This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
REVIEWED BY DEBS CARR
The Hating Game by Talli Roland
When Mattie Johns agrees to star on a dating game show to save her ailing recruitment business, she's confident she'll sail through to the end without letting down the perma-guard she's perfected from years of her love 'em and leave 'em dating strategy. After all, what can go wrong with dating a few losers and hanging out long enough to pick up a juicy £200,000 prize? Plenty, Mattie discovers, when it's revealed that the contestants are four of her very unhappy exes.
Can Mattie confront her past to get the prize money she so desperately needs, or will her exes finally wreak their long-awaited revenge? And what about the ambitious TV producer whose career depends on stopping her from making it to the end?
Mattie Johns is a tough, no nonsense businesswoman. She’s also in dire financial straits. Kyle, her ex, has not only cheated on her with the one woman she hates, he also took so many of her clients when he left that she’s now having to find ways to keep the bailiffs from the door. When she’s offered the chance to make £200,000 by appearing on a new reality tv programme, she jumps at the chance. After all, Mattie thinks, how bad can it really be?
Mattie is given a makeover from hell and soon learns that the programme she was expecting to take part in happens to be far worse than she could ever imagine. With the producer of the show determined to impress Silver Hatchett, the ruthless managing director of the media production company, Mattie has to use all her guile to remain focused on the money she needs so desperately to save her business from going under.
The Hating Game brings Mattie up against four former boyfriends, each with their own agenda for coming onto the show. Her worst nightmare is for Kyle to be one of them. She’s sure she never wants to see him again, but that turns out to be the least of her worries. Mattie has far more to deal with than she could have ever imagined.
I thoroughly enjoyed The Hating Game especially it’s stronger than usual heroine. Mattie may be tough, but she’s also vulnerable, a fact she manages to hide well. It was fun and at times a little shocking to read about what Mattie has to endure in her determined fight for what she believes in and towards the end, when various truths come to light, characters turn out to be rather different than you’d initially expected them to be.
9/10