*Grabby Hands* Release & Review - The Hating Game by Sally Thorne

Image and blurb from Goodreads

Title: The Hating Game

Author: Sally Thorne

Publication date: August 9th, 2016

Category/Genre: Adult Contemporary Romance

Nemesis (n.)
1) An opponent or rival whom a person cannot best or overcome;
2) A person’s undoing;
3) Joshua Templeman.

Lucy Hutton and Joshua Templeman hate each other. Not dislike. Not begrudgingly tolerate. Hate. And they have no problem displaying their feelings through a series of ritualistic passive aggressive maneuvers as they sit across from each other, executive assistants to co-CEOs of a publishing company. Lucy can’t understand Joshua’s joyless, uptight, meticulous approach to his job. Joshua is clearly baffled by Lucy’s overly bright clothes, quirkiness, and Pollyanna attitude.

Now up for the same promotion, their battle of wills has come to a head and Lucy refuses to back down when their latest game could cost her her dream job…But the tension between Lucy and Joshua has also reached its boiling point, and Lucy is discovering that maybe she doesn’t hate Joshua. And maybe, he doesn’t hate her either. Or maybe this is just another game.

Goodreads

Buy Links: Amazon 

4.5 “I love you so much that I hate you” Stars

This book stole my day. It simply hijacked all the hours between the moment I started reading and the one I finished it.

It was already past my bedtime when I got a notification that The Hating Game was available. I wasn’t expecting it then, but I saw it and had to start reading it, because I’d been waiting to get my hands on this little baby for months. I’d patiently sat and watched my Goodread friends update their status to “currently reading” or “read”, so my time had finally come!

And, oh man, it was worth the wait.

The Hating Game deserves the hype because, dude, it delivers on my favorite romance trope. Yeah, I love best-friend-to-lovers, fake-relationships, best-friend’s-little-sister and all that, but hate-to-love will always be my favorite. In this case, it was done so well that I found myself completely captivated and wanting to read just one more page, just… one more. It was past one a.m. when I remembered I had to work the next day.

So the next day came and I didn’t want to go to work. I wanted to read more about how Lucy hated Joshua and Joshua hated Lucy and they clearly were meant to be together. I might’ve read a few pages when I should’ve been working. Maybe. Definitely. I told you, this book stole my life.

What’s so good about it, then?

Well, the out-of-this-world chemistry between Lucy and Joshua, for starters. It was always there. When they were hating each other’s guts. When they were teasing, arguing, ignoring, staring silently at each other until one broke. When they finally kissed. The freaking sex that took the entire book to happen and made me so damn happy because that’s exactly how I like it. This book was written for me. Seriously. I feel like the author wrote this book for the romance fangirl in me who loves this trope and loves to suffer with the unbearable chemistry between the leading characters for pages until they finally consummate their love.

Look, I’ve seen some reviewers saying there’s no plot here and all.  Yeah… the plot is super simple (it’s not non-existent… it is there, but it’s simple). This book is exactly what it tells you it is on the blurb: a romance story between two people who hate each other (but not really) and have to work with each other, then end up figuring out they actually love each other. There’s the whole “we’re competing for the same promotion” storyline, but let’s all agree that it was handled all that well and it was only there to create more tension, and move on with it. Why? Because the rest of the book is awesome. Because the romance is awesome, and this is a romance book. Because the story is SEXY AF!!!!!

Anyway… I loved it.

I wanted more of it.

I was definitely not ready for it to be over.

Most of all, I loved Joshua. Dude is dark, moody, snarky and so damn hot that it was impossible not to love him. I loved how much he loved Lucy and how he did everything in his power to make sure his relationship with her worked, even when he was being a total asshole. Joshua stole my heart.

Lucy and I had our moments. She’s the only narrator so there were a few parts where I wanted to shake some sense into her, but I liked Lucy. I liked how weird she was, and how real she still managed to feel. One thing I’ll say, the writing or the voice (I’m still not sure here) bothered me just a bit. There was just some weird quality to it that kept bugging me. At times I was sure it was just a reflex of who Lucy was (quirky, fun, unconventional), but there were times I felt it was a problem with the narrative. It’s hard to explain…

But I liked how funny this book was. I normally gravitate toward heavy, angsty romance stories, but it felt good to read something light and fun. Something that made me laugh. Something that made me sigh when it was over and want to hug my Kindle.

After waiting for what felt like ages to read this, I can honestly say it was worth it. This was a fantastic read and everything I needed it to be.

*If you liked this review (or not), if you read the book (or not), come say hello and leave your comments bellow.