Georgia Kostopoulou
It’s true that I had “The Hating Game” on my shelves for a good time now. I was hoping to read it sooner, but since Romance is not a genre I usually read, I always postponed reading it. This year I made a promise to myself, or rather two. One is to actually read more books off my shelves, which is a list that has come to be tremendously long and the second is to read more romance. So this one fitted both categories and made me feel good!
Lucy Hutton is a sweet nice girl that want to be in good terms with everyone and likes most people. She wants to be surrounded by friends at work and she mostly is, except for that extremely tall, dark and charmless Joshua Templeman. He never even sent a smile her way, since the very first day they met. Considering that they work at the same office, positioned in a way to face each other all day, it really makes Lucy worried. They spend their days playing stupid games with each other. There’s the Staring Game, the Mirror Game, the HR Game and all the little details that combine the Hating Game between them. Lucy has even used that as her password: IHATEJOSHUA4EV@.
“Books were, and always would be, something a little magic and something to respect.”
― The Hating Game
The two of them met when Gamin Publishing and Bexley Books merged in order to avoid financial ruin. Now, Bexley & Gamin Publishing is a new publishing house, with two CEOs and Lucy and Joshua are executive assistants to them. But just like their bosses have almost nothing in common, so do these two. Lucy is short and sweet and the girl that everyone loves. Joshua on the other hand is tall and intimidating and everyone fears him in the office. He is cold and professional and he wears a specific outfit at work, the same for each day of the week. Lucy has come to tell the day from the colour of his shirt!
“Shortcake.”
“Stop calling me Shortcake.”
“Watching you pretend to hate that nickname is the best part of my day.”
― Sally Thorne, The Hating Game
The two of them fall into the “opposites attract” saying. Because, even though Lucy thinks they hate each other, Joshua reveals a more menacing self when he finds out that Lucy has a date. After an elevator ride that ends with an earth shattering kiss, Lucy is not really sure what to think. Joshua remains his cold hating self but she starts to have dreams about him, which is not normal. When a new position comes up, for which they both apply and whoever get’s it will be the other’s boss, things escalate between them. Lucy is determine to quit her job if she doesn’t get the job and she is certain Joshua would do the same.
“It’s a corporate truth universally acknowledged that workers would rather eat rat skeletons than participate in group activities.”
― Sally Thorne, The Hating Game
The narration is from Lucy’s point of view, which makes it very easy to understand her way of thinking and see Joshua through her eyes. What we don’t get is Joshua’s view, which, as the story progresses we understand that is a lot different from what Lucy thinks. It also get’s her confused as there are more than one times that she would like to have a way to see what’s going on on his brain.
“Joshua is glaring at me with angry eyebrows. I use my brainwaves to transmit an insult to him, which he receives and pulls himself up straight.”
― Sally Thorne, The Hating Game
The Joshua we get to see from Lucy’s narration is so much different to who he actually is, as we get to learn in the process. He comes out to be a sensitive person that is giving his own fights against all odds, one that still seeks recognition by his own family.
Overall, I really enjoyed Lucy’s and Joshua’s story. It started like a typical enemies to lovers but it was way more than that!
