A Love Hate Thing Plot Summary
When tragedy leads to Tyson Trice being shot and relocating to affluent Pacific Hills, he isn’t sure how to feel. Between mistrust of the phony people he’s now surrounded with, the trauma of the shooting he survived and guilt over what he’s left behind in Lindenwood, there’s only one thing he’s sure of. As soon as he’s old enough, he’ll be striking off on his own.
Nandy Smith isn’t too impressed to be sharing her home with this troubled teenager either. She’s spent her whole life carefully crafting her image, and she’s not ready for her summer plans to be disrupted.
The two of them clash immediately. But over time, they may come to discover that there’s a very fine line between love and hate.
My Thoughts on A Love Hate Thing
A Love Hate Thing by Whitney D. Grandison touches on some really important themes: identity and heritage, domestic abuse, trauma, class and opportunities. Unfortunately, most of those themes serve as a backdrop to an enemies-to-lovers romance that just didn’t do it for me.
The characters
The main characters are Nandy and Trice, or Tyson. Two teenagers who knew each other as children, but haven’t seen each other in years. Nandy’s parents take Trice in, very generously, and Nandy promptly starts looking down on her new housemate.
Her attitude stinks for the overwhelming majority of the story, to be honest. There’s the odd moment where she gets a flash of self-awareness and feels bad for being so rude to Trice. Those are fleeting though, and they certainly don’t stick. Trice is marginally more appealing, and I thought his journey to accepting his feelings of guilt and starting to process his trauma was interesting to follow.
Some of the other characters in A Love Hate Thing were nicer to hang out with. I quite enjoyed Nandy’s family for the most part. Her little brother Jordy was great, and there were some nice moments exploring his experience as an adopted child. There were some sweet interactions between him and Trice as well.
I also quite liked Nandy’s group of friends. They seemed fun, and had some interesting facets to them. Not so much Nandy’s boyfriend Chad, who seemed to exist exclusively to make Trice look better; I didn’t feel we ever saw a reason for Nandy to be with Chad. Except for the fact they were both popular.
I wish we had more depth
One of the parts of the book I found most compelling was Trice’s complicated feelings about his friends in Lindenwood, and their mixed responses to him being pulled out to live in Pacific Hills. It was disappointing to see this dismissed as a ‘crabs in a bucket’ mentality, and not explored further. I’d probably have enjoyed the book a lot more if we could have replaced some of the sections of Nandy acting like a brat with a deeper look at what was going on in Lindenwood.
The other guys that Trice used to hang out with there are almost all written off as irredeemable, which feels unfair. Trice is apparently destined for better things, and that’s why he ‘deserves’ to go off and live in Pacific Hills, go to a nice school and generally make something of himself. But there’s no recognition of the fact that his link with the well-off Smith family gave him this opportunity to get out of Lindenwood.
The character development felt pretty flat in A Love Hate Thing. There were lurches forward in terms of how Nandy and Trice saw each other, but not much change in their thinking or behaviour. A lot of the drama consequently felt repetitive, with characters arguing over the same sorts of things over and over.
The romance
It would feel wrong not to comment at all on the romance that makes up the main component of the plot. As I mentioned earlier, Nandy is actually seeing somebody else (Chad) for most of the book. The relationship between Nandy and Trice develops in fits and starts, and I never felt swept along by it.
A lot of it seems to come down to the fact that they knew each other (and fell in love? Kind of?) as children. Both Nandy and Trice make reference to this history sometimes, either to each other or in their narrative, but it felt like a weak basis for their feelings in the present. Between Trice’s hostility (not totally unwarranted) and Nandy’s condescension (totally unwarranted), I just wasn’t buying it, I guess.
For a romance with stronger development, I’d recommend Frankly in Love
Final thoughts
While the writing is decent and the story serviceable, I ultimately found A Love Hate Thing a frustrating read. I struggled to get behind either of the main characters, and wasn’t impressed by the romance that developed between them.
The most interesting things were always going on in the background. I think I’d have enjoyed the story a lot more with a greater focus on those! If you’re a big fan of enemies-to-lovers and don’t mind overlooking character flaws on the way, this might be worth reading!
This is my review of the month for Lovely Audio Books
Thanks for such an honest review. This one definitely sounds like a pass, a general lack of depth would annoy me so much but a romance you can’t get into when it’s a focal point is a firm no from me. It’s a shame because it sounds like it could have been really good! x
Sophie