Reviews

Hurts to Love You by Alisha Rai

readingwithhippos's review against another edition

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5.0

Read the whole thing in a day. Alisha Rai is the queen. Contemporary romance isn’t really my jam—I much prefer my love stories to be set in a different time in history or in a fantasy world. However, I will make all the exceptions for Alisha Rai. This series is the ultimate comfort read. They’re the books you pick up when you need to see realistically messed up characters get their happy ending. Usually with contemporary romance I get taken out of the story by unrealistic situations or cringey dialogue, but Rai’s characters always ring true for me. This book is about Eve, the buttoned-up, socially anxious daughter of the Chandler fortune, and Gabe, a hulking, red-headed tattoo artist. They’ve had some awkward encounters in the past and there are unspoken feelings on both sides, but now they’re in a wedding party together. Eve and Gabe show up at a mansion upstate for a week’s worth of festivities, but oops—turns out due to scheduling conflicts, they’re going to have some time to themselves. What will happen, I wonder? ;)

what_alice_saw's review against another edition

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3.0

Scribd Audiobook

The romance was sweet, but there was too much going on. The stories were kind of all over the place.

rek216's review against another edition

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Was a bit burned out on this series

leslielikesthings's review against another edition

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5.0

A very satisfying conclusion to this trilogy. All the family secrets were revealed, and this was probably my favorite romantic pairing of the three.

landragraf's review against another edition

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4.0

As posted on Smitten By Books Blog

I’m loving the books coming from Avon authors this year. No doubt about it the contemporary genre has a ton of awesome, diverse author voices and they are worth every penny.

Hurts To Love You is like Dynasty with a little best friends little sister, add a touch of class warfare, and a dark family secret. The drama abounds. Not to mention both hero and heroine are like flame to kindling once the walls they’ve built up come crashing down. Being on a wedding party retreat without the wedding party will do that to a person.

As far as characters go, hero Gabriel is a tatted, bearded delicious hulk of a man. He’s been trying his best to not give into what he considers an inappropriate attraction to our heroine, Evangeline. She’s the younger sister of what was once an enemy, the Chandler family. Gabriel grew up as a part of the Oka-Kane household, though on the fringes of it… and he’s got a big, bad secret. One that makes him believe he’s truly not worthy of anything, outside of what he’s earned on his own.

Evangeline is a woman after my own heart. She grew up in a verbally abusive household and has fought long and hard to overcome those challenges. At the same time, she’s nursing a crush born from years of watching Gabriel from afar. Taking advantage of the opportunity of being alone with him, she works to close the gaps and see if her attraction is just one sided.

These two light up the pages. Between their desire for one another, their drive to overcome years of guilt, secrets, and hiding parts of themselves I couldn’t put this book down. I’m a little sad to be coming into this series on the last story and plan on playing catch up with the others. The characters are so diverse, well-rounded and I actually thought I was watching my beloved romance meet high drama with a big payoff.

For readers who love drama rich stories like Susan Elizabeth Phillips.

ethrone's review against another edition

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5.0

y'all this was sooooo good ughhhhhhhhhhhh i loved this series so much i never want it to end

brokenrecord's review against another edition

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4.0

I didn't like this as much as the first two, but it was still solid and good! The main issue was that I never really felt invested in Eve and Gabe. But I did like them! I liked the thing where both characters think they're pining unrequitedly for the other but it turns out it's actually very requited. I also loved how
SpoilerEve thinks Gabe is going to yell at her for riding on horseback by herself and then getting thrown off the horse in the storm and Gabe's just like, "No, it's fine, it could've happened to anyone!" because you see in romances a lot where the alpha hero is kind of controlling and overly protective (much like Nick's reaction!) but Gabe was totally reasonable. And it was great that she ended up standing up to Nick as well.
Basically, this was just good. I like these characters and the family dynamics, and even though I wasn't super invested in the romance, Gabe and Eve were sweet.

mayvisin's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny hopeful reflective sad 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

3.0

abeckreads's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-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

4.25

katleap's review

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3.0

3.5 stars

Gabe and Eve have had chemistry for a long time. But Gabe is older than Eve and feels that the gape is too much. While helping Livvy and Nicholas pull off their wedding, Gabe and Eve spend more time together and their feelings deepen. But Gabe has a secret that could change everything.

I was sufficiently happy with the way this trilogy ended. We got answers to the big mystery. Gabe and Eve really do have chemistry. We got to see all our couples in action. It was good.