Book-Thirsty Thursday: Hate to Want You, Alisha Rai

Alisha Rai’s move to Avon comes in the form of Hate to Want You, which goes from zero to 100 approximately immediately … and we’re here for it.

Contemporary romance is not your humble reviewer’s favorite genre, unless it comes with something on the side, like urban fantasy. Sometimes heading out of the comfort zone backfires. Alisha Rai’s first book with Avon, Hate to Want You, does not count as a backfire at all.

Our premise is this: Livvy Kane and Nicholas Chandler have a lot of history. As in, they used to date, but some family drama tore them apart … only for them to meet once a year on a specific day. Now, though, she’s returned to their shared hometown, possibly for good, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t still problems.

A few weeks ago, I talked about the idea of predictability in romance. Granted, it was for a historical romance novel, but the point still stands here. Hate to Want You still has the expected beats of most modern novels in the genre. (Mild spoilers follow.) When yours truly got to the Inevitable Almost Breakup, I had to put the book down for two reasons. First, I knew it was coming. Second, I didn’t want to read it.

Why the latter? Because Rai builds Nicholas and Livvy’s characters up very well. The two of them have rounded personalities and chemistry. They pull a reader in. (The steamy scenes certainly help with this, because, um, wow. Rai actually moves into somewhat non-vanilla territory as she escalates the scenes.) So, when for a brief moment it looks like the story’s going to end on a low note, it punches the reader in the gut, emotionally speaking, and compels them to keep reading.

That’s the usual plan, and it works quite well here because of how long Rai delays this plot point. It doesn’t feel quite as arbitrary as it could, but rather a (mostly) natural progression of what goes on in the rather large portion of the story that precedes it.

Another reason that Nicholas and Livvy work so well as protagonists is that they have actual flaws that they actually endeavor to work on in the course of the story. This is part of the reason that the Inevitable Almost Breakup works.

Additionally, how Rai decides to let those plot points of character development end puts a dose of realism into this story. (Ditto with the mentioning of World War II Japanese internment camps in reference to Livvy’s grandfather, among other things.) This is a romance novel. We expect neat bows. That neat bow isn’t completely present in Hate to Want You. In this case, it’s a strength.

My reaction to the other unresolved points was originally more mixed. Even though this book kicks off a series, I wasn’t sure how exactly the next novel would play out — or if it’d be related at all to Hate to Want You. Goodreads tells me that not only is the second book going to continue in the same setting, but that it’s also arriving on shelves in November. In other words, carry on there (and I’m intrigued to see how she builds this romance up after the impressive chemistry for Livvy and Nicholas).

Next: Last week's BTT: Wildfire, Ilona Andrews

I said at the beginning of this that contemporary romance isn’t my normal genre of choice. I will, in fact, make an exception for Alisha Rai after Hate to Want You. If this is your genre and you haven’t discovered her, give her a chance. It has its flaws — but for a sultry read when it seems like there aren’t many of those around lately? Yeah, this’ll get the job done.