Hearth and Pages: The Hating Game by Sally Thorne

“Both love and hate are mirror versions of the same game and you have to win. Why? Your heart and your ego. Trust me, I should know.”

The Hating game is a debut romance novel by Sally Thorne. Which actually kind of surprised me, because for a debut novel, the writing is really great. Meet Lucy Hutton, our lovable protagonist who is a nice, quirky, office darling and love to wear red lipstick and cheerful clothes. Then meet Joshua Templeman, Lucy's cold, joyless, uptight, arrogant co-worker, who—according to his subordinates—is pretty much the "military commander" in their office. Both of them work as executive assistants to co-CEOs of a recently merged publishing company, Bexley and Gamin. Both of them sit across each other. Both of them hate each other. And both of them have no problem displaying their hatred toward each other in a series of ritualistic petty, childish, and passive agressive games.

Now competing for the same promotion to become a COO, their game has come to a new stage as both of them refuse to back down. But the tension between Lucy and Joshua has also elevated into a steamy boiling point. As their game escalated, both of them discover that maybe they don’t hate each other. Or maybe this is just a new dangerous deceptive level of their hating game.

Before we get into the review, I would like to thank Pop Sugar team for including “a book recommended by your favorite author” prompt for this year’s advance reading challenge. I would also like to thank Sarah J. Maas the author who confessed to have read this book three times last year and got me really curious about it. If it’s not for her recommendation of this book in her last newsletter, maybe I will never noticed and read this book. So thank you so much to both of you, because this book is my first five stars read in 2017. Yes, you read that right. This book just raise my standards for other romantic comedy (romcom) novels and I’m not even a fan of most romcom novels. Which is why I kind of regret reading this book in January, because I knew I will compare other romance, especially romcom books with this one. Okay, let's get on with the review then.

Watch out, minor spoilers ahead.

I love this book. I read this book in one sitting, and I made a huge mistake by starting it at 11 PM on work day, I didn’t sleep that night. I just can’t put down this book, and to be honest I feel so guilty for loving The Hating Game this much. Because, 1) The story is so predictable, in fact I managed to correctly guessed all the "twists" in this book. 2) It’s full of clichès. These two are usually the factors that make me pluck one full star from a review. So why is this book still have five stars from me? Because this book has some of my personal kryptonites.

Let’s talk about the characters. Both of our main leads are flawed people. One of them is a stuck up jerk, and the other one is a sugar-coated people-pleaser. They’re both doing a really great job at work, but both of them are acting like kindergartners toward each other. They’re so immature and petty, AND I LOVE THEM FOR IT. They’re so childish that they created a bunch of mind games to annoyed each other daily. For example, there is The Mirror Game when they mirrored each other moves. There is The Staring Game when they stare at each other intensely. And other games like The ‘You’re Just So...’ Game, The Spying Game, The ‘How You Doing?’ Game, and my favorite: The ‘Or Something’ Game. I love flawed characters, because there will be room for growth, developments and redemption. And I got that all of that from these two, that is kryptonite number one.

The second kryptonite is their banters. I’m a sucker for sassy, witty and hilarious banters, especially if they’re coated in sexual innuendo. Let me give you an example:

- “What are you imagining? Your expression is filthy.”

- “Strangling you. Bare hands.”

- “So that’s your kink.”

- “Only where you’re concerned.”

For the record, the character in red is in fact imagined themselves killing the character in yellow by strangling them. This is my weakness, I can’t say no to hilarious and full of sexual tension banters like this. Another one of my favorite is this:

- “When I’m your boss, I’m going to work you so fucking hard.”

- “When I’m your boss, you’re going to do everything I say with a big smile on your face.”

- “When I’m your boss, any more than three mistakes in your financial calculations will result in an official warning.”

- “When I’m your boss, I’m going to be convicted of murder.”

The third kryptonite—and probably the most important—is Sally Thorne’s writing style. First, I have to make clear that my problem with most of romance books is the writing style. I feel like a lot of romance authors are either too extra with their narratives that the book became too sappy. Or the narratives are too distastefully trashy that it turns into an overly vulgar porn. I feel like some authors are not even trying to be decent, that’s why I’m very picky when it comes to romance book. But holy hell, Ms. Thorne, your writing feels like a refreshing rain on my dry-romance book-land. I don’t know how but somehow Sally Thorne manage to balanced them all very cleverly. It’s light, humorous, witty and beautiful. Three pages into this book, and I already know that I will like The Hating Game a lot, only because I like her writing so much. And since I want you to be swoon when you read the romantic scene in this book, here’s one non-romantic example:

“The Bexleys are hard geometrics, the Gamins are soft scribbles. Bexleys move in shark packs, talking figures and constantly hogging the conference rooms for their ominous Planning Sessions. Plotting sessions, more like. Gamins huddle in their cubicles, gentle doves in clock towers, poring over manuscripts, searching for the next literary sensation. The air surrounding them is perfumed with jasmine tea and paper. Shakespeare is their pinup boy.”

(Ms. Thorne, you had me at Pinup Boy Shakespeare)

The fourth kryptonite is the right amount of what I called as the Trifecta of Romance: fluff, angst, and smut. The other things that usually annoyed me when I read a romance book is that they’re usually get too cheesy, or too cornball, or just too filthy. But for me, The Hating Game has a right amount of each aspects. There are sweet and a bit cheesy moments, angsty and my-heart-is-dying moments, and steamy but not too trashy moments. And this book is served with three perfect dose of each. I have to give you a warning though, there are sex scenes in this book and they are pretty graphic. So, if you’re not into that—which totally cool— you might want to skip this book. As for me, I’m a trash for those scenes in this book, so into the garbage chute I go.

This post is already too long, and I don't think I can explain to you how much I love this book without spoiling it for you. So, I will just cut it and list all of my other kryptonites:

Enemies/Rivals turn Friends turn Lovers
SLOW BURN ROMANCE
Slytherin x Hufflepuff™
Heights difference a.k.a SMALL AND TALL™
Opposites Attracts
Have I already mention how much I love petty characters?
Heavy sexual tension
Awkward flirting a.k.a They Think They’re Being Sexy But They’re Not™
Dramatic people making public scenes
Supporting characters who love to throw salt over drama
Equally alpha and primal pairing

The conclusion is I love this book, so much. I mean, six chapters into this book, and I already know that I'm going to give this book five stars. And I really think that anyone can enjoy reading The Hating Game, especially if you're in need of a light, funny, and witty romance. I can’t remember the last time I laugh this much over a book. This book makes me so happy, it makes my heart soar. I’m a very picky reader when it comes to romance, so this kind of thing rarely happens to me with romance books. Did I ever thought that I will ever give a five stars rating to a romcom book? Absolutely not. But here I am now, giving my five stars away to a wonderful and well-deserving romcom debut novel. Ms. Thorne, you did a really great job, I’m going to keep my eyes on you from now on.