You know, after reading Because of Miss Bridgerton I thought my need for nemesis-based romance was met for a while. Ha. I was wrong. 
 Malin reviewed this and I knew immediately that I needed to have it in my life. So I abused used my library privileges to fast-track a copy into my hands. I got it yesterday, started it during lunch, and picked it up again as soon as I got home. (The afternoon was torture.) 
 Lucy and Joshua work as assistants to the co-CEOs of their newly merged publishing houses. They have to work in the same office which is unfortunate because they drive each other insane. Listen, if you want more plot details to convince you, check out Malin's review up top. The chemistry between Lucy and Joshua is off-the-charts. The situations they find themselves in are just the right mix of bizarre and plausible. The dialogue is sparkling and the kisses are well-written and the tension is drawn out juuuust right. 
 So it's not perfect. Some of Lucy's questionable actions could be easily avoided if she stopped to think for, like, two seconds. I wasn't crazy about the way that Thorne focused on Lucy being scared sometimes that Joshua was going to hurt her. Yes, women are constantly aware of threatening situations, but that doesn't make it sexy and it was too often played like that here. It's slightly (slightly) more tame than your average romance because it comes from a major publisher as opposed to a romance publisher. The Hating Game might not be for everyone, but it was certainly for me. I'll definitely keep reading Sally's books and this is the curse of being a great debut author because I want more now! 
 Casting call because I super need for this to be a movie. 
 Lucy: Sarah Hyland for sure. I think she gets undersold a lot in Modern Family. She's just the right height and I think she could hold that balance between genuinely sweet and snarky. 
 Joshua: Zac Efron and I'm not even kidding. I would love to see him in a strictly rom-com role. He'd be great at all of the smoldering. 
 Danny: Tom Felton because I mostly just want him to be in more stuff. 
 Helena: Is Meryl too big of an ask? 
 Initial review: A complete and total delight that necessitated me reading it in one day. More soon.