Ugly Love (Hoover)/Chapter 8

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⏳

Colleen Hoover

Ugly Love. Chapter 8

A secret romance with a seven-month deadline

2014

Summary of a Chapter
from the Collection “Ugly Love”

The original takes about 7 minutes to read

Microsummary

Miles learned Rachel and her mother would soon move into his home. Despite their parents’ romance, he and Rachel agreed to date secretly for seven months, ending when she left for college in Michigan.

Chapter Summary

Six years earlier, Miles told his father he was going to Ian’s, but arranged to visit Rachel instead. His father was going out with Lisa, Rachel’s mother, and Miles felt that Lisa had become his father’s sole focus.

Rachel invited Miles into her apartment while Lisa was away. Its small size made him wish he and his father lived somewhere that forced them to interact. Their large home reminded him of the emptiness left by his mother Carol’s death.

Over water, Miles and Rachel admitted that their kiss the previous night should not have happened. He claimed stopping would be easy, but she disagreed. Both expected their parents’ relationship to lead to marriage.

Rachel revealed that she and Lisa would move into his home in two weeks. Miles struggled with the thought of Lisa taking his mother’s place and with his feelings for Rachel. He warned that their relationship would end badly.

Although Miles said he should leave, he could not bring himself to go. They kissed again, then discussed their futures. Rachel planned to attend college in Michigan; Miles would study locally before attending flight school with Ian.

Rachel said she would turn eighteen on January third. Miles revealed that his eighteenth birthday was the next day. They agreed their parents would disapprove of their relationship even without getting married.

With Rachel leaving San Francisco in seven months, they agreed to date secretly until then and afterward stop. The deadline reassured them, and they claimed they could manage it. Miles privately promised to love her for those seven months.

Characters

✈️

Miles — narrator, seventeen-year-old boy turning eighteen the next day, aspiring pilot and Ian’s best friend, grieving his mother and drawn to Rachel despite their parents’ relationship.

💞

Rachel — seventeen-year-old girl, Lisa’s daughter and Miles’s romantic interest, planning to attend college in Michigan, candid about their attraction and willing to keep their relationship secret.

🏠

Miles’s father — adult man, widower of Carol and Lisa’s partner, perceived by his son as emotionally distant and absorbed in his new relationship.

🔑

Lisa — adult woman, Rachel’s mother and Miles’s father’s partner, preparing to move with her daughter into his home in two weeks.

🕯️

Carol — deceased adult woman, Miles’s mother and his father’s former wife, whose absence continues to shape her son’s feelings about home and family.

Quotes

A place where we’d be forced to interact. A place where we’d stop having to pretend that my mother didn’t leave way too much space in our house after she died.

I’m not stupid. I know how lust works.
Lust wants what lust can’t have.
Lust wants me to have Rachel.

Reasoning* wants Rachel to go away.

I take Reasoning’s side

“We do this for seven months. We don’t tell
anyone. Then . . .” I stop talking, because I don’t know how to
say the words *We stop.*
“Then we stop,” she whispers.

This summary is based on the UK edition of the novel (London: Simon & Schuster UK, 2014).