Review: The Hating Game by Sally Thorne

Title: The Hating Game

Author: Sally Thorne

Release Date: August 9, 2016

Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks

Nemesis (n.) 1) An opponent or rival whom a person cannot best or overcome.
2) A person’s undoing
3) Joshua Templeman

Lucy Hutton has always been certain that the nice girl can get the corner office. She’s charming and accommodating and prides herself on being loved by everyone at Bexley & Gamin. Everyone except for coldly efficient, impeccably attired, physically intimidating Joshua Templeman. And the feeling is mutual.

Trapped in a shared office together 40 (OK, 50 or 60) hours a week, they’ve become entrenched in an addictive, ridiculous never-ending game of one-upmanship. There’s the Staring Game. The Mirror Game. The HR Game. Lucy can’t let Joshua beat her at anything—especially when a huge new promotion goes up for the taking.

If Lucy wins this game, she’ll be Joshua’s boss. If she loses, she’ll resign. So why is she suddenly having steamy dreams about Joshua, and dressing for work like she’s got a hot date? After a perfectly innocent elevator ride ends with an earth-shattering kiss, Lucy starts to wonder whether she’s got Joshua Templeman all wrong.

Maybe Lucy Hutton doesn’t hate Joshua Templeman. And maybe, he doesn’t hate her either. Or maybe this is just another game.

Review: The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang

Title: The Kiss Quotient

Author: Helen Hoang

Series: The Kiss Quotient #1

Publish Date: June 5, 2018

Publisher: Berkley

Stella Lane thinks math is the only thing that unites the universe. She comes up with algorithms to predict customer purchases — a job that has given her more money than she knows what to do with, and way less experience in the dating department than the average thirty-year-old.

It doesn't help that Stella has Asperger's and French kissing reminds her of a shark getting its teeth cleaned by pilot fish. Her conclusion: she needs lots of practice — with a professional. Which is why she hires escort Michael Phan. The Vietnamese and Swedish stunner can't afford to turn down Stella's offer, and agrees to help her check off all the boxes on her lesson plan — from foreplay to more-than-missionary position...

Before long, Stella not only learns to appreciate his kisses, but to crave all the other things he's making her feel. Soon, their no-nonsense partnership starts making a strange kind of sense. And the pattern that emerges will convince Stella that love is the best kind of logic...

Review: Sex and Vanity by Kevin Kwan

Title: Sex and Vanity

Author: Kevin Kwan

Genre: Romance, Fiction, Contemporary

Publication Date: June 30, 2020

Publisher: Doubleday Canada

The iconic author of the bestselling phenomenon Crazy Rich Asians returns with a glittering tale of love and longing as a young woman finds herself torn between two worlds–the WASP establishment of her father’s family and George Zao, a man she is desperately trying to avoid falling in love with.

On her very first morning on the jewel-like island of Capri, Lucie Churchill sets eyes on George Zao and she instantly can’t stand him. She can’t stand it when he gallantly offers to trade hotel rooms with her so that she can have the view of the Tyrrhenian Sea, she can’t stand that he knows more about Curzio Malaparte than she does, and she really can’t stand it when he kisses her in the darkness of the ancient ruins of a Roman villa and they are caught by her snobbish, disapproving cousin, Charlotte. “Your mother is Chinese so it’s no surprise you’d be attracted to someone like him,” Charlotte teases. Daughter of an American-born-Chinese mother and blue-blooded New York father, Lucie has always sublimated the Asian side of herself in favor of the white side, and she adamantly denies having feelings for George. But several years later, when George unexpectedly appears in East Hampton where Lucie is weekending with her new fiancé, Lucie finds herself drawn to George again. Soon, Lucy is spinning a web of deceit that involves her family, her fiancé, the co-op board of her Fifth Avenue apartment, and ultimately herself as she tries mightily to deny George entry into her world–and her heart. Moving between summer playgrounds of privilege, peppered with decadent food and extravagant fashion, Sex and Vanity is a truly modern love story, a daring homage to A Room with a View, and a brilliantly funny comedy of manners set between two cultures

Kdrama Review: Are You Human Too?

Title: Are You Human Too?
Native Title: 너도 인간이니
Also Known As: Neodo Inganini , Are You Human?
Screenwriters: Jo Jung Joo
Directors: Cha Young Hoon
Genres: Romance, Sci-Fi, Fantasy

The drama tells of an android called Nam Shin III who must pretend to be the son of a rich family when the real Nam Shin falls into a coma. Nam Shin's mother, Oh Ro Ra, is a genius on brain technology and artificial intelligence (AI) so when her son, the real Nam Shin, is taken away from her at a young age, in her grief she creates an android that looks exactly like her son and has it grow up in the place of Nam Shin. But when Nam Shin, who is a third generation heir to PK group, gets in an accident and is comatose, the android Nam Shin III must learn how to take his place.

Kdrama review: Devilish Joy (2018)

Title: Devilish Joy (2018)
Native Title: 마성의 기쁨
Also Known As: Devilish Happiness , Diabolic Joy , Maseong-ui Gippeum , Devilish Charm
Screenwriters: Choi Ji Yeon
Directors: Kim Ga Ram
Genres: Comedy, Romance, Drama

Would you choose to love someone you could never remember?
Gong Ma Sung grew up in a difficult life and experienced some hardships, yet still made joy from it. He is the successor to the Sunwoo company and excels in anything to do with the cranial nerve. From his difficulties, he is respected and looked up to as a brilliant man. One day, his kindness destroys his life. Whilst trying to help a woman in trouble, he gets into an accident and life completely changes. He loses the ability to remember, his memory only limited to one day. Now, before he goes to sleep and forgets everything, he notes all events from that one day, for the next. He wakes up with no recollection of the past, and reads back on his notes to memorize.
His life changes further when he meets Joo Gi Bbeum, a once popular star, who was a celebrity and entertainer loved by all. She is not as revered as she once was, having going through a horrible experience that shaped who she is in the present, ruined her confidence and destroyed her future.

When they meet, Gong Ma sung falls in love with her and a connection is formed but how do you develop a love when every day seems like the beginning?