The Hating Game by Sally Thorne

Title: The Hating Game

Author: Sally Thorne

Release date: August 9, 2016 

Publisher: William Morrow

Nemesis (n.)
1) An opponent or rival whom a person cannot best or overcome;
2) A person’s undoing;
3) Joshua Templeman.

Lucy Hutton and Joshua Templeman hate each other. Not dislike. Not begrudgingly tolerate. Hate. And they have no problem displaying their feelings through a series of ritualistic passive-aggressive maneuvers as they sit across from each other, executive assistants to co-CEOs of a publishing company. Lucy can’t understand Joshua’s joyless, uptight, meticulous approach to his job. Joshua is clearly baffled by Lucy’s overly bright clothes, quirkiness, and Pollyanna attitude.

Now up for the same promotion, their battle of wills has come to a head and Lucy refuses to back down when their latest game could cost her her dream job…But the tension between Lucy and Joshua has also reached its boiling point, and Lucy is discovering that maybe she doesn’t hate Joshua. And maybe, he doesn’t hate her either. Or maybe this is just another game.

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I will like to nominate Lucy Hutton's speech as one of the best speeches used in defending someone you care about which I've read in romance. I could vividly picture the scene in my head. It would be I.D.E.A.L for a movie!

The Hating Game stars Lucy Hutton and Josh Templeman. Lucy and Josh hate each other. They are both working as executive assistants to their respective CEOs of a publishing company. The CEO's don't like each other either. The current publishing company was the result of a merger between two companies in order to remain afloat. Lucy came from the Gamins and Josh came from the Bexleys.

Lucy is the nice girl. She tries to get along with everyone. She was raised on a strawberry farm but she fell in love with her job. She has a great relationship with her parents but no recent boyfriend. Her life is her job and trying to beat Josh in every game they play. 

Josh and Lucy have a staring game (which included the serial killer eyes), they have an HR game and many more. The idea is to break the other one. Josh's nickname for Lucy is Shortcake. Yes, Lucy is short and Josh makes fun of her height. Lucy would like nothing more than stop having to see Josh's face every morning. She would also like for Josh not to be so handsome. She knows everything about the way he looks, the body he has and the shirts he wears for work. She thinks Josh is cold, uncaring and too uptight. He's a psycho for order and discipline. 

Everything gets worse when a new position is available for only one of them. They both want the promotion and they will have to compete against each other for it. If the tension in the office was bad, when the news spreads about the new opening, it becomes exponentially worse. 

It was so much fun finding out more about Josh. I think Sally Thorne did a perfect job in letting the readers learn more about him in a slow way. Through Lucy's eyes and voice, we are just as surprised as she is when we find out the truth behind Josh's cold exterior. I finished the book with a big smile on my face. I thought it ended superbly.

I had a hard time deciding between a four or a five star rating. I guess the only reason why I don't give it a five it's because Lucy could act too immature at times but at the same time, she could be a tigress and defend what/who was important to her. 

By the way, Robin egg blue is a beautiful color :) 

Cliffhanger: No

4.5 Fangs