WSJ bestselling author Ilsa Madden-Mills returns with an all-new, enemies-to-lovers second chance romance between the football hottie and the feisty nerd girl he can’t forget. I want you . . . even when I hate you. Blaze Townsend: I hate you.Charisma Rossi: I hate you more. She’s been expecting this ever since their latest showdown. She had good reason. Hottest guy she’s ever seen.Former fling.… had good reason.
Hottest guy she’s ever seen.
Former fling.
Dumped her in front of all her friends.
At her own party.
So no, she’s not about to forgive and forget just because he sits next to her in class. He thinks all he has to do is turn on those baby blues, and she’ll melt right back into his arms. Please. She’d be crazy to let this cocky player affect her again. (Tell that to her body.)
Charisma Rossi.
Brainy girl with a dash of bad.
The one who got under his skin.
The one he cut loose.
Blaze knows she’s the riskiest prospect at Waylon University, but none of the interchangeable girls he hooks up with have ever made him feel the way she did. There’s absolutely no way he can have the girl and the game.
So why can’t he stop trying to win her back?
Can this wide receiver score the girl or will he make the biggest fumble of his life?
*Steamy and flirty with all the emotional feels, I Hate You is a new adult standalone romance.
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Sports Contemporary Romance; Friends-to-Enemy; New Adult
First person; dual-POV
“You know… you know how I feel about you, right? You’re the last thing I think about when I go to sleep, the first thing I want when I wake up.”
by Blaze
WHAT HAS REALLY WORKED FOR ME
Addictiveness: 4/5 Very addictive! This was a fast-paced read that kept me going until the end. I literally didn’t sleep that night, because I had to finish the book.
Character: hero 5/5, heroine 5/5, secondary characters 5/5, growth 5/5, real 4/5 I love how Ms. Madden-Mills writes her characters. They feel real and are easy to love, connect and understand.
Both main characters were multi-dimensional and had a great story arch. They evolved throughout the story and we felt their emotions along with them.
Charisma presented herself as someone fun, that was strong and self-assured. In reality she was still building up her shields ,carrying insecurities from high school. She felt very human. She was a little unicorn and reminded me of my daughter. It was impossible for me not to connect with her. She grew a lot throughout the story, she became more self-confident and sure of herself.
Blaze , what a lovely hero. He really was this huge onion with several layers of skin. His past was filled with huge boulders and he managed to become a very well rounded man despite everything he went through.
Both characters were afraid of love and had trust issues.
So many interesting secondary characters. Even though this book is a standalone, some characters are from previous books of the author. I would love to read “the fall” of Dillon next.
Cover: art 4/5, title 5/5, color-font 5/5, buy 5/5 I’m obsessed with book covers. I love to find snippets of the stories within the art. I can totally imagine Blaze here. I love the font, the colors, the title and specially the subtitle used. Spot on! Very catching and makes the reader interested, wanting to know more. I would definitely buy this book by its cover alone, no blurb reading needed.
Plot: believable 5/5, conflict 4/5, dialogue 5/5, ending 5/5, enjoyment 5/5, opening 5/5, pace 5/5, setting 5/5, subplots 5/5, twists 4/5 Great opening and wonderful ending. Good believable conflict with dialogues very well written. A fast-paced read that hooked the reader from the beginning, making it impossible to stop reading it. Perfect setting of a new adult novel, good subplot and cool twists. Very well written with no loose ends. This was the work of a wordsmith.
Romance: believable 5/5, chemistry 5/5, description 5/5, development 5/5, steam 5/5 O.M.G! Their chemistry was explosive. Every time they were in the same room they caused major combustions. Wow! So many great, descriptive scenes. I’ve loved the masquerade party!!! Besides all the smut, the couple’s love felt real and completely believable.
Writing Style: I’m a fan of the author. She really has a clean, cohesive style of writing that feels effortless. Her characters are always authentic, her setting feels legitimate and the romance she creates is steamy and conceivable.
WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER
Freshness: This book followed an usual new adult/college romance format. So, it hadn’t anything completely original, but who needs that? I personally love this formula and this book worked for me.
At the same time, this story gave me a feel unexpected twists that complemented the plot perfectly.
MY THOUGHTS
Every romance lover MUST read one or several books by Ms. Madden-Mills.
This book had it all: superb characters, great romance and an emotional journey that had the reader feeling along with the characters. A true cathartical experience!
33.5/35 STARS – 5 STARS (between 33.5 stars and 35 stars)
Addictiveness: 5 Character: 5 Cover: 4.5 Freshness: 4 Plot:5 Romance: 5 Writing Style: 5
Action 3/5
Angst 3.5/5
Darkness 2/5
Humor 2.5/5
Romance 5/5
Suspense/Mystery 1/5
Would I recommend? YES YES YES
Would I re-read this book? I’m certain I will.
Would I read more from the author? Forever!!!
You may read this because you like the author; you SHOULD read this because the romance is so good; you MUST read this for some very lovable and relatable characters!!!
I have really enjoyed this series. But this book has been my favorite of them all. It had all the feels. Blaze and Charm captured my heart from the very beginning and held it in their hands until the very end. This book had me laughing out loud, shedding tears and angry at times. It was filled with angst Which I love. But it was also filled with hope and undeniable love.
This book is part of a series but can be read as a standalone. I promise you won’t be disappointed.
No one does angst quite like Ilsa Madden-Mills. I can’t wait until she releases a book because she is one of the Queens of Angst! I Hate You was so full of angsty goodness that it made my heart sing.
I really love this series so far and this book was so good. The characters were so well fleshed out and realistic. The hero, Blaze, had such a great, yet heartbreaking backstory. I just wanted to climb him and cuddle him. Charisma was just that, charismatic, strong, and feisty. I really didn’t want this story to end.
I am already anticipating the next book in this series because it was so, so perfect. And that epilogue? Absolutely amazing. Give me more, Ilsa!
Oh my goodness!! This book was fire….pun intended because Blaze is fire !!! And I love him and the way he is just with Charm once he realizes what he needs to do. He hasn’t had the best of life and always expects the worst. And Charm one I love the way she’s always speaking in acronyms and she’s just such a feisty strong woman who has built a wall around her heart so nobody can get in and hurt her. She’s all pretty woman and won’t kiss on the mouth to even protect herself more but somehow Blaze down all of her walls and she fell. But burnedwas she good enough for him because she didn’t feel like she was. Can they get over their hang-ups and work things out? Blaze and Charm have definitely moved up to one of my top favorite couples. And it’s also in one of my top 3 books of 2019!!! If you buy one book this year I would recommend this one for sure!!! By Tina
Loved this book so much! The push and pull between Charm and Blaze put me in a nonstop-read-athon. Because of their pasts and what happened in their past relationship these were two characters that were afraid to take their walls down. To say they were skittish about love would be an understatement. I loved seeing how they worked through these feelings and insecurities. A well-written book filled with memorable characters, moments and quotes.
Blaze and Charisma were everything. Such an angsty read full of underlying love and want. Both of these characters come from pasts that hinder their ability to accept that they deserve happiness and that a relationship can last. Not everyone leaves and not everyone is a cheater. Those are some pretty big obstacles to overcome but…..Ilsa Madden Mills gives us such amazing characters with the push and pull between them that they have no choice but to fight for one another.
This is part of a standalone series an can be read soley on its own but I would totally recommend checking out the other books in the series too for a more complete understanding of these characters. I Dare You, I Bet You and I Hate You are equally enjoyable sports romances.
”THERE IS A FINE LINE BETWEEN LOVE & HATE!!”
Again, as with the other books in this series, I could not put this book down once I started reading it…I fell in love with Blaze and Charisma in I BET YOU…But, I, totally, fell for them in I HATE YOU…I LOVED their book!!!
Hot, gorgeous, college football wide receiver, Blaze Townsend, and college graphic design student, Charisma Rossi, are attracted to each other ….like sizzling-hot-chemistry attracted, but they are both broken by their pasts…and trust, even in themselves, is hard…almost impossible sometimes….
I, seriously, love this book and this series..And Ilsa Madden-Mills…
Charisma is jaded by her father’s transgressions and Blaze is haunted by a past he can’t seem to forget. Their enemies to lovers story will have you riding highs and emotional lows. The struggles they experience are raw and real. I was torn up with all the angst and their constant push and pull. This is a 5 star must read that will have you fully invested until the very end.
This was the first book I’d read by this author (I’ve since read another one) and I’m so glad I took a chance on a new to me author.
I Hate You is a second chance, lovers to enemies to ? romance. Blaze has dreams of playing in the NFL and he’s single minded in his goal. Having dumped Charisma publicly he’s been concentrating on making his dreams come true. I really liked Blaze. He’s had a rough childhood and once I found out a little of his past, I fell hard for him.
Charisma was mortified when Blaze dumped her and he did some real damage to her already shaky self confidence. She’s beautiful and driven but she holds herself back from falling in love and I could easily relate to her. The chemistry and attraction between these two is hard to ignore but Blaze has got his work cut out trying to win her back. Charisma isn’t quite as eager to have her heart broken again but even she can’t hold back forever.
This is a great second chance romance. It’s got great characters that are really easy to like, plenty of chemistry and some fun, flirty banter. All in all it’s a really enjoyable read and I’ll definitely be reading more from this author in the future.
“I’ve been saying football is the one thing I can’t live without, but it’s a lie. She is. It’s her.”
There have been a few of Ilsa’s books that I enjoyed, so anytime I see her release a new one I check out the blurb. I have a thing for college sports romance (when done right), so this one was right up my alley.
“I’m flying close to the sun, brushing at the flame he is, but is life worth living if I give up on the most precious thing I’ve ever held in my hands?”
Told in dual POV, its an enemies-to-lovers romance about second chances and trusting your heart. Set on a college campus in Mississippi where football players are Gods, our two leads have a history that left one completely jaded and the other wishing he could have given up more. It is part of a series of interconnected stand alones, so it can be read as part of the series or on its own.
Charisma (Charm) is back for her last semester at Waylon determined to get back to the way things were before it all changed….the night star football player Blaze ended things and broke her heart at her own sorority’s party, in front of most of the population on campus. They only “dated” 3 weeks so its not a big deal right? She avoided him until she left on Christmas break but this semester she is going to face him and show him she doesn’t care….the only problem with that plan? She cares very much and its evident the first time she sees him again.
“I don’t know. What do we have to lose?” Only the rest of me.
Blaze only slept with Charm 3 times, but it was enough to know she wasn’t at all like the other girls. She made him feel things he couldn’t afford to feel, not when football is his life and that life hangs on if he makes it into the Draft. There is only room for one love and thats football for him….but whats the harm in being friends?
“I’m not your type, remember?” He never moves his gaze from me. “You were fire in my hands.” My heart clenches. “Don’t say things like that. You don’t mean them!”
They should have known friends couldn’t work for them, but does Blaze have it in him to give his all to football and Charm? And can Charm trust and forgive him after what he did to her?
This does end with a HEA with the possibility of another installment featuring another one of the guys (there is no shortage in football hotties at Waylon).
“I didn’t know you were a coward, Blaze.” My throat is suddenly tight. “Yeah, well, now you do.”
Overall, this is a great “feel good” romance. If you are looking for the darker stuff, this is not for you. These two are stubborn so there will be some angst and of course a little drama thrown in there, but if you won’t need any tissues or warnings before devouring Charm and Blaze’s story! Is it worth downloading? ABSOLUTELY, no matter what your fav catagory is in romance this one is easy to enjoy!
“She knows my heart. Her name is written there.”
I really enjoyed this whole series. I Hate You was my second favorite book in this series. My heart hurt for Blaze and the live he lived as a child. I just wanted to strangle his aunt and uncle for treating him so bad. I know his parents didn’t treat him well either but they seemed to kind of care about him in their messed up way. I did have a problem with the way he treated Charisma sometimes. His off and on signals kind of started to get old but at least he acknowledged he was doing it. I didn’t really know what to think of Charisma. I loved her in the first book. How she was so tough and her own person but this book she was week. I know that heartbreak can do that to you but I really would have liked to have seen her have a little of the backbone she had in the first book.
I’m so glad that in the end Blaze got the family he wanted and needed and that Charisma realized that she can trust people. It really was a really good story.
I was enjoying it, not necessarily loving it but a conversation happened around the 90% mark and I started “feeling” the story til the end. LOVED the epilogue. This can definitely be read as a stand alone.
Blaze and Charisma…*heart eye emoji* Both of them were so emotionally bent (NOT broken!), they didn’t realize that their jagged edges matched up perfectly. I loved this story to pieces, especially the epilogue.
Ilsa Mills-Madden has this habit of dragging me in heart and soul into her books from the very first pages, and I Hate You is no different. It’s a sexy, romantic enemies to lovers romance with amazing characters and will definitely leave you swooning.
Charm and Blaze are complete opposites of each other and don’t have much in common except for one very important thing. They are afraid to take a chance on love.
“Love hurts; I know it does. Love is opening yourself up like a book, letting someone see your secrets with every paragraph and page exposed, knowing that the person you’re showing it to can walk away any minute. And maybe he will. Love only works if you try, if you take a chance.” ~Charm~
Charm is an intelligent, funny, and sassy young woman. Blaze is one of the campus’s football stars. She isn’t the type of girl Blaze would be even interested in, but there is something about her he can’t quite resist. She usually picks safer guys than Blaze. However, there is this pull of attraction between them, and before long they give into their desires. Things seem to be going smoothly until Blaze begins having feelings for her, and he can’t have that, so what does he do? He dumps her very publicly, and he becomes her enemy…until he isn’t. These two definitely have an on and off again type relationship.
On the surface, it appears Blaze is a player. He was at one time, but Charm could change that if he would open his heart to her. Underneath his sex appeal and humor is a vulnerable man. He is so frightened that she will eventually leave him because of the way in which he grew up.
“Sooner or later, she’s going to let go…she’s going to look at me…she’s going to see the real me. She’s going to see the truth.” ~Blaze~
What he doesn’t realize is that she does see him, and she is falling in love with the “real” Blaze.
Charm isn’t without her own issues. She has some real trust issues because of her parents’ marriage and the way she was treated by boys when she was younger. She has her own set of rules when it comes to her relationships, and it doesn’t involve falling in love…until Blaze begins knocking down the walls she has erected to protect herself.
“There’s a hint of authority in his tone and everything inside of me wants to resist, but he has power over me, something no one else has ever had.” ~Charm~
She and Blaze are going to have to decide whether to take that chance on being rejected when they lay their hearts on the line. I loved these two from the very beginning. Each one challenged and complemented the other. There is angst and miscommunication between them, but Madden-Mills is a master at making those things work in her books. Those elements only add more feeling and emotion to the story itself.
I’m showing my age here, but one of my favorite movies was my Sixteen Candles, and it still is. Jake Ryan represented perfection. Every girl in the 80s wanted a Jake Ryan. He made my heart pitter-patter, and Mills-Madden recreates that feeling for me with all of her men EVERY SINGLE TIME!!!! She will ALWAYS be one of my favorite writers!!!! If you haven’t discovered her yet, you have no clue what a delight you are missing!!!!
“The person you love can hurt you, though. You have to be careful.”
Maybe I don’t want to be careful anymore. Sometimes you just have to let go, right?”
I Hate You was exactly the book I needed.
I thought second chance romance and enemies to lovers that is my thing, and it will be an easy read. Well what I got was an emotional love story that had depth and heart-breaking moments that made not only the characters relatable but, that also made you root for them to get their HEA from the very beginning.
Blaze *SWOON when you start reading you think – please don’t break Charisma heart- and he did… however the more I read the more I realised that we had no idea of how much or how his past affected him and his relationship… His vulnerability was real and I could feel it. He brought tears to my eyes when he “talked about serious stuff”.
“ He saw himself as a burden”
Charisma Rossi is a strong heroine who is driven, so driven that she convinced herself that she has no feelings for Blaze, that she is not ” his type” until she finds herself in the same class as him.
“ All great and precious things are lonely”
The angst was so intense that I found myself yelling at both characters!! Will they both let their guard down and get their HEA?
I Hate You is a heart-warming and heart breaking second chance romance; I love BLAZE.
I Hate You snuck up on me and my feelings. When I finished reading it, I was happy and I was fully content. Now, a few days later I have this fluttery almost nervous feeling while thinking about the story. I know what happens to the characters, yet I think this anxiousness is because the writing of their story is quite simply awesome. I feel like I know Blaze and Charisma…and really the whole gang…because Ilsa’s storytelling is completely captivating.
Blaze has more heart and depth than your typical college football hunk. He’s confident in his skills on the field, but he doesn’t quite believe that he is worthy of love because of his heartbreaking past. He’s scared to fully embrace what (or rather who) he deserves. Charisma is one of the best heroines I’ve read recently. She’s grown into a strong intelligent woman but as is human nature, past insecurities get into her head and she can’t quite overcome them. Here comes the angst (don’t worry—it’s the perfect amount)! The pull between Blaze and Charm is intense and their banter is fun, sexy, and completely endearing.
I Hate You is new adult/college sports romance perfection. It has heartache and heat and most importantly, gumption. I give this book more than 5 stars because of how damn happy I am after reading it!
I didn’t like this book too much. It was good but the ending ruined the whole book.
I am a big fan of NA college romances. Give me a sassy and intelligent heroine and hot, popular (and nerdy) football player and I am done. DONE! I really liked I Hate You because it was a refreshing story about two perfectly imperfect young people. Blaze and Charm were amazing together. I loved how they matured, made mistakes and realized how good they could be together.
Even though Blaze and Charm broke up, they could not stop thinking about each other. The pull and chemistry between them were too strong to fight with. But sometimes your past and insecurities have a firm hold of your heart, choices your make and people you trust. Behind their bravery, popularity and sassy attitude hide two lonely souls, afraid of commitments and being abandoned, again.
The story has it all: slow-burning plot, funny, swoony and emotional situations, love, hate, and angst. I really enjoyed Charisma and Blaze road together. Even though sometimes I wanted to shake them both. Once the made one step together and then two back. The lack of communication and reckless behavior got on my nerve.
The most important thing is to not be afraid of taking a risk, put your emotional guards down and let somebody love you. Sometimes it is good to have a second chance because after all ups and downs your relationship will be stronger, hotter and more beautiful.
I love young adult romances, I love sports romances and this has both. I was in book heaven while I read this book. This author has the incredible talent of hooking you into her story and not letting you go until you finish reading at 3 am, as was my case. Then in the morning, a quick re-reading of the end to enjoy it again and now to write my review.
All I can say is: I loved it! Blaze came from a broken home, from two meth addicted parents who took minimal care of their son and were mostly negligent. He was abandoned without being orphaned. Then when his parents die in an accident caused by their addictions, and a young girl is killed as a result, he went further down because he was vilified by the town for his parents’ sins. His uncle and aunt took him in, gave him the essentials but never love. So now, he’s a respected and admired athlete in Waylon University, gorgeous and charming, but inside there’s a little boy that craves love and being important in someone’s life. For the moment, football is what makes him feel good so he’s dedicated to it.
Charisma came from a good household and a loving family. The only wrinkle in her life is that her father is a very handsome and charming man and she saw him being unfaithful to her mother. This created mistrust in love and fidelity in her. Coupled with her self-image problem (she’s curvy, not model stick-thin), she shies away from intimacy and commitment.
So two commitment phobes with deep needy souls meet, burn up the place with their chemistry, and have a back and forth play because they want but don’t dare. I never lost patience and never lost faith because I knew their love was so big they were eventually going to get there. I was just there along for the ride, rooting for them, and enjoying their banter, their angsty moment, and mourning their deep need for connection and trust and fidelity.
These characters were fantastic and I loved them too. Charisma is smart and witty when she’s not down and heartbroken. I loved her acronyms! But the character that stole my heart was Blaze. He was so complex, driven to succeed in football and get into the NFL, worried about his grades because of his concentration problems, sure of his popularity in campus but underneath it all, feeling unworthy and unloved, fueled by his feelings for Charisma but not feeling enough to keep her, afraid of losing everyone he loves, of not being lovable. He’s such a complex mixture of strengths and weaknesses, but you know the person inside and who he’s capable of being when his life is sorted out. It was a lovely book and a definite re-read in the future.
I hate that this book every had to end. I expected to enjoy this book but I did not expect to be head over heels in love with Blaze and Charisma. I read this in one sitting, I could not put it down. Ilsa Madden-Mills wrote such hot scenes and chemistry my fingers were burning on the pages ( well you can imagine since I read it on a kindle). The masquerade scene??!?!?!??! WHATTT?? that was so incredibly well written, I felt like I was there and then got snapped back to reality when I realized that no, I in fact was not at a sorority party, but (low and behold) on my couch in my pjs ,utterly pissed off that this was not real and I was not Charisma. On top of the palpable chemistry, the story line and plot was just as good. Blaze is the book bf everyone wants, genuinely a great guy (even with a shitty past) who goes above and beyond to get the girl. Swoon Swoon Swoon. Great book! loved loved loved it!!