Scan barcode
loloh's review against another edition
4.0
this was the other book that i found in the library after googling “books with emily henry vibes”!
this book was so fun! it does take about some difficult topics, but overall a fun little romance.
obviously (from the title), this was enemies to lovers. which is typically a trope that lacks in communication and this definitely had some moments that were lacking, but it wasn’t awful (i told my mom i was so excited to get back to my book after dinner bc they were having adult conversation, so that is fun!)! also there were moments that legit had be stressed out for some reason, but i persevered!
overall this book was really good and it was fun to get into a culture that i am not super familiar with! and also i love the male mc jay, he was perfect and great and amazing! and the female mc was very outspoken and opinionated and loud and that felt a little bit like me so that is silly and goofy! and there is another book about one of the girl’s friends so i am excited to read that at some point if they have it at the library!
this book was so fun! it does take about some difficult topics, but overall a fun little romance.
obviously (from the title), this was enemies to lovers. which is typically a trope that lacks in communication and this definitely had some moments that were lacking, but it wasn’t awful (i told my mom i was so excited to get back to my book after dinner bc they were having adult conversation, so that is fun!)! also there were moments that legit had be stressed out for some reason, but i persevered!
overall this book was really good and it was fun to get into a culture that i am not super familiar with! and also i love the male mc jay, he was perfect and great and amazing! and the female mc was very outspoken and opinionated and loud and that felt a little bit like me so that is silly and goofy! and there is another book about one of the girl’s friends so i am excited to read that at some point if they have it at the library!
mangorya's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
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? It's complicated
4.5
fliplamkenyahoocom's review against another edition
5.0
I listened to the audible version. They did Jay Shah a disservice by not having a male narrator. Great story
readingwithrae's review against another edition
dnf @ 15%
i'm sorry i literally can't do this, the main character is the WORST and from the reviews it doesn't seem like she gets any better
i'm sorry i literally can't do this, the main character is the WORST and from the reviews it doesn't seem like she gets any better
maria_rb's review against another edition
3.0
Liya and Jay show the conflict that children of immigrants face as they adopt American cultural norms that their parents may not embrace. This seemingly surface-level romance has a deeper message about female empowerment but only takes a small step in that direction. Jay is a tad too good to be true but that’s kind of the point of a romance novel.
kair_ree's review against another edition
1.0
This is...not very good. I mostly enjoyed the first chapter, but it was a downward spiral from there. The characters are poorly developed, the workplace aspect of it is extremely weak, and the relationship is kind of all over the place. Nothing added up to anything satisfying. Also, slut shaming.
It's clear the author wanted this story to have a feminist slant (this is definitely not a feminist story) and the issues that each character had could have been moving, but nothing was really fleshed out or allowed to breathe. Overall the story seemed trite or juvenile and the banter was for the most part weak. There are also many scenes featuring multiple characters with lots of dialogue where it's not clear who is speaking.
Liya, the heroine, starts out with potential, but quickly devolves. She's independent and isn't afraid to make what she wants known. She's actually not very likable, which I was kind of into. She's an outcast in her community due to her independence and her interest in sex (well, it's presented as an interest, but then it turns into sex being a crutch or something bad for her). She has a high power job, but it turns out her company is failing and then all the work related stuff just turns into a very boring plot device for her to interact with the hero, Jay. Both of them are trying to save the company even though it appears to have done very bad things. I wasn't sure why we were supposed to be rooting for them to succeed. It was an extremely weird choice to make.
Jay is also problematic and his dialogue always seems forced. That's actually a problem for a lot of characters in this book which is unfortunate because it is v dialogue heavy. His character is basically a mishmash of every other generic, nice guy hero. His backstory was intriguing, but it never seemed like it was really what had happened to him. All of his conflict felt thrown onto this character to give him something interesting, but it didn't seem to match his personality. I don't know. He never made sense to me.
My biggest issue with the story is that there's a lot of hand wringing by all the characters that Liya is sexually promiscuous when she's just not (not slut shaming- her alleged promiscuity could have been a compelling part of this story). I know that the number of sexual partners a person has to have to be labeled as "loose" varies by culture, but Liya's reputation is apparently known to the world at large.
Actually, everything about the Mike storyline rubbed me the wrong way, including the way Jay saves the day. First he gives a trite speech to Mike, then says he's going to press charges against him, and then decides he's going to force Mike to go back with flowers to apologize to Liya. I'm sorry, but Jay saw Liya after her encounter with Mike and she was in bad shape- why would you want to make her see this jerk again, let alone accept a gift and an apology from him? And then Liya is all like, Jay gave me back my power. NO.
The slut shaming was just all over the place in this and a lot of it was internal to the heroine. I suppose that was supposed to make her issues more complex, but since she wasn't really out there degrading herself with sex it came across like the author was afraid to really explore the ramifications of Liya's sexual abuse (that is revealed very early on and is not, imo, a spoiler). The author wanted her to have more sexual partners than the hero, Jay, but not so many that he couldn't easily brush them aside. That made the storyline, and Liya's plight, weak. I think it would have been more interesting and impactful to see Jay, the "good" guy, needing to come to terms with someone who had slept with a lot of people and ultimately finding her worth pursuing, loving, and defending. The fact that the heroine was always saying she wasn't really a slut also made it apparent that she believed there are women who are sluts (don't sleep with more than 7 people, ladies) and they are beneath her. It left me feeling very unsettled. Aside from Liya, a lot of men talk about what a big ole ho she is and all of it is terrible.
Finally, there's a weird competition between a woman, who I would assume has most likely also been abused by the villain of the story, and Liya that is cringe worthy and makes both of them look bad. I'm trying to find something positive to say about this, but there isn't much to highlight. The hero's mom was cool and I was glad that the heroine's mom made some progress, but those things aren't enough to make this worth slogging through.
It's clear the author wanted this story to have a feminist slant (this is definitely not a feminist story) and the issues that each character had could have been moving, but nothing was really fleshed out or allowed to breathe. Overall the story seemed trite or juvenile and the banter was for the most part weak. There are also many scenes featuring multiple characters with lots of dialogue where it's not clear who is speaking.
Liya, the heroine, starts out with potential, but quickly devolves. She's independent and isn't afraid to make what she wants known. She's actually not very likable, which I was kind of into. She's an outcast in her community due to her independence and her interest in sex (well, it's presented as an interest, but then it turns into sex being a crutch or something bad for her). She has a high power job, but it turns out her company is failing and then all the work related stuff just turns into a very boring plot device for her to interact with the hero, Jay. Both of them are trying to save the company even though it appears to have done very bad things. I wasn't sure why we were supposed to be rooting for them to succeed. It was an extremely weird choice to make.
Jay is also problematic and his dialogue always seems forced. That's actually a problem for a lot of characters in this book which is unfortunate because it is v dialogue heavy. His character is basically a mishmash of every other generic, nice guy hero. His backstory was intriguing, but it never seemed like it was really what had happened to him. All of his conflict felt thrown onto this character to give him something interesting, but it didn't seem to match his personality. I don't know. He never made sense to me.
My biggest issue with the story is that there's a lot of hand wringing by all the characters that Liya is sexually promiscuous when she's just not (not slut shaming- her alleged promiscuity could have been a compelling part of this story). I know that the number of sexual partners a person has to have to be labeled as "loose" varies by culture, but Liya's reputation is apparently known to the world at large.
Spoiler
In the beginning of the book this guy Mike, who appears to be a cis white American male, takes Liya out on a date and then attempts to sexually assault her because he's heard how easy she is. Setting aside how gross that is, the idea that he would have heard that Liya was easy and then later talk about her with some of her male coworkers (who also seem to think that she's easy) when her actual number of partners was so low (6) didn't add up. I guess it would be one thing if Mike had been from her temple, but he doesn't appear to be. So who is talking about Liya being promiscuos to him? Why is her reputation something he's heard about? Were all the guys Liya slept with from work or the coffee shop? Are the people at her temple running ads about her in the local paper?Actually, everything about the Mike storyline rubbed me the wrong way, including the way Jay saves the day. First he gives a trite speech to Mike, then says he's going to press charges against him, and then decides he's going to force Mike to go back with flowers to apologize to Liya. I'm sorry, but Jay saw Liya after her encounter with Mike and she was in bad shape- why would you want to make her see this jerk again, let alone accept a gift and an apology from him? And then Liya is all like, Jay gave me back my power. NO.
The slut shaming was just all over the place in this and a lot of it was internal to the heroine. I suppose that was supposed to make her issues more complex, but since she wasn't really out there degrading herself with sex it came across like the author was afraid to really explore the ramifications of Liya's sexual abuse (that is revealed very early on and is not, imo, a spoiler). The author wanted her to have more sexual partners than the hero, Jay, but not so many that he couldn't easily brush them aside. That made the storyline, and Liya's plight, weak. I think it would have been more interesting and impactful to see Jay, the "good" guy, needing to come to terms with someone who had slept with a lot of people and ultimately finding her worth pursuing, loving, and defending. The fact that the heroine was always saying she wasn't really a slut also made it apparent that she believed there are women who are sluts (don't sleep with more than 7 people, ladies) and they are beneath her. It left me feeling very unsettled. Aside from Liya, a lot of men talk about what a big ole ho she is and all of it is terrible.
Finally, there's a weird competition between a woman, who I would assume has most likely also been abused by the villain of the story, and Liya that is cringe worthy and makes both of them look bad. I'm trying to find something positive to say about this, but there isn't much to highlight. The hero's mom was cool and I was glad that the heroine's mom made some progress, but those things aren't enough to make this worth slogging through.
em_who_reads's review against another edition
3.0
The Trouble with Hating You is a hate-to-love romance about two very different characters. Liya is an independent, outspoken, successful biochemical engineer with a bad rep in her community, and Jay is a charming, sweet, family-oriented lawyer who's loved by all.
Liya and Jay have a good ole' fashioned meet-cute...well, really a series of meet-cutes, not that either of them sees it that way. First, her parents plan a meeting with him as a potential marriage candidate without telling her, and she literally runs him down trying to escape. Then, she bumps into him at the mandir - literally. On top of all that, he turns out to be one of the lawyers brought in to help her firm deal with a series of lawsuits, so she's seeing him almost daily at work.
Patel does a great job with their hate to love, providing enough detail and development so that they're both convincingly good people, but also convincingly annoyed with one another. Liya's had to build a wall to protect herself from the judgment of those around her, which makes her quite prickly toward Jay when in his mind his intentions have always been good. The reader sees Liya suffer from microaggressions and outright aggression throughout the book, so her behavior makes sense and feels justified. She isn't just a wishy-washy love interest - she has bad experience after bad experience that have made her how she is. Jay has to work long and hard to gain her trust.
Jay is a much easier character to like right out of the gate. He's not your typical alpha male, despite his outward appearance as such, and he is turned on by Liya's strength, even when her stubbornness and lack of trust frustrates him. He gets overwhelmed by her attitude at times, but with a moment to think, sees Liya's side of things, and deals with her in a surprisingly healthy way. His reactions felt very realistic, rather than a lot of typical blown-out romance novel reactions.
Overall, I enjoyed this book, but for some reason, I just can't add it to my favorites shelf. Some of the dialogue felt stilted or strange, and I just didn't connect to either Liya or Jay enough at the end of the day. That's not to say this book isn't worth reading. Patel deals with sexual assault in a great way, providing a character who is struggling with the aftermath of being assaulted, but who hasn't let it shatter her world or her self-confidence. I also loved the insight into modern Indian-American culture. After recently watching Never Have I Ever on Netflix, which also did a great job of representing both traditional and non-traditional Indian culture, it was great to get another peek at it. I look forward to Patel's next book!
Liya and Jay have a good ole' fashioned meet-cute...well, really a series of meet-cutes, not that either of them sees it that way. First, her parents plan a meeting with him as a potential marriage candidate without telling her, and she literally runs him down trying to escape. Then, she bumps into him at the mandir - literally. On top of all that, he turns out to be one of the lawyers brought in to help her firm deal with a series of lawsuits, so she's seeing him almost daily at work.
Patel does a great job with their hate to love, providing enough detail and development so that they're both convincingly good people, but also convincingly annoyed with one another. Liya's had to build a wall to protect herself from the judgment of those around her, which makes her quite prickly toward Jay when in his mind his intentions have always been good. The reader sees Liya suffer from microaggressions and outright aggression throughout the book, so her behavior makes sense and feels justified. She isn't just a wishy-washy love interest - she has bad experience after bad experience that have made her how she is. Jay has to work long and hard to gain her trust.
Jay is a much easier character to like right out of the gate. He's not your typical alpha male, despite his outward appearance as such, and he is turned on by Liya's strength, even when her stubbornness and lack of trust frustrates him. He gets overwhelmed by her attitude at times, but with a moment to think, sees Liya's side of things, and deals with her in a surprisingly healthy way. His reactions felt very realistic, rather than a lot of typical blown-out romance novel reactions.
Overall, I enjoyed this book, but for some reason, I just can't add it to my favorites shelf. Some of the dialogue felt stilted or strange, and I just didn't connect to either Liya or Jay enough at the end of the day. That's not to say this book isn't worth reading. Patel deals with sexual assault in a great way, providing a character who is struggling with the aftermath of being assaulted, but who hasn't let it shatter her world or her self-confidence. I also loved the insight into modern Indian-American culture. After recently watching Never Have I Ever on Netflix, which also did a great job of representing both traditional and non-traditional Indian culture, it was great to get another peek at it. I look forward to Patel's next book!
azacadabra's review against another edition
2.0
This was a fine book but I am not partial to romances. If you like romance, however, you may enjoy this book.
fv_angela's review against another edition
2.0
Review originally posted at https://smexybooks.com/2020/05/angelas-minis-reviews-for-books-by-sajni-patel-k-j-charles-and-kwana-jackson.html
I don’t normally do this, but I did read Kini’s review before I began writing mine. I was curious about what her thoughts were and it appears we had a lot of the same issues with this book. She is spot on with her content warnings… mentions of past sexual abuse, rape, and trauma as well as emotional abuse and slut-shaming that had me turning Kindle pages angrily. It was a lot, and I wasn’t quite expecting how heavy this book was.
The heroine Liya was at times rude and in your face, but would then turn around the next scene and be sweet and easy to talk to. I love a tough, take no shit heroine and it wasn’t until her background was revealed that I understood why she reacted to certain things in the ways that she did. I ended up enjoying her character, but it took me a while to get there.
I kind of felt the same way about the hero, Jay. He seemed charming and like he would be a caretaker to Liya, but then he would turn around and do something completely stupid. Kini mentions in her review him forcing a man who basically assaulted the heroine to apologize and bring her flowers and that is exactly what I’m talking about here. It was just so weird to me and at times I wondered how this couple would ever get together.
I think the slut-shaming it what did it for me. I couldn’t take it, it made me so very angry while I was reading. And every character who gossiped about Liya’s supposed bad behavior and easiness immediately jumped on my shit list. I hated this aspect of the story and it kept me from enjoying this book as much as I could have. I did enjoy this author’s voice and will absolutely be trying her again in the future.
Final grade- C-
I don’t normally do this, but I did read Kini’s review before I began writing mine. I was curious about what her thoughts were and it appears we had a lot of the same issues with this book. She is spot on with her content warnings… mentions of past sexual abuse, rape, and trauma as well as emotional abuse and slut-shaming that had me turning Kindle pages angrily. It was a lot, and I wasn’t quite expecting how heavy this book was.
The heroine Liya was at times rude and in your face, but would then turn around the next scene and be sweet and easy to talk to. I love a tough, take no shit heroine and it wasn’t until her background was revealed that I understood why she reacted to certain things in the ways that she did. I ended up enjoying her character, but it took me a while to get there.
I kind of felt the same way about the hero, Jay. He seemed charming and like he would be a caretaker to Liya, but then he would turn around and do something completely stupid. Kini mentions in her review him forcing a man who basically assaulted the heroine to apologize and bring her flowers and that is exactly what I’m talking about here. It was just so weird to me and at times I wondered how this couple would ever get together.
I think the slut-shaming it what did it for me. I couldn’t take it, it made me so very angry while I was reading. And every character who gossiped about Liya’s supposed bad behavior and easiness immediately jumped on my shit list. I hated this aspect of the story and it kept me from enjoying this book as much as I could have. I did enjoy this author’s voice and will absolutely be trying her again in the future.
Final grade- C-