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Title: The Trouble with Hating You
Author: Sajni Patel
Sub-genre: Contemporary
Trope(s): Enemies to lovers; arranged marriage
Content Warnings: Sexual assault both in the past and on the page; victim blaming and shaming; slut shaming; death of a parent
Oof. I really need to get better at researching books before I read them. I will say on a positive note, the author did include a content warning at the beginning of the book, but I don’t think it sufficiently covered the depth of some of the triggers here. More on that in a minute.
Liya is a super independent, super smart engineer. Never one to hold to her family’s Indian traditions, Liya has established a life for herself, with a solid career and her own apartment. So when her parents try to set her up with Jay, she balks, and literally runs away. Unfortunately, there’s no escaping Jay’s presence in her life as he has been hired by her company to help oversee a bunch of lawsuits which could possibly bankrupt her company, which would suck as Liya has just been promoted. Liya and Jay continue to run into each other, both at work and in the community, and their interactions become less hateful and more flirtatious the more time they spend together. But there is a lot of trauma and some big secrets in Liya’s past and she is hesitant to open up to Jay, even when he proves to not hold to the same ideals as some of the more judgmental members of their community. It takes some time and some patience, but Liya and Jay are able to figure each other out, and live happily ever after.
There are so many different routes this book could have taken to make me love it. I truly love both Liya and Jay. Liya is my favorite kind of heroine, and Jay is a super sweet cinnamon roll who loves his family and takes care of everyone around him. They had sold initial conflict, and their work relationship to give them some drama. I would have really liked to have seen the issue of Liya’s promotion actually explored as it is common practice for companies to promote women to leadership positions when they know the company is on the verge of folding. There were lots of ways this book could have gone.
But instead, this book is one big trigger. Liya was sexually assaulted by an elder in their church as a teenager. When she told her parents about it, her father blamed her for it, sided with the elder, and continues to this day to victim blame and shame his daughter. Liya’s mother is mentally and emotionally abused by the father and doesn’t stand up for Liya until the very end. Liya is CONTINUALLY slut shamed throughout this book (and she eventually reveals to Jay she’s had fewer than ten sexual partners in her life). I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much slut shaming in a romance before. It was hard to read. Liya is also assaulted by her date (not the hero) on the page. Even with the content warning, it was a lot. I don’t find myself triggered very easily, but the barrage of hate Liya was forced to endure from people who are supposed to care for her made it really hard to finish this book.
I think the book overall is well-written, and I know the experiences Liya has are realistic and not uncommon. However, for me personally, it was too much.
Overall Rating: 3.5 stars
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