The Hating Game in What's the Name of That Book???

Sep 09, 2016 katayoun Masoodi rated it it was ok

i thought i would love this with all those lovely reviews and yet i really didn't like it. i didn't like the way these two were with each other, to me it didn't feel like love, they way they were together was strange and so didn't feel right. must admit that i skimmed through the last half of the book, so i might have felt different if i had read it all, but just couldn't deal with the people and their interactions and feeling that this is a romance book!
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Aug 05, 2018 Nadine in NY Jones rated it it was amazing

Shelves: lotsa-buzz, only-reading-because-of-the-buzz, romance, contemporary-romance, stayed-up-way-too-late, forced-proximity-or-one-bed

Oh my goodness I fell under the spell of this book and fell HARD! The first 15 or 20 pages didn't thrill me, it was too much of a "chick lit" vibe and I wasn't overly fond of the protagonist, Lucinda. But after that, woohooooo. I never really loved Lucinda/Lucy Hutton, her freak-outs were annoying and her behavior was often bizarre (literally rubbing herself all over him and then the next day despising him), but I fell head over heels for acerbic, shy, gorgeous Joshua Templeman, and I adored the ...more

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Aug 23, 2017 Eh?Eh! rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: babble-added, goodreaders-made-me

This had some fun moments and banter, a great vacation read to zip through. I liked the bit of career planning for the main female character and the tell-off scene towards the end was so satisfying. This is already leaving my mind so I can't recall all the details, but that's just fine for this kind of light read.

Minor quibbles, because complaining comes easy: All the changing eye color stuff was silly - why is that necessary? Whose eyes turn black? I'll tell you who, evil aliens and witches, th ...more

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Oct 14, 2019 Maria Elmvang rated it really liked it

Shelves: 4-stars, 2019, owned-ebook, chick-lit

I had this recommended to me, because I'd enjoyed "The Unhoneymooners" so much. I'm glad, because even though it couldn't quite compare to TU, I still really enjoyed it, and read most of it in a day. Chick-lit has come a LONG way since the late 90s/early 00s when I mostly gave up on the genre, and I couldn't be happier.

Once again it's the enemies-to-lovers trope, although the switch from one to the other is a lot more sudden, and not quite as believable. Still, I loved seeing how Lucy and Josh c ...more

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Jun 28, 2021 Liz marked it as skipping-because-problematic

I've heard this title has a lot of fat shaming, so I'll pass. ...more

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Jul 19, 2017 Melinda Worfolk rated it liked it

Shelves: 2015-2019, fiction, funny, romance, strong-women, women-authors, romantic-comedy

I put a hold on this one primarily because of the cover, and secondarily because I liked the preview chapter on Overdrive. I don't regret having read it; it's got problems, but even so, I stayed up way too late finishing this one.

I liked the setting (publishing house) and the mock arguing between the two main characters, as well as the way they eventually admitted their mutual attraction. However, there were a few things I found not great:

-the speed with which they admitted this attraction (cou ...more

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Nov 18, 2018 Liz rated it really liked it

Shelves: book-on-tape, romance

Cute, light, and extremely unputdownable. Could've done without the 500 short jokes. ...more

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Jul 07, 2017 Sara ♥ rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary, romance, audiobook, humor, 2017, challenge-audio-1000-2017

July 22-26, 2017

Okay, so to be honest, it took me a bit to get into this book. It took me a couple days to really commit to listening to it. The beginning of the book is a bit rough between the hero and heroine. I mean, they're REALLY enemies and they are NOT nice to each other. And when that sort of thing is going down and the hero is being a douche to the heroine, it (hopefully understandably) makes me not want him to get the girl. Plus.... *sigh* It's written in first person present tense. Li July 22-26, 2017

Okay, so to be honest, it took me a bit to get into this book. It took me a couple days to really commit to listening to it. The beginning of the book is a bit rough between the hero and heroine. I mean, they're REALLY enemies and they are NOT nice to each other. And when that sort of thing is going down and the hero is being a douche to the heroine, it (hopefully understandably) makes me not want him to get the girl. Plus.... *sigh* It's written in first person present tense. Like The Hunger Games. First person present is SO AWKWARD and, honestly, uncomfortable for me to read. So if the story isn't driving me forward to read a book in a weird tense....

But then, the story just sorta sucked me in. Probably by the end of Chapter 3, when the BIG PROBLEM is introduced (basically one of them is going to be promoted to be the other's boss). Things start getting really interesting starting in Chapter 4.

One of my favorite things was how unexpected the romance was. It was really really really REALLY FREAKING ADORABLE... When you meet Joshua Templeman, you think you know exactly how this alpha male stuff goes... He's gonna be all domineering and pushy and whatever. But he's NOT. He's NOT what I thought he was gonna be. It was really surprising in a good way. ADORABLE really is the word for it. I mean, it's rocky because she doesn't trust him (because HISTORY)... but man.

The cool thing (which I suppose is partially due to being in first person) is that you start to realize over the course of the book, that Lucy isn't the most reliable narrator. She can't read Josh... like when they start actually talking and getting to know each other, she said something like, "You look mad" (maybe it was sad?) and he says, "I'm happy." And I'm like... If she can't even tell the basic emotion he's feeling from his face, like what the heck else has she been wrong about?????? I mean, the WHOLE BOOK is from her POV!! She could be wrong about EVERYTHING.

The other thing I loved was the way Sally Thorne describes things. Clever, interesting, non-cliched descriptions of things. I can't even think of an example, but they were all over the place. She has a really cool writing style. Lots of language though. *eek*

Anyway, I'm gonna leave it at that. Now if you'll excuse me, I rewound the audiobook to about 40% in so I could listen again.......

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Aug 01, 2017 Jennie rated it it was amazing

RAWR.

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Mar 07, 2019 Christina rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: popsugar-2019-reading-challenge, contemp-romance

Popsugar 2019 Reading Challenge: A book revolving around a puzzle or game
Well, it's been a while since I had to don my mask and cape and venture forth as my alter ego, Minority Opinion Girl, but...I didn't really love this book. Sorry, rest of the world. But this book left me confused more than anything else. Things could get vaguely spoilery along the way as I try to figure out what the Samuel Langhorn hell was going on, so be warned.
It started off really strong, and it moves quickly even for t Popsugar 2019 Reading Challenge: A book revolving around a puzzle or game
Well, it's been a while since I had to don my mask and cape and venture forth as my alter ego, Minority Opinion Girl, but...I didn't really love this book. Sorry, rest of the world. But this book left me confused more than anything else. Things could get vaguely spoilery along the way as I try to figure out what the Samuel Langhorn hell was going on, so be warned.
It started off really strong, and it moves quickly even for those of us (okay, me) who were left scratching our heads about things. I appreciated the script flip around a handsome man not wanting to be objectified. The dialogue was sharp and enjoyable and stayed that way throughout. Lucy had a unique and memorable narrative voice, although sometimes she was so childlike I got a little creeped out. I get, I do get, why so many people love this book.
But yeah, there was just something slightly off for me and the longer the book went on, the more I got distracted by that. The constant focus on the size discrepancy between the hero and heroine made me wonder if there's a fetish out there somewhere involving tiny women and large muscular men. Also, did I miss an announcement about tank tops on men suddenly being unbearably sexy? There were many moments when I wanted to tell Josh to eff off, particularly when he was yelling at other men for daring to talk to Lucy (tell me again about how he views her as an equal and their whole "thing" is that they each give as good as they get). He was also bossy as hell, but at the same time, Lucy could be so passive and willfully ignorant I almost didn't blame him. She was really prone to blurting out stupid things and making huge assumptions about their relationship without discussing them with him and then acting on said assumptions and being really hurtful. On the other hand, Josh was also pretty out of line with the assumptions: (view spoiler). Also, Lucy, how many times do you have to hear (view spoiler)? We do hear about a single ruined friendship in the past, but there are no other hints about how she might have gotten so insecure.
I guess overall this book just didn't work for me. It might work for you! And I won't judge you if it did! But before I hang up the mask and cape, Minority Opinion Girl has one last observation to share with you about this book: I did not for a minute buy either of these characters as book people. And that IS a problem. ...more

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