Something Like Hate

Something like Hate caught my attention early and never lost it. Miller is in need of a date for his sisters wedding to keep his meddling mother off his back. He bribes one of his most valuable employees to be his girlfriend for the weekend. Claire is heading to Cancun for a girls trip. At the airport she is confronted by her bosses boss to help him out. What starts out as a fake relationship turns in to so much more. Claire and Miller have amazing chemistry. Things don’t go so smoothly for them though. They go through a lot of turmoil for a long period of time before they are able to get things right. Claire was an awesome heroine. She was a very independent and strong woman. I LOVED her! She knew her worth and wouldn’t settle for anything less. So refreshing. Miller wasn’t as awesome as Claire, but he was smart enough to know when he met the woman he was meant to be with. I thoroughly enjoyed both characters and their journey to happily ever after. I definitely recommend this book to everyone who enjoys a well written enemies to lovers story. Great job Ms. Burgoa!

I absolutely loved Hannibal and Clarice (Miller & Claire). While the way their relationship started was unconventional their attraction was anything but. We could feel how their attraction towards each other is what love stories are made of. The reader is able to fall in love with the H and h even though they might have had a tough start. Even the secondary characters are awesome makes you want to know their stories. Gray story telling by an awesome author. Definitely give it a 5 star rating.

For my first read by Claudia Burgoa, I’m in love.

This book is a roller coaster of emotions. There are moments when I’m laughing and the next I want to throw my phone. It goes everywhere and it is amazing.

Miller can be cocky and arrogant and may make you wanna slap some sense into him throughout the book but he is one of those book boyfriends that definitely grow on you and you end up loving so much.

Claire is one of those strong independent women I thrive to be and I could relate to her on many things making her a loveable character as well.

Overall an amazing read, and I will continue to keep an eye on Claudia and her works.

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.

Claudia Burgoa has penned a story of love and hate that will have you wavering between such strong emotions that all you long to know is how it all ends. It will stay with you long after you finish the last page and leave you with a book hangover that you feel will surely never end.

I literally could not put this book down. In fact I read it straight through because it held me so enthralled with Claire and Miller’s story that the need to know how their story ended just wouldn’t permit me to put it down.

I honestly cannot express how important it is to read this book. You really need it in your life, trust me you do. My new favorite CB book and believe me I love all her books. Kudos on another fabulous book!!!!

Really quite enjoyed Claire and Millers story a lot. They are just so amazing and so good. He needs a fake girlfriend and when he sees Claire he asks her for a favor as long as he agrees to something in return she’ll do it. I just really liked these two so much and couldnt get enough of them.

Loved this rom-com of enemies to lovers! It was outstanding; it was such a great read!! It will have you laughing and you won’t be able to put it down. I am still grinning—can’t help it! Throughout the book it had me laughing, but I was also swooning over the hot CEO, Miller Archer, who is sexy, handsome, demanding, and arrogant. Claire Solis is a star employee of Miller’s company. Miller needed a date to take to his sister’s wedding, and when he saw Claire going on vacation with her girlfriends to the same destination, he decided to make her a proposition of being his fake girlfriend to attend the wedding. Should Miller mix business with pleasure! After having a one night stand during the wedding, is this a mistake Miller will regret? Like the saying goes…hell hath no fury like a woman scorned! Find out what happens next! This page-turning story completely encapsulates the madness of the first stirrings of love and lust when you can’t get enough of someone, and all the games between the two characters were hilariously well done—yet they each have challenges they need to face. The banter between Claire and Miller and the way they come around to their realization at the end of the story was really well done with so many heart wrenching emotions. This is definitely one of the great rom-coms! This is the perfect book to cure any book hangover. SOMETHING LIKE HATE is the complete package of witty, entertaining characters, hilarious situations, quirky family dynamics, heartwarming, some emotional angst, scorching love scenes, and a compelling storyline. Claudia Burgoa manages to weave humorous plotlines centered on romantic ideas with artfully developed main characters. The storyline is fluid, and it will pique your interest. Highly recommend this book. You won’t regret reading Something Like Hate!

Claire and Miller’s enemies to lovers/office romance is a fun and flirty read. What could possibly go wrong when Miller can’t get out of bringing his nonexistent girlfriend to his sister’s destination wedding? EVERYTHING! Claire works in Miller’s company and happens to be heading on vacation to the same destination. She’s not a fan of his overzealous work policies, but he’s a fan of her brilliant work ideas. However, he makes her an offer he feels she can’t refuse when in reality it’s a bribe: an all expense paid vacation for pretending to be his girlfriend for the weekend. The chemistry between the couple is off the charts and totally blindsides them. Then the unexpected happens and just as things begin, all hell breaks loose. What follows next is a tumultuous journey of betrayal, emotion, humor, longing, family interference, business strategies, and hope on the way to their HEA.
Claudia Burgoa has devised a story that keeps the reader rooting for the unlikely pair from beginning to end. Miller is a great character whose change in business and life philosophy makes him even more appealing. While Claire is an independent, hardworking woman who moves ahead with her life but never quite moves on.
I loved these characters, they are so well-developed and while a bit idealistic, they feel as though they could be part of your group of friends and family. Ms. Burgoa’s book is hard to put down, because just as it looks like something will be resolved another incident occurs to throw the couple a curve ball. I can’t wait to see what else Ms. Burgoa writes in this series. This book is full of humor, heart, and hot passionate moments, so I look forward to more books from her like this.

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. I loved the nicknames between Miller and Claire, I laughed out loud! CLarice! 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!

Miller and Claire are both successful in business but haven’t had great luck with love. Miller is on his way to his sister’s wedding but needs someone to accompany him. Claire just wants to escape for her birthday. Two of her friends and her are going to have a great time. Miller sees her and asks for a favor. Will she do it? How will it change both of their lives?