I was skeptical of How to End a Love Story, but once I fell, I fell hard. It’s a story about trauma, forgiveness, and changing our mind about someone. How to End a Love Story is about allowing ourselves to be wanted. Keep reading this book review of How to End a Love Story for my full thoughts.
Summary
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.
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
At the beginning, you’re like how can Grant and Helen get over this traumatic past? I admit it freely, I was skeptical. But How to End a Love Story is a story about confronting our past. About seeing the baggage, the issues, the thoughts we can never discount, and having to decide what we do. It very much is a story about grief and love, but also about chemistry and secret feelings. It was necessary to see both of their lives, their feelings, and their thoughts.
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The ways they are drawn together against the backdrop of the past. How to End a Love Story, from the title alone, seems to be all about obstacles to love. However, it’s about getting to know someone. To have to change our expectations, our misread glances, and our opinions of them. To see that we are sometimes our worst enemy. And the power of accepting that someone could love us. Find How to End a Love Story on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon, Bookshop.org, Blackwells, & Libro. fm.