GENERAL INFO

Hate Mail- a standalone

Year Pub/Re Pub:3/14/24, Read 3/11/24

Book's cover: a pink cover lover, the reason I requested the ARC!

Format: eBook, 355 pgs.

Source: Thanks to NetGalley and One More Chapter/Harper Collins UK for this ARC🩷 !  I voluntarily give my honest review and all opinions expressed are my own.

Setting:: starts in Oklahoma

Genre: Rom-Com, Adult Fic

Tropes: enemies to lovers, pen pal romance, military, dual POV

TW: death of parent, parental abandonment, stalker, grief

HEA/HFN ending: HEA

Epilogue Included: yes

BOOK DESCRIPTION

Synopsis/Plot Summary: In fifth grade Naomi and Luca are assigned pen pals. They end up sending each other hate letters- some funny, some very mean. There is a two year gap that Luca doesn't send any letters, but when he does, his address isn't on the letter for Naomi to write back. Naomi and her friend Anne decide to get the last word by tracking him down, even if it means going on a plane.

M/F-M/M-M/M/F-etc: M/F

Flashbacks: yes, they go back and forth because they've exchanged letters for several years. They discuss what happened in their personal lives

Jealy/Possy/OTT H/h : not really

Amount of Sex In The Book: a few scenes between Naomi and Jake

CHARACTER DESCRIPTION

Naomi Light-works at a radio station as a meteorologist in Miami. Writes hate mail to Luca over several years. When she wants to meet him, the letters stop.

Anne-Naomi's bff/coworker and cheerleader for going to find Luca.

Luca Pichler-lived in CA. His parents divorced , Dad abandoned him after his eight grade graduation. In high school his mother diagnosed w/ cancer. He plans to join the military but his mom wants to make it through his high school graduation.

Jake DuBois- hot neighbor who just moved in. An aquatic veterinarian who works at the aquarium.

Joel-the security guard in Naomi's building. Abandoned Luca & moved away.

Ben Toole-Luca's BFF since fifth grade. Let's Luca live with him for six months after breaking up w/ Penny.

H /h RELATIONSHIP INFO

OW/OM/Exes: Naomi likes her neighbor Jake, Luca had a fiancée( Penny) who he broke up with, and she stalked him.

AUTHOR OVERVIEW: Donna Marchetti-debut author

PERSONAL OVERVIEW

Overall Rating: 4 

Do You Recommend This Book: yes

Will You Re-read This Book: maybe

Would You Read More Books by this Author: yes

COMMENTS/NOTES: The pen pal romance isn't done very often, but when it's done right it's so good! Secret identities always cause drama. Naomi and Luca found comfort and humor in their letters. Finding out your parents aren't perfect is a hard to accept, but I loved the scene with Luca and father meeting after 15 years. This is a heart-warming, funny romance with a little twist.

This was an enjoyable read. It was funny, and many of the letters from their younger selves made me cackle. There were also a few emotional moments (cw: death of a parent) that made me cry in the way they were written. It was mysterious and I liked trying to figure out how everything would come together, I thought the dual timeline worked perfectly for this. I enjoyed the enjoyed the ending and the way they continue incorporating those letters into their lives.
For the most part I really liked it, and was almost expecting to give it 5 stars but ultimately I found the 3rd act conflict a little drawn out, you could see it coming and their reactions were expected so I just wanted to get through it.

I absolutely adored Hate Mail and couldn't put it down. Naomi and Luca have been pen pals since fifth grade and have been sending each other hateful letters ever since. They were "Penemies".

It is dual POV, where Naomi's point of view is in the present, Luca's goes back in time starting from the 5th grade, which gives so much insight into the characters and the history of their relationship. I really enjoyed the book and fell in love with both Luca and Naomi. This book has stayed with me since reading it.

This is a delightfully lighthearted romcom with an appealing plot and I'm very excited to read more from Donna Marchetti in the future.

5 stars ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

I loved this book, it had me laughing out loud from the letters they sent to each other. It was great that the letters were a part of this story. It is also told from both Naomi and Luca's perspective, which was also good as it gave you insights into what they both were thinking.
I loved the chemistry between the main characters but unfortunately I guessed right from the beginning that Jake was Luca and that kind of put a damper on the story.
I will be recommending this book to everyone.

Let’s just preface this review with the fact that I knew what was going to happen by 20% in. This book was nothing new. Just a typical pen-pals situation that went on too long and they wanted to find each other but instead of being sane human beings, Naomi went out to find Luca by traveling around the country and finding clues from neighbors and acquaintances. A huge waste of time and money in my opinion.

The only difference — Naomi and Luca weren’t typical pen-pals. They sent hate mail. They dissed each other every chance they got and even wished death upon each other. That initially gave me the ICK. I don’t think in any circumstance that it’s okay to be so hurtful. AND as it turned out, Luca had a horrible go at life. His father left him and his mother died. All the while, Naomi’s sending him really horrible hate mail. And then Luca turned out the be living in the exact apartment complex as Naomi. Huh, weird. Didn’t see that coming. (sense the sarcasm)

At some point or another, I was interested to see if the two would figure it out. Let’s be real- we all knew Jake was Luca, that was no surprise if you’ve ever read a book before. Like if the author wanted us to think otherwise, she did a bad job at that.

I thought the hate mail was super cringy. Not sure how people can fall in love over literal death wishes. Like EXCUSE ME but politely see yourself out and never send me another letter. Not to mention, there was MAJOR miscommunication. I also got stalker vibes through this whole book. The plot had potential with all the trauma Luca had been through but I think Naomi was a SHIT friend and for someone going through really tough times, her negativity in the notes certainly couldn’t have helped Luca and I hope she felt bad after finding out his truths.

The book Hate Mail by Donna Marchetti was such a disappointment and many times throughout the book I really wanted to stop reading it. I am so tired of authors trying to give cute nicknames to people with completely normal names like Naomi and yet they called her gnome throughout the book is Naomi too long to say does it take up too much time? Also the whole mixup with Jake’s name was just frustrating to me because I figured it out early on especially his connection to Joel when they only thought Jake found out about her penpal and that they were taking a break and her best friend and kept trying to convince her to look for Luca and she contemplated this thought made me think this woman is too immature to be in an adult relationship especially when she is spending gobs of money looking for a man who she’s never met before and yet she is willing to give up her relationship with Jake on hope and a prayer. There was just lots of great tropes in this book that I feel were wasted I have a humongous pile of TBR books and feel like I missed out on reading something else. I have loved every book I got from One More Chapter but sadly this was not one of them. The characters seemed one dimensional the jokes are not funny especially the whole green dress episode incense others love it I guess this just wasn’t a book for me. I want to think one more chapter and net galley for my free arc copy please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

This was fun and cute. There’s a great concept at its heart and the writing is solid and funny. Some of the letters, especially early on, made me laugh out loud. The romance between the two main characters was very cute and they had good chemistry.

I liked the ideas in this a lot and as I said I cannot fault the writing – it’s very light and engaging – but I found the way the story played out was quite muddled, personally. I could see what the twist was going to be a mile off (which I’m fairly certain was intentional), but some of the reasons it happened felt quite flimsy and I think could have been worked through better.

But the book as a whole was a lot of fun and I read it pretty much in one sitting. It wasn’t entirely my thing but it was certainly an easy, light read with some very solid writing. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a fun hidden/mistaken identity romance. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing a free copy of this book.

Content Notes: Death of a parent, cancer, absent parent / estranged parent, references to sexually transmitted diseases, on-page sex, unprotected sex, divorce (MMC’s parents, in past), infidelity / cheating (not between MCs; MMC’s parents, in past).

Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins UK, one more Chapter for this rea. This book was good. I love book with different mediums in it and with this...we got mail...haha..read this no spoilers if you like enemies to lovers and a lot of laughs.

Hate Mail follows Naomi and Luca, two individuals tied together when their respective teachers assign them as penpals. Over the course of almost 15 years, the two continue to write to each other until one day the letters stop and Naomi is left wondering if Luca and their budding relationship meant nothing to him. However, two years later Naomi is suddenly pulled back into their exchange when she gets a letter in the mail and is forced to decide if she finally wants to pursue Luca.

This was a delightfully lighthearted romcom full of fun and a dash of steam, featuring frenemies to lovers, he falls first, and dual POV. The penpal premise is so unique in that Naomi and Luca send each other hate mail, they had such a fun banter in their letters and it was so cute to read about them slowly falling for each other while they grew into themselves. The story unfolded between two POVs and timelines; it gave so much insight into the characters and the history of their relationship. This is a cute and sweet debut romance, and while I do think the characters and execution could use some work, I am very excited to read more from Donna Marchetti in the future.

Oklahoma-based Naomi and Californian Luca have been pen-pals since the 5th grade. They've been doing this, however, by sending mean-spirited letters to one another - until Luca stops, seemingly at random. Two years on, Luca waltzes back into Naomi's life - so Naomi decides to track him down, once and for all.

Hate Mail's central concept is really fun, and it's execution (mostly) works. The novel is a little overlong and gets a bit too bogged down in the details, and the timeline of the novel makes literally no sense, but I still had a good time. I loved reading the letters sent between Naomi and Luca, the casual virtriol was sparky and hilarious. The chemistry between the two is evident and Marchetti's novel shines in romantic, flirtatious scenes - lots of cute banter and some well-written spice.

Naomi and Luca, as characters, are great - the novel is told in dual POV and it's great to see the plot unfurl from both sides, though I wish the narrative voices had diverged a little more. Other characters aren't particularly well-developed'; Anne, Naomi's best friend slash assistant (weird?) is ok, but very annoying.

I know this is a romance novel so we're mostly invested in the central couple, but having read so many other great romance novesl with well-developed side plots, this was glaringly simplistic. Hate Mail is Donna Marchetti's debut novel, and at times it shows in the weakness of the writing; this isn't a criticism, necessarily, as Hate Mail was really enjoyable and I did find myself desperate to get back to it over the 24 hours I read it in. It's more a note to say that this novel is far from perfect, but she's a sparky, funny and clever writer and I am looking forward to seeing how her voice develops.

Thank you, netgalley and one more chapter for the arc in exchange for an honest review!

This book was so cute and funny and had me kicking my feet in the air as well as tearing up!

Luca and Naomi have been pen-pals since fifth grade. The content of most of their letters consisted of hate messages, death threats and sarcasm - all because a younger Luca couldn’t be bothered writing to a stranger as part of a middle school activity. What he didn’t expect was for Naomi to write back to his insults, and the two continue their banter over the years in a never-ending battle to become worse than the other. After 2 years of not hearing from him, Naomi receives a letter with no return address and attempts to track him down.

The story is told from both Naomi and Luca’s POV and we get to read their letters starting from their first letter up to their most recent. I loved reading them as I found the banter between them amusing and we got to see their friendship develop even though they’ve never met in person. The initial love triangle aspect caught me off guard as it wasn’t mentioned in the synopsis and I’m not really a big fan of the trope but it paid off in the end and is an important part of the story.

I was expecting the twist but it still made me emotional knowing what the characters have been through and you can really feel the strong bond between Luca and Naomi.

Thank you to netgalley and One More Chapter for the ARC in exchange for an honest review ✨

This was great! I really enjoyed the enemies to lovers vibes. The ending was really sweet. Ill definitely be reading more by this author

I thoroughly enjoyed this! This was such a cute romantic comedy that approached the enemies to lovers trope in a different way - being pen pals since fifth grade, but writing awful things to each other in each letter for years. They're not just enemies.. but 'penemies'.

When Naomi's 'penemy', Luca, sends her a letter after two years of silence with no return address, Naomi is determined to track him down and get the last word. It was so fun to journey along with Naomi to try and track down Luca, with multiple laughs and smiles along the way.

The letters Naomi and Luca sent to each other were absolutely savage from such a young age! Some of them I read had me snorting in laughter.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins UK for this copy. This review is voluntary.

DONNA MARCHETTI - HATE MAIL
Thanks to the publisher, HarperCollins and One More Chapter and the author for the advanced reading copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!

REVIEW:
Naomi and Luca's love story was one which intrigued me from the start!It was a gem for my romance loving heart, as two childhood friends became something more...
Naomi and Luca's relationship started off as a compulsory thing: they were assigned pen pals in fifth grade, when a wide-eyed and sweet Naomi first encountered a misguided and full of teenage angst Luca. His first letter was mean and thus a weird tradition started: the two shared 'hate mails' for almost two decades. What started off as juvenile and mean evolved into a deep friendship and something special - they learned to lean on each other even in the midst of being horrible to the other.Up until two years ago, when Luca disappeared. After two years without correspondence Naomi is startled to see his handwriting - on a fan letter at her workplace. There's no return address, just a teasing, mean letter which sets her up a new mission:To find out what's the whereabouts of one  illuminous penpal of hers.  As he eggs her on, she goes on a treasure hunting path which leads her to re-discovering her past and tells her the truth about Luca. Funny, how close their letters seemed to bring them, even if they had no idea about some big things in each other's lives. Their eventual love story needed greater fundations, and that's where the missing puzzle pieces Naomi and her best friend tried to piece together were important. To add spice to the story, in the middle of searching for Luca, she encounters her charming neighbor, so she's struggling with past and new feelings on her literal doorstep. Could she be falling in love with two people?
I found the setting and characters charming, the backdrop of literal letter exchanges a fun way to incorporate two friends - who became strangers - rediscovering each other without switching between the dreaded past and current POVs.The switch up with the letters and the POV of the main characters gave a nice flow to the story, even if sometimes it was a bit repetitive in its prose.It was a funny, charming read, with cute animals, book boyfriend heroes, a big secret and epic love story.

'Hate mail' is a of enemies for years novel, but they only know each other only through letters. An entertaining and mysterious romantic comedy that will delight romance readers.

I always say that going for a reading without any kind of expectation is the best because you discover 100% the reading in a purer way, if it surprises you or not, it doesn't depend on whether you expected that surprise or not, if you like the characters, if you enjoy the relationship, everything is better if the expectations are 0. And this book has given me all that. I devoured it completely, in less than 24 hours I had already finished it, and I also enjoyed it very much.

I'm not particularly a fan of books where the characters communicate through letters for much of the novel, I really enjoyed the form of communication between the two protagonists. It is true that for much of the novel we only see Naomi's reaction to these letters, but the letters themselves were already entertaining to read. They have a close, funny tone that makes it not at all heavy to read a part of the story through a correspondence.

It's hard for me to talk about the novel without saying much, because I feel that the ending makes sense to everything you've read, and talking about it without spoilers is super complicated. I can tell you that the final twist can be simple or not, because as you read you are creating theories and eliminating others. In the end I think that although it doesn't surprise a lot, it satisfies what you have been experiencing during the novel. For me the last 25% of the book is spectacular, you are hooked and you can't put the book down. During the whole novel you are hooked to the story, but the final quarter of the book is non-stop.

I can tell you that this has been my first approach to the author's prose, but I hope it won't be the last. I love romantic comedies and after having enjoyed this one so much I will be happy to read more of her stuff, because I haven't told you but this is her first novel so if this is the first one I'm sure the next ones will be great too.

I honestly LOVED this book!

There's so much I want to say about this book but I can't without spoilers and I don't want to spoil any of it.

There's the main twist which I think the majority of people will see, but then there are other little twists and turns that just make it perfect!
The hate/love between Luca and Naomi is beautiful. How it starts as just a boring kid thing that shows exactly how boys and girls are different with things - Luca being so unbothered and Naomi taking her time to be all cute and sweet - and it turns into some weird, funny, silly thing between two people as they get older.

Honestly, I don't think I can say anything that would come close to how I feel about this book. It gives me all the feels. Its a five star for me. I finished it in a day, and I wish I could read it again. I was hooked! It was perfect. Amazing. Sensational.

It was everything.

This is one of the cutest books i've read in a long time! Luca and Naomi are pen friends from a young age and they keep it going mostly i think because they didn't want the other to have the final say! But one day the letters just stop after that one letter that changed everything. until 2 years later Naomi receives another and just doesn't want Luca to have the final word she writes back. the letters are hilarious and I found myself laughing out loud a few times. This is definitely the perfect romcom!

Naomi and Luca have been penpals since fifth grade. Their letters start out as pure insults with both going back and forth, dishing it out as good as the other. Slowly the insults turn into friendship and as life goes on, the letters become more of a lifeline between the two until they one day stop. After two years of silence, Naomi can't believe it when she receives an envelope addressed to her workplace. Luca is back.

This book was so, so good! Yes, it was predictable but the journey was just so incredibly sweet that I found myself smiling throughout the chapters. The letters exchanged between the two were a hoot, causing me to chuckle often. Great characters, lots of emotion and a cute story - you can't go wrong with this pick if you're after a heartwarming romcom. Highly recommend!

4.5 stars, rounded to 5
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

Synopsis:
Naomi and Luca have been pen-pals since fifth-grade. Well, more like bitter rivals caught in an epic battle of insults and verbal jousting…
But what starts as a hilarious chain of hate filled letters, slowly develops into a friendship spanning coasts and years. That is until one day, 12 years later, when the letters suddenly stop.

The letters between Luca and Naomi over the years had tears streaming down my face from laughing so hard! I read this whole book in one sitting because I was so obsessed. Yes, its a super cute "penemies" to lovers romcom, but there's also some mystery involved. Having Naomi's POV set in the present, and Luca's in the past just added to the intrigue of it all. I had a feeling I knew where Luca was the whole time (I was right btw) but I didn't know the *how* or *why*. This book was brilliant and unique, with a fresh, fun take on the enemies (frenemies? penemies?) to lovers trope!

My only negative is that I think the characters were a little immature or naive, but not to the point where it ruined the premise of the story or the romance.

It’s already over…I want more. I wish the story could go on and on. I didn’t have high expectations going into the book, but it definitely took me by surprise. It was cute, swoonworthy, funny, sad at times, and had everything a rom-com needs! I am excited to see what the author will put out next since I will be giving a try!