So, I was expecting to love this book. I heard a couple of people praising this book on booktube and it has such an incredibly high rating. I was excited about the sexy, hate-to-love (one of my fave tropes when done right) book. Unfortunately, this one disappointed me.


***some spoilers ahead***

What I liked:

1. The premise.
This story takes place in a publishing house. The two leads, Josh and Lucy, work together as assistants to the co-CEOs. Since they met they've spent a large majority of that time antagonizing each other. But the line between love and hate begins to get blurry. When I heard about this book I had serious Pride and Prejudice vibes, and considering P&P is one of my most favorite books of all time, I was optimistic about this one.


What I disliked:

1. The writing style. I know that writing style is a very subjective thing to critique because everyone's tastes differ, so here are a few things that I didn't like about the writing:
It was very simplistic, and the transitions were very clumsy.

I also felt like the dialogue was weird, for lack of a better word. And not like a quirky 'weird', but more awkward and cheesy 'weird'. People don't actually talk the way they were talking with each other. It was strange. At some point maybe I'll give some examples...but there are so darn many...at one point one of them tells the other that they want to juice the other person's head like a lemon...this is during a supposedly sexy part of the book...ummm...that's weird. I think the author was trying to suggest that they wanted to know what the other person was thinking, but what an awkward and cringe-inducing way to go about it!

Also, there is some language and terms in here I didn't like seeing in a book written in 2017. At one point Josh calls himself 'socially retarded'. Why couldn't he have said something less offensive like 'socially awkward' or even just 'shy'?
There's also a lot of fat-shaming in this book. Just so you all know, in the world of The Hating Game:
Skinny or Built = Good
Fat = BAD.
Lucy also wishes that Josh had a birth defect in one of her little inner-monologue tirades. A cleft palate, to be precise. You know...so he would be more ugly...so many problems with this that I don't even know where to start.

2. Lucy's penchant for choosing to misconstrue a situation just so she can play the victim. This happened several times throughout the book. It got really annoying when Josh would say or do something that was obviously benign and she would just take it the wrong way. Then when he would try to apologize or explain it was like it would go in one ear and out the other.

Her character, in general, was pretty miserable. The book is written in first person through her eyes. This is a mistake. She is so incredibly unlikable, petulant, and immature. I could not connect with her. The way she overreacts in nearly every situation grew tiresome almost immediately.

3. The lack of any (well-developed) side characters. A couple of co-workers show up here and there, and a couple family members from both the leads, but none of them were well-developed. Lucy mentions an ex-friend named Valerie several times throughout the novel that never shows up. Seriously, we hear about this girl and how she broke off their friendship over and over but there's never any payoff. And apparently that was Lucy's ONLY friend...and Josh has no friends either...so this book is literally about just their relationship...and that's not realistic.

4. Any external plots are very thin.
Look, I get that this is supposed to be just a fun, light, fluffy chick-lit type book, but if the author is going to introduce this workplace element, I wish that it was more fully-developed. This takes place in a publishing house, but it could've just as easily taken place in a toy store, or an IT department, or ANYTHING. There is a couple of mentions of a project having to do with e-books...and it is only half-explained and never brought to fruition. Also, there is a whole thing about Lucy and Josh having to compete for a promotion...but we never find out who gets the job. It's left totally hanging...because again, that's not what this book is about. It's all about the relationship...

5. Tropes, tropes, and more tropes.
Now, tropes exist for a reason. Everyone has certain elements they like reading about. I believe even the most tired of tropes can be if the execution is great.

One of my favorite tropes is hate-to-love. This book is NOT a hate-to-love story. It's an 'antognonize-until-lust' story. It is the adult equivalent of a boy yanking a girl's pigtails and taking her ball on the playground. Actually, those kids may be more mature than Lucy...

Other tropes included are:
Misunderstood-alpha-male;
Super-hot-but-really-shy;
Man-is-controlling-but-actually-empowering-woman;
They-really-loved-each-other-the-whole-time;
Taboo-workplace-romance...

None of these are well-written. She tries to turn a couple of these on their heads, like Josh being the character who is physical perfection but actually self-conscious...but it's terrible. I don't see it as realistic either. If he truly had a problem with woman objectifying him because of his perfect body (seriously, rolling my eyes so hard right now.) then maybe he needs to stop picking such shallow, vapid women. But the funny thing is...this is the basis of Lucy's attraction. She doesn't shut up about how hard and perfect his body is and how she hates that she's attracted to him because she can't stand him but did she mention how hot and sexy and perfect he is?!?!


Understanding that this book is a debut, I wouldn't be adverse to reading Sally Thorne's next book. I just wish this book had lived up to the hype.