Paperback, 416 pages
English language
Published March 30, 2021 by HarperCollins Publishers.
Lucy Hutton has always believed that the nice girl can get the corner office. She’s charming and accommodating and prides herself on being loved by everyone. Everyone except sarcastic, cynical, and intimidating Joshua Templeman. Her nemesis.
Josh is the dark and brooding to Lucy’s light and cheery, the crisp pressed suit to her retro outfits and bright red lipstick. And he gets under her skin like no one else can. Trapped in a shared office together five days a week, they’ve become entrenched in an addictive, never-ending game of one-upmanship.
When a new executive position is announced, Josh and Lucy are top contenders for the promotion, but the idea of working for the other is so unthinkable that they strike a deal: whoever doesn’t get the job will walk away. The stakes have never been higher and as the competition heats up and the barriers between them begin to fall …
Lucy Hutton has always believed that the nice girl can get the corner office. She’s charming and accommodating and prides herself on being loved by everyone. Everyone except sarcastic, cynical, and intimidating Joshua Templeman. Her nemesis.
Josh is the dark and brooding to Lucy’s light and cheery, the crisp pressed suit to her retro outfits and bright red lipstick. And he gets under her skin like no one else can. Trapped in a shared office together five days a week, they’ve become entrenched in an addictive, never-ending game of one-upmanship.
When a new executive position is announced, Josh and Lucy are top contenders for the promotion, but the idea of working for the other is so unthinkable that they strike a deal: whoever doesn’t get the job will walk away. The stakes have never been higher and as the competition heats up and the barriers between them begin to fall down, Lucy starts questioning just who her opponent truly is and whether this man she’s hated all this time is even the real Josh.
Maybe Lucy Hutton doesn’t hate Joshua Templeman. And maybe, he doesn’t hate her either.
It's the oldest story. The guy and the girl are archenemies and then they get to spend more time together, fall in love, and then trouble brews... Sally Thorne makes it hilarious and steamy. Good one to kill time and much better than the movie.
I started reading The Hating Game because the movie recently came out and reviews suggested reading the book first. The movie has a lot to live up to as The Hating Game in book form kept my attention for long stretches and earned lots of smiles and a few laughs along the way.
I think this is my first time reading a "rom-com" novel. I'm probably not hooked on the genre but I did enjoyed reading this book.
Such a fun book, it's funny and sexy and I loved spending time with the characters. Lucy Parker's Act Like It was my fave contemporary romance book in 2016 and I think I liked this one just as much. I see Sally Thorne has a book coming out in 2017, I'm looking forward to seeing what that's like.
Everyone who recommended this book has commented on how laugh-out-loud funny it is, and has called it a romantic comedy. I actually didn't find much funny in this book, and at times cried my way through it. To be fair though, I was likely riding high on my monthly emotional/hormonal rollercoaster. That being said, I did enjoy this book, I just didn't think it was screamingly funny.
Truly an enemies to lovers story, there were times that it was hard to see how Thorne was going to make these two fall in love. For more than half of the book, they only snipe at each other, and while we eventually find out why they act the way they do towards each other (it's more than just hate/love), at times the bickering could be tiring. There was also something about the author's writing style that I found a bit standoffish. I …
Everyone who recommended this book has commented on how laugh-out-loud funny it is, and has called it a romantic comedy. I actually didn't find much funny in this book, and at times cried my way through it. To be fair though, I was likely riding high on my monthly emotional/hormonal rollercoaster. That being said, I did enjoy this book, I just didn't think it was screamingly funny.
Truly an enemies to lovers story, there were times that it was hard to see how Thorne was going to make these two fall in love. For more than half of the book, they only snipe at each other, and while we eventually find out why they act the way they do towards each other (it's more than just hate/love), at times the bickering could be tiring. There was also something about the author's writing style that I found a bit standoffish. I liken her style to the movie Election with Reese Witherspoon or Butter with Jennifer Garner. People do and say outlandish things and no one bats an eye. That's what happens here and it's hard to both take it seriously, and also laugh at what's going on. This writing style makes it hard to warm up to any of the characters.
I also found it odd that there was almost zero place setting/world building. I have no idea where this book was set; I thought it was New York, perhaps because of the book publishing aspect, but if it was indeed set in New York, then it was a New York the author has never step foot in. So I convinced myself the book took place in some kind of big, but rural city, maybe a St. Louis? Cleveland? I honestly have no idea. It's not the biggest deal, but it would have been nice to know where these people lived. Or are they even in the US considering the author is Australian? Did her own book publisher think Americans wouldn't read a book set outside of the US, so they stripped all location-identifying details? I guess I'll never know.
All in all, I started this book with cautious expectations; the fact that everyone called this hilarious while I found nothing funny, made me worried that I would end up abandoning it. Luckily I stayed with it, and did end up enjoying it. I would certainly consider reading Thorne's next book as well.
