Sally Thorne

'Charming, self-deprecating, quick-witted and funny.' The New York Times 'The next Sophie Kinsella.' Bustle Lucy Hutton and Joshua Templeman sit across from each other every day . . . and they hate each other. Not dislike. Not begrudgingly tolerate. HATE. Lucy can't understand Joshua's joyless, uptight approach to his job and refusal to smile. Joshua is clearly baffled by Lucy's overly bright clothes, quirkiness, and desire to be liked. Now they're up for the same promotion and Lucy, usually a determined people-pleaser, has had enough: it's time to take him down. But as the tension between Lucy and Joshua reaches its boiling point, it's clear that the real battle has only just begun . . . This bestselling, laugh-out-loud romantic comedy is an unmissable, utterly loveable treat and is perfect for fans of Sophie Kinsella's MY NOT SO PERFECT LIFE or Jo Watson's LOVE TO HATE YOU 'A smart and funny modern romance.' Good Housekeeping 'The most uplifting novel you'll read this year' Amazon reviewer

The Hating Game: 'Warm, witty and wise' The Daily Mail

Aubrey Hennig

Shannon C

why did I tear up like 3 times? 
this was so cute.

Fireless

madreadz⟢

This was a guilty pleasure read. I enjoyed it tho!

Isabella 

It is a very cute book, but I was not emotionally invested in it. I had expectations for this book with the amount of hype it was getting, so it didn’t really live up to what I expected it to be. It’s definitely a quick light hearted book to read. The problem I had with it was the whole hating game kind of fizzled out, but I really like the ending!!

Ana Luiza

Meu Deus que decepção kkkkk
Comecei esse livro porque achei que seria a história perfeita pra me tirar da ressaca, eu amo um enemies-to-lovers. Apesar de ser o maior clichê da história do YA, muitas vezes os autores conseguem me surpreender e tonar o livro muito gostoso de ser lido. Infelizmente, não foi o que aconteceu dessa vez. Anos atrás, esse livro seria um dos meus favoritos, mas precisamos entender que mesmo sendo um plot já usado muitas vezes, a autora não precisava ter feito a história inteira clichê. Cada acontecimento do livro me dava uma sensação de deja vu, como se já tivesse visto aquilo acontecer com as mesmas palavras. São muitas as características clichês desse livro, mas as mais marcantes para mim foram:
1- Personagem principal feminina que se acha feia e esquisita mas é ao mesmo tempo é descrita como uma modelo perfeita. O tipo de personagem que foi descrito como “diferente das outras garotas” apesar de ser exatamente igual qualquer personagem que você encontre em um romance meia boca.
2- O corpo do personagem principal masculino é descrito tantas vezes que eu me vi pulando essas descrições a partir do fim do livro. Sério, eu já tinha entendido que ele era absolutamente perfeito, sarado…
3- Hotel lotado, vamos ter que dividir uma cama. Não preciso falar nada. Normalmente amo esse clichê mas já estava tão irritada a esse ponto que nem achei engraçado.

Infelizmente, não fui cativada nem um pouco pelos personagens e pelo o que eles passaram. A Lucy é insuportável. A autora tenta colocar nela uma insegurança que na verdade é transmitida como burrice porque se não fosse por ela esses dois já podiam estar namorando desde uns 25% do livro. 

Uma das coisas que mais me irritou foi como a autora transmitiu o livro inteiro a mensagem de caras “legais” não são suficiente. Josh deixa claro diversas vezes que não é o que se considera um cara legal (inclusive reclama sobre o como as pessoas só querem ele pelo seu corpo porque ninguém gosta de sua personalidade. E por acaso alguém é obrigado a gostar de homem grosso e antipático?), e Lucy parece achar isso incrível. Não diria que é um livro problemático como Belo Desastre e After, por exemplo, já que não acho que o relacionamento deles seja tóxico, mas acho que mesmo que de maneira mais sutil, esse livro trouxe a mesma mensagem que os outros que mencionei: homens legais, que te tratam bem, não são suficientes para causar a famosa paixão avalassadora que encontramos nesses romances.

As duas estrelas foram por dois motivos: gostei bastante do começo do livro, me diverti com os dois no trabalho discutindo. Até que eles se beijaram e o resto foi todo reciclado de outras dezenas de livros. O segundo motivo foi que achei a escrita da autora boa. Apesar de não estar me divertindo, consegui ler rápido.

Isabella

not entirely terrible. went into the book with high expectations n it kinda failed me. took me forever to trudge thru the first act bc it annoyed me but it picked up towards the middle and thought that i started caring for the characters n their dreams n ambitions. the ending felt like a copout tho lol what was even the point of the Valerie character she kept referencing. 1.5/5 i see why ppl like this book but it’s just not for me

Salma emam 

I liked the book but I wouldn't say I loved it

Shelby Wheeler

It was a light, cute read that was entertaining throughout. I recognize Josh and Lucy have liked each other since they met, but it was still a bit much that they went from 0 to 100 in a matter of a page. The intimacy descriptions were at times cringy but I overall enjoyed the read! 

Aadhya Patel

ENEMIES TO LOVERS HOLY BOOK. It’s like Isolation per se. The tension.

sahar awada

if i could give it a -10 i would, i’d rather drink my piss then recommend this to someone 

Hannah Borgmann '

this lovestory is all i ever want to achieve

Edith Diderichsen

I read The Hating Game in no time. It was so cute and fun to read. I definitely recommend it. 

Lauren 

Okay so I feel like the end of this, nearly made me give it 5 stars from like 60% onwards I loved it. Before that I feel like the setting up happened super quickly and Danny was kind of gross. But overall a really cute light read 

But also 5foot isn’t even that small ??????

Kassia Skorzewska

Oh my god!!! I LOVED this book! I loved the banter between Joshua and Lucy!! I also loved it when Lucy went in on Josh’s father and how badass she was in that whole scene!!! Also, throughout the entire book, I kept on picturing Helene as being Cat Grant from Supergirl. I even kind of read Helene’s words in Cat Grant’s voice in my head!

Sav Kay

Had to re-read to see if it’s as good and my memory told me it was… consensus is… it was 🥲. I fuckkin loveeee them 😭

Andra Gabriela

Okay, I really tried to read this but I DNF-ed since it made meuncomfortable more than two times in like 17% of times( thats how much i got to read before i said “i really Dont Like this”)
Not my cup of Tea, the speech is boring amd repetitive and The 2 main characters act like 2 kids

Sea 

this book makes me absolutely FERAL ! i love it so so so so so much,,,LucyJosh 4 eva

roosmarijn

Ah this was quite sweet and the tension was delicious but wow this book and i really had some issues. 

Encapsulated in the two stars is a couple blissful hours of brain numbness, a few smirks and some fun outbursts in my kitchen: pretty solid in comparison to the rest it made me go through (having to endure 250 pages of badly written tension for the smut to be disappointing, i really should start prioritising my shit, this was so not worth it)

Loose thoughts (I’m too tired and bored to form normal sentences so here we go)
1. Okay we ge it Lucy is small - first of all: it’s already annoying when the act of someone being small  is their most important character trait let alone their SOLE FUCKING DESCRIPTION 

I could write a ten page long essay covering all the synonyms used for small that will probably end up béing this book.

If you took áll the synonyms for “small” in this book and put them on top of eachother it STILL wouldn’t be taller than Lucy thát’s how small she is.

I- I could remove all the synonyms and you wouldn’t even have any hating game left, just a few dark blue piercing eyes.

Honestly. the amount of repetition in this book was so irritating, small, tall, blue, cute: KAY WE GET IT, USE SOME OF YOUR IMAGINATION, IM DYING OF BOREDOM. 

2. Gosh the sex scenes were lame, so much tension building and SO LITTLE PAYOFF. Let’s keep it real, I was here for the smut. DHSJSK. I think I’ll just be reading weird alien porn for that from now on, romcoms done me dirty. *dramatic faint*

3. Okay there’s this quote that I feel really weird about:

”You’ve broken me down so completely, I can’t even handle it when a guy tells me I’m beautiful… That’s why I’m crying. Because Danny told me I’m a beautiful girl, and I nearly fell off the barstool. You’ve ruined me.'”

Let’s dissect this: 
- UHHHHH honey I’m sorry to break it to you but I don’t
think your self worth should be depended on a mans fucking opinion in the first place, really, you don’t need someone else telling you you’re beautiful in order to be beautiful????
- How exactly ??? does Josh have anything to do with this all

Yeah no. 
This was one of those books I would have loved to love but it was disappointing and irritating and the dynamics were odd and I don’t like that. 

Also: I think the movie will not make this any better and I’m seriously debating wether or not I will make myself go through this hellfire again.

Alice Dulude

I loved this book so much!! I couldn’t put It down. I had to control myself because either way I would’ve finished it in one sit. Everything was perfect. Now that I’ve finished it, I’m left crying in my bedroom. i dont know if any of y’all cried at the end but if u did I love you. Please do yourself a favor and read this book ❤️

Sofie

Oh wow... I... loved this? I was NOT expecting to love this, mostly because these arch-enemy turned lover stories often read very juvenile. But man, this was something special. I devoured this in a day. Such a fun, fluffy, heart-achingly delicious read.

Tatiana Alvarez 

This book wasn't what I was expecting, but I can definitely see the appeal to it. This book is classic rivaly, enemies to lovers in the work place scene. I wouldn't call it a romcom though because it didn't read like typical rom coms. It didn't feel like it would fit into that genre exactly.

My biggest problem with this book is the amount of time the author describes the MC as small or tiny. It began to become creepy and made me think of her as a child...which is very creepy considering this book gets "steamy."

Overall, I'm glad to say that I've read it.

Alexis Aumagamanaia

This was such a fun little book! It was light-hearted, sexy, and full of that nervous sweating, 'raise your heart rate' type of chemistry between the two MCs. Enemies-to-Lovers is my favorite romance trope and OH BOY! Did Sally Thorne do it justice. My poor husband had to listen to me verbally react to the book the whole time I read it because it was one of those books that just elicited a whole bunch of surprised exclamations. I absolutely enjoyed the experience of this story due to the fact that it was very reminiscent of the fanfics I read as a teenager and honestly...it was the perfect break from the heaviness of the state of the world. Lucy and Josh are both such wonderful characters and I can't help but want to read more of them.
I'm married (blissfully so) but I want my own spicy workplace romance now!

Alexia Beatrice Guglielmi

4.5 stars

I’ve been scrolling through the reviews and boy, is this book divisive. I loved it though. My conscience won’t let me to round this up to 5 stars because of some lines that felt too iffy, but what a book. Everything I wanted but didn’t get from The Spanish Love Deception, I found it here. (Just putting it out there that they’re eerily similar, plot wise. It’s weird.)

(view spoiler)[But ”His walls are the blue of my eyes. I’ve been a bit slow.” did creep me out a bit, I can’t lie. (hide spoiler)]

Camila 

This was such a fun read! 
I only started reading this because I couldn't make it through the other books I've been trying to read, so I searched for a contemporary romance that I thought it was going to be easy to read and just extremely cliché that I wouldn't engage much on it, but oh boy was I wrong. 
This book has one of my favorite tropes, enemies to lovers. 
I feel like this is such a common trope, but not many authors write it right. Here it worked. Lucy and Josh were always, always crashing, they were always pushing each other's buttons, and yes, they were mean to each other, but they were not evil, they were still very professional. 
And, at the moment Josh realizes he has really messed up, that he really managed to break Lucy he immediately apologizes. I think that's what I liked so much about this book, they were straightforward. 
It was obvious that one of them was in love with the other, the hate was just hiding it, it was just as the title says: a game. 
Also, kudos to this book because when the misunderstanding happened -an obvious one, or so I think -they talked!!!Yes, they fought, but Josh asked for time to explain and Lucy stayed and they resolved the problem RIGHT THERE! This almost never happens! So many authors use this kind of misunderstandings to move the plot, and usually, they don't make any sense. I really loved that they sat down like the adults they were and were honest with each other. 
I highly recommend it! Don't expect the most unique world in the world, but this is one book I think a few authors could look up for and learn a thing or two.

The Hating Game: 'Warm, witty and wise' The Daily Mail

Reviews

Highlights