Review | The Hating Game

The Book: The Hating Game by Sally Thorne

Date Published: August 9, 2016

Dates Read: January 6-7, 2021

Current Goodreads Rating: 4.13/5

Ok, what happens? Lucy and Joshua hate each other. Like loathe. They happen to be polar opposites. She's messy and her life is full of color. He's almost surgical in his cleanliness and wears the same colors in the exact same order day in and day out. She is short and is very aware of that fact. He is tall and imposing and he stays that way by working out like every day. Lucy and Joshua hate each other. Until they don't.

So what did I think? Oh boy I fucking loved this book. What can I say? I'm a sucker for a good romance novel and this book checks all the classic romance novel tropes.

• Enemies to lovers trope? Check

• Witty banter that actually had me laughing out loud? Check

• Strong female lead who deserves the entire fucking world? Check

• Big, attractive guy I could literally cast any of my current real world crushes as? Big ole check

I think there might have also been an 'oh no there's only one bed' scene in the book as well, but at that point they were so in love and I was so in love with them that I'm not entirely sure if my brain was just short circuiting and was hallucinating other beautifully cliché moments plucked right out of pretty much every fanfiction. It was just *chef's kiss* perfection.

This is the book that Fifty Shades of Gray wishes it was. I'm not saying that because there's loads of BDSM in this book, but because the fluidity of their relationship is pretty much flawless. Lucy completely hates this man at the beginning of the book and it's very convincing that Joshua hates her right back, but as the story unfolds and the two characters grow closer together there are actual reasonable excuses for why he acted the way he did. Both characters are flawed, which are slowly teased out throughout the entirety of the novel, but that makes them so much more well-rounded and believable. He teaches her to be more assertive and she teaches him to open up to people. They're just two perfectly, imperfect idiots and I ate that shit up.

According to IMDB, Lucy Hale was cast to play Lucy and Austin Stowell was cast to play Joshua, and honestly I'm not sure where I stand with these casting choices. I don't know anything that Stowell has previously been involved in, but I've seen Hale in Pretty Little Liars and other not as well received works. This doesn't mean that she won't be good in The Hating Game, but I am a little apprehensive. But then again, what do I know? I'm just a book reviewer.

Long Story Short:

• Romance novels may actually save my mental health this year

• Don't be Christian Gray

• God, I love enemies to lovers stories

My Rating: 4/5