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A review by kfriend
Like Hate by Rachel Leigh
3.0
(3.5 stars)
“Hate is rich and love is poor.” That really is the mantra of our characters as we start on this wild, dramatic second chance love story set in Rachel Leigh’s Redwood world. Like Hate explores what happens when love becomes mangled, when passion and intensity are no longer an expression of your love, but an expression of your hate, of your anger- and when hate becomes the security blanket you need to guard your heart from further pain. If you wrap enough hate for someone else around your heart, will it eventually stop beating for the person that hurt you?
Our story begins in high school, the evening after Axel has just laid his mother to rest. His devoted girlfriend, Harper, wants to be there so support him, to help heal his heart and care for him during his grief, which has included putting up with him being a less than stellar boyfriend over the last few months as his mother got sick. Axel loves Harper, she’s the girl he wants to be a better man for, but his only way of coping is to spiral- only this spiral results in unexpected consequences, and by the end of the night this couple is no more. Both feeling betrayed by the inexplicable actions of the other, their pure and tender love quickly turns to hate. We flash forward a year to find Axel at college- living his playboy dreams with Harper long out of mind. He was cruel to her until they graduated, action that was entirely off page, and has been free of her at school until she decides to transfer to his college. Not only do they have all the same friends, but she’s also now living across the street, so they can’t escape each other.
This is a quick paced read- the overall storyline (enemies to lovers, second chance) with the push pull is something I generally enjoy, and Axel has some alpha tendencies that are yummy. We move pretty quickly into the heart of the conflict without a lot of exposition- which given that I don’t super love second chance romances that are the result of easily-resolved misunderstandings and that span long time periods, I was glad we didn’t dwell there. But, the limited exposition meant that I also had little window into their past relationship, which means I didn’t really feel or buy into their purportedly intense connection in the future until much later- I just saw two young adults being hostile to each other. I did read this as a standalone, so there may have been context in prior books that would have helped me dial in emotionally earlier- characters from prior books appear but there is plenty of context here for me to “get” them without reading the previous books. For this couple though, these two have been friends since childhood, have already dated, but I just didn’t get a strong enough sense that they really knew each other emotionally, which made me less torn by the angst, even though it was entertaining. There are a few key emotional moments where the story does fade to black/off page impact (normally to flash forward), and I think actually being with our characters in those scenes longer and some aftermath moments could have also heightened by connection. Both characters have their charms, although Axel is a much louder, more vibrant character, and his growth is a little bit more substantial and more complex than Harper’s.
The writing style is crisp and accessible- and the plot is focused, which keeps things moving. Thematically, the subtleties of loving and hating- the bizarre sameness of them- comes across clearly. For Axel and Harper- hate isn’t a separate emotion. In Like Hate, hate is actually just a type of loving. The emotional investment, the intensity, the all consuming passionate fixation- it doesn’t exist if you don’t care about someone enough in the first place to exert your energy in hating them. I did start to feel more tied to them later in the story, and I was definitely rooting for them as a couple. The glimpses we had of other characters also made me want to pick up some other books. All in all, this was a fun and fast read- with a lot of angst, but easily digestible. Overall, 3.5 stars.
“Hate is rich and love is poor.” That really is the mantra of our characters as we start on this wild, dramatic second chance love story set in Rachel Leigh’s Redwood world. Like Hate explores what happens when love becomes mangled, when passion and intensity are no longer an expression of your love, but an expression of your hate, of your anger- and when hate becomes the security blanket you need to guard your heart from further pain. If you wrap enough hate for someone else around your heart, will it eventually stop beating for the person that hurt you?
Our story begins in high school, the evening after Axel has just laid his mother to rest. His devoted girlfriend, Harper, wants to be there so support him, to help heal his heart and care for him during his grief, which has included putting up with him being a less than stellar boyfriend over the last few months as his mother got sick. Axel loves Harper, she’s the girl he wants to be a better man for, but his only way of coping is to spiral- only this spiral results in unexpected consequences, and by the end of the night this couple is no more. Both feeling betrayed by the inexplicable actions of the other, their pure and tender love quickly turns to hate. We flash forward a year to find Axel at college- living his playboy dreams with Harper long out of mind. He was cruel to her until they graduated, action that was entirely off page, and has been free of her at school until she decides to transfer to his college. Not only do they have all the same friends, but she’s also now living across the street, so they can’t escape each other.
This is a quick paced read- the overall storyline (enemies to lovers, second chance) with the push pull is something I generally enjoy, and Axel has some alpha tendencies that are yummy. We move pretty quickly into the heart of the conflict without a lot of exposition- which given that I don’t super love second chance romances that are the result of easily-resolved misunderstandings and that span long time periods, I was glad we didn’t dwell there. But, the limited exposition meant that I also had little window into their past relationship, which means I didn’t really feel or buy into their purportedly intense connection in the future until much later- I just saw two young adults being hostile to each other. I did read this as a standalone, so there may have been context in prior books that would have helped me dial in emotionally earlier- characters from prior books appear but there is plenty of context here for me to “get” them without reading the previous books. For this couple though, these two have been friends since childhood, have already dated, but I just didn’t get a strong enough sense that they really knew each other emotionally, which made me less torn by the angst, even though it was entertaining. There are a few key emotional moments where the story does fade to black/off page impact (normally to flash forward), and I think actually being with our characters in those scenes longer and some aftermath moments could have also heightened by connection. Both characters have their charms, although Axel is a much louder, more vibrant character, and his growth is a little bit more substantial and more complex than Harper’s.
The writing style is crisp and accessible- and the plot is focused, which keeps things moving. Thematically, the subtleties of loving and hating- the bizarre sameness of them- comes across clearly. For Axel and Harper- hate isn’t a separate emotion. In Like Hate, hate is actually just a type of loving. The emotional investment, the intensity, the all consuming passionate fixation- it doesn’t exist if you don’t care about someone enough in the first place to exert your energy in hating them. I did start to feel more tied to them later in the story, and I was definitely rooting for them as a couple. The glimpses we had of other characters also made me want to pick up some other books. All in all, this was a fun and fast read- with a lot of angst, but easily digestible. Overall, 3.5 stars.