A book that I really didn’t care for but I don’t regret reading it. Though I don’t’ think I’ll pick up anything else by this author.

This was a pretty good book! I admit at first it was meh and I didn’t really care for any of the characters. At about 30% it did start getting way better and I found myself rooting them to fall hopelessly in love Again. This is the story of 2nd chance love, 2 lovers who have been swept up by the stress of life and are finding their way back to their love struck selves. I feel that their whole journey of trying to have a baby, and not being able to was really well said in the book and was a very real and emotional subject that added more depth to their story and is a very important topic. Also as a cat lover, I love how the cat brought them closer together in a way
Overall this was a cute, hopeful and emotional read <3
3.5 stars out of 5

📕 REVIEW: P.s I Hate You

⭐: ☆☆☆☆ / 5
👩🏻‍💻 Author:
📃 # Pages: 331
🗓 Pub Date: 03 Mar 2022

Firstly I would just like to thank @netgalley @sophieranald @bookouture for giving me my first ARC is exchange for an honest review🥰

WOW! I honestly couldn't put this book down, I absolutely am in love with it and I'm already wishing I could re-read it for the first time. The story line, the characters and just everything was amazing!

DESCRIPTION:
"Relationship: Hanging by a thread.
Sex life: Dead on arrival.
Alcohol: Essential.
It’s normal to hate the man of your dreams, right?
Once upon a time, Abbie and Matt had swoon-worthy mini breaks in Paris, and Abbie would cook him steak wearing nothing but an apron and high heels. These days, they’re experiencing the longest dry spell on record… And Abbie is keeping a very big secret.
But she’s not ready to give up. Nobody knows Abbie like Matt does, and it helps that he’s tall, dark and handsome, with hazel eyes and dimples to die for.
Determined to reignite the romance, Abbie initiates Operation Memory Lane and recreates their happiest memories. Maybe breakfast in bed, sexy lingerie, dirty martinis and a romantic weekend in the countryside will bring back Abbie’s butterflies and make her giddy with happiness…
But revisiting the past is a risky business, and secrets always come out in the end. Will the truth ruin their second chance at love?".

Wow, what an absolute gem of a book! From the moment I read the synopsis, I was intrigued about this second-chance romance. Abbie and Matt are high-school sweethearts who are going through a tough time in marriage. I love how this book takes a look at the romance after the "happily ever after married" phase. This book weaves in the daily struggle of just trying to survive and gives a deeper insight to what it wedding vows mean "for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health". Abbie and Matt's romance started off as a fairy-tale romance (which readers get to experience through flashback) but ends with a solid marriage that will last a lifetime. There were some parts of the book that seemed to drag on and a sudden end, hence only the 4 stars, but it's still totally a great romance book that I plan to re-read again!

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for providing me with this advance copy in exchange for an honest review!

Overall, this was not a bad story. The characters in this book were well developed. I did struggle with the secret that Abbie kept from Matt.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

Absolutely loved this book. second chance romance trope but with the pop of the past and present. going thru all stages of a relationship and the success and downsides we all experience. highly recommend for a feel good romance

{thank you to netgalley and bookouture for providing a digitally copy of this book.}

i love second chance romance books so i had to read this one. i got easily into the story. right from the start you could get a good glance on abbie’s and matt’s relationship. The falshbacks really gives the reader a good way to understand how they started and the way their relationship progresses. i am normally not a huge fan of too many flashbacks but here they got tied into the story really well!

i also instantly fell in love with the girlfriends club and loved reading their interactions and text exchnages!
I really enjoyed the whole topic of revisiting old memories of abbie and matt and you could feel the lowkey awkwardness at first but also how they progress and bond back together!

but there are a few points i didnt enjoyed that much, that are just personal preferences. i first didnt really liked the plot line around Andy - but i got to admit that the way it got tied up in the end was really well done and showed both abbies, but also andys character development.

Overall i really enjoyed abbies and matts story and can recommend this book to everyone who is looking for a quick and easy read! 3.5 Stars!

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Abbie and Matt are highschool sweethearts, still together after 20 years. In spite of the rosy exterior they present to all their friends, their “happily ever after” has started to wear off. Can they rekindle the romance by revisiting sweet moments from their past.

P.S. I Hate You is a rare look at what happens far beyond the honeymoon phase. This book presents what happens when the glow fades and common struggles that many married couples face. I do think the title is a poor fit. There’s no hatred between the main characters. While they both struggle throughout the storyline, both Abbie and Matt recognize that something is wrong and make an effort to revitalize their relationship.

I liked that the chapters swapped between past and present. It gives readers a deeper insight into the progression of not only the character's relationship but maturity. I do wish that there was an epilogue. I would have liked a better look at what happens to Abbie and Matt in the future.

This is the first book that I have read by Sophie Ranald but I look forward to reading more from her.

After reading this, I’ve realized Second Chance Romance is becoming one of my favorite tropes! I really liked how this book started off, by telling their love story through flashbacks as well as the present day. It was very unique and interesting alternating between the two.

There are some real and raw moments that I wasn’t expecting. ⚠️Trigger Warnings⚠️ Included infertility and miscarriage.

P.S. I Hate You shows love all throughout different stages of life. This was my first Sophie Ranald and it definitely won’t be my last. Releases March 3rd!

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the opportunity to read in exchange for an honest review.

P.S. I Hate You follows childhood lovers, Abbie and Matt. They have been together longer than they can even remember; 20 years to be exact, 9 of which they have been married. Although, during the time of the novel Abbie feels as though their connection is not as it once was. She finds herself getting upset at little things that Matt does, and not being able to overlook them anymore. Naturally, Abbie decides to go to her friends for advice. They tell her that she should attempt to recreate the couple’s best moments, like their first date. Abbie agrees to recreate old memories in hopes to ignite the spark that the couple once had, but along the way they run into some problems. Abbie and Matt both have secrets that they have kept in the past, but when they get revealed during Abbie’s attempts to salvage their relationship, they begin to run into some issues.

All in all, this book was not bad. I definitely had higher expectations after reading the description, but there was nothing terribly wrong about it. The main thing is that I found it to be somewhat slow paced. I think that a lot of things were drawn out and made longer than they needed to be. I found that I didn’t feel that big of a connection to Matt or Abbie, so I didn’t sympathize with their problems and flaws as much as I could have. I feel as though some of the problems that arose were not that huge of a deal and I didn’t fully understand the character’s frustrations about them. I also noticed that by the end of the book, it felt as though there were some things that weren’t tied up all that well. This may have been the point/style the author was going for, in which case it’s more of a personal preference that I like the end of books to tie up all loose ends.

As for positives, I really liked the flashback chapters. This is surprising for me as generally, flashbacks in books are not my favourite. I feel like this author did them very well, and the timing/placement of the specific flashbacks held significance, which made me enjoy it more as it didn’t feel pointless to have them. I also did like the general plot, I think the idea was a very strong one, I just feel as though the execution was not as good as it could have been.

All in all, I found the book to be enjoyable, it just seemed to take me a bit longer than usual to get through it. I would like to say thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing me with an E-Arc of this book.

thank you to netgalley for the arc. Firstly, the title is misleading because neither Abbie or Matt hate each other. They are married and have drifted apart. The author talks about their struggles as a couple and somethings that they did to get past their funk. The pacing is off, it goes back in time to when they first began dating. I also didn’t love the ending because I feel like it could have wrapped up better. All opinions are my own.

Abbie and Matt. Matt and Abbie. Two high-school sweethearts who have been couple goals for twenty years. Almost a decade of marriage, a pandemic, fertility struggles, and a few secrets have all contributed to the magic being lost. In fact, the sight of Matt's used teaspoon beside the sink is enough to fuel her with rage. Abbie decides to recreate memories to try and bring the spark back only to realize you can't physically relive memories and has to decide if making new ones should include her husband.
**
I'm not quite sure if you would qualify this as an enemies to lovers or a second-chance but regardless, this story has left me incredibly angry. I will say, a romance novel between two people who are already married is an important trope that authors seldom touch upon. I suspect the reality for many couples is that the flame dies eventually and it occasionally comes back just to repeat the cycle. The execution is the problem.

First, the title doesn't describe the book. Abbie doesn't hate Matt, that would probably be easier. Rather, she is more or less indifferent to him. It sets the reader up for confusion and unable to predict the plot. Also, is it just me or does Abbie drink A LOT?!?! This might be nitpicky but I can't imagine drinking excessively is helping her struggles both in her life and marriage considering it's a mood enhancer.

The ending...UGH. I thought I had like two more chapters left. It ended so abruptly! After all this work do they stay together or end it?! I need this to be explicit to satisfy the need for a HEA when reading romance.

I did like, however, the couples' journey in trying to conceive. It felt authentic and relatable which is the opposite of many novels when infertile couples magically are able to conceive. Kudos for resisting this urge.

I love Sophie Ranald, but this was a miss for me.

P.S. I Hate You is marketed as general fiction and romance, but I would say it is more general fiction, less romance. The blurb on the front of the cover "Who needs enemies when you've got a man like this?" really threw me off. Even more, the title is deceptive. Neither characters hate the other. They have a deep love for each other, that through struggles they have experienced, has led things to be hard. This is a story about finding their way back to each other and the work that it requires. Even more, it is about forgiveness of the other person and forgiveness of self.

The author did a great job writing both Abbie and Matt. They were full of quirks, shared memories and love. The love was so apparent between these two, and I saw the love so strong. I felt the rawness of the emotions both Abbie and Matt experienced in the flashbacks (and in the current time line) and was happy to see them come together through all the emotions to be the couple they were, moving forward. I like that this happened not in an "and they all lived happily ever after way", but rather that they consciously decided to move forward with each other and will be happy in the new path life has taken them.

I thought this was a well thought out and well executed book. I don't want to post spoilers in the review, but I want to say that the author had a choice to go one of two ways in the book with a main plotline and she chose the path less travelled and I appreciated that so much.

This was my first Sophie Ranald book, but I will be picking up more in the future. Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an open and honest review. All opinions are 100% mine.

3.25 stars

P.S I Hate You follows the story of Abbie and Matt. they were highschool sweethearts. They have been together for over 20 years. Abbie realizes that the spark in their relationship was gone . She launches Operation Memory Lane to reignite the spark.

The title was really misleading. I went in thinking it was a nice second chance but it was nothing like I expected. I absolutely hated it as a second chance romance. It was good story . It was a single pov because of that we weren't able to get a a look into Matt's head , which was a negative. Maybe it is just me, Maybe you could like it . I think it is up to each individual. The writing style was good

TRIGGERS : DRUGS, IVF, INFERTILITY,etc

This book had a really good premise but I just did not like the execution. I think it could have greatly benefited from being dual pov. They didn't really start communicating until at least halfway through the book which made for weird pacing. I didn't know if he also wasn't really in love with her because we didn't see him a lot in the first half.

I received an arc through netgalley.

This was a different book than what I expect, but I really enjoyed it. I liked the back and forth from present time to the past. It was realistic. I appreciated the authentic issues and the effort made to make sure it was done right.

This title is a bit misleading. This is not a married couple that hates each other but one that has lost the closeness and intimacy that makes a marriage work (said as a single person). I liked the way that Abbie and Matt worked towards finding each other again as we are given glimpse of their past from their first kiss to their wedding day. Neither of them is to blame for what they have become and yer neither of them is without playing a part. Supportive friends, a new furry addition to their lives, and the willingness to try help them both along the way. A very enjoyable book and an author I will definitely read again.

Oh I loved this story. Abbie and Matt have been together for 20 or so years. They’ve been through so much but are still together. Kind of. Matt drives Abbie mad. Who leaves the teaspoon on the counter when it’s been used?

This is a simple tale of girl meeting boy, girl marrying boy, girl looking at boy and thinking ‘what the hell???’

Full of Ranald’s usual wit and humour, as well as sometimes painful insight into a long term relationship, this is a story where not very much happens other than to Matt and Abbie and it’s just wonderful.

And there’s added Shrimp, which is so cute!

Read it. Enjoy it. It’s lovely.

TW⚠️: infertility and miscarriage

I have to say this book really spoke to me! I’m in my early thirties and certain aspects really resonated.

📖
We meet Abbie who’s 37 and has been with Matt for 20 something years, they’re childhood sweethearts, now married with a mortgage. They’ve fallen into a bit of a rut and forgotten what brought them together in the first place what with life’s responsibilities getting in the way, which I think at times many of us will be able to relate to in our own relationships. Not forgetting how it’s often the little things that can frustrate us the most, which is the case for Abbie too!

Abbie embarks on an ‘Operation Memory Lane’ plan in a bid to rekindle that spark! Reinventing and remembering some of their most fondest memories which doesn’t always have the desired effect!

We also read of the couple’s infertility, their unsuccessful IVF attempts and of Abbie harbouring a secret since their university days.

💭
I really enjoyed this book. I loved the references to 90’s and noughties music The Corrs, Destiny’s Child, Alicia Keys to name a few and also the Mean Girls/Regina George mention and MySpace, all these aspects brought back memories of my own.

The story is told in alternating chapters between the present day and flashbacks (named after well known music singles) to Abbie and Matt’s school years and growing up which was done really well and allowed the story to flow without losing your way.

The only thing I’m not sure of is the title of the book. I don’t think it’s truly fitting to the story.

I looked forward to reading this book each evening and found myself making extra time to sit down and read it too, which is when I know I really like a book.

Thank you to @netgalley and @bookouture for this gifted copy in exchange for an honest review.

‘PS I Hate You’ is out on 3rd March 2022.

this book personally fell flat for me. i got about 35% into it before i decided to put it down. it wasn't one ill never go back to just not right now.