At the end of the recipient of two opposite news, people will usually go by the good one first. I'll follow the norm then—here is my good news: I'm free from COVID already; now the bad one: I'm free from COVID already.
I don't mean to be ungrateful, but being free from COVID means being free to go back to the office. While I'm happy to catch up with some colleagues, officially coming back as a corporate slave after a long, good holiday feels a little unbearable. My heart is still on another island far, far away from home. The so-called diagnosis is strengthened by my friend's past discovery that a good holiday indeed does this to some people.
To remind myself that office life has its own appeal too, I decided to reread one of my favorite guilty pleasure books: The Hating Game by Sally Thorne. Following the story of Lucy Hutton and Joshua Templeman, two nemeses working face to face on the tenth floor of B&G Publishing Company, The Hating Game is a workplace enemies-to-lovers book that will curl your toes along the way. Their cubicles are their warzone. Winning the battle and making the other party annoyed are their aims. So when a new promotion is free for anyone to grab, Lucy and Josh surely don't miss their chance. But when the tension has started to change direction, Lucy finds out that maybe she doesn't really hate... Josh.
If I recall correctly, this was my second time rereading The Hating Game, meaning I had read this thick book three times already. While I could still remember almost everything about the storyline even after a few years, going through this book from Lucy's point of view was still an entertaining experience to undergo.
Lucy was fun—a little manic at times, but fun regardless. I could see a part of myself in her: trying so hard to please people while having a problem saying no. As much as I hated that trait in me, I didn't think it made Lucy pathetic. I thought it made her more relatable instead. So when her character developed this new face of bravado and firmness, I went, "Ya go, girl!" instantly.
In my second reread, I didn't find Josh that appealing, which was quite shocking, but I did adore his chemistry with Lucy still. There is no denying this: the banters they threw at each other would always be my favorite parts. But while I was more focused on the romance part throughout the length of my first two reads, this more recent experience made me more aware of the other aspects. Like how lonely it was for Lucy to live in a big city with no friends, how hard it was for Josh to live in the shadow of his own successful brother, what a gentleman Josh had been for respecting Lucy's boundaries, and even how sometimes we threw away the Dannies in our life thinking that we had found our own Josh.
In my opinion, the interval between my last reread of The Hating Game and the rereading I did this year was still a bit too close. If I had waited for a few more months or—even better—years, I believe I would have fallen in love with Joshua Templeman all over again. My memory of him was still too fresh. Doesn't mean I won't reread this book at another opportunity, though.
Actual rating: 4.3★
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