Reviews with content warning for Medical content - The Hating Game

Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

The Hating Game, by Sally Thorne

31 reviews

britwalsh16's review

emotional funny lighthearted fast-paced

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

4.0

I made the mistake of watching the movie first. I usually like to read the book before watching the movie, but I really wanted to watch the movie & I kept putting the book off. & then the movie really made me want to read the book.
I really loved the book! The chemistry between Lucy & Josh is amazing! I really wish I didn’t know when certain scenes were coming, or what was gonna happen before I started to read it. But that’s the price i paid for watching the movie.

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wilybooklover's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted fast-paced

2.0

I get why people like this so much, purely from a romance standpoint. The narrative is so tightly focused on the two main characters and all of their interactions, it’s almost as if they were in their own little Romance Bubble and you know what? I’m here for it. I don’t care about side-plots, give me the two characters together on page in every scene! The dialogue and banter were cleverly written, and the sex was very, well, sexy

Spoiler

(aside from a kiss scene which is basically the hero sexually assaulting the heroine but written as if it's supposed to be sexy).

It’s a very sensual book. But sadly, these were about the only things I liked about the book.

The main reason the romance didn’t really work for me because Joshua Templeman is like, the exact opposite of what I find attractive or sexy, and the book is so focused on him and his appearance and behaviour that it's hard to forget it. He’s controlling and mean bordering on cruel to the heroine for no real reason. He’s creepy

Spoiler

(I’m sorry, who paints their bedroom walls the exact same shade as their coworker’s eye colour??).

He’s super tall and muscular and chiselled, which I know is virtually inescapable in the romance genre but incredibly unattractive to me. Not to mention his woe-is-me attitude because people use him for his looks and then leave him when they get to know his shitty personality (has he ever considered maybe possibly being nice to people? Just a thought!). I cannot imagine a man who is more likely to turn me off and leave me stone cold if I created him myself.

And then there’s Lucy. I was sympathetic to her work situation, but that’s about it. Her inner monologue is so judgemental about everyone and everything that it was hard to read at times. And really offensive — if you can think of any type of shaming, -phobia, or -ism, Lucy engaged in it. Fatphobia, racism, ableism, slut-shaming, gender essentialism, even height-shaming which is ironic considering she’s literally five feet tall herself and never shuts up about it. I’m not sure why all of these little quips are even in there because they don’t serve any real character-building purpose; all they do is make it unbearable to be in our main character’s head. And I get that it’s romance so of course our characters are going to find each other attractive, but the degree to which she objectified Josh’s body made me a bit uncomfortable.

Also, RIP to the HR department in this fictional company. I know these two were the bane of your existence.

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bectothebooks's review against another edition

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lighthearted fast-paced

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

1.0

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caroline2007's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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jaynovara's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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hannahwhiteyy's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted fast-paced

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

3.0

This book was really sweet, but I thought it was WAY too fast-paced and I didn’t fall in love with it. 3 stars for me.

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lisaandthebooks's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.5

The Hating Game is probably one of the best known romance book and for most people possibly even the first book they think of when they hear "office romance" or "rivals to lovers". Still this book was nothing special in my opinion.

I absolutely enjoyed the story but it is by no means one of the best romance books ever like some people seem to think.

The plot and reasons for their mutual dislike was intriguing enough. What I liked most about this book were the 'office games'. The chemistry between the characters was also written really well.
Still the story felt a bit flat as did the characters. I didn't feel like I actually understood them outside of their mutual obsession with each other.
Also the female MC is so oblivious which is a trope I really dislike and also the main character is basically a handsome, talented, successful white guy who gets a bad backstory in order to explain away his shitty behaviour and she is portrayed as "the right/only woman who can handle him". She is very much the quirky nice girl next door and he is the misunderstood badboy (while not being bad at all, just a bit grumpy and rude).

I also thought it was kinda ridiculous that his main issue is 'being too hot' and that people only wanted to date him for his body, not his personality.. is someone going to tell him that he can actually work on that? I hate the narrative of guys who think there is absolutely nothing wrong with them and that the women are the ones "who just can't handle it"..

Edit: I changed the rating from 4 to 3.5 stars after a month of debating it. I think I felt bad about giving this book a 'bad' rating because it's so popular.

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things100's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Amazing book I love Lucy and Josh 🥰. This was my second read and it was totally worth it. The way Josh called Luce shortcake a-door-a-ble 😍. One of my all time favorite office enemies to lovers. And those spicy scenes 🥵

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rensreading's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

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

3.75

i read this in one sitting (5hrs and 19mins according to libby). i loved that the spice was sprinkled in so soon, it kept me interested and invested in the will-they-wont-they feeling going on for the first half of the book.

oh man so many people said josh should’ve had a restraining order put against him for how creepy and stalkerish he was, but everyone absolutely failed to mentioned that lucy matched his energy tit for tat. they’re insane4insane in such a good way too lol

idk which book came out first but since it was the last book i finished reading, i kept comparing this to the spanish love deception. the fact both books are an office rivals to lovers story where they

Spoiler

get together after attending a wedding

and mention their size difference so much while the woman is battling crippling loneliness on top of all that? that’s a little too on the nose. i will say though, the hating game did the spice scenes a lot better than the spanish love deception. definitely a 3🌶 rating from me, so pretty mild in general terms

i like that there was no third act breakup like every other rom com seems to have at the moment. i hate those with a passion. the plot was pretty good too. i liked lucy but she showed her obsessive tendencies by page 3 so josh isn’t the only weird one in their relationship and that should definitely be mentioned more. their banter was funny and natural and the flirting in the office? *chef’s kiss*

all in all, i’d rate this a 3.75 star rating (:

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capybooks's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

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

4.5

As far as the enemies-to-lovers trope goes, The Hating Game takes the cake. There are so many things I love about this novel - the elevator scene in chapter 6, Josh looking after Lucy when she was ill, the flowers Josh sends Lucy (THE NOTE 😭🥺), Lucy standing up for Josh against his father. All brilliant scenes! One slight issue I had was I feel like ‘hate’ is too strong a word for this story. The characters say they hate each other, but do little to actually show that, although I do understand the whole idea is them saying they hate each other as opposed to admitting the feelings they both have. The Hating Game is a lighthearted, hilarious and feel-good novel, and I can’t wait to read it again soon.

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