USA Today bestselling author Claudia Burgoa spins a new romantic comedy. This hot office rivalry romance will have you swooning and laughing your panties off!Between a troublesome client and my fake-girlfriend-for-my-sister’s-Cancun-wedding canceling at the last minute.
I’m having the day from hell.
Then I spot Claire. Sexy. Smart. Sassy.
So one of my superstar employees is boarding the same … superstar employees is boarding the same plane.
With her help, I could kill two problems with one tequila shot.
That thing about never mixing business with pleasure?
I should’ve remembered.
Now the hottest one-night stand I’ve ever had is my biggest business rival.
We’re after the same client.
I’m after her heart.
The trick is how to win one without losing the other.
Because when love has you by the balls, it’s time to play dirty.
It’s an enemies-to-lovers romance with just the right amount of heart and humor.
Something Like Hate is a full-length novel based on Miller and Claire’s short story, “The Accidental Hookup,” which was previously released in Spring Fling: A Romance Anthology.
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Received in exchange for a honest review.
So when you start the book Milo isn’t exactly a character you like. He is nice but you can see that all he is in his business for is the bottom line. He is arrogant when getting on the plane and just acts like he is better than others. Then he gets his scheme with Claire. And he is transformed. He falls in love and doesn’t expect it. Only some events occur and Claire gets hurt. And bam things are no longer the same.
Claire is a harder person and Milo wallows. But his time in the scheme with Claire has changed him. He wants to do thngs the way she dreams. He wants to change for her. He wants to become what she would want. Years later Claire is back and he wants her more than ever only she doesn’t like him actually she despises him it seems. And when she is back they are competing for the same account and this is where the fun begins. It is so entertaining to see them compete against each other especially since he is smitten with her.
The sexual tension is there and so is the attraction but like no. His company is now extremely successful. He is well liked now by his employees. But still Claire isn’t buying into it. So he is set out to change her mind.
Milo once he changed is awesome. He is fun, sweet, kind, adorable and just amazing. He still is being freaky with his mom but you can see why. She kind of deserves what he does to her his mom. She is overbearing. But he is great. The tables turn and Claire is a wee bit aggravating. she is hard and uncaring. I mean you can understand but give the man a bone.
Claire is great overall. Funny, quirky, smart, loves what she does and has a vision. She is a wee bit anal to me though. I do love how she believes in her team and supports them but also worries about them as well. I love how she tries to resist Milo and keeps him on the leash after everything. I love how Milo gets her back as well. These two are great together and so is their story.
The story is funny and quirky. Sweet and sexy. Entertaining and alluring. You can’t put it down for it is filled with snarky, fun banter and great times. We get tension in so many ways, a guy trying to win over the girl and see him change even though she isn’t around anymore in the hopes that one day she may be. He changes for the better and you fall in love with him. A great story of changing and finding love. OF second chances and forgiveness. A truly wonderfully entertaining tale that has you smile from beginning to end.
Claire and Miller own this book. It is their story, and unlike anything you have ever read before. It is many stories in one, just like life really is. It is many tropes, you can’t classify it! It starts out Arrogant Boss/Invisible Employee, then Fake Girlfriend to Lovers, Friends to Enemies, Unrequited Love, Enemies to Lovers. As stated in the book, there is a fine line between hate and love. Both are very passionate and one mistake can trip you over the line from love to hate but many acts of love can bring you back over the line to love.
Claire is such a strong, smart, feisty woman! I adored her (as did Miller!). And Miller, he had my heart in Cancun. When he made that one mistake he regretted his whole life, I was so mad at him but what made me madder was not even listening to Claire and hearing her out. Men!
The angst in this book, well, I love angsty books, but it gets me riled up. I get fully vested in my characters. Claire’s family was precious, yes, even Lucifer, I mean Lucas. And Miller’s family was so sweet. I was both amazed and impressed at the lengths he went to to fabricate their romance. My heart melted at that and the fact that they both remained true to each other.
This is just a fantastic book, it has all the feels and does indeed have a HEA. Another best seller to add to her list and to yours!
Enemies to lovers and fake girlfriend combine to tell the story of Miller and Claire. Miller is one of Claire’s bosses and not a very good one at that. She knows she can do better and the work environment is not the best, but she also knows that she can do her finest work and showcase her talents with this company. She’s not content to be there, however, and needs a change, if only for awhile. She plans a getaway to the Bahamas with her best friends and is looking forward to leaving reality for paradise. On this same flight, Miller is traveling to his sister’s wedding, but isn’t looking forward to it at all. His ever-interfering mother is going to ask him about his dating situation and work diligently to find him a woman. He intends to take care of that problem by hiring a fake date to attend with him, but that falls apart at the last minute. When he sees Claire on the plane, he thinks his problem is solved, but Claire doesn’t make it easy. Once they start to act like a couple, they become a couple and decide to date. But all isn’t well back home, Both Claire and Miller, unbeknownst to each other, are trying to lure the same client and someone interferes back home. After recriminations and hateful accusations, Claire and Miller are through. A few years later, they meet again. They still have feelings for one another, but they both have changed and they may have moved past any chance of a reconciliation. I don’t know if I could personally forgive Miller for how childishly he handled things. Can he prove to her that he’s grown up and isn’t the same man who feared his mother? This is a cleverly and well-written story with characters who are flawed and complex and a storyline that is complete!
This book was exactly what my soul and brain needed. While some of the story line was easily predictable I feel like the author did an amazing job developing these characters and really having my heart and brain cheering for them to make it. This book packed in all the punches with the humor (which had me laughing out loud), the feels, the family dynamics and of course there may have been some heat built in as well.
Truly this was a delightful read
A fling that leads to so much more!
So many feels. I think this is the 3rd or 4th time I have read this story. I adore Claire and after he realizes he needs to change to have Claire, I fell in love with Miller. I love how that little story became so much more!! I love this enemies to lovers story! So so so good! Passion, wit, love, family, Reggie, pushy mothers, adorable nieces and nephews, all the good things in life. And a man who wants his love to have the career of her dreans! received a review copy. I am voluntarily leaving an honest review.
Overall Rating:
I’ve had my eye on Claudia Burgoa for some time. She wrote a newsletter story, I believe, that grabbed my attention, and I read every month until its end. When I read the blurb for her newest book, Something Like Hate, I decided to go for it. Like a lot of romance readers, I love enemies-to-lovers, fake girlfriend stories. There is something exciting about an alpha male or female who initially hates (or heavily detests) the other main character in a story, but eventually, they fall for each other. And Something Like Hate offers a take on this story.
The story follows Claire and Miller. Claire works for Miller’s company, and she’s a top-notch employee. Miller knows this, as does his “right-hand man” Devon, who is Claire’s boss. The issue is they take advantage of Claire as an employee, and the work environment is sub-par. Miller and Devon are not great bosses. As such, Claire is very close to leaving the company, but she believes Miller’s company could help her meet her professional goals, so she’s conflicted on leaving.
Claire sets off on a much-needed vacation with her best friends. Unbeknownst to her, Miller is going to the same destination for his sister’s wedding. Miller’s mother pressures him about a girlfriend, going so far as to threaten to set him up with other women. Miller is not interested in this, so he decides to take a fake date with him to the wedding, Unfortunately, at the last minute, his date cancels, and he is left with a dilemma. Enter Claire who happens to be on the same flight, going to the same destination. Miller has always appreciated Claire’s talent, intelligence, and work ethic from afar, and he decides to ask Claire for the favor of playing his girlfriend for the wedding. After much propositioning, Claire concedes, and they pretend to be boyfriend and girlfriend. Until they become attracted to each other and decide to actually date at the end of the weekend together.
In the meantime, Miller’s company is trying to sign an important client, one whom Claire was handling before her vacation. Thanks to another employee’s treachery, Miller leaves Claire alone and makes important decisions without her knowledge. Drama ensues, and Claire and Miller end. The story fast-forwards several years, and Claire and Miller meet again. Much has changed, but one thing has stayed the same: their chemistry. Will they find love again? Can Claire forgive Miller and move past his shortcomings? Those are the questions of Something Like Hate.
In reading the blurb for this story, I really wanted to like it. And for the most part, I did. Claire and MIller together is the best part of the story. They have a chemistry that jumps off the page. Individually, Claire is the stronger character of the two because Burgoa creates her as a strong woman who stands up for herself. Some would say she’s overly protective of her boundaries; however, I see her as an emotionally mature woman who defends her spirit and her ethics. Especially in contrast to Miller. Miller is NOT emotionally mature, as evidenced by his inability to stand up to his mother and his family, along with his dealings within his company. He is obviously the character who undergoes the most growth, another strength of this romance. I tend to love flawed heroes whose proximity to the heroine brings about their maturity and growth. And Burgoa definitely delivers this in her book.
Here is the thing with this book, however. It has issues with consistency, and that’s what I struggled with in the other story I read from Burgoa. Granted, that was a newsletter story, and those tend to be drafts. I get it. But Something Like Hate is supposed to be fairly fully formed, and I struggled with a few aspects of this romance:
At times, the dual POV was sloppy. What I mean by that is the chronology didn’t always line up between the two. When you write dual POV, you want consistency between the two, even if you have to re-tell certain moments in the story to capture that particular character’s understanding of that moment. The whole situation that occurs after Miller and Claire return from the vacation has issues in the story-telling. I found myself writing comments about confusion because the timelines between the POVs did not match up.
While I love Miller, he is inconsistent in his thoughts and feelings about Claire. He moves from being emotionally unavailable to adoring her, wanting a future with her. Yes, this is typical of an alpha hero; indecision can drive their story. However, Burgoa creates that indecision in such a way that I found him confusing at times. And his response to the situation after their time away together did not align with his thinking on vacation. It was too much of a deviance from his actions earlier that I didn’t believe that he’d react as he does. There is something contrived about Miller’s development that, at times, I didn’t believe him as a character. I think this underscores Burgoa’s issues with consistency in the story-telling and the character development.
Lastly the biggest moment of the story, the one that happens near the end of the book, when Miller makes a huge change for Claire, actually read as anti-climatic on the page. For one, Miller essentially goes silent towards Claire, which I didn’t believe. And secondly, he presents his resolution of her problem with little emotion built into it. I was hoping for a greater revelation or a more dramatic moment, and it felt underwhelming. This is a resolution, the falling action, and it simply needed more.
There is a lot of good in this book: the character types, the overall storyline, and the happy ending. I don’t want that to be lost in my review of Something Like Hate. Would I recommend rushing out to read this book? Probably not. There have been better “enemies-to-lovers, fake girlfriend” stories. However, if you’re a Claudia Burgoa fan, then you’ll want this book. I hate writing reviews that read as criticisms. I understand that each story is a “book baby” to its writer, and I hate disparaging said baby. What I would recommend is simply more beta-readers or editors for a story like this one. Burgoa knows her characters, and her story has a lot of potential. But I think it could have gone through one more revision before birthing it into the world.
I really enjoyed this book. I couldn’t put it down . this book has alittle bit of everything some parts were hot and sexy , had me laughing and kept me wondering what was going to happen next.
Glad there is a happy ending
A feel good read. A fun summer read that will have you thinking of hot getaways and whether you could ever carry out such an elaborate hoax as Miller did for so many years.
Miller and Claire work in the same company, more to the point he is her boss’s boss. She is the go to woman in the company to getting clients in the door for advertising, however when Miller bumps into her at the airport, and his expected date for the family wedding doesn’t turn up, a bit of negotiation and a favor is being done..
However, the plan to stay platonic suddenly hots up and these two are burning the sheets up, but one phone call, one bad decision sees her on probation and then out of a job.
Two years later, she is back in Denver, but this time as the Partner in a rival advertising company, Millers family thinks they have been dating and are now moving in together. Will her dislike for him after a bad semi-relationship and Miller’s constant company after a client wants them to work together throw them back together for good or will it all go wrong again?