A Scintillating Office Romance: The Hating Game

I make no apologies about loving enemies-to-lovers romances. I love them so much that that’s the theme I chose for my own romance novel, Finally You. There’s something about the sexy banter between characters—that Katharine Hepburn-screwball comedy quality—that really gets to me.
 
Sally Thorne’s The Hating Game has been on my To Read list for several months now and I finally received the long-awaited news that my library was holding the book for me. This weekend I devoured the book in two sittings, racing through the pages like I was going to win a prize at the end and soaking in each moment like I was going to take an Accelerated Reader quiz afterwards.
 
But the book was just that wonderful.
 
Lucy has wanted to work in a publishing house since she went on a field trip to one as a pre-teen. She’s an assistant at publishing house Bexley and Gamin now and she works in the same office as her greatest nemesis, Josh. Everyone loves Lucy but Josh, and no one cares that much for Josh, including Lucy. You guys, it’s basically a Jim and Dwight (Dwigt, if you remember) situation from The Office, but with hot, heterosexual characters who don’t put staplers in Jello or hype themselves up by playing heavy metal in their Trans Ams.
 
Lucy and Josh’s bosses announce that a new position is opening in their department and both Lucy and Josh want it. They agree that whichever person does not get the position will voluntarily leave the company. Conditions are ripe for a final show-down, but this show-down is complicated when…Lucy and Josh begin kissing each other! 
 
Naturally, much, much, much more happens, and it’s all wonderful and exciting and splendid fun. This book is one of the best rom-coms that I've read. Thorne writes with a deft, skilled hand, and I was immeditately drawn into Lucy's first-person account of what it's like to work with someone like Josh. (First-person narration is rarely done in romance novels but it is so, so great here.)
 
I highly recommend this contemporary romantic-comedy if you want to relax a bit and remember that there’s a whole hell of a lot of love in the world. And if this romance gets you in the mood to look at others, check out contemporary romance authors Julie James (you can start with Something About You) and Susan Elizabeth Phillips (First Star I See Tonight was released in 2016), and any Katharine Hepburn comedy (the lady had class and an attitude).