I have been wanting to read this book since it first came out in July, and I’m glad I made time for it because it was SO GOOD. Alisha Rai is such a good and engrossing writer, and the plot of this book made me all swoony. Omg, I just loved it so much.
In Hate to Want You, Nicholas Chandler and Livvy Kane have been meeting up for one night every year – the night of Livvy’s birthday. No one knows of their arrangement, and they both think it should stay that way. That is, until Livvy returns to their small hometown, where their warring family legacies are determined to keep them apart. Livvy is prickly on the outside, but there is so much family history between the Kanes and the Chandlers that it hurts her – and it’s hard to get past it. And Nicholas is at the center of all of it, starting way back when he broke her heart when they were barely out of high school. She craves their physical relationship, but knows they can’t ever be together. Their families wouldn’t allow it.
With Livvy back in town, Nicholas is distracted. He can’t pay attention in meetings, and his controlling father is making less and less sense to him in his decisions. He knows in his brain that he and Livvy can’t be together, but his heart is telling him something entirely different. And that’s the organ he truly wants to listen to. Can Nicholas and Livvy get past their pasts so they can truly be together?
I DON’T KNOW MAYBE YOU SHOULD READ THE BOOK! (It’s so good, y’all.)
3 Things I Loved
- Livvy. From the very first time we meet Livvy at the tattoo place, I loved her. She was a hardass, brash and loud and a wonderful character. I wanted her to be happy from the very beginning. And while I liked Nicholas and appreciated his separate family plotline, it was Livvy I was pulling for the whole time. I just love her. ❤
- Jackson. Though hardly present in this book, his occasional appearances made me love him so so much. He’s the strong and silent twin brother of Livvy, and he was just the best. I love sibling relationships in romances. I think they’re really something special, and Livvy and Jackson’s relationship is one of my favorites ever. (Plus, he gets a whole book of his own, which I’m reviewing tomorrow!)
- Sadia. Livvy’s best friend Sadia was another character I loved from the first time I read about her. Married to Livvy’s late brother, Paul, Sadia is the mother of Livvy’s only nephew and is also her closest friend. And man, is she a powerhouse. She’s in the next book too, and I was sooooo excited when I found that out!
Dislikes/Problematic Content
Honestly, nothing comes to mind. This is a diverse cast of characters – Livvy and Jackson are half Hawaiian and half Japanese, Sadia is Pakistani-American and bisexual, and the characters are all so full of life. I found nothing in this book that gave me pause or made me cringe. Alisha Rai did this one right.
Rating
A reminder of the rating scale:
- Red = DNF, I hated everything
- Orange = Ugh, no thank you
- Yellow = I mean, I’ve read worse, but there were problems
- Green = This was good!
- Blue = Oh my gosh, I loved this book!
- Purple = This is the unicorn of books and I will be rereading it until the binding falls apart and EVERYONE should be reading it!
Hate to Want You is both a second chance romance and a hate to love romance, and I was there for it 100%. Therefore, I’m giving this book a BLUE rating. If you like contemporary romance and are looking for a fresh voice with a lot more to come (I hope!), check out this one from Alisha Rai!
Happy reading!
-A.
Snark & Squee 
1 Comment