Please upvote if you think it's good, I think a 10 would be enough to nudge me into reading it but I'd really appreciate some insight. However, this was a one-weekend-stand and she doesn’t know how to change the rules on him especially as they are both vying for the same workplace promotion (and now that they have had the sex thing they are also in breach of HR). Lucy’s dilemma of how their relationship will work and her fear of losing another person close to her was realistic.

I’m definitely willing to try again with Sally Thorne, though I’m hoping her next book will be a bit more realistic. Then at the end of one particularly vitriolic and hurtful day, after their usual riling of each other, the two share a hot and heated kiss in the office elevator and the game rules change. The next day, Lucy overhears and misinterprets a conversation between Josh and their boss, concluding that Josh has been using their romance to distract her from the promotion. I especially loved a part in the middle where he had to take care of Lucy; there were so many wonderful and funny moments in that, as well as a few that showed a deeper side to him. As we get to know him we realise that he is quite a vulnerable man, one who has not been able to live up to his family’s expectations despite his own success.Sally Thorne lives in Canberra, Australia and spends her days writing, reading, drinking cups of tea and obeying the every whim of Delia the Pug. The fact that Josh talks about the games they play supports the fact that their dynamic isn’t entirely fabricated in Lucy’s head, but it is a pet peeve of mine when a character (or person, for that matter) decides to speak for someone else. Shallowreader acknowledges the Gadigal and Wangal People of the Eora Nation on whose ancestral lands this blog is written. But in the meantime, the vomit conquering hero will wipe our heroine’s fevered brow, he will hold her as she gasps and ptaptapta spits, then he will change her sheets giving her fresh crisp new ones which every reader knows will be a 50000 thread count Egyptian number which she finally will fall into for an exhausted and fitful sleep as he gently (and not at all creepily) watches her. Whilst I would love to read a sequel, I would hate – pardon the pun – for the book to go in a different direction than it has done.

One which has garnered them a reputation in their HR office which means they need to tread carefully with their insults. It was probably when she smiled at other guys, considering everything else that’s happened and been said. If you follow me on Twitter or have read other reviews by me, you might know that I am not a fan of the short and petite heroine thing.

Lucy is conceited, Lucy is mean to people who don not adhere to her aesthetic sensibilities (including juvenile fat-shaming of the co-CEO which coloured her as narrow-minded and mean yet unable to see the faults in her own attitudes to people). It might seem like I didn’t love these characters, and I wouldn’t say that I lovedddd them, but what redeemed them for me were their genuine quirks. Josh has moments of being kind and caring but they are fleeting and the majority of their relationship is based on put-downs, sarcasm, and fear.

I’ve already talked about how much i love their chemistry and romance, but i honestly can’t emphasise it enough. Had The Hating Gameended with a good, long visit to a therapist instead of unrealistic sex (I know it’s a novel, no one wants realistic sex in novels) with boring and problematic co-worker, I would have liked it more. One of the main reasons it took me years to come back to reading contemporary romance novels is that it infuriates me when the central premise of the book is based on a woman lapping up clearly abusive behavior from some shitheel whose main feature is his good looks. He’s superior and snooty, controlling and overbearing, taking every opportunity to put her down, to the point where she becomes worried about the consequences of showing vulnerability.Lucy aka Shortcake a nickname given to her by Josh due to her parents owning a strawberry farm, is unable to stand up for herself with everyone it seems except Josh. He was complex and really layered, and though it doesn’t take away his asshole-ness, he did have some valid reasons to be the way he was. Plus, they’ve run to HR complaining about the other on numerous occasions, which makes me feel like they’re actually seriously transgressing against one another and not just playfully joking.