So many people raving about one book can’t be wrong so I rented this as soon as possible from the library and immediately fell head over heels. Enemies to lovers is one of my favorite tropes (see Much Ado About Nothing, Pride and Prejudice, and North and South). There’s something so incredibly satisfying about hate turning to love.
The Hating Game did not disappoint. Lucy and Josh work as assistants to the co-CEOs of a publishing house called Bexley & Gamin. The publishing house used to be two and were brought together in a necessary, but unwanted merger about a year ago. With Lucy and Josh, it was hate at first sight. Their games are subtle and vicious. “I should mention that the ultimate aim of all our games is to make the other smile, or cry. It’s something like that. I’ll know when I win.” There’s the staring game, the mirror game, and my personal favorite, the HR game. When the company announces that there’s a new chief of operations position opening up, the competition between the two heats up and the HR manager stops sleeping at night.
Sally Thorne does a great job of slowly ratcheting up the sexual tension between the two main characters while also telling a compelling story. The characters are believable and likeable, but even more so when they’re together. They’re a couple you can root for which is everything in a romance. My biggest issue with romances is when they get too cheesy and I get vicarious embarrassment. Thankfully, The Hating Game steers away from most of that and I can easily recommend this to both romance newbies and experts. Read it!
Yep, it’s a classic and so funny.
I haven’t compiled my best of 2016 list yet, but this is in my top 3 and may in fact, be my favourite book of all this year. I’ve read it three times since it came out in August and I’m so glad that it seems to be popular with so many different readers.
I will never tire of hearing other people rave about this book. I too have reread it 3 times and gifted it several times this year.