Book Review: The Hating Game

We have possibly reached my favorite book of 2022 so far – The Hating Game by Sally Thorne. My obsession with Lucy and Josh is real.

I had been wanting to read this book for a while because I kept seeing it pop up on social media. The synopsis sounded intriguing and after a few people I knew read and loved it, I had to give it a read for our latest book club pick. This is 100% one of those books that is worth the hype, in my opinion.

Lucy Hutton is the executive assistant to one of the CEOs of a publishing company. After Lucy’s company merged with another struggling publishing company a year ago, she has to share an office (outside the doors of the now co-CEOs) with Joshua Templeman – the executive assistant to the other CEO. She can’t stand Joshua and he can’t stand her. They spend their days pushing each other’s buttons and playing games like The Staring Game where they just stare at each other and Lucy imagines strangling Josh to death.

One day Lucy and Josh are told by their bosses that a new Chief Operating Officer is position is being created and they are both up for the job. Their competition with each other is now at an all-time high. But having to work a little closer together for a team building day, some jealous feelings, and a very bad bout of food poisoning leaves the two closer than ever and possibly making Lucy feel like she doesn’t actually hate Josh at all. She might even like him!

I loved loved loved the book. The witty banter between Lucy and Josh was so good. It was the perfect amount of humor, cuteness, and spice. I can see myself rereading this in the future.

Not really a spoiler, but one of my favorite scenes was Lucy’s epic showdown with Josh’s dad. So good!

A movie came out of the book starring Lucy Hale and Auston Stowell and I’ve heard some mixed reviews of it, but I plan to watch it myself this weekend. I think I’ll like it because I’m usually pretty open to movie adaptations. There are few movies based on books that I hate so I think I’ll like it but we’ll see if I love it as much as the book.

I highly recommend if you like contemporary romance/rom coms. I saw that the author has another book called 99 Percent Mine and it has a bonus epilogue for The Hating Game so you bet I’ll be reading that soon!

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