Welcome to What-To-Read Wednesday! This week Angela recommends:

The Hating Game by Sally Thorne

I think this is my favorite WTRW ever. I will admit to looking at the digital price at Amazon and wincing because HOLY SHIT $9.99 for an e-book? But then I kept seeing it pop up in my Twitter, Facebook and Goodreads feeds and I got weak. So thank goodness for social media. This enemies-to-lovers contemporary romance ( I think it’s labeled as women’s fiction but whatever) will most definitely appear on my best of list at the end of this year. Yes, it’s that good.

I’m never alone in here. Sitting opposite me is the Executive Assistant to Mr. Bexley. His henchman and manservant. The second, the most essential thing anyone needs to know about me, is this: I hate Joshua Templeman.

Lucy is the executive assistant to Helene Pascal of Gamin and Joshua is the executive assistant to Mr. Bexley. When their companies merged they were suddenly forced into the same office space, desks side by side and disliked each other at first sight. (Or did they?) Everything is a competition between them and it manifests into games they play in order to one up the other. The mirror game, the HR game, the staring game… everything they do is a game to get the best of the other.

Lucy and Josh are complete opposites. Where Lucy is warm and friendly, Josh is cold and able to get his opponents to shut up with just a stare down.  Where Lucy has a quirky, fun style, Josh’s rigidity runs over even into his wardrobe and you can tell what day it is by the color shirt he is wearing. Where Lucy is short, Josh is tall. Where Lucy is a people pleaser who tends to let her co-workers run all over her, Josh has absolutely no problem with saying the word no. Shall I go on?

Everything about them and everything thing they do from the first page is so completely opposite that as a reader you immediately get this little thrill just knowing that their eventual fall into lust and love is going to be epic. AND IT IS. The entire book is told from Lucy’s POV and let me tell you, I loved being in her head. I loved her sense of humor. I loved seeing Josh’s transformation through her eyes. But besides that, I loved the fact that the author sprinkled little hints of Josh’s true feelings throughout the book that Lucy either missed or was confused by, but I got.

And the sexual tension, OMG. There were times Josh said things that made me want to just about swoon.

“What’s with the weird eyes? Relax.”

“I was thinking how big you are.”

I looked at our joined hands. He carefully strokes the length of my palm with his thumb. When we look at each other again, his eyes are a little darker.

“I’ll fit you just right.”

What? You need more proof?

“Lucy” is all he can seem to say. “Lucy. How am I going to walk away from tonight? Seriously. How?”

Seriously, the tension between these two is just about the best I’ve ever read. It goes on and on and I wanted them to finally give in and have each other, but at the same time I wanted them to wait and then wait some more because watching them fall into to each other was such a romantic treat. Also, the HEA? So perfectly wonderful.

The Hating Game is a keeper shelf book. It’s one that I will turn to when I’m in a book slump and need a romantic, fun, well-written pick me up. The fact that this is Sally Thorne’s debut just about makes my heart burst with joy.

Favorite Quote:

His smile is worth a thousand of anyone else’s. I need a photograph. I need something to hold on to. I need this entire bizarre planet to stop spinning so I can freeze this moment in time. What a disaster.

The Hating Game by Sally Thorne
08/09/2016 – William Morrow
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What-To-Read Wednesday: The Hating Game by Sally Thorne was first published on Fiction Vixen Books and Beauty