This debut was a wonderful roller-coaster! As most of you know, enemies-to-lovers is my favorite trope in the world, so it's no surprise I wanted to snatch this one up.

I didn't look the same. I didn't act the same. I wasn't the same. And I didn't care.

Nandy Smith is ready for her summer to begin. Nothing could ruin her summer, until her parents bring in a boy from Lindenwood, the bad and shady part of town. Once she finds out he's the same boy who would spend summers with her, she feels angry at him for abandoning her.

Tyson Trice has lost everything dear to him. He doesn't have a choice but to go with the family his grandfather used to work for during the summer at Pacific Hills. He can't believe he's back at Nandy's house and looking at her after ten years. She's still as bossy and with even more spitfire than before.

Right from the start, I was in love with Trice. He's so much more than were he came from. What made his character shine to me from the beginning was when he schooled Nandy on her African roots and how she should really learn about her history, including her name. Something he said spoke volumes to me:

"You can meet a Mexican or Asian who'll speak English and know all of our pop culture, but still have their hands in their roots. Us, we've been here for centuries and little by little our touch with Africa has been lost."

Honestly. if it hadn't been for Trice, I would have stopped reading this book very early on, mostly because of Nandy. I'm glad her character slowly evolved during the story, but at the beginning, I couldn't stand her. She was so stuck up, a brat, and always judging Trice for everything. A lot of the choices Nandy made got on my nerves. But when I read the acknowledgments and found out the inspiration for this world was The O.C., it made a whole lot of sense.

If I were keeping score on the bizarre, twisted teen drama I'd fallen into, I had to take a guess and say I'd just met the extra-bitchy best friend to Nandy's main mean-girl character.

In a way, this story was filled with a lot of stereotypes, but at the same time, it wasn't. I loved seeing the diversity of characters and all the representations. Each one brought their own uniqueness to the story.

Aside from Trice, the friendships shone brighter than the sun in this novel. My favorites have to be Travis and Shayne. These two were amazing towards Trice. They didn't judge at all and were there for Trice 100%. The loyalty Trice's new friends had was a breath of fresh air in this world where only your image and money matters.

We were all different with different hopes and dreams, but at the end of the day, we had each other's backs and tried to relate and understand each other. Nothing beat friendships like this.

Family was another major factor in this novel that I believe was a wonderful addition. Nandy's family was simply amazing. Maxine and Parker Smith were parents who truly cared for everyone. I especially loved how Maxine didn't get wrapped up in the Pacific Hills drama with other women. Instead, she chose to work and also provide for her family, which got her some backlash from the other women.

My mother was the anomaly, choosing to work and get her hands dirty rather than sitting back and playing some cliché role while my father worked. My mother inspired me.

Overall, A Love Hate Thing was an inspiring debut, filled with friendships, family, a dose of reality, and acceptance.

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2.5 stars

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**