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Book Summary and Reviews of The Hating Game by Sally Thorne

The Hating Game by Sally Thorne

The Hating Game

by Sally Thorne

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  • Aug 2016, 384 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

Debut author Sally Thorne bursts on the scene with a hilarious and sexy workplace comedy all about that thin, fine line between hate and love.

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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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Starred Review. A breezy tale perfect for a day at the beach, this one's a real winner." - Kirkus

"Thorne is a strong writer and one to watch. Her debut will have readers rooting for both Lucy and Joshua in whatever games they play." - Library Journal

"The denouement feels slightly off, and though Lucy and Joshua initially have chemistry to spare, the resolution of their story is a little bit too neat. Still, Thorne is skilled at creating Hepburn-and-Tracy-esque banter and an appealing heroine." - Publishers Weekly

"A brilliant, biting, hilarious new voice. THe Hating Game will take the rom-com world by storm. One of the best I've read, ever." - Kristan Higgins, New York Times bestselling author

"Funny, smart, fresh, and thoroughly enjoyable from the first delicious page to the last. I highly recommend." - Susan Elizabeth Phillips, New York Times bestselling author

"An addictive, dazzling debut. The Hating Game is bursting at the seams with love (and hate) and heart." - Christina Lauren, New York Times bestselling author

"Deliciously fun and super sexy, Sally Thorne's The Hating Game stole my life for two days. I couldn't put it down until Lucy and Josh's all-consuming hateship changed into a tentative friendship and then a juicy, tender, adorable love." - Valerie Frankel, bestselling author of Four of a Kind

"Be prepared to play the Charming Game with Sally Thorne. The irrepressible Lucy and her starchy, growly counterpart Joshua will win you over from the opening page." - Jane Litte, Dear Author

This information about The Hating Game was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

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Hayley R

A love- hate relation with this book.
The novel follows the relationship of Lucy and Josh rivals in life and the "workplace." I put workplace in brackets because the two leads rarely do anything but stare at each other and play immature games in the same vein as 2 year old boy pulling the hair of a girl he has a crush on. Yet, they some how are up for a major promotion. Can I work here? Seems like there is a lot of drinking on the job. One day during a team building paintball day Lucy feels ill and Josh show his "sensitivity" by taking care of her. I put sensitivity in brackets because l'm tired of women giving men an award for showing basic human decency.
Other then the annoying cliche story there is a odd amount of nice guy bashing in this book. What a weird stance to take by the author. Lucy is used as the barometer of why nice is a bad thing to be since her people pleasing tendencies cause people to walk all over her. I'm sorry but the author is mistaking insecure weakness for kindness.
At one point Josh tries to gain the readers sympathy by mentioning how upset he gets when people comment on how handsome he is because he's always used for his looks and then left because he has a bad personality? You mean you won the genetic lottery and the one thing you are capable of changing is what turns people away.
Overall, the book had some really good moments. But the starting 50 pages of the book I rushed through, because I just didn't connect with the characters. The other half was better. I'll always skip through some chapters, but I'll read it again.
I do believe the book is over-hyped.

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Author Information

Sally Thorne

Sally Thorne lives in Canberra, Australia and spends her days writing funding submissions and drafting contracts (yawn!) so it's not surprising that after hours she climbs into colorful fictional worlds of her own creation. Sally believes that romance readers are always searching for intensity in their next favorite book - and it isn't always so easy to find. The Hating Game is her first novel.

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