I saw a review comparing this to Emily Henry and I just knew I had to bump this to the top of my TBR! The comparison was definitely justified and I immensely enjoyed this! It also reminded me of You, With a View. The characters were complex and the storyline was interesting and emotional - I think the author wrote about grief and abandonment really well. Highly recommend if you enjoy second chance romance that will pull at your heartstrings!

I absolutely ADORED PS I Hate You! What a gem of a romance! I laughed, I cried, this book made my heart ache in ways I was not prepared for. I love a road trip romance and the way that these two complex grieving characters were forced together elevated that even more. 10 stars!! One of my absolute favorites of the year so far.

Maddie is grief-stricken over the loss of her older brother, Josh. She is not surprised that he asked her to scatter his ashes. She is shocked that Josh asked his best friend, Dominic, to go with her. Now Maddie must spread his ashes in eight destinations with the one person who broke her heart. Dom has the notes and the instructions to ensure that everything will be completed the way Josh wants.

Trigger Warnings: Loss of a brother

Why Jackie loves it:

This is such a wonderful book about dealing with grief and finding love! The trips that Maddie and Dom have to take are sad and healing at the same time. I love the adventures that they take in this book. They learn how to navigate tremendous loss together. It was such a great love story.

Maddie is wrecked. Her brother, Josh, the person she loved most in the world, has died. At his funeral, which he never wanted, her childhood crush and brother's best friend, Dom, tells her he is the executor of the will. Josh has left Dom and Maddie a series of 8 letters, each detailing a place where he wants them to visit and scatter his ashes. Maddie is apprehensive - how can she do this with Dom, a man who left her after one night of passion and married his high school sweetheart?
In this romance, many serious issues are presented - fear of abandonment, death, miscarriage, and more. I enjoyed it.

This one hit hard! I was crying like a baby multiple times but also laughing and rooting for Dom & Maddie. This is a second chance/brother’s best friend romance but SO MUCH MORE. Maddie’s brother & Dom’s best friend Josh has just passed away and left strict instructions for them to scatter his ashes together in 8 different states with a letter for them in each place. Everything about this story felt authentic. I found Maddie’s grief, sense of humor, and trust issues so relatable. I also related to Dom a lot. Their love story is so beautiful and I just can’t put into words how much I loved it!

“If I have one day left, or thousands, I want you to be in every one of them.” 🩷

4.5⭐️ Talk about the perfect balance of comedy & grief.

This is definitely not a light fluffy read, as grief is a major theme of this book. However, the romance really helped to lighten the load and the FMC in my opinion was hilarious. I had multiple laugh out loud moments.

Add this book to your to read list, I promise you won’t regret it! & then let me know what you thought!

#books #bookstagram #booktok #bookrating #library #bookreview #bookrecommendations #bookrecs#bookcommunity #booklovers #booksofinstagram #bookish #fivestarbooks #romancebook #kindlebooks
#kindleunlimited

Full review to come on Goodreads and Amazon. Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for a review copy.

Thank you to NetGalley and the author, Lauren Connolly for an ARC copy of this book. It was such a good read and I cannot wait to give my review below on this book.

To begin, there are definitely heavier subject matters that take place in this book such as grief, death, talks of cancer and death from cancer, and abuse.

PS: I Hate You follow Maddie and Dom as they go on an adventure at the hands of their deceased best friend and brother. Josh, Maddie's brother and Dom's best friend sadly passed away from cancer, and after his death, he wanted Maddie and Dom to travel to places he had not got the chance to see and spread his ashes. Of course, leaving them notes for every place they visit. But, it should be noted that Maddie and Dom have a somewhat strained relationship to be traveling to random sates and towns together. They had a one night stand that did not end well and Maddie resents Dom because of this. However, they take the trips together as planned by Josh and thing between them intensify along the way. Maddie still have definite feelings for Dom and it seems as if the feelings Dom had for her never went away as well. With Dom being newly divorced, they do become romantically involved with one another on their adventures to fulfill Josh's wishes.

I thought the tone of this book was perfect and seemed so well thought out. It made me laugh and it made me swoon. It also made me immensely sad at some points, thinking about times in my life I might have dealt with grief or the way that Maddie and Dom were feeling. I really found myself just wanting to continue reading this book until I got to the very end! The chemistry between Maddie and Dom was undeniable and sexy. This was such a good read to start off my 2025 book challenge. A SOLID 4 stars.

I was really enjoying this book up until the third act breakup. It was a little bizarre and out of character for the FMC in my opinion, especially given the timeline of the plot. The romance was slowburn for sure and the love the FMC has for her brother definitely had me crying.

4.5 stars

BRB, gonna make this book my entire personality. Just kidding (but seriously).

This kinda reminded me of You, With A View by Jessica Joyce in all the best ways. When an author can truly touch on grief in a heart wrenching and visceral way, it stops me in my tracks. This delivered in just that. Breathtaking storytelling and beautiful romance. Didn’t even know this author had an entire backlist until I looked her up and now I need to read her backlist. Anyway, I need to protect Maddie at all costs. She is precious and perfect and deserve the world!

⭐️ 4.5/5
🌶️ 3/5

I am so glad this book was selected as the Booked with Babes January pick! It brought up such great discussion on the different ways people handle grief. The way it was portrayed in PS: I Hate You was so heartbreaking and so REAL. The author did a great job!

My heart went with Maddie and Dom as they traveled together to the states Josh never had the chance to visit. With each letter they opened, I laughed and let my heart break by their sides.

I loved to see the relationship between Maddie and Dom grow and start to repair with each adventure they went on, but found myself frustrated when their past miscommunications came to light.

All in all, this was a beautiful and moving romance starring two people learning to cope with the loss of a brother and a best friend. It was wholly and completely devastating, but I really loved every moment. I can’t wait to read more from Lauren Connolly!

Thank you @berkleyromance for the advanced copy!

As a longtime Lauren Connolly fan I am so happy for her big traditional publishing debut. This book didn't disappoint and was filled with the heart and joy that I get from reading my favorite Folk Haven books.
While this is a bit darker in nature than some of her other books, Connolly does a magnificent job of balancing the real handling of grief and all its tender and raw feelings with the humor and joy that I want from a romance novel. Someone called it RomCom with a side of emotional damage and that is 100% the best way to sum up this book (and subgenre) - a book that will make you FEEL A LOT.
Maddie and Dom both brough such depth and character to this book that they seemed to leap out of the book and demand your attention. The banter between the two was next level fun and between that and both characters growth this book has so much more to offer than just the blurb.
I highly recommend to anyone who likes their romances to make them laugh AND cry.

5 STARS!!

"PS: I Hate You" by Lauren Connolly is one of the best books of 2024. It is absolutely one of the most gut-wrenching and simultaneously life-affirming stories I have ever read. It is emotional, loving, caring, painfully funny, tender, and sad as heck, but equally cathartic and humbling and raw and brilliant. The characters are spectacularly written and feel realistic and lived-in. I adored Maddie and Dom so, so much. I even loved Josh from the grave with his meddling and scheming. The banter is tremendous, some of the best I've ever read. The situations, the traveling, the tension, the fights, the make-ups, the concept... every single thing about this book is sheer perfection. One of the most beautiful reads I've had the pleasure of picking up. Please, please, PLEASE read this book, especially if you have lost someone.

Thank you to NetGalley, Lauren Connolly, and Berkley Publishing Group for the complimentary ARC of this book. All opinions are my own. I was not compensated for this review.

Do you love the movie P.S. I Love You? Do you enjoy your Rom Coms with a side of emotional damage? Did Abby Jimenez's Just For The Summer hit all of your favorite contemporary romance beats?

Then this book is 100% for you.

This book really is so amazing. I feel like the cover art does not do this powerful book justice, so if that is turning you off from giving it a chance, I'd recommend reading it anyway. Yes, there is a lot of fun in this book, but the journey that these characters go through together really is so beautiful.

I love that the FMC has asthma and that it is represented so well in the story. It made me feel seen as a lifelong asthmatic. The MMC is so mindful of her asthma as well, and I feel like that was just all really well done.

This road trip with her deceased brother's best friend was well done too. I loved that it took place over more than two years, start to finish. I loved the FMC's journeys towards trust, self love, embracing her own power, and accepting others into her life and learning to open up to them and let them in. I loved the supportive MMC. I felt he was dynamic and played a more active role than the love interest takes in the story sometimes.

Just an overall wonderful book of hard I truly recommend with my whole heart.

Content: language, childhood trauma (neglect, verbal abuse), explicit s*x, morbid humor

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for the advanced reader copy of this book. This review is voluntarily written and the thoughts and opinions contained in this review are my own

I was not expecting to be this emotional! This story really tugs at your ehartstrings - it's so much more than a typical romance.

Thanks to the publisher for the advanced copy!

I really liked this enemies to lovers romance - one of my favorite tropes! And then you add in the road trip and fun travel aspect and I couldn't get enough of this story!

I liked the way that Connolly wove the grief into the story and that she allowed the main character to really focus on herself toward the end, before officially committing to the romance. There was some miscommunication, but I still loved the way this one played out!

This book made me feel all of the feels! Definitely one of the best romances I’ve read in a long time and one I can’t stop thinking about.

When Maddie’s brother Josh dies she doesn’t anticipate that his dying wish will be for her to spread his ashes with the one man she can’t stand. Dominic was like a brother to Josh and for one summer he was close to Maddie as well. Now all these years later, Maddie can’t help but still feel betrayed by Dom, but there is no way she’s not going to let him spread Josh’s ashes on his own. Maddie and Dom travel to eight different spots that Josh laid out for them, and as they say goodbye to the brother they loved, Maddie and Dom work out their own issues from the past.

I don’t always love second chance romances, but this one was done so well. Maddie’s grief over losing her brother and the anger at having to see Dom again at the beginning is so palpable it hurts to read. Since they are forced together not once or twice, but eight times we really get to see them begin to communicate better and work on opening up to each other. I really loved both main characters and how different they seemed. Maddie is rather goofy and snarky, but Dom is just so serious. He really lightened up around her and they brought out the best in eachother. I can’t wait to read from this author again!

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for a review copy.

Maddie has always had a thing for her brother Josh's friend, Dom. When Josh dies of cancer and leaves Maddie and Dom instructions on how they must come together to spread his ashes, they are both forced to confront their feelings about the past and their pain over losing Josh.
Despite the cutesy cover, this book deals with some heavy subject matter and deals with grief and loss in a very realistic way, just don't expect a lighthearted beach read. The banter between the two main characters is great and I loved the road trip aspect of the story so you're taken along for the ride as Maddie & Dom explore America and fulfill Josh's wish.

Many thanks to Berkley & Netgalley for the ARC.

OH MY GOSH, this book was absolute perfection. I LOVED the characters, the witty banter, the "hate filled" LOVE. It was so deeply moving, and resonated with me so much as I also lost a brother to lymphoma, It made me laugh and cry.

Thank you netgalley and berkleypub for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Overall, this was a wonderful love and loss story that touched my heart. Connelly created a story that was at times humorous, touching, and heartwarming by skillfully balancing romance, loss, and humor. I totally liked this one-of-a-kind and beautiful story.