Monday, June 4, 2018

The Hating Game by Sally Thorne




Reviewed by Christy
            Lucy Hutton hates Joshua Templeman. Hates him. She has ever since his publishing firm merged with hers and their CEOs kept them both on as their respective assistants. Sitting across from each other, they play all sorts of passive aggressive games: The Staring Game, The Copy Cat Game, etc. etc. When a promotion is on the table, however, all bets are off.
            Thorne’s book is pretty cute but not perfect. In fact, I agree with Lucy in that I hate Joshua Templeman too. Oh, he’s fine when he lets his guard down and is nice (though he seems to detest that word) but the rest of the time he’s kind of ridiculous. When he isn’t getting over the top angry with men who flirt with Lucy, he’s being rude with service workers (cashiers, hotel clerks, waiters, etc). Both of which are treated like silly “quirks” when all I could think was I wouldn’t want to be anywhere near this guy.
            But Thorne’s writing is fun, and there are a few amusing moments. Lucy is charming, and I think saved the book for me. Too bad Nice Josh isn’t just a completely different character. I understand that “hate turns to love” is a whole subgenre of romance, and that that’s the point of the book but I felt Joshua was so exaggerated that it didn’t feel entirely realistic. I hope a real girl wouldn’t give him the time of day. But it was a silly, easy read, and I did enjoy myself for the most part so I can’t hate it completely. This is Sally Thorne’s first novel, and I think I’ll keep an eye out for her future books because writing-wise I feel she’s one of the better ones I’ve read in chick lit. Hopefully her future male love interests won’t be so angry.

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