These people are in lust, and in love

I admit that I tend to stick to historicals in my romance novels. The language in modern romance can be a little jarring for me (too many cocks and thrusts), but I really liked this one and will continue to read the series. I didn’t expect the story to suck me in like it did, and I really liked the depth of the characters. Hate to Want You tells the story of Livvy and Nicholas, two childhood sweethearts who grew up together and whose grandparents started a grocery store chain. Tragedy strikes the families and breaks them up, but Livvy comes back to their home town to care for her ailing mother, and gets pulled back into Nicholas’s orbit.

I really liked both of the characters in this book, and I really liked the depth that Alisha Rai gives to both of them. Nicholas could be your stereotypical millionaire cold bad boy cliché which I HATE the most of all in contemporary romance novels, but he isn’t. His ability to thaw and let his emotions show through to Livvy seems realistic, and I cheered when he stood up to his father. I liked Livvy a lot too, and her depression is treated with sincerity and is not just a convenient obstacle in a story to help keep two people apart. When the grand gesture comes at the end of the book to unite the two characters, I was grinning from ear to ear.

This is one of the steamiest romance novels I have ever read. You definitely believe the two main characters in the story can’t keep their hands off each other. Have a partner handy, is all I’m saying. I really enjoyed how the characters evolved to be reunited, and I liked how they seemed committed to make their relationship work.   I immediately bought the next book in the series even though I did not like the brother character in this story at all, and he is the hero in the next book. I have confidence the author will flesh him out to be a person and not a caricature of the protective brother like he is in this book. And a bisexual heroine? Sign me up!