Title: The Hating Game
Author: Sally Thorne
Genre: romance; fiction; contemporary
Synopsis: (from Goodreads) Nemesis (n.) 1) An opponent or rival whom a person cannot best or overcome. 2) A person’s undoing 3) Joshua TemplemanLucy 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
Review: When you read book like this there are some things that are just straight up guaranteed —cliche or not, you read these books for the familiarity. You want a narrator who is both human and likeable, a bit of a pushover who wants to be more fierce. You want a brooding male lead who is handsome, strong, stoic. You want tension between the two. You want drama that inevitably makes the narrator grow a backbone. You want a HEA.
Well, you get ALLLLLLL of that in this Pride and Prejudice retelling. You get all of that but with an originality that is both refreshing and engaging. Lucy is perfect in that she’s flawed and charismatic. Josh is the perfect paramour all furrowed brows and strong chin. The tension is, ahem, amazing. The drama is unexpected but well written. The HEA is dreamy.
The prose and wit that Thorne embeds in this novel is fast pace and biting. It’s funny, like, laugh out loud funny, and full of heart. You root for the characters because they just fit.
I loved every minute of this book
chelsea usher 