The Hating Game - Sally Thorne

The Hating Game is Sally Thorne's debut novel.

Two very different publishing house merge, creating a new company with two CEO's - and two very different assistants to the CEOs, who now must share a workspace. They dislike (or should I say hate) each other intensely. But is that antagonism covering up Lucy and Josh's.......attraction?

Lucy was a great lead character - quirky, cute and determined. Josh, of course, is the strong, handsome, unreadable antithesis of her.

I thought the premise of The Hating Game was good - perfect fodder for a chick lit novel. And Thorne hits all the notes needed for this genre: the yes/no/maybe so, push and pull, crossed signals, missed signals, a quirky 'heroine', romantic basis, workplace foibles, all told in a humourous, lighthearted manner with the final resolution never being in doubt.

Summer is the perfect time for fun, frivolous, fluffy reads such as The Hating Game. I enjoyed the book 'til about 2/3 of the way through. Much has gone on before when Lucy has an epiphany. And then I started skimming to what I knew would be resolution in the last few chapters. The push and pull had become repetitive and a bit unbelievable for me.

"A miracle has occurred, and I don't know when, but I know it know. Joshua Templeman does not hate me. Not a bit. There's no way he could when he kisses me like this."

Well, given what has gone on for the first 205 pages, I'm not sure why this comes as a surprise. (Yes, sometimes it's hard to put my pragmatic nature on hold.)

Thorne states that she 'believes that romance readers are always searching for intensity in their next favorite book." This belief is probably why I thought that Thorne used more sexual references and scenes in The Hating Game than other light hearted chick lit books. And again, I enjoyed it in the beginning, but found them getting repetitive. And truth be told, I found Lucy's romantic sexual neediness somewhat, well, off-putting.

The Hating Game filled a day's reading on the beach, but wasn't a stand out for me. Read an excerpt of The Hating Game.

Cr: Katie Saarikko

"Sally Thorne lives in Canberra, Australia and spends her days writing funding submissions and drafting contracts (yawn!) so it’s not surprising that after hours she climbs into colorful fictional worlds of her own creation. Sally believes that romance readers are always searching for intensity in their next favorite book—and it isn’t always so easy to find. The Hating Game is her first novel." You can connect with Sally Thorne on Facebook or follow her on Twitter.

I may be in the minority on this one. See what others on the TLC book tour thought - full schedule can be found here.