The Hating Game
By Sally Thorne
I was hooked from the beginning.
The Hating Game is quirky, funny, romantic, delightful, and most of all, charming. If you like any (or all) of those things in a romance novel, shuffle your TBR queue and move this one to the top. I think you’ll love it too.
Lucy Hutton is the executive assistant to Helene Pascal, the co-CEO of Bexley & Gamin book publishers. She shares an office with Joshua Templeman, the executive assistant to Richard Bexley, the other co-CEO. Bexley Books and and Gamin Publishers are newly merged; just like their respective companies, Lucy and Joshua are total opposites. Lucy is a Gamin, passionate about books and people, charming and easygoing. Joshua, in her opinion, is Bexley through and through.
It’s hate at first sight between them. At least Lucy hates Joshua – and she’s pretty sure he hates her too. Fated to spend workdays together in an office with a (bizarre) abundance of mirrored surfaces, they indulge in ridiculous games of brinksmanship, but in spite of that and her snippy computer passwords (variations on IHATEJOSHUA4EV@), Lucy finds herself preoccupied trying to figure him out and aware of everything he does. She knows the day of the week by the color of his shirt (Navy leads to Gorgeous Payday Black), and his hus
ky, soft laugh raises the tiny hairs on her arms. The tension and their mutual dislike only escalates after their bosses announce the creation of a third executive position, COO. Lucy and Joshua are expected to apply and compete for it. Lucy wants the job, but knows that if Joshua gets it, she’s resigning and that for some reason makes her SAD L
Following the announcement, interactions between Lucy and Joshua are more charged than ever. A conversation the following day rapidly evolves into a brand new game of “When I’m Your Boss”. This leads to games neither may be ready to play.
The Hating Game is told entirely in Lucy’s PoV. She’s a sensitive, vulnerable and hilarious narrator. But she’s honest – and when she falls for Joshua, you fall for him too. Once they start spending time together outside the office – and he finally reveals his own vulnerabilities – she realizes many of the assumptions she’s made about him are wrong. Joshua, focused on hiding his feelings for Lucy, masked them by being a jerk (he’s a guy). When he admits he fell for her the moment they met, and reveals how much he knows about her (he even cracked her passwords!), I might have sighed out loud. The whole scene is so romantic.
Joshua isn’t perfect and Ms. Thorne doesn’t pretend he is when Lucy finally falls for him. He readily admits he can be an idiot and that he handled his feelings for Lucy poorly. When the story concludes, it’s obvious that much of Joshua’s attitude is a response to his tense relationship with his father. When Lucy discovers why, and witnesses his dad’s boorish behavior first hand, her magnificent and passionate defense of Joshua is AWESOME. He’s ready to tell her he loves her – but Lucy, freaked out by her behavior, takes a bit more convincing. It’s another swoon-worthy conversation, and when she finally admits she loves him, it’s a perfect conclusion to this wonderful book.