Hate to Love You by Elise Alden

Hate to Love You by Elise Alden

Released June 2, 2014

Spoiler Free Review by Krystal

"Despite my slutty reputation, I was technically a virgin at eighteen. But it turns out all those sex-ed teachers aren’t just trying to scare you. The faint positive on a budget pregnancy test sent me spinning, moments before meeting my sister’s snooty new fiancé.

Shaking hands with upper-crusty James was like downing a triple shot of vodka. Dizzy with desire, confused by my body’s reaction, and shocked by the possessiveness flashing in his eyes, I deceived him that night and told the world at their wedding reception.

The truth?

I slept with my sister’s fiancé. Hot and sweaty, all night long in a room so dark he couldn’t tell I wasn’t her.

The lie? 

Said fiancé is the father of my child. The one I signed over my rights to just before he was born.

That was seven years ago. 

It’s time to come clean."

OK. Let me start by saying....I did NOT think I was going to enjoy this book AT ALL. But boy, I was totally deceived. This book had me on such a ridiculous roller coaster I can't even explain it. At first I hated it and was just going to stop, but then I continued, and things got a little bit interesting, then a bit annoying, then very very hooking, and then I hated it, but then I liked it… and it was like that the entire book.!

Paisley Benton a troubled eighteen year old feels unwelcome in her own family. She is slutty, unrepentant, dishonest - a mess all-around. Her drug and alcohol problems basically made her the black sheep of the family and even though she has a tough exterior, she is crying for help and is miserable in the inside.

"You're a nasty piece of work, Paisley Benton."

Everything changes on her eighteen birthday she finds out devastating news that can change her life forever. In the midst of her devastation, she meets her sisters fiance, James, who she instantly finds a crazy connection with not only is the man gorgeous, but she realizes that he can look into her soul with just one look. 

James. He's a dick. A snooty, judgmental blue blooded prick. I wanted her to hurt him. 
To smear that arrogant smirk off his selfish, gorgeous, cheating face. Sometimes I see the alpha in him, but mostly I think he's a bloody Neanderthal in expensive suits.

But all because Paisley feels a certain way doesn't mean James does.... OR does he feel the same way and just knows how to hide it with his snide remarks to his younger soon to be sister in law. Paisley being Paisley sees right through James and decides to act on her every desire out of spite without worrying about the consequences.

“A junkie. A sponger. A pregnant virgin who’d kissed her sister’s man in a fit of pique.”

One night of passionate love making, drunken behavior and one bad case of mistaken identity changes life as we know it for Paisley and James and everything literally goes down hill from there.  Which is what drives a very drunk and depressed Paisley to make two announcements at her sister's wedding to try her hand at hurting her sister as much as she'd hurt her. But of the two announcements, only one is true. 

“You’re still the woman I want to fuck the second she comes into a room…The woman who occupies my thoughts and my dreams…”

Now, seven years later, we finally see Paisley and James again living a life full of regret and resentment just because of that one night of passion. Paisley is back to try to make amends with all the lies she told. But the truth also has its consequences and Paisley learns that nothing in life is easy.

I was sucked in by their personalities, vulnerabilities and strengths and all the other unexpected twists. I had to read over and over the first few pages of the first chapter, because I was TOTALLY confused, and parts of it...I still am. Despite the fact that the story is only in Paisleys POV, the fact that he doesn't fight for her, that the plot is based on one misunderstanding after the other, that they miss so much "together time", that there's no communication to talk of, I was glued to the pages that brought them to life for me.

There are so many reasons to dislike this book but despite that, I'm sticking to my 4 star rating.

Purchase Link: Amazon