REVIEW: Sally Thorne’s ‘The Hating Game’

 

The Hating Game
Sally Thorne

Debut author Sally Thorne bursts on the scene with a hilarious and sexy workplace comedy all about that thin, fine line between hate and love.

Nemesis (n.) 1) An opponent or rival whom a person cannot best or overcome.

                       2) A person’s undoing

                       3) Joshua Templeman

Lucy Hutton and Joshua Templeman hate each other. Not dislike. Not begrudgingly tolerate. Hate. And they have no problem displaying their feelings through a series of ritualistic passive aggressive maneuvers as they sit across from each other, executive assistants to co-CEOs of a publishing company. Lucy can’t understand Joshua’s joyless, uptight, meticulous approach to his job. Joshua is clearly baffled by Lucy’s overly bright clothes, quirkiness, and Pollyanna attitude.

Now up for the same promotion, their battle of wills has come to a head and Lucy refuses to back down when their latest game could cost her her dream job…But the tension between Lucy and Joshua has also reached its boiling point, and Lucy is discovering that maybe she doesn’t hate Joshua. And maybe, he doesn’t hate her either. Or maybe this is just another game.

Amazon

 

What AusRom Today thought:

With reviews and acclaim spanning far and wide for this absolutely stellar debut novel, what else can be said about Sally Thorne’s The Hating Game?!

Forget love-at-first-sight, Thorne’s characters Lucy and Josh have an instant hate-at-first-sight attraction that gives new and invigorating breath to a tried and true trope.

Lucy’s internal monologue is reminiscent of Nina Proudman (Offspring), and the manner in which Thorne presents this with such flow and finesse is really a credit to her writing abilities. In addition, the dialogue, of which there is quite a lot, follows the same theme—believable, free-flowing, and very true to life. It makes reading a breeze and gives a level of depth to both characters that might’ve been missed otherwise.

I don’t often re-read novels, but this is one that I will certainly read again (once I get my TBR pile wrangled!).

Highly recommend if you love Offspring, Zoe Foster-Blake’s The Wrong Girl, Brigid Jones’ Diary, and good old fashioned rom-coms with strong storytelling with charming, lovable characters.

 

We spoke with Sally about everything The Hating Game related; check the interview out here.

 

 

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