Hate to Love You

3.5 Gah! This book had such promise. The title, the blurb, the cover, the author but it just fell short. I kept waiting for the connection to the story and or characters to happen but it just never did. The writing was confusing at times, mostly toward the beginning. The transition into dialogue and who was speaking and or the point of the thought/conversation were muddled. All things I could overlook with a great story. The characters were going through the motions , but to what? What was the point? There seemed to be lack of purpose and the writing seemed stalled. Was this a book about trust? A book about moving forward? A book about overcoming fear -physical or emotional? All of the above? Instead of the characters being developed things happened to them. Even the hate pretense was weak , the author had to explain it several times throughout the story. Do people use you for who you are and or who you know? Are you treated differently when they find out who you are ? Yes and yes but for me this premise alone wasn\’t strong enough to carry a story. The love story would\’ve been stronger if we\’d had more character development. It almost seemed like the story became like Groundhog Day – wash, rinse, repeat. Why such a harsh review for a 3-3.5 rating? There\’s nothing that equates to the emotional disappointment when reading a book with such promise, by a beloved and talented author, a highly anticipated book to only have the story fall flat. Tijan, even when it\’s not her best work , always provides an entertaining read

This book started out so great … until the 60% ish mark. Honestly, should\’ve ended there. Then things just got drawn out and WEIRD. Also, the more irritated I got the more I decided I didn\’t actually like any of it at all. For starters, Kennedy is rude and a B to everyone for NO reason. Everyone kisses her butt too for some reason. There is so reason any girl who acts like her should\’ve or could\’ve landed the most popular guy on campus even if she looks like Nina Dobrev. Sorry, no. She attacks a male student (verbally until he stalks toward her and then it becomes physical on her end on the basis that he COULD have hit her) this is completely brushed off and honestly, if a male student had done what she had to a female student he would\’ve been in jail. Just because Kennedy is a girl doesn\’t excuse it. Then, she later punches a guy at a party for NO REASON simply because he passed a guy a cup at a DIFFERENT part that the other guy put a date rape drug in. Like …. this guy had NOTHING to do with that. Honestly, Kennedy is psychotic and I just can\’t approve of this book at all. It\’s a Simon Cowell NO FROM ME.

Holy crap Tijan has done it again! If you are looking for an angsty new adult read, pick up Hate To Love You today! This book had me hooked from beginning to end! From the moment I saw the cover and read the blurb of this book I knew I needed to read it, and I would have one-clicked it, even if it was it wasn\’t by Tijan, who I read anything by. Shay and Kennedy\’s story is an absolute must read. Kennedy is a character that you will want to love and hate from the moment you meet her. She\’s rough around the edges, but as you get to know her and more about her past you\’ll understand why she is the way she is, and will come to love her more and more. She only lets a few people in, and when she lets you in, she is very protective of those people. So when Shay comes barging into her life, she is not happy about it. He\’s everything she said she would stay away from, and she immediately hates him, but Shay has a way of breaking down her walls and I loved everything about it. With the help of Linde, Shay is able to help break Kennedy down more and more. Linde is a safe friend for Kennedy, but there is an attraction between Shay and Kennedy that even though she wants to hate him, she can\’t seem to stay away from him. When things start to heat up between them, I loved how she said they couldn\’t talk about it, because you knew that Shay wanted to broadcast it out there, but Kennedy wasn\’t having any of it, and my heart actually hurt for Shay for how she treated him at times. She took her past hurts out on him which wasn\’t fair to Shay, but he more than made up for all the pain that Kennedy had been through. Not only do we see Kennedy go through A LOT with Shay but we also see her find a great group of friends, some that you may not have expected her to be friends with in the beginning of this book when you first meet them. When one of the girls goes through something horrific, how Kennedy deals with it and how she was there for her was beautiful and really showed what type of person Kennedy was, and really strengthened the bond that some of these girls had. When Kennedy also went through something traumatic as well, seeing how Shay and others reacted to it and how they were there for her was amazing and really showed that you don\’t need a huge group of people to be in your friend circle, but the ones who really care, those are the ones that matter, and will do anything for you. The support she received and the love that they showed her was amazing. When she finally came out of hiding the reaction she got brought tears to my eyes. This was a beautifully written love story, but also a story of self discovery and friendship. I loved watching Kennedy grow throughout this book, and seeing the friendships form. Shay and Kennedy are perfect for one another and I loved watching them go from Hate, to tolerate, to like, to love. It was a long journey for them, with many bumps and bruises along the way, but in the end, it was a perfect story. I fell in love with them and all of the characters. I really didn\’t want to say goodbye to them or the secondary characters in this book and I can only hope we can see Casey, Kristina, Linde and others in future books by Tijan one day. If you are looking for an angsty book to dive into that\’s full of laughs, tears, and steam, I highly suggest one-licking Hate To Love You by Tijan today!

Tijan rocks at the angsty young adult drama. And \’Hate to Love You\’ is no different. As per usual- there is a tough as nails girl as the Main Protagonist and a guy which becomes her boyfriend who is supposed to be the epitome of cool and who the whole uni worships. It hugely reminded me of another series of hers… but I\’ll leave that for other readers to decide. Here\’s what I loved- topics of sexual assault a massive topic here. These things commonly happen on college campuses and I love that Tijan addressed it. Shay- need I say more. He saved this book for me and was an amazing other half to Kennedy. The Plot- keeps you hooked u til the end Supporting Characters- as usual Tijan has many of these and they make the book. Negatives- Kennedy By the end of the book her anger issues and seeing everyone and everything as negative and in the wrong got old- i.e. Her roommate and the RA at the end of the book. I liked her at first and the more the book went on the less I liked her. With sam in fallen crest you got her dramas as they were brought to her. With Kennedy, I felt that she created some of her dramas- her roommate and the RA. It got old and she came across as ridiculously immature. Overall, this is a typical Tijan story and fans of hers will love it.

I found this book a little disappinting and fail to see how it got all the 5* reviews. It could have been so much better. The main character Kennedy was totally paranoid and mistrusting of everyone but there really did not seem to be a genuine reason for it and for the rage and bitchiness she displayed. sure she had previous issues with a boyfriend and fake friends who only actually wanted her brother but not nearly enough to cause the reactions she brought to Uni such as not allowing him to speak to her! New girls she hated for their mean behaviour had not been that bad. Shay just seemed a really nice guy and none of it worked for me. I felt the story had potential but was let down by the weak reasoning of why all this angst was happening. I was waiting for a massive reveal to make sense of it all. it never came.

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