Dating You/Hating You

By: Christina Lauren

Narrated by: Shayna Thibodeaux, Deacon Lee

Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's Summary

All's fair in love and work. The first stand-alone romance by New York Times best-selling author Christina Lauren (Beautiful Bastard) is a sexy, compulsively listenable romantic comedy that dives headlong into the thrill and doubt of modern love.

Despite the odds against them from an embarrassing meet-awkward at a mutual friend's Halloween party, Carter and Evie immediately hit it off. Even the realization that they're both high-powered agents at competing firms in Hollywood isn't enough to squash the fire.

But when their two agencies merge - causing the pair to vie for the same position - all bets are off. What could have been a beautiful blossoming romance turns into an all-out war of sabotage. Carter and Evie are both 30-something professionals - so why can't they act like it?

Can Carter stop trying to please everyone and see how their mutual boss is really playing the game? Can Evie put aside her competitive nature long enough to figure out what she really wants in life? Can their actor clients just be something close to human? Whether these two Hollywood love/hatebirds get the storybook Hollywood ending or just a dramedy of epic proportions, you will get to enjoy Christina Lauren's heartfelt, raucous, and hilarious romance style at its finest.

©2017 Christina Lauren (P)2017 Simon & Schuster Audio

SORRY.. BUT I JUST DIDN'T FEEL IT

I love the writing team of Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings and I've really enjoyed their previous books so I had this book preordered for quite a while eagerly anticipating its release date. And, as soon as it was out, I was on it.. hitting the play button ready to be wooed and wowed by a four or five star listen.. but sadly, for me, that never happened.

When Evie and Carter meet at a friend's party there was snappy flirty dialogue, humor and an instant mutual attraction led to exchanged numbers.. but then nothing more and their relationship didn't get started for a week because lots of office drama took centre stage. Finally one of them made the first move.. and things quickly got to one of the bases!!.. but then the company merger happened and their budding relationship soon fizzled out when they realized they were rivals vying for the same lucrative position. The attraction was still there but it was banked because they were competitors/enemies now which brought about a few sneaky amusing office pranks. Unfortunately, for me, this build-up went on for way too long because, by the time Evie and Carter eventually got together, a lot of the book had gone.. gone without any sizzles, dirty talk, heated touches or combustible scenes.

Evie and Carter are career driven Celebrity Agents in Hollywood and both are 'nice' characters - there were humorous scenes as well as a few sexual ones.. but I was just a little "meh" underwhelmed. Yes, it was a fairly enjoyable contemporary romance with a sex-lite, romance-lite, drama-lite and suspense-lite plot line that made me sometimes smile, however it focuses on the business angst (with a predictable twist) much more than the romance. So, sadly I never swooned, never panted, never held my breath in giddy anticipation and never went into the next chapter eager for more. Dual POV with good narration.

Worth a credit? Sorry, I'm undecided.. but a definite sale purchase. And just because I personally couldn't connect, doesn't mean that you won't.

Loved

I am sooooooo glad this book started the way that it did, I won’t go into detail because it might contain spoilers.

Work and lovers usually aren’t my cup of tea something about it just doesn’t work for me but this did because of how the book starts. ;)

I loved how adult Carter and Evie are about everything they talk and don’t let things fester too much and it works. Those/These are the kinds of books I love to read because I am over the childhood dramalama a lot of books have. I know we need conflict and that is fine but let’s not add something that doesn’t make any sense to the plot for effect and I am happy to say this book doesn’t have that.

I loved how it ends it’s as good as how it started. The side characters also have a great connection with each other the main characters.

Oh the narration how I love thee both are phenomenal voice actors and I would listen to many, many, more books by them any time, any day, anywhere.

the woman voice is terrible

The woman voice is horrible, her accent is really strange, I would said disgusting, is like she was a grandmother, no a 30 years old women, you cant imaging a women with 30 years old speaking like this, also she read very slowly. It's frustating. If i had known this before i didnt buy the book, the problem is in the samole, you can hear only the men voice.

No offense BUT...

I'm going to have to buy this book for my kindle. I can't get past the voice of the narrator. She sounds like she is a smoker and a lot older than the character she is narrating.

I absolutely love Christina Lauren books. So I will purchase the book and read it instead of listening to this.

Story .... so far is great.... but I'm distracted.

Boring

I expected much more but was pretty disappointed. They could have done way more with their love story and at least ended it in a more exciting way.

But for the ending ...

Preface: I pretty much read everything Christina Lauren puts out as a nice mental health break from some heavier fiction/non-fiction. I am a huge fan of the Beautiful series and the Harlow/Fynn instalment in the Wild Seasons series. It was a no-brainer for me to pre-order this stand alone read (although I could envision a series of spin-offs/sequels particularly re Jonah.)

Review: This story was entertaining enough. The "war" wasn't all that calculating or malicious. The steam was a slow build that never really came to any meaningful boil. And I only gave this book 3 stars instead of the 4 I was thinking throughout the listen, due to a nonsense "gotcha" ending that had only limited build and totally lacked in nuance.

Narration: The narration was fine and I am a fan of both readers. I though the Evie character needed a more mature/refined voice - thinking Grace Grant - but ultimately Shayna did a good job. Deacon was perfectly cast for Carter and I especially liked his Michael Christopher voice.

Conclusion: This is a decent piece of fluff to read on a beach, but it lacked much of the steam of the earlier Christina Lauren books. If you're new to the author, start with Beautiful Bastard - you won't be disappointed there!

Annoying female narrator

What did you like best about Dating You/Hating You? What did you like least?

It was a cute idea for a love story

Would you recommend Dating You/Hating You to your friends? Why or why not?

Not the audio version! The female narrator, Shayna Thibodeaux, was incredibly annoying. So much so that it ruined the book for me. The story might have had a better chance with someone else. I could not stand how she read every sentence the same way... all through the book! I was hoping it would get better but it didn't. Add in the wang she has in her voice and I was terribly distracted. I like Christina Lauren. I read the entire Beautiful series, it consumed my life, so this was terribly disappointing.

Would you be willing to try another one of Shayna Thibodeaux and Deacon Lee ’s performances?

Deacon Lee was great. Perfect for the part. Not Shayna Thibodeaux. I don't know if it was just this book she read this way. I would sample another book read by her but hesitate to purchase it.

Did Dating You/Hating You inspire you to do anything?

No.

Any additional comments?

I am so glad I am done listening to it. Which kind of breaks my heart. Each chapter that switched from Deacon back to Shayna made me cringe. Her impersonation of a males voice works well as a teenage boy.

Good Story, but, I have read better from C.L

Where does Dating You/Hating You rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I am not sure where it rates. I love Christina Lauren books and I love the Beautiful Bastard Series by far the best of their series, followed by The Wild Seasons too. This book took me a long time to decide if I liked it. I am reasonably sure I can say this book can be rated Good and different.

Who was your favorite character and why?

I would have to say Evie because she is charming and a strong female. Then again Michael Christopher was quite funny and truly a great friend to Carter. They had great comoradery.

What about Shayna Thibodeaux and Deacon Lee ’s performance did you like?

I love Shayna Thibodeaux. She is excellent with everything she does. I have enough of Deacon Lee's work to know his work but there are some rolls/characters that I feel he is not appropriate for. This was one roll that I enjoyed with him.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

There wasn't one moment that moved me. What was different about this book was that it had a mysterious story line you catch wind of and wonder how it will play into the HEA. I thought about the story as it was happening and wondered which way I thought it would go and I found that I was not able to predict the ending. That was good I suppose. No one likes a predictable ending. Although sometimes the journey getting there makes it worth it. Lol 😝 that's what is called the plot. (Sorry I am laughing at myself)

Any additional comments?

I know that I didn't really give any plot points out in the story. I don't like to spoil stories. I thought the story was sort of slow moving, the characters really didn't have graphic sexy times if that is what you are into. The "real" sexy times came close to hour #6 when they finally consemated their relationship. That was a little agonizing to me to have to wait. The book felt like it was going to be merely a story about friends who prank each other and live for their careers with maybe a friends with benefits thing going on. It didn't in the end it all ties together. I am sorry if this review isn't helpful. I mentioned I struggled getting through the story. Perhaps I will see the book through other people's reviews to really appreciate it.

predictable and boring

storyline was boring, character development was lacking, voice of female narrator was irritating, super dissapointed.

Chemistry Failure

I've loved most of Christina Lauren's first books, and they can produce some quirky characters. This book doesn't hit the mark. I think I was a little unsure based on the blurb as it felt a bit "already done" but I figured they'd be a good bet. I'm at about the halfway mark, and I just don't care if either of them end up happily together. The chemistry just isn't there. I loved the way the build up in adoration happened in Beautiful Player, or the intenseness of the sweet filthy morning after.

I don't know if I can be bothered listening this one out. If I could read, I'd probably skim and get to the end, because meh, I'm not enchanted, excited, or particularly anything with this book.

They still get 3 stars from me, because they do great writing. It's not clunky or badly done, and they can get some fun characters in the book. This time their main characters just irritated me.

Enjoyable

A sort of friends to enemies to lovers office romance that had me laughing out loud in places. During an agency merge Evie and Carter both end up working for the same firm and vying for the same job. Due to a few miscommunications and a lot of jumping to conclusions the first half of the book covers the out and out war between the two, even though it's obvious they both have the hots for each other. When they take the time to talk things through and work alongside each other things start heating up, and not just in the bedroom. When a truce is finally called they work together and discover that maybe they will be able to make it work together if they can get their mutual boss to give them both a chance. I loved the writing and the characters, Evie worked hard and apart from the funny as all pranks she was not underhand. Carter, even though he was new to the company did not belittle Evie or even agree with Brad when he put her down, sadly though he didn't always stand up for her. He appreciated how hard she worked and was always honest with her (except, yes you’ve guessed it, when they were pranking), I loved him for that. Funny story, well written, addictive and with a twist at the end that I was not expecting. I loved the narration, a lot. Perfect.