The Hating Game (Sally Thorne)

["For me to describe Claudia, I first have to admit that I once made a wish \u2014and it came true. Crazy, right? I know on an intellectual level that it wasn\u2019t me who created this outcome. I don\u2019t have special powers. I wasn\u2019t an omniscient narrator, intoning what was soon to come while my widower father sat in the dark playing his dead wife\u2019s favorite records. I was just a kid and I didn\u2019t know what I was asking for. But I wished so hard. That\u2019s what always gets me. I was standing on a kitchen chair when I asked my mom for something special. My request streamed out of my chest like a sunbeam, from me to her, lighting up heaven, and that night I rode my bike under a sunset that was every shade of pink. One nod from Mom and the plan was in motion. That\u2019s why my heart still believes I made it happen. And like all big wishes, I paid a price. To avoid following that particular train of thought, I start to think about my golden steaming braid again, just as the glass door to Centurion Security pushes open and a young woman steps in. Unlike my inelegant backward- pachyderm entrance, she looks like she\u2019s slipping through red-velvet curtains onto a stage. A spotlight wobbles and then encircles her in full focus. She carries glossy cardboard shopping bags, strung around each wrist like bunches of rectangle helium balloons that strain heavily below her waist. The bags have expensive logos: Chanel, Prada, Fendi, Tiffany & Co. The audience knows this is a girl of generous means. She\u2019s wearing a dress that sparkles. Her hair is long and Old-Hollywood white-blonde. She lifts her face to the light and her audience thinks, holy shit. Ineloquent, but we\u2019re all in the same boat there. Here she is, Claudia Carson, my own personal wish come true, and this is how she enters every single room.","About the Author SALLY THORNE lives in Canberra, Australia, and spends her days writing funding submissions and drafting contracts (yawn!), so it\u2019s not surprising that after hours she climbs into colorful fictional worlds of her own creation. She lives with her husband in a house filled with vintage toys, too many cushions, a haunted dollhouse, and the world\u2019s sweetest pug. The Hating Game is her first novel. Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.","Praise for The Hating Game \u201cDeliciously fun and super sexy, Sally Thorne\u2019s The Hating Game stole my life for two days. I couldn\u2019t put it down until Lucy and Josh\u2019s all-consuming hateship changed into a tentative friendship and then a juicy, tender, adorable love.\u201d \u2014Valerie Frankel, bestselling author of Four of a Kind \u201cA brilliant, biting, hilarious new voice. The Hating Game will take the rom-com world by storm. One of the best I\u2019ve read, ever.\u201d \u2014Kristan Higgins, New York Times bestselling author \u201cAn addictive, dazzling debut. The Hating Game is bursting at the seams with love (and hate) and heart.\u201d \u2014Christina Lauren, New York Times bestselling author \u201cBe prepared to play the Charming Game with Sally Thorne. The irrepressible Lucy and her starchy, growly counterpart Joshua will win you over from the opening page.\u201d \u2014Jane Litte, Dear Author \u201cThorne is a strong writer and one to watch. Her debut will have readers rooting for both Lucy and Joshua in whatever games they play.\u201d \u2014Library Journal \u201cFunny, smart, fresh, and thoroughly enjoyable from the first delicious page to the last. I highly recommend.\u201d \u2014Susan Elizabeth Phillips, New York Times bestselling author","","Credits Cover design by Connie Gabbert","Copyright This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author\u2019s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. THE HATING GAME. Copyright \u00a9 2016 by Sally Thorne. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books. FIRST EDITION ISBN 978-0-06-243959-8 EPub Edition AUGUST 2016 ISBN 9780062439604 16 17 18 19 20 OV\/RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1","About the Publisher Australia HarperCollins Publishers Australia Pty. Ltd. Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia www.harpercollins.com.au Canada HarperCollins Canada 2 Bloor Street East - 20th Floor Toronto, ON M4W 1A8, Canada www.harpercollins.ca New Zealand HarperCollins Publishers New Zealand Unit D1, 63 Apollo Drive Rosedale 0632 Auckland, New Zealand www.harpercollins.co.nz United Kingdom HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF, UK www.harpercollins.co.uk United States HarperCollins Publishers Inc. 195 Broadway New York, NY 10007","www.harpercollins.com"]