I've picked this up a few times now and never got passed the 15% mark so I'm just gonna call it. Thank you for the opportunity!

This is a great enemies-to-lovers book that had me hooked from the very first page! I love all the emotions that are thrown in. It's definitely a relatable book!

Thank you so much for allowing me to read and review your titles.
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Tyson Trice has not had an easy life and now he finds himself without and friends or family living in a whole new very new neighborhood. However, the people there to help him build a new life aren’t really new to him, the Smith’s and their daughter Nandy were part of his childhood, a good part, and if he can allow his hate and pain to thaw he maybe able to recapture those feelings. Making choices between right and wrong isn’t always easy, especially when you haven’t been shown anything else and there seems no hope. Ultimately Tyson has to make a choice about the type of future he wants to have but the choice doesn’t not come without consequences.

The Review
An emotional and very real roller coaster of emotions take center stage in this gripping YA romantic drama. The characters become the central focus of this story as Trice and Nandy both are forced to step out of their comfort zones and find meaning in places neither of them ever thought they could.

The alternating chapters between both protagonist’s point of view give readers an in-depth look into the overall theme of star-crossed lovers, a breakdown of privilege versus middle-class living, and of breaking down the barriers created by stereotypes and judgment to discover who people are on the inside. The heartbreak of Trice and his past collide with the upscale lifestyle Nandy has grown up with, and each of them learns things are not quite as they seem from the other side of their respective fences.

Yet it is the story of real love that takes hold in the reader’s minds and hearts here. Not a fairytale style love that people always dream of, but of true love that comes with pain, heartbreak, and solid connections that speak true to readers everywhere, making this an excellent read.

The Verdict
This is the perfect YA drama to start off in 2020. A great mix of drama, romance, and teen angst make this the perfect read that is relatable to teen readers and memorable to many others. With a dramatic conclusion, this evenly paced read is not to be missed, so be sure to grab your copy of Whitney D. Grandison’s novel “A Love-Hate Thing” today!

This was not a book for me. I think when Nandie is first introduced she was so horrible to Trice that it made it a little hard to like her and root for their relationship to develop and succeed.

Unfortunately, this was a book that I couldn't get through. I recommend it for the messages and lessons within it. It's a book I might come back to in the future.

This book was a lot deeper than I was expecting.

The themes of breaking your walls down and letting people in as well as moving on after a tragic loss play into the narrative of A Love Hate Thing really well.

Nandy and Trice were both lovable characters once they warmed up to each other. Their relationship was nice but I felt like Nandy went from not wanting him there to being in love with him almost immediately after he told her what happened.

There was quite a large cast of supporting character and while I did find myself being confused at times, for the most part they were all fleshed out quite well.

This was a pretty good romance novel and for what it was I quite enjoyed it.

I picked up <em>A Love Hate Thing</em> by Whitney D. Grandison honestly expecting to fall in love with this book. I'm actually a massive fan of hate to love novels so, by and large, this should have been a book I adored. I was really excited, also, to see a book like this with black characters considering the unfortunate lack of such representation basically everywhere. But, as much as I wanted to enjoy this book, the unfortunate truth is that I absolutely hated it.

<b>All the right things written all the wrong ways.</b>

When Tyson Trice loses the only guardian he has left, family friends agree to take him in and support him through his last year of high school. Of course, living in a rich neighborhood when he'd grown up in poverty was never going to be an easy transition. It's especially difficult when the daughter of the couple who are taking him in is so concerned about her reputation with her friends that she doesn't want him there. Thus, we have the set-up for

Honestly, the biggest problem I have with <em>A Love Hate Thing</em> isn't really due to its premise. In fact, there are a lot of ideas involved in this book that I can oftentimes be a <em>huge</em> fan of. I enjoy hate to love. I'm fond of the idea that people who knew each other as kids and then grew apart fall in love when they meet again. I even enjoy the living under the same roof thing. So, why did I find this book to be <em>so bad</em>?

<b>Flat, underdeveloped characters.</b>

I had a lot of problems with the characters in this book. Unfortunately, you can have the best plots in the world but if your characters suck, chances are the book will, too. And this book didn't even have a phenomenal plot.

Nandy is honestly just the worst. Not only is she an incredibly prissy, selfish, and stuck-up rich girl, but at times she comes of as seriously problematic. There were moments in the book that seriously felt as though Nandy was representative of a stereotype that has black people shunning and hating their culture in an attempt to fit in with and be accepted by the white people around them. That one comment she made when Trice was having hair cornrowed on the front porch was seriously messed up.

And it's not even just Trice that she is unnecessarily awful to, either. Throughout the <em>whole</em> book she is basically an ass to literally everyone around her. If I recall correctly, the only person who isn't a target for her unreasonable rudeness and rotten behavior is her little brother.

Trice is better overall, but he's also a bit ridiculous. I understand where the author was going with him, but the way she wrote it just made every piece of his personality seem overthe top and contrived. The author knew what character she <em>wanted</em> to write, but not how to actually write that character. As a result, we end up with a lot of her <em>telling</em> us who he was without ever actually showing it. Add in the fact that most everything was awkwardly written and I really just didn't feel connected to him at all.

And that's sad, considering he was a writer.

Speaking of, that counselor he kept meeting with was so unrealistic, awful, and just...poorly written that I legitimately <em>cringed</em> every time she spoke.

<b>That one twist.</b>

Okay, so the plot was...fine, I guess. It wasn't great. The love story was very forced and unrealistic. There were a lot of inconsistencies with Nandy's feelings--less so with Trice's--and they ended up making her into an even more awful person than she was to begin with. Character interactions were abysmal, especially when it came to Nandy's friends. And then there was this whole side thing with Nandy's parents being reasonable and the two teenagers having a "but we want the thing" moment that leads them to go off and act like somehow the adults are being ridiculous.

But, worst of all was that terrible side plot with Trice's old friends. And it's not that a plot like that couldn't have been great and added a lot of depth to the story. Here it was just <em>really</em> poorly written. Paired with the fact that I generally just didn't care about any of the characters and situations that should have been tense just...weren't. I already knew how it was going to end with this being a love story and all, so I never really felt like there were actually stakes.

Finally, though only an annoyance, the faith piece really irritated me. See, I hated Nandy. She was <em>awful</em> backward and forward. Trice was okay. Guess which character was the one who believed in god, got upset when the other didn't, and tried to push her religion onto him? Yep, Nandy. Trice, on the other hand, didn't believe. And yet, by the end of the novel, Nandy somehow has him considering it.

I know that's not a sticking point for a lot of people, but it is for me. It wasn't the worst thing about the novel, by far, but it definitely wasn't a good thing either.

<em>I was provided a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.</em>

This is one of those Debuts that all other Debuts wish they could be!! This was a break out hit for this reader and I can not wait to see what else Grandison has in store for readers! A Love Hate Thing was a rollercoaster of feels with the story and the characters which make the story come to life. I could see this one getting picked up for a movie quickly as it was just that good. The pacing was well done and the characters come alive on the page I just couldn't put it down!

This was a great story!! It reminded me of a movie that was our forever ago. I think it was called Save the Last Dance? The dual POV worked wonderful as we received a well rounded story. I loved the characters and how different they were. The author did an amazing job at giving them their own voice and personality. The romance in this one felt genuine and so very real. And I adored the humor that was in a lot of this title. The ending shocked me which doesn’t happen much. And I can not wait to read another story by Whitney!!


Go Into This One Knowing: Gang Violence, Death of Parents, Mild Teenage Sex, Drug Use

I’m not really sure how I felt about this book. When I read the description it sounded like a book that I would enjoy but I didn’t really like the first few chapters or the last few chapters. I did like how Nandy and Tyson came together throughout the book though. I also enjoyed how Nandy’s character improved throughout the story.

I enjoyed reading several aspects of this book! The pacing was wonderful, characters were well drawn, and the reading experience on the whole was delightful.

A great quick read! It's been awhile since I've read YA and i always forget how fun and cute they can be. and who isn't a sucker for a love-hate thing?
Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review!

Thank you Netgalley for sending me a complementary arc of this book.

I will give this book 2.5 stars. I really really wanted to enjoy this book. I thought it would have a nice enemies to lovers romance. But it just bored me. The relationship felt very forced and I was not invested in it at all. Even their bickering felt completely pointless - a lot of it didn’t even make sense. I didn’t care for Nandy’s character. She was very annoying and judgemental. Trice was a better character and it was interesting reading about his life and has struggles. His trauma and grief was portrayed quite well. Overall, I just didn’t care much about the characters or the plot. In fact, I thought some of the side characters were way more interesting than the main ones!

The fact that I was really excited about this one, only for me to read about two unlikable, stereotypical black kids who are supposedly in love hurt my heart... but here we are.

My favorite genre is contemporary romance. Finding a YA contemporary romance about two teens who fall in love has been a struggle, but with this book and Kristina Forest’s books, I’m now super happy to see this trend and I really want it to continue.


Trice hasn’t had a great life, but he’s made it out of the streets and now he doesn’t know what he’s going to do next. An old family friend takes him in because of his Pops and he’s grateful, but still guarded. Nandy’s parents are the old family friend who take in Trice. She’s the girl everyone in Pacific Hills wants to be and having to parade this new guy her parents brought in around in not how she wants to spend her summer. But as the two get more acquainted, they both begin to realize things aren’t always what they seem.


As a character driven reader I can always tell whether or not I’ll like a book from the first few pages. This one was a bit different because its dual POV, but I still knew all the same. I LOVED Trice’s character and wanted to hug him and shake him so many times throughout this novel. As for Nandy, she rubbed me the wrong way from the very beginning. I was slow to come around to her, but eventually she grew on me. I’m still not going to be adding her to my favorite characters or anything, but she turned out ok. Her spoiled brattiness and getting everything she wanted just wasn’t ok to me.

The writing style and the plot were ok. For the most part, I thought it was really drawn out. (Personal opinion, but I don’t think contemp romances need to be almost 500 pages.) There were chunks between the 250 and 400 page mark that I think could have been left out. I wanted a story about Nandy and Trice and instead we get that and all this other stuff going on. It would have been nice to maybe make them novellas that were spin-offs or something. But that’s just me. Everything else, like the writing style and the way she captivated me with what was going on was amazing. It felt so authentic.


The ending wasn’t my favorite, but it wasn’t bad either. I just wish she had went a different route with it. I thought that character had already been through enough and I just wanted to see them catch a break. The plot twist was obvious, but I think that’s because I read so much. Anyone who doesn’t read as much as me would probably not catch on to it though.


This book was filled to the brim with love, representation, and so much raw emotion. This isn’t your average contemporary romance. Definitely a good read I didn’t want to put down.

I tried so hard to love this book. The concept was great and the writing was fantastic, however I just didn't connect with the characters themselves. They both felt forced and really stereotypical.

‘A Love Hate Thing’ is a story about love in all its forms and how we are so much more than our stereotypes.

I really enjoyed ‘A Love Hate Thing!’ While it was slow-paced in some places (too much setting description), it was well worth it to stick it out.

The growth of Nandy and Tyson was done realistically and phenomenally. Nandy starts out pretty snooty and insufferable, unjustifiably unwelcoming to Tyson, and it was hard to not instantly dislike her. Tyson starts off resentful and angry, emotional defenses up skyscraper-high, fenced in by extra-thorny vines for good measure. But, there are just enough glimpses beneath each of their veneers, even in the beginning, to see that there’s more going on underneath for both of them. Hints of self-centered Nandy’s kindness, glimpses of Tyson’s big, albeit very bruised, heart. Slowly, slowly, these two begin to drop their acts around each other, and I was here for that unraveling.

While the hate-to-love (one of the best tropes EVER) romance was great, my most favorite thing about ‘A Love Hate Thing’ was the friendships. For both Tyson and Nandy, their friendships were supportive and genuine, and I loved that there were no girls pit against each other - something that happens so commonly in novels with female friendships, and it’s just so tired. There was none of that here, and it was completely refreshing.


‘A Love Hate Thing’ was heartbreaking and sweet, with compelling characters and an off-the-charts chemistry, multilayered romance. It contains the perfect ingredients for a sensational teen drama-which is no surprise, considering it’s inspired by The OC! I highly recommend.

Also: the playlist at the end was also the best thing ever! 😍

(Thank-you to Netgalley and Inkyard Press for providing me with an eARC copy of this book! All opinions expressed are voluntary and my own.)

"Despite having been shot, Tyson Trice has survived the mean streets of Lindenwood, so nothing can faze him—not even being tossed into the affluent coastal community of Pacific Hills.

Nandy Smith, the golden girl of Pacific Hills, is not pleased when she hears her parents are taking in a troubled teen boy. Nandy suddenly fears her summer plans, as well as her reputation, will go up in flames.

The wall between Trice and Nandy’s bedrooms feels as thin as the line between love and hate. Through time, Trice brings Nandy out of her shell, and Nandy attempts to melt the ice that's taken over Trice's heart. Only, with the ever-present pull back to the Lindenwood streets, it’ll be a wonder if Trice makes it through this summer at all."

I was excited to read this book at first. I love exploring more diverse reads for my students. In the end, I just didn't love it. The characters were so stereotypical. I couldn't get past a lot of Nandy's perspective and her character's voice. I was also confused about character actions (like when one gave up his car???), and this really took away from a solid, believable story forming for me. The strongest part of this text that kept me reading was the mystery behind how Tyson was shot and why he seemed to always be upset.

When an author tells you that this book was inspired by The OC, you can expect the novel to either be a big hit or a colossal failure. It shows how talented Grandison is though that this book is excellent. Grandison is able to capture perfectly what is it to be a teenager stuck between two completely different worlds, while also trying to figure out being a teenager and being an adult. A Love Hate Thing is a great young adult read that should find it's way into every teenager's hands.