I loved this book so much. I can't wait to read the rest of the series. I was truly hooked to the revenge she was getting on them.

LOVEDD this book! I was skeptical going into it but this was so fun. MK was such a loveable character and I was obsessed with her right away. The cliffhanger killed me, but I can't wait to see where the story goes!!

Reverse harem, sassy heroine, spicy angst, suspense, and surprise stalker? If any of those buzz words catch your interest this book was be for you. I loved the story set-up and immediately was pulled in. Madison Kate was set up on Riot Night for a crime she didn't commit and sent away by her wealthy father. Upon her return, she finds the leader of the group responsible for her set up is her new stepbrother and has taken over her family home. She is set on revenge and getting her life back on track.

I like the connections Madison has with each guy and how their personalities stand out distinctly. It was fun to see her seek revenge and not immediately push over like other revenge romances. The story is told from Madison Kate's perspective and at times her inner dialogue felt trying to be cool/not like other girls and it wasn't my jam. But other than that I enjoyed the read. I'm excited to continue the series; especially after that cliffhanger!

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this book!! I absolutely loved this book. It was so good and I just want to keep on reading especially after the ending of the book. I’m excited to keep on reading this series so I can see how the relationships grow and evolve.

Entertaining and interesting enough to keep me reading but I am not OBSESSED. The premise, characters and setting of this Why Choose romance are unlike anything else I have personally read! It reminded me of the beginning of the Thanksgiving Horror movie so it kept me really invested. I like that UFC fighting is touched on and the characters are all sporty and into it. It's a culture that I am not personally well versed in so it was interesting to read about. The Why Choose romance however wasn't my absolute favorite, I didn't feel the connections with the characters and Madison Kate was very childish when it came to the boys. Of course, this is the first book and I expect for things to get heavier and more in depth as the books go on! I will be continuing the series.

3.75 stars - Madison Kate was accused of inciting a local gang riot but was later acquitted. She was sent away "for her protection" and upon her return to Shadow Grove, she intended to live with her father. However, she finds that the three men responsible for framing her - Archer, Kodiak, and Steele - are living in her father's mansion. Madison Kate is both driven crazy by them and attracted to all three. The story revolves around a forced proximity, roommates romance with minimal kissing between Madison Kate and the three men. Although the book could use more development, I am hooked and plan to continue reading the series since the book ended with a cliffhanger.

Thanks to SOURCEBOOKS Bloom Books and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

OH my word. What a book. This was the dark, reverse harem I needed in my life. Full review on my Goodreads.

All the stars.

10/10 I loveddddd this book. I had been seeing so much about this series all over booktok and I knew I needed to read it immediately. I’m a sucker for a why choose romance and this book delivered.

I loved this book, and the cliffhanger at the end made me start the next book immediately. The book keeps you engaged throughout reading it, and the multiple POV was also a nice addition.

This was my first Tate James read. It took me an embarrassing amount of time for me to finally read my first one, and of course I regretted it about 25% into the book. Madison Kate is an absolute icon. There was so much that was happening at all times in this book that I never found myself wanting to put it down, instead I was trying to squeeze in a page here and there when I could. The tension that Tate is able to build in a book is incredible. I absolutely loved it!

A special thank you to Tate James, Sourcebook Bloom Books, and Netgalley for gifting me this e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

this has to be one of the most fun reads i've had in a long time. Madison Kate is an icon and we love her for it!!! There was never a dull or boring moment in this book and there is so much that is happening and being uncovered that you couldn't possibly tell me that you don't want to binge read the entire series all at once. I also love how the romance is slow burning a bit. Since this is a four book series, there really is no need to rush the romance and I appreciate that. Especially since there is so much happening plot wise. Overall, I would absolutely recommend to anyone who likes darker romance books that are high spice.

This is my first book by author Tate James and I plan to continue on with the Madison Kate series after finishing book 1, Hate. I received a gifted copy from Bloom Books via NetGalley, but the thoughts & opinions are my own.

I have started leaning into bully romances/dark romances a bit this year to go along with a mini subgenre challenge I'm doing so Hate fit perfectly. Madison Kate was framed for a riot she didn't plan and after being exiled to her aunt for nearly a year, she has arrived home to find her dad & soon-to-be stepmom are off on vacation while she's living in the same house as her soon-to-be step-brother Archer and his friends Kodiac and Steel. These three guys were also there the night Madison Kate went down for the riot and while they could have helped, they didn't and she is out for blood.

Madison Kate is a bitchy FMC who's main goal is to seek revenge on the three guys. The three guys are apart of a gang, but I got confused on the backstory and the rival gang backstory. It's not terribly important yet could have added to the story. Madison Kate also thinks a lot with her vagina, over her head, and is attracted to all three guys so you're in for a reverse harem/why choose meets forced proximity meets bully romance.

The spice is well written; spice isn't a requirement for me to like a book and in some cases it can turn me off from a story, it didn't here so kudos for that. There are nitpicky, clique moments I could call out but if you like the genre then they're easy to ignore. The book ends on a fairly big cliffhanger and while I'm not generally a series reader (because I lack the time to follow through) I've already loaded book 2 into my Libby to continue on---this is what made what may have been a 3 star review jump to the 4th star.

please note that the trigger warnings and topes/themes may contain spoilers
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
HEA: cliffhanger
spice: several open-door spicy scenes
TWs: death of a parent (recounted on page), violence, murder, stalking, parental neglect/abandonment, emotional abuse, mental health (anxiety attacks, on page), bullying, slut shaming, attempted murder, mentions of suicide, dubcon, PTSD, car accident
standalone: book 1 in the Madison Kate series- cliffhanger endings
final thoughts: this was everything and nothing I expected. Dark, bully, enemies-to-lovers college romance that is SLOW BURN like slow slow with the RH but the imagery from this book didn’t make me miss it (too much anyway). This book is packed with action, twists, and banter and had me on the edge of my seat. Great book but have the rest of the series ready by your side so you don’t get left hanging off that cliff and can jump back into the world of Madison Kate Danvers!
I can’t wait to see how these enemies will become lovers and what other secrets are still hiding!

read this book if you love

😬 angst
🏝️ forced proximity
☠️ “touch her and die”
🧑‍🤝‍🧑 great side characters
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 found family
😳 forbidden lovers
🤫 hidden secrets
🥰 nicknames
🌀 plot twists
🔫 mafia but not mafia vibes
🖤 dark romance
❓ mystery
🏉 sports romance (kinda- MMA)
🤜 enemies-to-lovers
🏫 college setting
⚔️ why choose (MFMM)

This book was great; banter, spice, and angst - all equally entertaining. This was my first Tate James book and I feel she excited the plot nicely and set up the second book to drop a big bomb. The characters are developing smoothly and they aren’t at all juvenile which I enjoy a lot. I will definitely pick up the second book!

Thank you netgalley and bloom books for the #gifted earc. My opinions are my own. I am not sure this book is what I wanted and was left uninterested in much of the story I will try wnother book by the Author I hear the next book ia better.

3.5/5☆

After being framed for inciting a riot involving local gangs, acquitted, and spending months abroad, Madison Kate returns to Shadow Grove, expecting to stay in her father’s new home, but he’s not there. Instead, she finds Archer, Kodiak, and Steele—the three men she blames for framing her—living in the mansion. They drive her to and from college. They shadow her around campus. They are always around.

And Madison Kate cannot stand them.

It’s a forced proximity, roommates romance but not the warm and fuzzy kind.

Archer is antagonistic towards her. She’s antagonistic towards all of them. There’s a lot of anger going around. There’s angst. There are comments that veer into bullying territory.

In spite of her hatred towards them, Madison Kate is extremely attracted to all three of them, and they’re attracted to her.

It’s a dark, new adult, contemporary romance. It kept me turning the pages until the cliffhanger at the end.

The way Madison Kate spoke to the three guys and the way Archer spoke to her was tough to stomach at times. (The book is called Hate, after all, and those two personified it.)

This one sets up the RH for future books in the series. There’s at minimum kissing between Madison Kate and each of the three guys, but no steamy scenes with all of them together.

Of the guys, Steele is my favorite. He seems to have a more vulnerable, artistic side under his tough exterior.

Are there perhaps some areas of the characterization and story that could have used a bit more development? Yes.

Am I hooked and plan to continue reading the series? Also yes.

I received a copy of the ebook from Sourcebooks Bloom Books and NetGalley. All review opinions are my own.

The book was overall not bad and I was intrigued by the story which is why I finished the book but there were a lot of nitpicky things that I personally didn’t like about the book. Some of them had to do with the actual story and characters, some of them were the structure of the book and then some of them were the dialogue. Here are the things that I just didn’t particularly love about the book:

• I’ve read a few RHs before and they tend to have the same sort of types when it comes to the MMCs. Now I’m not overly upset that the MMCs fit into these stereotypes for RHs but it does get a bit repetitive so I would have liked it more if they deviated from the stereotypes

• I don’t mind that Archer and MK don’t get along for majority of the book but it does get very repetitive. I felt like every scene they had together was copy and paste. I would have also liked to see more sweet moments between them. Anytime they did have a sliver of a cute moment it was always ruined and then they were back to throwing insults at each other again

• I will always be a fan of multi POV over single POV so the fact that this entire series except for the first chapter of book 2, 3 and 4 are in MKs POV is a bit annoying to me. I personally just don’t really like being in the dark all the time. There is so much stuff being alluded to but never explained and it drove me a bit crazy so I can definitely relate to MKs frustration in the book. I just don’t love constantly being out of the loop but that’s probably my FOMO talking

• Because this is single POV there are things that are confusing because the FMC doesn’t know the information and that would be fine if the MMCs filled in the gaps throughout or we had their POVs occasionally but that didn’t happen. Anytime MK asked the guys any questions they wouldn’t answer her or they would give cryptic or half answers and it just became very annoying as the reader, not knowing how the world she created in the book works

• The gang situation isn’t really well explained and just provides a very confusing reading experience. We get the basics, that there are the Reapers and the Wraiths and that the MMCs were involved with the Reapers at one point and Archer’s brother Zane runs the Reapers. What isn’t explained is how Archer and the other MMCs are involved in any of that in the current timeline. It kinda seems like Archer has some territory in the city along side the Reapers and Wraiths despite not showing any signs that he is in charge of any gang. We see this from him telling Dallas that allowances were made for Dallas and not other Wraiths and them breaking the legs of one of the Reapers for “pushing the limits”, what limits did he push, I have no idea 🤷‍♀️It just doesn’t make any sense why Archer has any authority in this situation when we haven’t seen anything to indicate he has his own gang because he is only ever seen around Steele and Kody. We also see that Drew is scared of Archer for some reason, but it is never explained why she would care about him

• Another thing that doesn’t make sense is why the guys are so tight with MKs dad. Yes, Archer’s mom is dating him but that doesn’t explain why he calls them and gets them to do things for him… I also wish they would have explained her dad’s involvement in Shadow Grove more

• In the bonus scene of Riot Night from Kody’s POV, Archer seemed very protective of MK for some reason but that doesn’t really make sense because literally the entire book he is a complete asshole to her and never shows any empathy towards her just the occasional pitying look. I just don’t get it

• I know that RH romances are typically very sexual but both Bree and MK just constantly drooling over the guys and letting their attractiveness affect their judgement got very boring. If she wasn’t having sexual encounters with the guys, she was continuously thinking about having sex with them or how impossibly hot they were… Also her sleeping with Steele after he blabbed about their last sexual encounter to the guys pissed me off. She felt very contradictory. She would talk a lot of game but never backed it up

• My last issue is with her “revenge”. She is supposedly really angry with these guys for ruining her life but then will pull silly petty pranks on them, sleep with them, hangout with them etc. It just felt really underwhelming. The way this book was described had me expecting it to be darker and for her to truly hate them but it just missed the mark. It seemed like she was supposed to be this badass FMC but she barely stood her ground most of the time and in the scene with Drew she just stood there and got slapped twice. I was just overall just a bit disappointed with the energy of the book. The only decent revenge she got was by drugging Archer to get him disqualified but that didn’t even pan out and at the time that it occurred, it just felt kinda wrong what she did because she knows by this point that she doesn’t have the full story of Riot Night but doesn’t actually try to find out what actually happened and just continues on her war path

• There was also quite a bit of cringey language like "did I seriously have the ovaries to go head-to-head with all three of them?" and her making references to books like saying things were overdone tropes or talking about waking up in a romance novel etc. I just don't like when we kinda break the 4th wall a bit with things like that

• I didn’t like that they constantly called her Madison Kate or Madison Kate Danvers, it got a bit annoying over time. I don’t know why they don’t just call her Madison or Maddy or MK or something. I am however a fan of nicknames and pet names so I preferred when they called her Baby, Baby Girl, Hellcat, Gorgeous or Princess. I wasn’t a huge fan of Archer calling her Princess Danvers kinda gives me the same feeling as them referring to her by her full name

I know some of these points could be addressed later on in the series but I just found it really frustrating having absolutely no idea what was going on most of the time since we were in MKs POV and that girl literally has no idea what is ever going on in Shadow Grove.

Now the book wasn’t all bad which is why I gave it 3⭐s because I was still really intrigued by the story and wanted to know what was really going on and most of my critiques were just personal small things that bother me however there were some bigger things that I also had issues with. Overall the characters were entertaining and the story did draw me in but I was just expecting a different vibe from this book. I haven’t decided I’m going to pick up the next book yet because I do feel just from the first book that this story might drag on a bit since there are 4 books in this series and I don’t know if I can go through 3 more books if they don’t start giving me more information so I’m not so in the dark all the time. I do think that my curiosity will get the better of me though and I’m probably going to pick up the next book just probably not right away.

This is such a great first book for a series. I love MK and I love all of the guys. I wasn't sure about the reverse harem thing, but I think I'll actually end up really enjoying it.
✅ Sexual tension and some smut
✅️ Hate/lust relationship (she hates them but lusts after them)
✅ Future RH
✅ Revenge
✅ Strong and driven main character
✅ Some thriller
✅ Good pace and entertaining
✅(🆗) Plot
✅(🆗) Love interests (I like Steele and Kodi, but Archer can kiss my ass, and not in a sexy way)
🆗 Lack of backstory / Plot holes
❗️Mild cliffhanger
❗️Trigger warnings: mention of witnessing a murder (past), claustrophobia, stalker, some bullying/controlling behavior

Tate James blends romance and suspense in a thrilling new way to excite the senses and captivate readers. Madison Kate is an amazingly bada** protagonist with a lot of attitude and thirst for revenge. She finds herself in an incredibly tense new living situation with three men who anger her to the end of the earth, but she secretly lusts after. The tension is off the charts and the plot is so dramatic and the cliffhanger will have you screaming!

I am beyond addicted. I need the rest of this series immediately. It's bully, hot, gangster, vengeful, exciting, and I need more. Huge fan of billionaire mafia but this takes it one step farther and has gangs, fight circles, stalking, and murder.

It is NA, so some may not love that she is 18. But she's 18! So who cares! I loved it.

My only very minor criticism is there were a few times where MK felt a little juvenile with her stubbornness in reacting to the boys.

I love each of the boys. I love how strong and badass MK is. I can already tell this is going to be one of my favorite book universes. There is a ton of potential.

Major slow burn on the spice. Hits heavy right at the end.