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A review by pierrereads
The Hating Game by Sally Thorne
5.0
Honestly, I DEVOURED this absolutely INCREDIBLE book over the course of two days, and I'm very glad I tried to space it out because I could've easily gone through in one day.
This was my very first Adult Romance experience, and I honestly don't think I could've picked a more perfect book in this genre.
I was tempted at first to make it a 4.5 rating, because of the issue I had with the writing, but I'm not going to lie to myself. This is now one of my all-time favorites, a book that I'm sure I'll be re-reading at least every year, so I couldn't find it in my heart to lower the rating.
More on that specific issue at the end of the review.
The Hating Game managed to get me hooked right about page 4, which is a huge feat that very few books have managed to achieve with me.
It was absolutely, pisses ones self, hilarious with relatable characters and downright incredible setup.
Lucy is the super nice quirky one, meanwhile at first sight Joshua is her polar opposite and they DESPISE one another.
HELL YES!!
The super strong comedic element felt very natural, the jokes and snipes and the situations these characters were in felt very believable and downright hilarious.
The Hating Game is based in a publishing company, which made me love it even more because books books books! I really enjoyed the side characters, such as Helene and Mr. Bexley (not so much Danny, cause he can go f himself).
The standout in this book is most definitely Joshua Templeman, like there's no arguing about it.
I absolutely loved how he evolved right in front of our eyes from the asshole coworker, Lucy's foil, to a completely different character.
The reveal shocked me quite a bit, because I didn't expect it to work as well as it did, but I completely fell in love with Josh in the duration of this book.
He turns out to be this beautiful, shy, very self-conscious man that just wants to be loved for who he is, not what his body is like, and respected by the people around him, more specifically his father.
Beautifully written, so much so that it hurt every time one of those two fuck up and say or do something to upset the other without even meaning to.
His character is one that is going to stick with me for a long time, and I'm very happy about it because now I know who Joshua Templeman is and I'm pretty grateful for it.
The pacing in here was very good, it didn't take Lucy and Joshua over half the book to start mixing it up, but it happened pretty early in the book which I was very happy about.
It was a slow burn, but it worked because their feelings towards one another literally changed entirely in the first quarter in the book, which is kind of unusual for a slow burn romance.
The Hating Game got me very emotional, my eyes got teary, and that's because of how good these characters were written and especially their interactions and conversations.
Joshua slowly opening up to Lucy and showing that vulnerable side of him was yet again beautiful, which I know is a word I keep using but there is no other word to describe this character.
The spicy scenes were very well written, not exactly smut but hot enough to arouse you lol.
From and Adult Romance, I expected there to be a fair share of sexy scenes, but I didn't expect them to be so well-written and very wonderfully delicious to read and enjoy.
Now the issue I've had with the writing is something that I couldn't put into words, but I saw this review on Sally Thorne's second book that completely explained the problem with the writing (the problem is not that heavy in this book, unlike the sequel, but there were some parts that completely felt this way) and it goes like this:
"The main downfall of this book is because the dialogue and writing of this book are downright incomprehensible. There are no transitions between anything or explanation about any characters or the setting or literally ANYTHING that I seriously got anxiety when I was reading this thinking I was dyslexic and I was misreading sentences. But no, it was just how this book was written. From the characters' interactions and dialogue making no sense whatsoever to the remarkable lack of detail and the disjointed writing, it was such a pain to get through."
That's about it. It's not as obvious in The Hating Game, but it happened quite a few many times and it irritated the living hell out of me.
Overall, buy this book and read it because you will not fucking regret it, like I'm very serious about this.
Lucy and Joshua are going to be living in my head, rent free, for a very long time (okay, mainly Joshua more than Lucy) and that will only intensify by the time the movie comes out, and I pray to the good Lord above that It's a good representation of the book...
This was my very first Adult Romance experience, and I honestly don't think I could've picked a more perfect book in this genre.
I was tempted at first to make it a 4.5 rating, because of the issue I had with the writing, but I'm not going to lie to myself. This is now one of my all-time favorites, a book that I'm sure I'll be re-reading at least every year, so I couldn't find it in my heart to lower the rating.
More on that specific issue at the end of the review.
The Hating Game managed to get me hooked right about page 4, which is a huge feat that very few books have managed to achieve with me.
It was absolutely, pisses ones self, hilarious with relatable characters and downright incredible setup.
Lucy is the super nice quirky one, meanwhile at first sight Joshua is her polar opposite and they DESPISE one another.
HELL YES!!
The super strong comedic element felt very natural, the jokes and snipes and the situations these characters were in felt very believable and downright hilarious.
The Hating Game is based in a publishing company, which made me love it even more because books books books! I really enjoyed the side characters, such as Helene and Mr. Bexley (not so much Danny, cause he can go f himself).
The standout in this book is most definitely Joshua Templeman, like there's no arguing about it.
I absolutely loved how he evolved right in front of our eyes from the asshole coworker, Lucy's foil, to a completely different character.
The reveal shocked me quite a bit, because I didn't expect it to work as well as it did, but I completely fell in love with Josh in the duration of this book.
He turns out to be this beautiful, shy, very self-conscious man that just wants to be loved for who he is, not what his body is like, and respected by the people around him, more specifically his father.
Beautifully written, so much so that it hurt every time one of those two fuck up and say or do something to upset the other without even meaning to.
His character is one that is going to stick with me for a long time, and I'm very happy about it because now I know who Joshua Templeman is and I'm pretty grateful for it.
The pacing in here was very good, it didn't take Lucy and Joshua over half the book to start mixing it up, but it happened pretty early in the book which I was very happy about.
It was a slow burn, but it worked because their feelings towards one another literally changed entirely in the first quarter in the book, which is kind of unusual for a slow burn romance.
The Hating Game got me very emotional, my eyes got teary, and that's because of how good these characters were written and especially their interactions and conversations.
Joshua slowly opening up to Lucy and showing that vulnerable side of him was yet again beautiful, which I know is a word I keep using but there is no other word to describe this character.
The spicy scenes were very well written, not exactly smut but hot enough to arouse you lol.
From and Adult Romance, I expected there to be a fair share of sexy scenes, but I didn't expect them to be so well-written and very wonderfully delicious to read and enjoy.
Now the issue I've had with the writing is something that I couldn't put into words, but I saw this review on Sally Thorne's second book that completely explained the problem with the writing (the problem is not that heavy in this book, unlike the sequel, but there were some parts that completely felt this way) and it goes like this:
"The main downfall of this book is because the dialogue and writing of this book are downright incomprehensible. There are no transitions between anything or explanation about any characters or the setting or literally ANYTHING that I seriously got anxiety when I was reading this thinking I was dyslexic and I was misreading sentences. But no, it was just how this book was written. From the characters' interactions and dialogue making no sense whatsoever to the remarkable lack of detail and the disjointed writing, it was such a pain to get through."
That's about it. It's not as obvious in The Hating Game, but it happened quite a few many times and it irritated the living hell out of me.
Overall, buy this book and read it because you will not fucking regret it, like I'm very serious about this.
Lucy and Joshua are going to be living in my head, rent free, for a very long time (okay, mainly Joshua more than Lucy) and that will only intensify by the time the movie comes out, and I pray to the good Lord above that It's a good representation of the book...