Thanks for letting me read this one is was a good second chance romance trying to rekindle a marriage, the flashbacks and forwards were really fun to see how the relationship was before and is now

It's been 7,305 days. 240 months. 20 years.

Abbie and Matt have been together for two whole decades, since their love story started when she was just seventeen. They were meant to be a fairytale, but they had no idea what would come after the happily ever after happened and they walked away together into the sunset. Their sex life is dead, Abbie doesn't remember the last time she felt any type of spark and Matt is … quite honestly boring and a little bit hopeless. But Abbie isn't willing to settle or just walk away - so she starts Operation Memory Lane - thinking that just maybe if they relive the start, they might be able to find the spark they once had.

But instead of a Spark, Abbie finds everything is on fire - there are things in the past they've both hoped would stay there, and if they're not careful it might just be the thing to make their marriage explode for good.

"Romeo and Juliet, only without the poison and the dagger and the hapless priest."

I'm a simple woman - Sophie Ranald writes a new book, I devour it in one sitting without even looking at the blurb. Full of absurdly hilarious antics that could (hopefully) happen in a book, sickeningly sweet romance and as always, a feelgood glow that radiates through the pages.

Abbie was so utterly relatable - she perfectly encapsulated the way a small thing can seemingly break someone, especially if you don't notice the thousand other small things that came before. It gets into the gritty, frustrating parts of a relationship, the harsh realities of love and romance that we don't talk about. She tells us the painful truth that a past doesn't always guarantee you a future. I was watching their relationship unfold and grow in front of my eyes, as we see them move forward and look back at the same time.

The early 00's nostalgia in this book as go back and relive their origin stories was so painfully funny and realistic it made me physically cringe. I was taken back to a time of frosted eyeshadow, Smirnoff Ice and low waisted jeans (which honestly, can stay back there, please!)

"I don't care if I never kiss anyone else in my life, ever again, she thought. And twenty years later, she hadn't."

Thank you to Bookouture and NetGalley for the ARC of this novel.

This book was not bad but the description does not match what I just read. The chapters showing flashbacks as well as the current timeline was fun to see how the relationship between Abbie and Matt progressed but I was not a fan at all of Abbie's big secret. I do not understand how you would not tell your partner something like that for years and years. Matt's secret I called early in one of the chapters but I do appreciate Abbie's reaction to it. Seeing the rekindled relationship by the end was sweet but maybe I was not in the right state of mind to read this. Sorry to say I did not laugh out loud, did not feel all the feels. and was not addicted by any means.

Thanks to NetGallery, I got an ARC! Did not finish the book though. Maybe it was the writing style or that I just didn’t vibe with it, but couldn’t get through it!!

The quotation marks were apostrophe’s and it lagged at the parts i started reading. I’ll still give it 3 stars even though i didn’t finish because the blurb and idea sounded good!!

PS I Hate You by Sophie Ranald was an overall good read. This book is a story of Abbie and Matt and after years of marriage try to find the spark to rekindle their love. Sometimes this can be lost along the way along with the passion and trust like any relationship. It is a nice spin on a romance instead of the first time meeting or second chance love. I feel a lot of people can relate more to this story when finding themselves and love in their relationship all over again.

This book left a lot to be desired unfortunately for this genre. I was completely underwhelmed by Abbie. The story suffers since this is only in her pov, and honestly I felt like she was not very kind or understanding of her husband’s position. For Instance, when she finally reveals the big secret, she is honestly cruel and unempathetic to her husband and his feelings and then has the audacity to go bitch to her friend group about how he asked her for time to deal with the secret as if he’s not allowed time to process a life changing secret. Without his pov, it just makes Abbie seem really selfish and terrible.

Also, the title has nothing to do with this book. At all.
Lastly, this book has a tendency to get boring and drag significantly. While the flashbacks can be helpful some are too long, especially when one is repeated in the book.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for this digital ARC

I did not enjoy the cover at all.

This is a second chance romance where they try to rekindle their marriage. Overall a decent book, not super original but a decent read.

Second chance lovers is my favorite thing in the world so this book was definitely right up my alley, and in a way it was. I liked their relationship and it's always really great to know their relationship's backstories. I also just really loved how in second chance lovers romance, you'll feel this little spark reigniting through out the pages the longer you stay with the book, and I think that was the case in this one. Although I liked that aspect, I wish this wasn't just in Abbie's POV and instead in dual POV because Abbie as a character was a little too flat for me, and I wish we'd gotten more from her.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I'm afraid that I am going to have to DNF this book. Maybe it's because the characters are older or that she has absolutely no personality, but I could not continue it.

This book tells the story of Abbie and Matt, and how they try to rekindle the love, trust and fire of their marriage. This is a great book for readers that love to read about couples that after years in a relationship try to find themselves and their love for each other again.

I really liked that this story came full circle, and that it worked a lot with flashback chapters that helped to explain the relationship and the characters. Those chapters helped the plot flow very well and gave a good insight into the marriage and previous development. This story had very subtle angst and drama, but is still compelling. I loved how they dealed with the topic of infertility and the want but also expectancy of having children, and the decisions the characters came to were very clear to me. Even though I had a hard time relating to the characters in the beginning, their development is very clear and well structured. I liked the bonds of friendship and think they were greatly interwoven with the plot.

I do have to say that I think that the title can be a bit misleading, because Abbie and Matt definitely don't have a hateful relationship. They might resent each other at some point, but they are always rather subtle and quiet in that, with some only a few pages lasting exceptions. They try very hard to work on their relationship. The title made me expect a different kind of dynamic.

This is a book for people that love reading about every day couples that struggle after years of marriage and aim to rekindle their romance, grow and understand each other as well as themselves better. Infertility and drug abuse are also subjects dealt with.

I enjoyed reading this one. The plot piqued my interest and requested it immediately, thankful for netgalley & the publisher for granting me an e-arc in exchange for a review. The story is amazing, i was really invested in it & gave in 4 stars. I recommend this one!

Thank you NetGalley, publisher and author for allowing me to read and leave my honest review! I liked the idea of this book a lot. I love how the author writes I would definitely be interested in reading another book of hers. I really wish this was a Dual POV. I would have loved to know how Matt felt not just Abbie. This book had me laughing at some parts. I definitely loved their relationship!

I give this book 3.5 stars! I think that it was very well-written, and it did well to
get me invested in the main couple straight away. I think that many long-term couples can relate to the issues Abbie and Matt were facing after so much time together and all the ups and downs they went through. As a reader you wanted Abbie's memory lane plan to work, which had me invested and wanting to keep reading. The writing could be slow and I would get frustrated at lack of communication but overall a really heart warming relationship saved read!

Not an original storyline, but one that I enjoyed about a couple who have history but also animosity towards each other. The spark/chemistry between these two was apparent and entertaining to read. I devoured this book quickly and will look for additional books from this author.

So here's the thing, don't go into this thinking this is the typical romance. The main reason why I gave this 4 stars, was that honestly it just read as not as fun/frothy as I thought it would be. I have read Ranald's prior books so I was expecting something different. This did not make this bad, but it was just not what I was expecting. And honestly, part of me was on Matt's side for some of this book. Not the whole thing, but I got really tired of Abbie about half way through. Just divorce if everything he is doing is making you crazy. Of course you have to keep reading to figure out what happened in the marriage that left them feeling so out of sync with each other. This is called a second chance romance, but am trying to think of the last one I read that had a married couple doing a second chance romance. 

This follows a married couple (Abbie and Matt) who after 20 years together, have hit a very rough patch in their marriage. The book goes back and forth between when they first met, kissed, and the big and low moments of their lives together. In the end, the book asks how much do you really love someone, and what do you do when that love starts turning to dislike. 

Abbie and her friends were great and very realistic. I did like how Abbie's friends kept encouraging her to talk things out and go down memory lane with Matt to rekindle things. You realize that they have more of the story than readers do, and when things get fully revealed, things make a lot more sense. I did feel for Abbie then. 

I loved all of the scenes showing Abbie and Matt through the ages until the present day. You do get a sense of a true love story and two people who just like each other. 

And you can tell both of them know things are wrong and want to make it better, but don't know how.

I did love the other characters we get in this one and I assume that one of them will pop up as the next main character in Ranald's books. 

Though it's not explicitly said, the book seems to be taking place in a post-COVID or just plain COVID world. It's brought up that Matt and Abbie have both been working from home for a while. They have very little space and are in each other's face all day. The world seems a bit shut off. I think Ranald's last book where she includes COVID did so very well. I am curious if other romance authors are going to just ignore COVID, or just make it part of the dressing of the book so to speak. 

The ending was very sweet I thought. And I loved that Ranald did not do something that I was ready for. No spoilers, but glad she went the other way with things. I also realized that I don't think that any of her prior characters showed up in this one like they have in prior books. No complaints from me since the last three books had me going ehh about some of them anyway.

Abbie has been with Matt for two decades and she's about to murder him over a teaspoon on the counter. This is the tipping point in their relationship when she seriously considers their future and if their nine-year marriage will make it to ten. They are stuck in a work-from-home routine of work, eat dinner, sleep, repeat. Their sex life is nonexistent and they've lost their closeness despite being in each others' faces all day.

The novel unfolds with current events between Abbie and Matt and switches back and forth between now and then, beginning with Abbie's first kiss with Matt in high school. The reader gets the impression that something is wrong without knowing what as their troubles unfold in the flashback scenes.

Abbie and Matt both are carrying secrets they've kept all of these years simply because the time wasn't right to share them. The secrets could potentially tear their marriage apart or bring them closer together.

The title, cover art, and tagline all point to a different novel -- a funny, feel-good, enemies to lovers romance. What we get is a portrait of a marriage almost 10 years in, 20 years after their first date, where two people aren't sure what to do and how they got there.

The book has elements of romance in Abbie's past and potentially in her future, but I wouldn't call the entire thing a romance novel as it leans more women's fiction. Recommended for fans of relationship fiction.

This story was about a second chance romance between the couple Abbie and Matt, they have been together for over 20 years now. The story switches between past and present times, showing how much their relationship has changed over time. In the past, you can feel them falling in love and understand the start of their love story, and in the present, you feel their disconnectedness and how everything they once had is not there anymore.

Honestly, I am unsure about how to start this review. I was really excited to read this book as the title and cover really caught my interest! One thing about me is that I usually base my book choice off of titles and covers, not descriptions. I usually don’t read descriptions to the books I’m about to read as I like to go into them blindly. I thought, based on the cover and title, it was going to be an enemies to lovers type book.

This story was about a second chance romance about a couple, Abbie and Matt, that have been together for over 20 years. It goes back and forth between the present and the pass, showing how different their relationship has become. In the past, you can feel them falling in love and understand the start of their love story, and in the present, you feel their disconnectedness and how everything they once had is not there anymore.

Let’s start with what I liked about this, which unfortunately, was not that much. I really liked the authors writing style. She was so descriptive and I really liked all the little details she added, especially during the past scenes. I felt like this really added to the story, but sometimes made it feel a bit long. There was some funny parts which made me laugh, which I always appreciate when reading a book!

Now on to my not so favorite things about the story. First of all, it was a second chance romance, which are not my favorite. I feel like I have a hard time connecting to the story and they make me feel a bit sad. The biggest thing about this story to me is that it felt flat. By the title and cover, I thought there was going to be some hate and anger towards each other. I felt like the anger was one sided, and did not last really long. I felt like there was no climax, and like nothing really happened during the story; this made the story feel really long to me. I also feel like I don’t really know Matt, and that I got to know the group of girlfriends more than him, which shouldn’t be happening in a romance novel. And to end it off, I was not won over by Abbie or Matt. I was just not able to connect to these characters.

Overall, this book was not my favorite. Would I recommend it? I don’t think so. Unfortunately, Even if you like the second chance trope, I felt like the story was long and flat, with nothing to really show for it.

2⭐️

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Bookouture for the copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

TW - infertility & miscarriage

I really enjoy Sophie Ranald's books. They're so relatable and easy to read.

P.S I Hate You is a little more serious than Sophie's previous books but no less interesting. It follows the story of Abbie and her husband Matt who have been together since school but seem to have lost their way in their marriage after 20 years together.

The title and the tagline are a little misleading I feel as although Abbie has her frustrations with Matt I certainly don't feel like they are enemies at all. It's great to watch them exploring their past together trying to find a way forward as a couple.

I particularly liked the flashback chapters to give more detail of Abbie & Matt's past. It gave a lot of depth to their story and made me more invested in the outcome.

A really heartfelt read packed full of all the emotions. Big thanks to gBookouture/Netgalley for the ARC

I’m not sure what I was expecting from the title, but it wasn’t this story. However, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Abbie and Matt have been married most of their lifetime after meeting and falling in love as teenagers. But they’ve drifted, Abbie’s inability to conceive has cast a shadow and she’s not sure how to get their previous life and love back. Down memory road they go, including back to their first date; the wedding venue. And slowly but surely they rekindle their love sharing deeply rooted secrets as they go.