The Hating Game by Sally Thorne

Hello everyone.  I hope you had a nice Valentine's Day. We don't go out to celebrate but I did receive a huge heart shaped box of chocolates and a dozen roses. I get a fair number of flowers. I used to receive them for it being a Wednesday, not so much anymore. However, hubby never forgets any special day and, despite my objection and insistence that there are cheaper places, always gets beautiful and long-lasting flowers from the florist, who does a great job.

I know I joke my husband a lot. It is kind of our thing. As a side note, when we were at our "pre-marital counseling" at the church where we were to be married, we argued about who was funnier leaving the preacher smiling and shaking her head (yes, a woman). At our wedding reception, the minister looked at my mom and said "they'll be fine, no doubts." The minister is retired now but I have often thought of sending her a photo of that day and telling her we are still indeed together. Anyway, hubby is a romantic. In fact, I could have you sitting here all day with examples but one of the first displays of his overall cuteness was on our first anniversary. Our wedding color was pink, meaning the flowers and bridesmaids wore pale pink. Don't shake your head, it was a spring wedding. What color did you feature, tartan plaid? So I am at the office, and in he walks with one hundred pink roses in his arms. Every woman in the whole office swooned....honestly, I think you could feel the building sway. See men, all those years later and I still remember.

Not all romantic gestures have been as elaborate or costly as a gazillion roses. Several times he has purchased a package of kiddie Valentines and written a memory on the back of each. Once they were all sealed in the envelopes to be explored and another time they were a heart speared by cupid's pixie stick and hidden all over the house. Yeah, he's a keeper.

So for some timely, holiday appropriate reading I just finished a romance novel called The Hating Game by Sally Thorne. Before you go thinking this is any quick hit little story, I'll tell you it is a full on novel of over 360 pages. The premise is two higher-end employees at a publishing company (of all places) hate each other and are about to compete for a single job promotion. One will essentially become the other's boss. Well, that would certainly be annoying. The characters go to a few locations, apartments and such, but the story is basically all about the dialog, which is well done. The banter is witty, quick and sarcastic. Hey, who among us is not aroused by a little sarcasm?  Seriously, it is well done. Now while this story does not push forward at breakneck speed like my beloved thrillers, it isn't one of those read ten pages and pick in up in three months, either. The story will definitely call to you. Is this my all time favorite book? No. Is it likely to be in this year's top ten? No. Is it a nice romantic comedy that I am glad I read? Absolutely. If you are a romance lover, you will surely want to add this to your "to be read" list.

Incidentally, the way The Hating Game relies heavily on dialog reminds me of Nicola Niemc's Addicted to Love. So if you love The Hating Game, you might want to give Nicola's book a go. In either case, reading with the smell of roses wafting through the air is highly recommended.

Addicted to Love by Nicola Niemc

Hello everyone.

If you are in the US I hope you okay during our weekend of terrible weather. Tornados in the south and a blizzard in the north. In the middle, we are getting squeezed with a huge temperature and pressure change, going from a pleasant 65 degrees this morning to a teeth chattering 19 tonight, with 35 mph winds. It's basically a headache in the making!  I have been glued to the weather channel since I have family in the path of 24 inches of snow (yes, I am an evil person as I have an ever so slight grin as I type that). What I often see, but haven't in the last few days, is the weather around the world, I'm sure there are difficult patches of weather everywhere. I hope you are ALL safe and out of harms way. Now that I've given a meteorological rundown, feeling like I should be standing in front of a map gesturing wildly with my hands, I'll say this...lousy weather is a great time to read! Yep, you can't feel guilty about not painting the house, or pulling weeds in the garden, or all those uncompleted errands. It is as if those snow clouds parted and a beam of sun shone down on our pile-o-books, like part of an Indiana Jones movie, beckoning us to read. So I say "READ WE MUST!"

Tired of looking at your to be read list, feeling guilty about buying so many books and not knowing where to start? Not to be an enabler, but sometimes you need something new even though you have a ton to read already. I know that makes no sense and is just an example of how I buy way too many books and can attempt to justify anything, but sometimes my TBR piles have me running like a puppy. Each book surrounds me, calling my name. I feel like I am running back and forth between them "I'll read this next, no this...no this...wait maybe this should be first."  Pretty soon I'm gonna be like that little puppy and piddle right on the floor from complete confusion. So as I tiebreaker I'll get a new book. Shhhh, I know that just complicates the problem and is probably a clear sign of addiction, but YOU are supposed to be on my side! Anyway, I bought a new book a bit before Christmas, during one of these episodes. I read the beginning but had to put it down because of the holidays.

I've read several books lately, great ones, The Red Address Book, An Anonymous Girl, and The Silent Patient. To be honest, these books will likely all be huge blockbusters...HUGE. During all these, in the back of my mind, the book I'd read the first few pages of kept calling me. That book is Addicted to Love by Nicola Niemc. Now I'll let you in on a little secret, Nicola reads this blog. Yes, she does, and you'll often see her commenting! To have a blog less than a year old and have someone so kind as to read it often and take time to comment, well, I really appreciate it and count myself as very lucky and honored. So, when you see her comments, you know she is an author! You can purchase Addicted to Love on Amazon in both paperback and kindle. You know, with a kindle purchase, you don't even have to leave your house...you can hit that little buy and download button and, despite the blizzard we currently have outside, you could have this book in the nick of time.

Addicted to Love is the perfect bad weather read (course it would be a great beach read too). It is a romance between Lexi and Robert; she is in her early twenties and he his forties. Now you would think that Robert would be very mature and Lexi less so, but that doesn't hold true in all cases. Sometimes, things in our past require us to grow up more than we should have to. Sometimes this is visible, sometimes it remains hidden below the surface to be dealt with later. Both Lexi and Robert have their pasts to deal with in a physical and emotional way. This story follows these two people in their May-December romance as they uncover these issues and deal with them. Most romance novels follow a pattern where the characters meet, fall in love, have some kind of earth shattering problem, and get back together for a happy ending. This novel breaks with that a bit, with a more character driven story. Instead of someone literally hanging off a cliff, you keep reading because you want to know why Lexi acts like that or what Robert was thinking. One thing this book does, like a typical romance, and it does very well, is build the sexual tension between the two characters. The naughty bits might well keep you warm during the snow, another advantage of a purchase this weekend. Hell, it might melt the snow off your roof! One of the things that makes this book so completely enjoyable (besides the tension) is the writing. Nicola, you can write! Seriously! The dialog in this is so good. I've just read three books that are bound to be New York Times Bestsellers, yet this book, Addicted to Love still held my interest. Now that is saying something! It is due completely to the writing! It is quick witted, sometimes sarcastic, never drones on, never repeats and again, the dialog is excellent.

Now, hold on to your hats, this is after all a book review, I have to say something negative...I want more. Yes, I have to know the future of Lexi and Robert. So now that I'm addicted to Addicted to Love, I need more. While we are all reading during bad weather, maybe Nicola could start working on a sequel.