NOTE: I received the ARC through Netgalley.

It's tough to review a book that seemed so unremarkable that I forgot what it was about the day after I read it. And it's been about a month since... I think you get my meaning. I had to read the blurb and several reviews, just so I could refresh my otherwise pretty good memory. It worked. Sort of.

Now that I'm better prepared, I can give my two cents on this story. First though, I'd like to say that I've read several books on the topic of violence and abuse in the past months, so I have to say that Love Hurts pales in comparison. A lot. Here's why:

- the title is all wrong; Love Hurts implies that there is love in the first place. Well, there never was anything beyond attraction which quickly transformed into fear.

- the writing style was unpolished.

- there were scenes/dialogues that sounded quite unrealistic.

- the girl, Melody was way too gullible. She was supposed to be smart, but it seems that in books, the smart girls always ALWAYS lack common sense and do the stupidest things ever. Like Melody here - after her best friend Dustin hooked up with someone else, she threw herself in the arms of the first guy who looked her way. She didn't even try to get to know him better before she started dating him. Sure, she did a little fb background check, but even though the results startled her, she didn't get suspicious. Later on, when she put two and two together, she just went with the flow, being afraid that Colter would somehow hurt her. Well, duh. He already did, isolating her from her friends, her sport team and social life.

- Colter was badly painted as a psychotic guy. I think that his character was made to fit the crimes, and not the other way around (which would've been the more accurate approach).

I don't really understand one thing, and it's common for all Teen books. Why do teens NEVER share their problems with their parents or with adults who are capable of helping? After all, that's what parents and such are there for - guidance, help, protection, etc. It's their job to take care of children of any ages, so why are they always absent or not caring? Surely, the statistics aren't that dire, are they? ( )

Love Hurts is a quick but weighty story. Ultimately I wish it were longer, and the characters and the events would have been more fleshed out.
I liked Mel, the main character, she was smart and a typical ya narrator. Though the writing felt off at times, like it was more of an essay or something rather than a flowing narrative of events like I am used to. It just brought me out some of the language that seemed too adult or formal. Overall though, I liked her voice and her story.
I am not sure if the point was that Mel realized there were issues with Colter earlier and tried to get herself out before the typical time that it happens in books with abusive or negative relationships, or that the crescendo just wasn't as fleshed out as it could have been. I did like the clues and "mystery" surrounding Jillian, his previous girlfriend though it made it easy for me to spot what the eventual outcome would be.
The secondary characters were interesting. I liked that it had diversity with being not from the USA, and with Dustin being on the reserve. The chemistry and build up between Mel and Dustin was actually one of my favorite parts to the story and I never really fell for Colter, which I think is usually an element present in abuse stories, because then we see what the narrator sees in him, and why it can be harder to give them up, which is how it goes in real life lots of time though.
But I really appreciated the courage that Mel had, and that she didn't isolate. Although she hid some of her doubts and questions about Colter, she also shared a lot more than most do, and that is important model for girls and women to see and hope that they could do and stand up for themselves in a negative relationship.
I also wished for more with the ending. Sometimes I think that open endings are perfect, but it just didn't quite do it for me with this one.

Bottom Line: Important topic with good narrator but needed more to the story.