Reviews with content warning for Sexual harassment - The Trouble with Hating You

Ran through this novel in a day. The plot was really easy to jump into, even though it felt like we were just running into the characters as they lived their lives. I loved each character’s development and the ways in which they complemented each other.

I also specifically appreciated that Liya was not expected to give everything up for Jay, and that Jay made the decision to move to a new city for her. It was a nice turn of common desi narratives that she didn’t have to sacrifice everything to stay with the guy.

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aliciachauhan_'s review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

what can I say about this book? this was the first time reading a book where South Asians were the maim characters specifically Hindu gujarati therefore I felt like i could really relate to it. it was incredibly great to read about things I could specifically relate to such as traditions and beliefs so I felt a lot more connected to the characters than ever. I strongly felt a connection towards Liya as she has the same view as me on marriage and children within an Indian household and wider society. I just hope one day I would would able to experience this type of love in real life because this book was truly beautiful.

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stravabutforbooks's review against another edition

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emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

solid premise and plot but quickly fell into the traps of "falling in love and sharing your trauma heals all <3" and "woman needs a ~good man~ to save her after sexual assault and promiscuity". lots of the very explaining-y dialogue made some scenes feel rushed, especially the main couple going from "hate" to love felt like a switch being flipped. almost every character was either amazingly good or almost cartoonishly evil

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fnutor's review against another edition

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I didn’t like Jay. And I know that you’re not gonna like every character -but he seemed like he hadn’t unlearned some male programming. Love me a flawed character but he had a whole im a nice guy but wasn’t really totally empathetic or understanding of Liya. She deserves better. I’m gonna read another book by the author-it’s not the style of writing it’s just the characterization. Idk I’m always sensitive to the way men are written opposite of women who have gone through assault at the hands of other men and something Wasn’t clicking. Hopefully the other books are better.

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noellelovesbooks's review against another edition

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4.0

Content Warnings: Verbal/emotional/physical abuse, sexism, fire, injury and death by fire, trauma, grief, sexual assault, and mention of attempted rape of a minor and racism.

Don’t be fooled by the cartoon cover this book deals with a lot of heavy topics like the sexual assault and attempted rape of a minor, a minor that is shamed and blamed for the assault and labeled “unclean and loose” not only by their community but also by a parent. We also see the lifetime of grief someone faces when they blame the tragic death of a loved one on themselves.

Liya has been told, from a young age, that she’s dirty and shouldn’t expect any nice guys to want her. Focusing on her career, and enjoying life, Liya is determined to never fall prey to the whims of men again. Though her parents know she doesn’t want to marry they still go behind her back to invite a potential suitor to dinner. What other option than fleeing dinner does she have?

Jay doesn’t believe he deserves a happy ever after and is determined to never marry. Blaming himself for the tragic death of his father, when he was a child, Jay does whatever he can to help his brother and mother be happy. Even though he has no plans to marry…Jay can’t turn his mother down when she asks him to meet a potential bride. Why did said match flee their dinner like demons were chasing her? If she didn’t want to meet she could have said so instead of embarrassing his poor mother who now worries they somehow offended Liya before even meeting her.

We get instant enemies over a misunderstanding, then forced proximity when they find out Jay’s the lawyer that’s been hired to help Liya’s company, and then a slow burn as they realize maybe the other isn’t so bad after all. I adored this couple and was cheering for them from the start. If you love romance’s that deal with heavier topics but prefer FTB [fade to black, aka when sex takes place off-page rather than on-page] I highly recommend giving this debut romance a chance.

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drishthings's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

loved the book
the indian aspect was *chefs kiss*
i just got annoyed with the heroine a bit

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brokenbodybitch's review against another edition

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medium-paced

4.25

I did enjoy the book, however I do want to put a warning in here that it is a much heavier book then I was anticipating and the content warnings shouldn’t be taken lightly.

The romance in this book is pretty good, the chemistry between the characters is definitely well written and at times, they do questionable things but generally there is some reasoning (in this book the reason is very often a trauma response or something related to fears and trauma) that makes it so you can still root for the MC or LI. I really enjoy how you can tell their upbringing and what they went through up till now really motivated their actions and often times, you can see the bouncing ball of oh well this is because of this and stuff like that you aren’t left wondering what possessed them to do whatever they did.

I am not south Asian so I can’t speak on the accuracy or quality of the rep but I think the family dynamics in this book were really well done, yes don’t get me wrong a lot of the family was just straight up insufferable and I would gladly like to clock her dad in the face, however the dynamics and relationships between characters felt very real and they stayed true throught the book. I find when some authors try to write family dynamics with generational trauma and abuse and heavier more complicated things like that they will sometimes have these happy endings that while nice, ultimately don’t seem all that realistic, where as in this book her father is vile her entire childhood (for whatever reasons) and he didn’t have this seemingly instant magical turn around, his actions lined up with how his character had been set up from the beginning, and that was with all the characters I can think of.

I really enjoyed this book, yes it is a romance but it also deals with trauma from many many different angles as well as having South Asian representation. At times it reads a little more like a YA/NA romance but all in all, the characters have clear and developed backstories and it deals with trauma from so many sides that it felt like it had another purpose beyond the romance.

Extra CW/TW:
The biggest ones to be aware of are SA between an adult and minor, being told you are lying about it and other horrible things along those lines by many people but especially parental figures, and the trauma that goes along with SA, in particular childhood SA. It is handled fairly well by the end of the book and does have a positive ending but it can be very heavy at times; and I can’t speak on childhood SA but from a general SA trauma perspective it was pretty accurately portrayed. Again I’m not the authority on this, but I don’t think it is harmful rep by any means just very possibly triggering for someone with those potential triggers. It’s not a bad book I don’t think, just be very cautious going into it

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