Book Review: The Hating Game

"The Hating Game" by Sally Thorne

Publication Date-August 9, 2016

Genre-Adult, Fiction, Romance

Paperback Edition-362 Pages

Rating-5/5 Lily Pads

Would I Recommend It? Yes!! If you love romance books, you have to read this book!

No Spoilers!!

Favorite Quote:

"Gamins resented the notion of books as units. Books were, and always would be, something a little magic and something to respect". 

Hey bookworms! I know it's been a while since I last posted. The reason why is because I recently read a book but I didn't finish it. I never write reviews for books that I don't finish. I also haven't been reading much lately until I picked up "The Hating Game". I buddy read this book with my good booktube friend, Rachel. Here is the link to her YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHwH-WfFqH-lXWg5ToMptgg

I absolutely loved this book! This is probably one of the best romance books I've read in a while. Read on to see more of my thoughts. 

The Plot (Goodreads summary)

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.

My Opinion

Plot-5/5

I loved the plot of this book. The main characters work at a publishing company which is my dream job. I love reading about characters that love books. I also love reading about characters that take place at work. This book has the hate-to-love trope which is one of my favorite tropes so overall I had to give the plot a perfect rating because it has everything I love in a book. 

Writing-5/5

I love Sally's writing style. This is her debut book and I thought her writing was amazing. She's really good at writing dialogue, I loved all the conversations in this book. They were really sweet and it also made me laugh at times. 

Pacing-5/5

There was never a dull moment in this book. Every single word and every single page was amazing! This book kept my attention the whole time. It was never slow or boring. I also found this book very addicting, I didn't want to put it down. When I wasn't reading it, I found myself thinking about it and wanting to pick it back up. 

Cover-5/5

I love the cover of this book! I love that Lucy and Josh are on the cover and the blue is stunning! I also like the UK cover too. 

Characters-5/5

The characters are amazing in this book! This is a debut novel but you wouldn't be able to tell because the character development in this book is so amazing. Let's talk about our main character Lucy first. I loved her character. She works at a publishing company and she is very kind and a pleasant person to be around. Everyone at work loves her and she's just a very likable girl. I just loved her so much! She loves books and she was just such a good person. She's a hard worker and she stands up for what she believes in and she can be sassy at times. 

The other main character is Lucy's coworker, Josh. They hate each other and have to work near each other every day. Josh isn't the most likable guy. He's mean and doesn't really show emotion. Everyone at work is scared of him and he's just not pleasant to be around. Basically he's the opposite of Lucy. I actually really liked Josh. He was a good guy and he can be nice at times. He is incredibly shy and I liked that because I rarely read books with a shy guy in it. In the beginning he's not that likable, but he becomes a better, nicer person by the end of the book. I love him because he's nice, caring and very sweet to Lucy. He was so sweet, I want a guy like him. 

I loved their relationship. They went from "hating" each other, to liking each other. I loved watching their relationship grow and them developing feelings for each other. The romance was so sweet, and I was rooting for them throughout the whole book. They are such a good couple. I really liked that even though Josh isn't a very likable guy, Lucy liked him and was nice to him. She wanted to get to know him. I liked that Lucy fell for a different type of guy. Usually in romance books we see the girl fall for a popular, likable guy. Josh isn't really nice at first and he keeps to himself most of the time. It was just so unique that she liked a unlikable guy. It takes a special kind of person to love someone like that, and Lucy was that girl. She saw the good in him that a lot of people and his family never saw. That's why I loved their relationship. They are such a strong pair. 

As for the side characters, I liked them. I'm not going to describe them in detail because the side characters are barely in the book. 

Final Thoughts

Overall, I loved this book so much! I've been wanting to read it for a while and I'm so glad I finally read it. "The Hating Game" is definitely one of my favorite books now and it's also on my "Favorite Books of 2017" list. If you love romance books that take place at work or just romance books in general, you need to read this book. I highly recommend this book to everyone. This book is definitely worth a buy. I'm so going to reread this book in the future. I really wish there was a sequel though because I want more. I wanna read more about Lucy and Josh. I can't wait for Sally's new book "The Comfort Zone" that comes out in February. I feel like she's going to become an auto-buy author for me. Obviously I gave this book 5/5 Lily Pads. So that was my review. Thank you so much for reading. I'm currently reading "A Torch Against The Night" by Sabaa Tahir so stay tuned for a review for that book once I finish it. Have a great day and happy reading! :)