If You Liked The Hating Game: 10 Books to Read Next
Bookdot Team • •
#books like The Hating Game#Sally Thorne#enemies to lovers#workplace romance#romcom#readalikes#BookTok
If you finished The Hating Game and want that feeling again, this list has 10 books, each matched to one thing Sally Thorne did well: two people who compete over everything, a forced-proximity setup, or banter that is really flirting. Heat levels are given loosely on a low, medium or high scale, because the draw here is tension rather than spice. For a full heat breakdown of the genre, see our contemporary romance spice level guide.
What Makes The Hating Game Hard to Replace
Lucy Hutton and Joshua Templeman work at the same publishing company, sit at facing desks in the same office, and compete for the same promotion. They play small, petty games with each other all day. Somewhere in the middle of those games, the hatred stops being quite what it claims to be.
Most readalikes copy the premise and miss the engine. There are really four things people mean when they ask for “another Hating Game”:
- Rivals with a shared space. A desk, a house, a bed: something that makes avoiding each other impossible.
- Banter that is secretly attention. Every insult proves one person has been watching the other closely.
- A slow reveal of the soft side. The grump turns out to be careful, and the cheerful one turns out to be tired.
- A workplace or competition with real stakes. The rivalry matters, so the romance costs something.
Each pick below is tagged with the pieces it shares, so you can match it to the reason you loved the original.
It also helps to know why the book works. Thorne keeps the point of view tight on Lucy, so you read Josh the way she does: as a puzzle she is annoyed to find interesting. The tension comes from small observations, not big events. A readalike that skips the observing and jumps straight to the kiss will feel thin next to it.
Workplace Rivals
99 Percent Mine by Sally Thorne
Darcy Barrett and her twin brother inherit a run-down house and have to renovate it. Tom Valeska, her twin’s best friend, is the carpenter doing the work, and Darcy has wanted him for years.
It is the obvious next step, and it is a different flavor: a longing-first story rather than a rivalry-first one, with a heroine who is far less polished than Lucy. Medium heat.
Shares: Thorne’s banter, a renovation that forces close contact, and a love interest who is more patient than he looks. Pick this if the voice was the point for you.
Beautiful Bastard by Christina Lauren
Chloe Mills is an MBA student working as an intern for her demanding boss Bennett Ryan. They clash constantly, and the clashing turns physical long before either admits it.
This is the hotter, faster cousin of The Hating Game, and it is the workplace-power-struggle premise with the dial turned up. High heat, with explicit scenes throughout.
Shares: the office as arena, insults that are really attraction, and a boss-versus-employee tension. Pick this if you wished the original had gone further on the page. For more in this lane, our workplace romance books list goes wider.
Book Lovers by Emily Henry
Nora Stephens is a literary agent who has been cast as the villain in too many love stories. Charlie Lastra is an editor she already knows from work, and the two end up in the same small town in North Carolina.
It is a publishing-world romance with a competitive history between the leads, though it lets Nora’s family and ambition take up real space. Medium heat.
Shares: two book-industry professionals who spar well, a rivalry that predates the romance, and a heroine who thinks she knows how her story ends.
Forced Proximity and Shared Spaces
The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren
Olive and Ethan are the maid of honor and best man at a wedding where everyone else gets food poisoning. They cannot stand each other. They end up taking the honeymoon in Maui, pretending to be newlyweds.
This is the closest swap if you want to keep the mutual loathing but lose the office. It is funny and fast, with a pretend-couple setup that forces the two to share a hotel room and a story. Low to medium heat.
Shares: two people who start out hostile, forced closeness, and the discovery that the other person is nicer than the first impression. Pick this if you loved the games.
The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary
Tiffy needs a cheap room. Leon works nights and needs rent money. They agree to share a one-bedroom flat and one bed, never at the same time, and they communicate through notes.
The rivalry here is gentler, since they begin as strangers rather than enemies, but the slow build through small observations is very close to Thorne’s method. Low heat.
Shares: forced proximity, tension built from tiny details, and a love story told through what two people leave for each other. If you want the same slow reveal with less bite, this is it.
Well Met by Jen DeLuca
Emily moves to a small Maryland town to help her sister, and ends up volunteering at the local Renaissance faire. Simon, the schoolteacher who runs the faire’s pirate act, has little patience for her.
It trades the office for costumes and turkey legs, and keeps the early sniping. Medium heat.
Shares: an uptight man and a good-humored woman who keep colliding, a shared project with a deadline, and a surprising amount of tenderness under the irritation.
Grumpy, Sunshine and Fake Dating
Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert
Eve Brown leaves a chaotic string of jobs and ends up working as a chef at a bed and breakfast run by Jacob Wayne, a controlled and exacting man. They get on each other’s nerves right away.
It is a clear grumpy-versus-sunshine story with a lot of heat in the banter and some on-page scenes. Medium to high heat.
Shares: an immovable man, a heroine who refuses to be cowed, and a small workplace that keeps them together. For more of this pairing, see our grumpy-sunshine books list.
The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
Olive Smith is a PhD student who invents a fake relationship to convince a friend she is over someone. She kicks it off by kissing Adam Carlsen, a young and feared professor, and then has to keep the story going.
It is a fake-dating setup, rather than a hate-to-love one, but Adam has the same cold-exterior energy as Josh Templeman, and the academic workplace has its own politics. Medium heat. We have a full readalike list for The Love Hypothesis if this one lands.
Shares: a grump with a soft center, a workplace with a hierarchy, and a pretend relationship that stops being pretend.
Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall
Luc O’Donnell is a London publicist and the son of a rock star. Oliver Blackwood is a barrister who is polite and serious. They agree to fake-date to save their reputations, and they could not be less alike.
It is funnier than almost anything on this list, with a very British sense of humor and a lot of heart. Medium heat. The best fit if you like the Hating Game tone of two opposites who keep surprising each other. More like it are in our fake dating books list.
Shares: opposites forced together, a deal with rules that start to crack, and banter that does real emotional work.
Enemies to Lovers With a Bigger Stage
Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
Alex Claremont-Diaz is the son of the U.S. president. Prince Henry is a British royal. A public incident forces them into a staged friendship, which becomes something more.
It is the large-scale version of the Hating Game arc: two people who are supposed to be rivals, a lot of public pressure, and a slow pivot from performance to honesty. Medium heat.
Shares: a rivalry that starts in public, a performance of friendship, and a relationship that feels earned. For more of the trope, our enemies to lovers books list has the full range.
Why Rivals Make Such Good Love Stories
Rivalry is a shortcut to intimacy. To beat someone at anything, you have to study them: how they work, what rattles them, what they do when they think no one is looking. Two rivals therefore know each other in detail before they like each other at all, and romance only has to change the meaning of what they already know.
That is why the best books on this list lean on routine. A shared commute, a shared kitchen, a shared project plan. The small repeated moments are where the reader starts to see the crack in the armor, usually a beat before the characters do.
It is also why the genre rewards patience. If you read these back to back, notice how each author spends the middle third of the book on tiny shifts: a coffee that is made the right way, a note that is a little too kind, a joke that is held back. Those are the moments that make the final confession feel inevitable instead of sudden.
A Note on Reading Order
You do not need to read these in any particular sequence, and none of them requires the others. If you want a themed run, try one office book, one forced-proximity book and one fake-dating book, then see which setup you reach for next. Many readers find that the setup they love most is a better guide to their taste than any single author. Keep notes on what worked in each, even a single line, so your next pick is easier to choose.
Heat Levels at a Glance
If you read The Hating Game for the tension and want to know what you are walking into, here is a rough sort. These are general impressions, not strict ratings, and individual readers draw the line in different places.
- Low: The Flatshare. The romance is warm, and the focus stays on emotion and the slow build.
- Low to medium: The Unhoneymooners. Flirty and funny, with the heat arriving late.
- Medium: 99 Percent Mine, Book Lovers, Well Met, The Love Hypothesis, Boyfriend Material and Red, White & Royal Blue. Expect at least a few open-door scenes alongside a lot of banter.
- Medium to high: Act Your Age, Eve Brown. The chemistry is loud and so are the scenes.
- High: Beautiful Bastard. This is the one to skip if you wanted a closed-door read.
A good habit is to read the first three chapters before committing. In every book here, the first few chapters establish the rivalry and the voice, and you will know quickly whether the sense of humor works for you.
How to Pick Your Next Read
If you are not sure where to start, use this quick guide:
- You want the same author: 99 Percent Mine.
- You want hotter: Beautiful Bastard or Act Your Age, Eve Brown.
- You want gentler: The Flatshare.
- You want to laugh more: Boyfriend Material or The Unhoneymooners.
- You want the workplace back: Book Lovers.
Keep one thing in mind when you decide: a good Hating Game readalike lets you watch the change happen. If a book jumps from hostility to romance in a chapter, you will notice the missing middle. The books above all take their time.
If the part you loved was two writers sparring over what counts as a good book, our Beach Read readalike list covers that thread directly.
Track every rival-turned-love-interest you finish, and keep the next romcom queued, with Bookdot, the reading tracker built for readers who always have another enemies-to-lovers waiting.
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Frequently Asked Questions
- What should I read after The Hating Game?
- Start with Sally Thorne's own 99 Percent Mine, then try The Unhoneymooners or Book Lovers. All three pair two people who start out irritated by each other.
- Is The Hating Game spicy?
- It sits around medium heat: plenty of tension and a few on-page scenes, but the book is mostly about the build-up. Beautiful Bastard on this list is far hotter, and The Flatshare is much gentler.
- Are there books like The Hating Game without the office setting?
- Yes. The Unhoneymooners, Well Met and Act Your Age, Eve Brown keep the rivalry and swap the office for a wedding, a Renaissance faire and a bed and breakfast.