Out of Love Book Review

---

Out of Love is a contemporary love story told in reverse. When we meet the unnamed protagonist and her ex-boyfriend Theo, they are weathered from the strain of their relationship and ready for a new start. With each chapter, we move back in time and learn how they reached this point as well as everything that happens along the way until we finally reach their meet-cute and learn how the relationships itself starts.

If there’s one thing I love more than romance, it’s the messy reflection of the human experience and all the pain and injury that goes along with it. Having read the blurb for this book I was sure I would love it. Right from the get-go I adored the way Hayes mused about the world and all the small, wonderful moments she created in the book.

However, pretty early on, my expectations for this book were slowly crushed. I wanted an epic love story between two soulmates who had to break up because of some frustrating reason out of their control (think One Day). But it became apparent that while our protagonist was no angel (excuse the pun – you’ll know it if you read it) her ex-boyfriend Theo was all other kinds of imperfect. Even once I’d finished the book and seen exactly how they met, never did I think these two were good for each other or should stay together.

All in all I should have loved this book, but rather than it feeling bittersweet and like a great love was lost, all I could feel was relief that our protagonist was free from the relationship. That being said, I love the format and Hayes was brilliant at commenting on feelings and emotions so many young people deal with, and showing the messy, realistic relationships that are all so common in the real world.