Book Description Review “Emotional, gripping love story! I couldn’t put it down!”-Simone Elkeles, New York Times bestselling author of Perfect Chemistry“The wrap-up is exactly what readers will want.”-Kirkus Reviews“The story is undeniably juicy, with twists and turns.”-Booklist Read more About the Author Whitney D. Grandison is an American young adult fiction writer. Some of her works can be found on Wattpad, one of the largest online story sharing platforms, where she has acquired over 30,000 followers and an audience of over fifteen million dedicated readers. Outside of writing, she is a lover of Korean dramas, all things John Hughes, and horror films. Whitney currently lives in Akron, Ohio. Read more Customers Review: A Love Hate Thing formally Summer Knights is a true coming of age classic our generation needs. The depth and humanity of each character brings them alive and instantly bonds them to readers. Despite personal differences, opinions and emotions are so eloquently articulated readers can’t help but to sympathize. The various ‘flaws’ each character presents makes them completely relatable and loveable. Whitney is truly a gifted writer. Having read numerous books of hers I am implored to recommend her to anyone.What I love most about her writing, particularly this book, is whatever part of the world you live, the US, CAN, T&T etc it is grounded in reality. You can look within your communities and see these characters. You can look within yourself. It’s crazily easy to enjoy, love and learn after having a Whitney D. Grandison experience.
It’s a beautiful love story that keeps your interest from start to finish. Read this book! I would definitely read it again.
This author is new to me, and though it seems she does have an internet following, it looks like she’s new to the published author’s game. So, I’ll do my best to explain how reading this story went for me. Because it was a roller coaster.Parts of this book were amazing. I absolutely adore Trice and, for the most part, Nandy’s family. Nandy…not so much. I just couldn’t seem to connect with her character, her personality seemed all over the place. I understand putting up a front, being what others expect you to be and act how others expect you to act, especially as a teenager and young adult. Those weren’t the things that confused me about Nandy. It had more to do with her inner thoughts and feelings. Part of me wondered if the author did this on purpose because of how angst-ridden teenagers can be. Let’s face it, that’s a confusing time and we don’t even understand ourselves when going through that stage in life. Yet, for how smart and well-liked Nandy was in her community, she was just so blind to certain things…especially her boyfriend, Chad.The cast of characters, more specifically the other teens in Pacific Hills, were a lot of fun. I could see the teen rom-com come to life in my mind’s eye. (Take note: there are some gritty things that happen in this story, hence my R rating. It’s not all light summer fun.) There were your quiet nerds, your super friendly geeks, the rich douche bags, the misunderstood rich girls, etc., etc. For the most part, these characters were fleshed out enough that they didn’t seem to be caricatures, they were true players in the story.When it comes to Trice’s “before” life, the life he left behind Lindenwood, the author did a wonderful job of painting the picture. The inflections and speech patterns, her description of the houses and families. Beautiful poetry. Of course, I hated when Trice went there. I would get a hollow pit in my stomach waiting for the other shoe to drop. That just means the author did her job in her writing.All that being said, there were a lot of things that were repetitive in this story. I would find myself falling into the story just to be yanked out and finding myself skimming out of boredom due to the characters going over and over the same issues. On top of that, a lot of their thoughts and actions were contradictory to what had come before. So, there would be sections of this story that I was all in, and sections that I was just waiting to get to something interesting again.I can definitely see this author’s potential. With some experience and time, I predict she will write amazing stories. She has a voice I haven’t read often, and I mean that as a great compliment. While I’m not giving this one a super high rating, I am looking forward to seeing more from her in the future.**I received an ARC of this book courtesy of Net Galley and the publisher. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and given freely**
Nandy Smith: Let’s get the elephant out of the room real quick — Nandy Smith is officially on my list of least favorite fictional characters. It would be completely different if she started off as a spoiled and entitled brat, and gradually changed throughout the read — but there’s not one point where I felt her character was redeemed. Sure, there’s a time where she, I guess, tries to be nicer, but the moment Trice says anything that upsets her, she goes back to being the Nandy that we met at the beginning.She also has huge jealousy issues and wants Trice to herself & this is while she has her boyfriend, Chad. The moment her best friend showed that she had an interest in Trice, and Trice seemed decently happy for once — Nandy made sure to swoop in and ruin it.& then we have her judgment of Trice. She freaked out when he was sitting on her steps getting his braided hair because apparently that’s not a thing they do in Pacific Hills. Throughout the read, she continued to look down on him; mainly because of him being from Lindenwood.Tyson Trice: I’m not going to speak too much about the stereotyping that occurs in this book (& wow, it’s a Mess), but please check out other reviews on Goodreads that discuss it!In the end, he was the only lead I cared about. & granted, there were times when he drove me insane as well. However, I did root for him throughout the read & he is the only thing making this book okay.Nandy & Trice: If it wasn’t already clear with my Nandy opinions, I did not care for this ship at all. It was incredibly off-and-on & kept going back between love-and-hate, which okay I get it, it’s in the title of the book, but holy heck did it switch to hate over the smallest & dumbest things. They were constantly triggering each other throughout the read.Plus, there is 0 chemistry at all. & no, I don’t care that they ‘loved’ each other at the age of seven. It’s weird and I hate it.Religion Mentions: There’s a lot of mention of God in A Love Hate Thing, which cool — total respect, dude. However, it was pointless & in the end, didn’t even mean anything at all. After what Trice dealt with, he ended up losing his faith, and now everyone wants to tell him that they hope he finds his way back. It just felt so incredibly out-of-place in this book.Cringe Dialogue & Pop-Culture References: To put it simply, the dialogue is le cringe.As for pop culture references, I was here for it. But that was because I’m pushing 30 & know perfectly well what they’re referencing. But, y’all???? If I was the age that this book was marketed for, I probably would have been so lost.But I would like to give the shoutout to both leads musical tastes because I too love Kendrick Lamar and Lana del Ray.A Drag: My final complaint & note on A Love Hate Thing is that it felt incredibly too long. I almost DNF’ed multiple times. |
14 reviews