school sweethearts. What a load of bull.
have been my first love, but it never meant I wanted to hear lyrics containing
my name, love story, and *cringe* how I lost my virginity peddled out for the
masses to digest.
years later, and I’m still being haunted by his photo in every magazine, his
music on every radio station. I thought breakups meant that you never had to
see the person again. Especially when they ripped out your heart and made
hamburger meat with it.
a chance encounter ends up going viral, I’m tied to him in a way I’ve always dreaded.
And the last person on earth I’d want to spend an hour with, much less a
lifetime, makes me an offer I can’t refuse. I might just be desperate enough to
take it.
in the song is real. And she’s made me a rich man.
been dedicating choruses to her for a decade, she’s the muse she never wanted
to be. Off of our love, I’ve become famous … and a complete egomaniac.
another one of my flings goes off the rails, and lands me in hot water with the
media, my recording label is less than thrilled. And so comes the marching
orders from my agent; devise a scheme to transform into a squeaky clean good
guy.
face to face with her is something I’ve only dreamed about. If not to win her
back, then to at least apologize for the ways I’ve exploited her. Instead, I
rope her into my madness, proposing a deal only a masochist would accept.
novels such as Red Card and All the Frogs in Manhattan, Carrie Aarons writes
sexy, swoon-worthy, sarcastic characters who won’t get out of her head until
she puts them down on a page.Carrie has wanted to be an author since the first time she opened a book, and
can’t imagine a better or more maddening profession.
A lover of good manicures, Riesling and the beach, she enjoys chasing her puppy
through the dog parks of New Jersey, or trying to make her husband binge watch
the latest Netflix craze.
Author Links
Wow – I have to admit that the author did a really great job in transferring the title of the book to the feelings of the reader. “As long as you Hate me” really made me approach my thoughts on book ratings in a new way. Carrie Aarons created a setting where I found myself actually disliking the leading characters so much but at the same time thinking that the title an plot could not have been more fitting.
Usually for a book to be rated highly by me I need to feel something for the characters – and when I set that rule I meant by feelings GOOD feelings …
But if I am honest with myself actually also the negative feelings belong to that category – especially in theses specific circumstances where the author managed to bring the title across so perfectly.
After the first few pages my mind was in a place that contemplated to put the book aside because Dean was a self absorbed a$$hole of the finest sort. And I was wondering what an earth ever possessed Kara to love a guy like that. Then I looked closer at Kara as the story progressed and I thought…How can anyone who hates another person so deeply agree to a scenario like that.
The further the story went the more I felt that both of them kind of deserved each others attitude – and I honestly never thought anything like that –
For a long time the story lets the reader wonder what really happened for that kind of deep hatred.
But the further the story goes the more the hatred gets diluted, but where the normal reader would expect the old love to return I only felt a kind of descend interaction. Then when the readers knowledge of the past is finally completed I was sort of surprised.
For the deep and really great inside view the reader gets on the machinery that is Hollywood I would have expected something with a bigger impact behind the story. But still at that point it was more 5 than 4 stars based on the actual dislike that the author managed to bring across to me perfectly.
What changed my mind and finally let me decide on the 4 stars was the “peak / turning point” of the story – every story has one but after all the hatred and dislike and all that the characters learned during that story I am sorry to say that the peak was not enough for me. My only thought was “Seriously ? They should know better by now” … (sorry cryptic much but I have to mind my no-spoiler rule) …