The Hating Game

I liked how this book started. Explaining the similarities between love and hate with the main differences being the actual emotions experienced rather than the outcome of that emotion. An example used here was how every interaction with that person you either love or hate is filled with adrenaline that doesn't allow you to be yourself (in this the only difference is that one comes from anger while the other comes from happiness).

I also liked all the imagery. When talking about the two companies merging, Sally made reference to two people getting married, which was an image that certainly helped us learn how our main character, Lucy, felt about merging with the other company (hint: she hated it). A clear line is drawn between the two companies, Gamin and Bexley and this doesn't only go for how the actual companies function but also applies to the workers at each company. And although not introduced yet, with how the book is described I can imagine that Joshua is going to be from Bexley which is where the hate will first come from.

But when he does get introduced we learn that he is the executive assistant to Mr Bexley (the CEO of one of the companies) while she is the assistant to Helene Pascal (the CEO of the other company) and now both those people are running the company together, meaning that Lucy and Joshua have to work together a lot. The name of this book, 'The Hating Game' also relates to what they do a lot. Play games. Things such as mirroring each other while in the office that they now share. Their obsession with the other is childish, and it is not the kind of dislike that people usually associate children bullying each other as a form of endearment, it is childish and petty things, such as Lucy having her password as a variation of her hating Joshua.

I could see a lot of small little bits of humour at the start, although some of it definitely felt like it was forced, it did give an idea of who Lucy was as a person, and who Joshua was. They're extremely petty, having reported the other to HR for minor infractions, having petty little games where they try and one up the other, and Lucy also feels wronged and like he has something on her because she smiled and him once and he didn't return one back to her. At this point it definitely is a fun childish, the only thing that I hope doesn't happen is that this continues at this level of pettiness throughout the whole book. I can only imagine how much annoyance I would feel if I got into the last quarter of the book, or even halfway and their pettiness is getting in the way of their relationship. Because even if that goes away in the end I wouldn't be sure if I could trust them to stay together after if all I have seen between the two is most petty jabs and vindictive behaviour over the smallest possible slight, and then a little bit of romance. The only way that I'd accept their relationship after so much unneeded bitterness between the two is if when things got serious, say she was on the verge of being fired, or she logged a complaint about Richard Bexley for sexual harassment (that hasn't happened but he definitely seems like a creepy person), and he helped her out while dismissing all their past petty behaviour towards the other which does seem to be something that he'd do as when he seeing his boss attempting to look down her shirt (she knows he is trying but there is nothing she can really do against the owner of the company at this moment while still keeping her job) he doesn't rib her like I was expecting him to and instead seems to actually want her to stand up for herself. Proving that if things got serious, he would most likely be on her side and help out, instead of not believing her or making insensitive jokes about it.

There definitely are hints that this hate she is feeling towards him stems from some sort of want to get to know him better, but thinking that he thinks he is too good for her. And there is also the aspect of her losing one of her best friends as a lot of people were cut in the merger and Val Stone was one of them. She was furious at Lucy for not giving her a heads up, even though Lucy didn't even know that she was getting cut, and she didn't believe Lucy when she told her that she knew nothing about it. So that resentment that she feels towards someone who is untouchable and would fire her if she said anything less than one hundred per cent positive about him, Richard Bexley, is moved onto the next person in power and the one with who she interacts all the time, Joshua.

Their conversations do become funnier as the book starts moving forward, and I even smiled and exhaled out of my nose at Joshua talking to himself after Lucy asked him to ask anyone and they will tell him that she is nice. One thing that Joshua mentions at this time that is actually true is how she lets the people below her take advantage of her. She doesn't have to be horrible, but when the same employees don't finish the work they were assigned and then dump it on her and she doesn't reprimand them it means that they're going to do it again without hesitation. Why? Because she lets them get away with it.

A little while later Joshua starts his usually teasing of her except he takes it too far and hits a nerve as he starts talking about her parents and about how lonely and homesick she must be (she is lonely and homesick) which makes a few tears drop and Joshua instantly stops his goading and stays silent as they both go into their bosses separate rooms, reminding them that they have a meeting. Lucy really looks up to Helene and wants to be like her when she is in her 50s (which Helene is). She talked about how she even changed her make-up to resemble her boss more.

A knew position opens up in the company, a position just below Helene and Bexley and as the two highest in the company apart from those two, Joshua and Lucy are the two in the running. It would mean that whoever wins is going to end up being the boss of the other person. Which means Lucy or Joshua would probably end up quitting if they were forced to be below their rival. We get to see kind of the only gripe she has with her parents, that being that her mother left her dream job of being a journalist to work on a farm because of her father. She can't understand how her bother was able to leave that dream job just becasue of a man (I hope this doesn't happen in this story/ Fingers crossed).

One day as they're going to the basement together to go to their cars, Joshua presses the emergecy button that stopps the elevator which causes Lucy to think that this is going to be the end of her and that Joshua has finally snapped but instead he lifts her up against the wall and starts kissing her. Starting a new game, which he lovingly calls the kissing game. After learning that her date is actually real he ends up saying some hurtful things while she is already feeling down and makes it worse. All he can do is apologise, which he does the next day, and this gives them a chance to start over. Not as adverseries, but as colleages, friends, or maybe even more. Not matter how much Lucy thinks that she just wants someone like Danny (her date from the previous night) even she struggles to fool herself into thinking that is what she wants.

Now that Lucy and Joshua have moved past their actual destructive relationship and onto more gentle ribbing (and that the seed has been planted in her mind that she might like him and he might like her) we can focus more on her inability to say no to anyone. This is first illustrated by Julie asking if her niece can intern with her because her niece if very opinionated and has drug problems. She requests this because she says Lucy has the most patience out of anyone she knows. Although it is clear to see that she is taking advantage of her kindness.

Because she only viewed Joshua as someone who was mean to her and not as a potential partner (as in boyfriend/husband) she is oblivious to his angry, indignant behaviour and just views it as weird, missing that he is jealous as it coincides with her interaction with Danny (who she has started to get to know better casually).

While doing the team activity that Joshua convinced Bexley and Helene was a good idea, she gets shot a lot while protecting Joshua and also realises that she is sick at the same time. This sickness carries on and leaves her in a semi-lucid state (cliche, I know) where Joshua starts to become protective of her and helps her get back.

While recovering from whatever it was that was causing her to throw up and pass out, she 'meets' Joshua's brother. I say meets in quotes because she was half out of it, so while we were able to see what happened with their conversations fully I am not sure if it fully stuck in her head. When she wakes up next, she hasn't fully recovered and uses this opportunity to talk to Joshua about anything and everything, getting sexual, talking to him about if he thinks Helene and Bexley hook up in elevators as they did, and then about the strawberry farm that their parents run. After going to sleep and waking up once against she freaks out and ends up basically kicking him out of her apartment without so much as joking like she had been making all night. She then sleeps AGAIN and when she wakes up she realises that she actually doesn't hate Joshua. The whole world knew and she is only just realising it herself. Shocking.

But as with anything like this in these kinds of books, if you're not close to the end and things look like they're heading up for the main couple you need to hold your horses. Danny comes to pick her up in the morning (the 'hold' in the 'hold your horses' saying. Although now that I am thinking about it that would make Lucy the horse. But, oh well).

And oh, what do you know. Danny starts in on Josh once they reach the office, obviously having expected Lucy to join him as, as far as he knows, she hates him. She isn't even sure that he sees her as anything but a little sister as well (mostly because of Danny as well). But judging by the rose she finds on her desk, and that he claims he doesn't know how appeared there (she knows he's lying) there was more to his feelings than that but Danny had to come and ruin everything, as expected. And because, surprise, surprise, she views Joshua as attacking Danny with his 'callous' comments (especially once Danny had left) she becomes defensive and starts going after him verbally. He is called away by Bexley and she ends up cutting herself on the rose she tries to keep when he takes it once he has fully gone into Bexley's office she ends up finding a note that went together with the rose from Joshua telling her that she is always beautiful. Her inpatients and irrational hatred towards him ended up stalling their relationship which is something that I did enjoy because she needed a kick in the ass to realise that he did care for her, but at the same time, the drama happening in any romance book is a tale of two stories. You can it happen because it's interesting, but you also don't want it to happen as you want the two characters to get together.

Lucy's unable-to-say-no nature comes up again while she is apologising to Josh and telling him things she could do to make up for her mistake she is called by Danny and convinced to go on a date with him that night. I do really like how, so far, the character flaws are being used in a constructive way, instead of it just being something she has that isn't really mentioned until she rids herself of it. The main conflict between the two is solved quickly but Josh still wants her to go on the date with Danny and kiss him to make sure that she actually wants to be with him rather than Danny. I don't really care about this action towards Danny as he hasn't really shown anything to me that suggests he is a nice person, and his actions just seem very self-serving and as if he is the stereotypical 'Nice Guy Finish Last' kinda guy, which is an awful personality to have.

I think this behaviour from him has something to do with why he doesn't talk to his family, and especially his brother, much. I think this has something to do with his brother getting the girl he liked, or his girlfriend leaving him for his brother and so he obviously has those trust issues that are completely understandable. His disdain for 'Nice Guys' also seems to stem from his brother probably being one as well.

The date with Danny ends up being fine, adequate, okay, alright, acceptable. Perfectly tolerable, but not great, heartstopping, knee-weakening, pass-out-in-the-middle-of-the-street good that she experiences with Josh, which is when she goes over to his place, kisses him and then convinces herself to leave, right that second, so that she can wake up in her own apartment the next morning. Although Josh instantly squashes that thought as he picker her up and takes her up to his apartment but instead of going at it, like Lucy is craving, they sit down and he puts on a few episodes of a TV show and then tells her that he will walk her out. Her horniness is overloading as she doesn't catch onto the fact that he actually likes her so wants to take things slower, and her behaviour is understandable but definitely a bit on the cringy side.

Their relationship definitely is starting to change, thankfully, and my fears at the start of the book are slowly being moved away. Joshua isn't the cold-hearted person that I first thought he was, I was only seeing him through Lucy's eyes, and it doesn't look like they're both going to be disappointed by not getting the job as at least with Joshua it seems like being some kind of doctor is something that he ca fall back on (not only because his father and brother are doctors, but also because of previous scenes where it seemed like he had been one in the past, or given up the dream for whatever reason). Although throughout this whole 'growing closer together' phase she is the closest thing to Quagmire since, well, Quagmire.

After another night of increase sexual appetite and want between the two, Joshua is finally able to convince Lucy to say something back, instead of taking on the workload, when one of the employees asks her if she can leave for the day. It's amazing to see her finally growing a backbone, and since the only thing that happened during this doormat phase was her being slightly used and slightly abused, no harm no foul.

They do get into a little fight because they obviously can't reveal their relationship while they still work so closely together, so Joshua hides it at first, and then Lucy hides it next, each getting angry at the other. But this moves us onto the part where I think their relationship will evolve the most. Her going with him to his brother's wedding. While on the four-hour drive to the place they need to get to, Lucy cannot run away from any conversation like she usually would and is forced to talk with Josh. They end up revealing things to each other, mostly on her end such as how she didn't actually have a date and only got one because of him, and how she had a wet dream about him.

Obviously, at the wedding, we can't just have them growing closer, so it is finally revealed by Mindy, the bride, that she used to date Josh and broke up with him not long before the merger between the two companies was confirmed. Obviously upset she has a heart-to-heart with his mother but it doesn't really help her at that moment, and she ends up going to leave, calling Danny (her impulsive nature is one thing that I grew to disdain about her behaviour as although she told Danny that she only wants to be friends she is giving mixed signals. That can obviously lead to something more as he will now (fairly) think that he has a chance with her. Maybe it won't happen with him, but what about the next guy, or the one after that?)

He then tells her about how his dad basically ignored him his whole life and focused on Patrick, his brother, even when he was achieving the same as him. This is the last thing that was between them and breaks down the final wall which is when we move on to the sex. It was okay. It was cathartic to finally see them join together after all that time when we were being teased but more than that it was nice to see them being completely open with each other, not even from the physical standpoint, but baring themself emotionally to the other.

When they go down for breakfast and Lucy moves away for only a moment Josh and his father start arguing. Or, rather, his father starts going after him which is when Lucy interjects, making him realise that he is perpetuating a cycle that was damaging to him and his brother in the past and that he knows absolutely nothing about Josh and his job.

It's cliche, especially a scene where they don't have to pay because it was entertaining to the worker (I'm, definitely one hundred per cent, definitively, sure someone would risk their job after experiencing a little bit of drama) but since it was cute I will let it slide.

Barely.

You're on thin ice Sally.

Anyway, moving on to the final few things in the book that were a little less cliche than I was expecting. You're lucky Sally. She finds out she's in love with Josh, and what she also finds out is that he has already resigned from the company and is now going to work with their direct rivals (keeping the competitive spirit up) and that one of the reasons he gave when he was resigning was that he loved Lucy and had one last week to make her fall in love with him, which he did, and that's how the story ends.

Some flaws, such as the opening being something you have to push through, and the fact that their will-they-won't-they romance was the focus so there wasn't really any point in reading on after they left the wedding (it was sweet, but I wasn't really as invested as before). I definitely did think a few of the lines were a bit cringy, an example being when Patrick came over to help her when she was sick and he said something about her being cute. The way in which it was said just made me put the book down for a second. There was also the fact that the humour was hit or miss. Sometimes I smiled wide, and other times I sighed when reading the jokes and teasing between the two, but overall it wasn't so bad that it put me off reading the book. Obviously, because I ended up finishing the book.

I would say that this book is worth reading, and it did have a lot I liked in it, such as breaking the horny stereotype, where she was the constantly horny one. Or the motivations being very believable, and their character flaws being shown in different ways, so it wasn't just one-dimensional. If you're into romance books, office romance specifically in this case then this is one for you.

7.9/10