Let´s confront the predictability first. You can see where the train is heading from when Miles´ PoV starts. A happy story with a tragical outcome leads to a complicated future that allows no feelings, no indulgence and no devotion to go deeper than the surface. A bucket full of heart break makes the story gladly different from the usual issue pivoting such characters tend to display.
Not every teenage boy has to be a smirking, overly confident jerk. Not every teenage love ends with one of them cheating or them riding off into the sunset together. Not ever love story has a happy ending.

Besides the obvious origin of Miles´ issues it´s also easy to figure out where it all will end. Ultimately end.
And really, after being confronted with a truckload of emotions anything more dramatic would´ve been impossible to handle. Not every love story ends well, but every happiness deserves to be rescued. Since neither the past nor the future manage to surprise, what makes you binge read the book, then??
What forces you to keep your eyes from blinking so you can suck in all of the letters forming those beautiful words?
It´s the present. It´s how the past influences the future by being an obstacle for it. And the present is full of falling, full of silence, full of unspoken truths. In between, there are Miles and Tate.

The story was heart wrenching, made worse by the simple, but effective writing that let so many more emotions bleed through than a ton of fancy words ever could. No floating up in the air, no sugarcoated cruelty, but hard facts, a lot of heart break and the reality of love.

Tate: I love her. A charming amount of weirdness meets a healthy dash of ambition (I´ll always be in awe of the medics of this world) and admirable sensibility when it comes to other people. Tate knows everything about herself, she doesn´t need to lie or sugarcoat her actions in order to feel less guilty about it. „I hate that I´m going to follow him“ she said and that´s why I´m so impressed by her. She isn´t stupid, but foolishly optimistic.

Miles: Take a seat, please, because here you have - finally, unexpectedly, gloriously - a good guy!
Miles is actually the nicest guy a friends with benefits drama has ever seen.
Yet, despite his kindness, depth and general greatness, I had to take deep breaths to keep from screaming at a fictional character.
TALK TO HER, MAN.
I won´t ever understand why people don´t deal with their issues, don´t face their fears and don´t trust the few really trustworthy persons. I mean, the fact that after six years of nothing he wants to get involved with Tate alone should be clue enough that he´s ready to change something. While I totally get his fears I don´t exactly understand his refusal to face them.

Ugly love is a fast, gripping read that makes you fall in love with love and the possibilities it offers. It´s beautifully different from the dumb stories about mindless sex and bad-boys-gone-soft that crowd the book shelves nowadays. Hopelessly romantic hearts will rejoice and even the cynical ones will sigh now and then, I promise you.
I enjoyed it immensely.