a couple chapters back to back where nothing happened but the characters hooking up. The smut itself was good tho, it had me giggling 🤭. Grant is truly a book boyfriend and he was so down Bad, I was here for it. All in all, this was a great romance book and I am so open to reading future books by Yulin Kuang! I also learned that she is working on two Emily Henry adaptations and now think that they are definitely in good hands!!

𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙗𝙤𝙤𝙠 𝙛𝙤𝙧...
forbidden love
forced proximity
found family
grief & trauma

𝙢𝙮 𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜: ★★★★.✫

𝙨𝙮𝙣𝙤𝙥𝙨𝙞𝙨...
Thirteen years ago, Helen's younger sister committed suicide by jumping in front of Grant’s moving car. Now, Grant has been hired as a screenwriter to adapt Helen's bestselling novel for the big screen, and the two must work together.

𝙢𝙮 𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙨...
I loved Yulin's debut novel 🥹 As you might expect from the person screenwriting an EH adaptation, this isn't a sunshine & rainbows story - it hits very hard, but Yulin's beautiful voice really shines through. There is a mix of angst & heartbreak, but also such a tender romance 🥲🫶🏼

Helen & Grant are complete opposites - with Helen being a slightly closed off & prickly introvert, and Grant a sociable, people-pleasing, golden retriever. They worked so well together though - and the spice was 🥵 I did feel for Grant at times though - he wears his heart on his sleeve, and sometimes Helen just stomps on it 🫠 (the result of her own insecurities... but I just wanted to give Grant a hug!)

I loved the found family aspect of the writers' room - and also knowing this is the world Yulin belongs to made it feel so real! Seeing Helen finally open up, and find real friends in her colleagues made me so happy 🥹

This is told in 3rd person throughout, and it jumps between Helen & Grant's PoV constantly. I loved the window into what each of them was thinking - however I do feel like the 3rd person narrative kept me at arm's length from the characters - and perhaps was the reason I didn't connect with them as much (no tears! 😱) and ultimately this didn't quite reach the full 5★s for me.

“𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗹 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝗚𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗦𝗵𝗲𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗱, 𝘀𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝘁 𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗲𝘀.”

Really enjoyed this one. I loved the insight into the world of TV writing and the writers' room as a setting. The premise was interesting, the characters fun and relatable and multi-layered. Very fun to read.

This book's style of writing & opening were instantly relatable, it felt almost like reading someone's diary! Equal parts exciting & emotional, I liked that you knew what had or was going to happen but you didn't know how. Also, here for the steamy moments...

How to End a Love Story was PACKED with angst (my kryptonite), steam and humour. I loved getting a glimpse behind the scenes of Hollywood and going on a journey with two people whose paths become tangled up in the most tragic way. I can’t wait to read more from Yulin Kuang! 🩷

I enjoyed Kuang's writing style and the way she explored the difficult dynamic between Helen and her parents after the loss of her sister. The actual romance was a bit weak for me; because the subject matter at the heart of the book and the way in which these two people know each other is quite dark and intense, I think there just wasn't enough time for me to be convinced by their relationship. I felt like the attraction between them came a bit suddenly and out of nowhere and so, whilst I thought the spice was written well, it didn't feel earned for me. I think the enemies to lovers trope to this much of an extreme is really difficult to pull off and I would have enjoyed this more if the way the characters knew each other weren't so traumatic. I do want to say, however, that I'm not a big fan of angst in my romance so this is very much personal taste - if you enjoy an angsty romance then I would definitely recommend, because Kuang is a fantastic writer!

4.5 ⭐️ this is for the girlies who cry listening to the archer by taylor swift and waiting room by phoebe bridgers <3

falling in love with the man who was driving the car that ur sister jumped in front of to unalive herself years after the face is finally a “conflict” that seems legitimate coupled with their shared trauma from the experience it’s just so good and so raw and i cried reading the last 100 pages

only minus a .5 because it really felt like 1/3 of the book was just sex scene after sex scene when their little romantic dates were what made me giggle and kick my feet

I wasn't ready for the rollercoaster this book made me feel. Seriously, I was a mess reading it, but I think that was a good thing.

The writing was flawless, and I was hooked on the story from the start. Helen and Grant are such special characters.

I don't think I'll ever be able to forget this book.

Amazing debut! Felt fresh and original not full of recycled tropes that are too often found in contemporary romance- I found it so easy to connect to the characters they were both reliable and ironic in their own ways- the romance and the chemistry were on point! Absolutely nothing missed on this one absolutely would recommend

This book made my heart so happy (and sad) that I almost cried to be honest. I felt so close to the main characters and their yo-yo of a relationship that wasn't actually a relationship. Whilst it has some warnings (suicide, death of a sibling) it is a beautifully written, gut-wrenching yet also heartwarming novel that really takes you along for the ride. The true meaning of a rom com where the relationship feels easy, spicy and supportive. It also showed the idea of a found family and how making friends as an adult in a new place can be tricky, but you can find your people in the end. Love 🫶

thank you so much to netgalley and the publisher for this arc!

okay, if you need me, i’ll be crying in a corner for the next week. yulin kuang, i am on my knees. this book!!!

it follows helen zhang, an author whose book is being adapted into a tv show, and grant shepard, a screenwriter who is working working on the same project. however, helen’s younger sister, michelle, jumped in front of grant’s car 13 years ago, killing herself. helen and grant must navigate their newfound circumstances, and the complicated relationship that comes with them.

despite knowing the premise of the book, i was not emotionally prepared for this. it is a beautiful story about loss, and grief, and love, and family, and forgiveness. i adored every page. helen and grant are deeply loveable characters - yulin skilfully urges the reader to align with them both while still understanding the perspectives that they have of each other, without villainising the other character.

helen is shy and unsure and struggles to find her place in the writer’s room. throughout the book, she opens up and becomes more confident in both her work, and around the other screenwriters and i loved the found family aspect that came with that. grant is easygoing and liked by everyone, but deals with anxiety and panic attacks when alone. i really liked that representation, and i loved seeing helen comfort him and talk him through one of his panic attacks. i wanted to give him the biggest hug.

helen and grant together were so special. considering the circumstance they were in, i was unsure how their relationship was going to develop, but it happened so naturally and beautifully. i loved their friendship and the building tension between them (the scene on the couch in grant’s room…) and the way they cared for each other during their “arrangement”. i want to be loved the way grant shepard loved helen zhang!!!

as well as the romance, this book also explores grief and the complicated feelings that come with suicide. i really liked how yulin wasn’t afraid to show the angry side of grief - how helen was angry with michelle for what she did. yulin deals with uncomfortable topics in such a delicate way and it makes her characters so incredibly relatable. i adored the last letter helen wrote to michelle; i could not stop crying.

i know that this book is going to stay with me for a while. it was so beautiful and made me feel so warm. such an incredible debut from yulin kuang.

(also if i was worried about the beach read adaptation before, i am not anymore. i now trust yulin kuang with my life.)

5⭐️- rating this an easy five stars but I would give it six if I could!

This was such a tragic love story that I wasn’t expecting at all from the cover and I know without a doubt it’s going to be one of my favourite reads this year. I still can’t wrap my head around this incredible romcom being a debut, Yulin Kuang has created a beautiful yet gutwrenching storyline with such endearing characters.

This book follows Helen Zhang, a highly acclaimed YA author of a series being adapted for TV, and Grant Shephard, a successful screenwriter on the same project. Helen and Grant share a tragic past, involving the death of Helen’s younger sister Michelle, with the story picking up 13 years later when they meet again in the writer’s room.

I found Helen so relatable, particularly her struggles with social anxiety, often observing those around her and not knowing what her place was in a room of people. She had complex relationships with her family and as a result, struggled with giving and accepting love. And Grant was such an incredible MMC, there was so much more to his character than meets the eye. He came across so confident in the writer’s room, but was so unsure of himself anywhere else.

The romance between Helen and Grant was full of angst, tension and so much chemistry. I genuinely didn’t know whilst reading this whether it was going to have a happy ending for them or not. How to End a Love Story is witty, spicy and full of so much emotional depth, I cannot recommend it highly enough. I’ve already got my physical copy on pre-order for release day! I’m SO excited to see what Yulin does with screenwriting/directing Emily Henry’s upcoming projects, having read this I know it’s in the best hands 💕

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

REVIEW
cw: grief, anxiety, suicide loss, panic attacks, mention of addiction
Helen Zhang hasn’t seen Grant Shepard for thirteen years. Ever since her younger sister willingly stepped out in front of his car, tragically binding their lives together in the worst possible way.
I really loved the premise of this book and was so excited to get started. Sadly, I found myself disappointed. Firstly, the writing style. I'm generally not a fan of stories told in the third person present, as I find it too passive, and unfortunately this did nothing to change my mind. It often read like extended screenplay scene descriptions so I always felt rather disconnected from any emotional beats. Learning that the author is a screenwriter explains a lot. I loved the inner workings of the writers room, especially the banter surrounding the ending of episode three. Owen and Nicole were a lot of fun. But, for all that excellent banter, the dialogue between Helen and Grant felt rather juvenile and superficial at times, especially considering the huge potential for more emotional depth.
I also struggled with the pacing of their relationship. We went from a brief, 'I hate Grant' period, to instalove vibes after a single edible. From then on, there were random moments of intimacy, the first few followed by Helen suddenly disappearing. I'll be honest. I really didn't like Helen at all early on. She was so shut off that it was difficult to really understand her. I could see what the author was going for, but it never really worked for me. There was lots of potential to examine Grant's emotional struggles, but again, I thought this fell flat. What I did appreciate was Helen's conflict over her sister taking her own life, and the struggle of who to blame for it. Finally, third act breakup for the sake of the drama? Not a fan.
This had the potential to be an emotional, angsty rollercoaster but unfortunately it just didn't do it for me.

Overall Rating: ❤️❤️
Heat Rating: 🔥🔥

*Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book. All opinions are my own*

Favourite Quotes:

"Everyone wants to believe they could save someone else’s life, if they saw the right signs, had the right tools. Like maybe, if I say the right words, in the right combination this time, she’ll choose life. But that’s not how it happens.”

i don't know what it was about this that i just didn't like: the romance felt rushed & they went from 0-100 in about 5 pages. the redeeming factor of this book was helen's character was super relatable & i thought her struggles with coming to terms with friendships & the past was an amazing character arc to see!!

I want to scream because of how good this book was😭. It really seems like romance that borderlines on literary fiction is my thing. I adored the quietness and focus of the characters in this book. It’s not a passionate love story, it’s the slow kind, not the butterflies but the liking each other over time with a touch of horniness. It’s the falling for each other when we shouldn’t, the emotional unavailability and slow growth that results. I’m so excited to see how the Emily Henry adaptations turn out if this is how she writes. 5⭐️

3.25/5
What I liked about this book:
1. I feel validated reading about Helen's inner monologue when she's just joined the writing room. Fitting in at your workplace where most people have known each other for a while is hard. Missing a get together will make you feel like an outsider for missing lots of inside jokes that sadly will revolve around said get together for at least one work day.

2. As someone who used to watch a lot of tv shows when I was in high school, I loved reading about what goes on behind the scenes before filming even takes place.

3. How as the story progresses, we see ways that Nicole and Saskia be better friends to Helen than Pallavi and Elyse. Maybe it wasn't fair for me to judge their friendship based on the small amount of information I have about Helen, Pallavi and Elyse trio, but I still could not stop thinking about how Pallavi and Elyse treats Helen post book-to-screen news came out. As a reader you can feel like both of them pulled away from Helen and started to hang out only with each other to probably bond over the fact that their book wasn't chosen.

4. Helen's new book. Reading Helen's letter to Michelle made me cry because of how beautiful it was. I could feel the grief and anger and despite everything, how much she misses her sister and hopes for an epilogue where they can meet again. I think when you've lost somebody you'd be able to relate to this letter, and I wished we have seen more from this memoir.

What I dislike about this book mainly revolves around how many open door scenes this book has as someone who doesn't like reading too much smut. The first two times made sense to ME because I thought all Helen and Grant needed was to sweat each other out of their system, so they can have a deep talk about how the car crash affected their lives for the past thirteen years. I wished we have seen more of Grant and Helen's friendship before their relationship turned mostly physical because I really enjoyed reading about their flight home and their little adventure breaking into their old highschool (and getting caught for it). I loved reading about their scene in the cemetery too.

Oh my gosh, this book has consumed my soul this week. It’s been all I’ve been able to think about. I’ve wanted to give up adulting, just so that I could read it. But at the same time, I’ve wished to keep this book in my life for as long as possible.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
The novel is filled with the most exquisite yearning. The pushing and pulling in the relationship is addictive.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Grant is the most delicious male lead. He’s vulnerable and has real fears, insecurities and anxieties. Yet, his love for Helen is genuine, endearing and all-consuming. But watching these broken characters fall in love, while knowing that it could tear them apart, was tragic.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
I could not love this book more. Plus the spice is 🔥🔥🔥. Just read this romance!

It was a rather anticipated read of mine, and unfortunately it did not go well. I did enjoy the writing, and the exploration of grief was gripping as well as powerful. The parts with the show were also quite interesting. However, I did not connect with the main characters, and I did not believe in their romance at all. It started off well, but it completely fell apart because of the amount of sex. And that came into the story way too quickly — towards the 40/45% of the story. There was absolutely no emotional connection, it was all about sex. Their relationship had a lot of potential, and too see it being ruined because of sex was not a pleasant experience at all. Going into this book, I was expecting something completely different and it caught me off guard. And it also made me upset. It is just not the type of romance I want to read at all. A romance with no emotional connection is not a romance for me.

Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for a honest review.

“I’ve always found endings harder than beginnings, goodbyes harder than hellos.”

This debut novel is a very lovely love story, yet it also addresses grief in depth. I absolutely loved how it was done. You might want to check your TW because (among others) suicide thematic lingers all around the pages. Indeed, when they were teenagers, Grant was driving the car which killed Helen’s sister. Years later, Helen’s bestseller is about to be adapted into a TV show, and Grant is one of the screenwriters. They’ll have to work together, and will heal together too.
The strength here is how everything is done. I couldn’t put that book down. It was hard, beautiful, deep, but funny and swoony too. The subject is difficult (obviously), yet the story never becomes melodramatic –while always remaining very respectful. It was a tightrope but the whole is perfectly balanced all the time. If the middle of the book is nicely spicy, the rest swings in a sweet, tender, soft, melancholia that lulls us (and the characters) and eases the pain.
That being said, don’t think the romance part is secondary in the plot, because it isn’t. At all. Everything is intricated, linked, waved, which makes things (very) complicated but how so so beautiful. I loved how they were so supportive, so uncertain, so full of their guilt, and how they overcame this because of –thanks to– their love.
I don’t even have the words to explain how much I adored that book and how it helped me to process things I went through during my reading. I healed along with Helen and Grant. For that, and for more, I’ll be forever grateful. I know that’s one of the few contemporary romances I’ll want to have a physical copy on my shelves to reread parts again and again. I’d also definitely read more stories from that author. I've been captivated by her words and style, fell in love with both characters. A new favourite.

Thank you NetGalley, Yulin Kuang and Hodder & Stoughton for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

2.5⭐️ rating. This follows Helen, who tragically lost her sister to suicide (jumping in front of a car) when they were both teens. She is now a novelist and one of her books is being made into a movie. The screenwriter is the guy who was driving and hit her sister many years ago.

They obviously hate each other at first and it brings up a lot of bad memories for Helen. And the story goes from there.

The premise was really interesting but feels like would be better as a movie (ironically it’s written by a screenplay writer) and the third person pov made me feel disconnected from the characters, I didn’t really care all that much even through the sad parts. It would have been better to do the classic first person dual pov alternating chapters.

The Christmas scenes I really liked and gave me love actually/ theholiday vibes. It also had great representation of Chinese culture as Helen’s family were Chinese.

Grants panic attacks seemed like a random pointless plot point added just to make us feel more for him but it didn’t work and felt out of place. The conflict at the end was so pointless and made no sense and then it was all wrapped up and happily ever after so fast.

The plot was very Emily Henry vibes but just don’t think it was executed well.