What’s Not to Love about “The Hating Game?”

The Hating Game by Sally Thorne is a great option for people (like me) that enjoy “enemies to lover’s” book tropes. From the second I started this book to the point where I put it down, I was speechless and in awe of Sally Thorne’s writing.

The story opens after an unwanted merger between two publishing companies where Lucy Hutton and Joshua Templeman are sworn enemies sharing the same job. Implementing little competition into everyday work life, they find a way to make everything a game. Until the biggest competition they have ever faced comes into play, a job promotion.

The character development is more prominent in the character Lucy Hutton because it is written from her point of view, but that does not take away from the descriptive language that Thorne uses to describe the love interest Joshua Templeman’s development. Having Lucy as the narrator gives such a relatable feel to the book. She has an unfiltered sense of humor, and a charismatic nature but also a “people pleaser” mentality that adds so much dimension to the story line.

Not only does this book have humorous elements, but it has a psychological component. Throughout the book, the constant theme that hate is not that different from love is brought up. The unraveling of this theme is what genuinely pulled me in while reading. At first it is just a shared and unspoken theory between the two main characters, but as the plot progresses the theory changes.

Something that makes this “enemies to lover’s” trope so unique is the way they were never fully enemies. From Lucy’s point of view, she always had a soft spot for Joshua but layered on hatred to make working with him “easier.” Even though readers do not get an in-depth view into Joshua’s mind, his actions toward Lucy show the same soft spot.

I can always tell if I enjoyed a classic romance novel if I feel that I want more. That is exactly what this book left me. I needed to see where their lives went and how their relationship held up over the years. This book genuinely embodies the beauty of fiction in the romance world.