How to End a Love Story
This book sat on my shelf since it debuted. I selected it for my Book of the Month Club box and then let it rot. My main draw was that I heard the author was involved in the screenwriting of adaptations for some of my favorite romances: Beach Read and People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry. My main hesitation was that I’d heard this one contained a lot of open-door, on-page romance scenes. While that is true, the story was so compelling that I didn’t feel those scenes overwhelmed the plot. I’m sorry I slept on this one for so long.
Helen Zhang and Grant Shepard went to high school together, but they weren’t friends. They weren’t really anything to each other until a tragic incident ties their history together. 13 years later, the two end up working together on the television adaptation of Helen’s YA book series. They are drawn to each other while also being near-certain their shared past can do nothing but divide them.
It’s hard to review this without any spoilers, but I’m including content notes at the bottom of this review because the incident from high school is heavy. And the opening chapter/prologue hits readers in the face with it immediately.
This book is a romance, but it’s so much more than a romance. Helen and Grant are a bit star-crossed. They feel (especially Helen) that their attraction can’t go anywhere given their history. Helen wonders if her feelings are real or if it is because of their history that she’s a moth to the flame that is Grant Shepard.
The book is also an exploration of grief. While Helen’s loss is different from Grant’s, they both are grappling with guilt, anger, and heartache. Helen wonders if in the face of incredible loss, she can learn to love anyway, if it is worth the risk.
Add to all this the way that Helen processes being a second-generation Asian-American, and this book sang. While I won’t claim that I understand everything Helen’s character felt, as a third-generation Japanese-American whose grandmother married an American after WWII, I did relate to the cultural discussions in this book.
Helen thinks often about how her parents moved to America not realizing they were bound to raise children who would misunderstand and be misunderstood by them. Helen’s family never knew how to “love out loud,” and as she finds herself falling in love, she wonders if she has what it takes to know how, to express it, to give of herself fully.
This all sounds rather serious, and it many ways it was. There were some difficult topics and emotional scenes, but there was also a lightness to the conversations. Grant and Helen share a slightly sick sense of humor that I appreciated because sometimes when everything is awful, you just have to call it out and laugh in Awful’s face. I also loved that the author didn’t take the easy way out, give us a simple, uncomplicated happily ever after (although there is an HEA if you’re worried), or avoid the topics of cultural difference, etc.
One other note—this was written in third-person perspective with a dual point-of-view. What a breath of fresh air for me after reading so many first-person POV books! The breaks in voice didn’t even come at the top of every chapter either, so we got insight into both characters throughout the entire novel.
This one is something special, and I really hope that Yulin Kuang has more novels to come!
A few favorite quotes:
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🌶️ This book contains multiple open-door on-page romance scenes. For skimmers/skippers, these are in chapters: 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 24, and 36. This sounds like a lot, and it is, but I found the story to be so compelling that this content didn’t overpower the rest.
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This book centers around a suicide involving a car accident. Death, loss, and grief are major themes.
