The summer is the perfect time for reading different contemporary books! The Shortest Distance Between Love & Hate released yesterday and today is my spot on the blog tour. I read A Prom to Remember last year and enjoyed this book, so I was excited for the release of this book.
A big thanks to the publisher and Xpresso Book Tours for providing me with an ARC to read and review!
The Shortest Distance Between Love & Hate
Sandy Hall
Published by: Swoon Reads
Publication date: July 9th 2019
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult
A teen girl starting at a new school is torn between long-held loyalties and a bright new love in this irresistible new YA contemporary romance from the author of A Little Something Different.
Paisley is really looking forward to college. She is ready to take charge of her destiny and embrace some new experiences! Finding a hot guy to make out with at her first ever college party seems like a great start…until her best friend informs her that mystery guy is actually Carter Schmitt, Paisley’s sworn enemy who basically ruined their lives in middle school.
So much for new people and exciting new experiences. Oh well. Paisley will just pretend he doesn’t exist. Of course that would be easier if Carter, AKA her super-hot-sworn-enemy, hadn’t ended up in threeof her classes AND the same work study. Is it too late to rethink this college thing?
Sandy Hall, author of A Little Something Different and A Prom to Remember, is heading back to college in this sweet and quirky contemporary romance.
Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / iBooks / Kobo
Review
As a big fan of the enemies to lovers trope, I was excited for this book. Our main characters Paisley and Cartner knew each other in middle school, but haven’t seen each other since. When they run into each other at their first week of college, there is a spark. Even though they don’t realize who they’ve just seen after many years.
The Shortest Distance Between Love & Hate starts off really cute. I love the little pranks and can even understand the feeling Paisley has to get even. Carter takes it all with a smile and starts to take some steps to revenge. There are definitely some funny pranks, blue ink in sanitizer and salt in a cup of coffee. At a certain point it became a bit too much. It felt petty and took to long in my opinion. Even when her best friend (the whole reasons she feels the need for revenge in the first place) tells her it’s enough, she just keeps on going. I think the book could’ve been shorter if that would’ve ended sooner.
That being said Paisley is a character that annoyed me at times. I completely understand her being mad for her best friend, but it was many years ago. People change and move on, including the person hurt by Carter. Deep down she knows she needs to stop and even starts liking Carter, but still continues. I think these are two quotes that show what I mean. Let’s just say it got tiring after awhile. I did love the T-shirts she made. Those were really fun and I can understand that people wanted to buy them.
These two quotes are good examples of why Paisley was annoying me.
“He’s proven over and over again that he’s not the same kid from middle school. And that the deception of the first weekend of college was not indicative of his actual personality. It was a blip. A mistake.”
“I know I’m in the wrong here. I know that this is what being a bad person looks like. But I don’t know what to do about it. I don’t know what my recourse is.”
Carter is a more complicated character. I liked him from the start. He’s funny and really caring. If it was up to him, he would be at home taking care of his sick mother. I loved that we got to know him more and more during this book and how complex he was. A lot happened to him during his life, it doesn’t excuse the bullying, but definitely the anger issues. He doesn’t know how to deal with all the emotions.
Even though there were parts that annoyed me, there were a lot of fun moments. I loved Paisley’s friends and there chats we get to read during this story. They seem like fun and it’s great they stay close after high school. I also loved Carter’s and Paisley’s roommates. I loved their interactions and part in the story. Not everyone gets lucky with amazing roommates!
The ending of the story was something I also really enjoyed. Finding their way back to each other and in sweet ways left a smile on my face. I read this book in basically one sitting and loved the author’s writing style. She created characters I really came to care about and even ones that should have their own story (Henry for example). If you’re looking for a fast read this summer, I definitely would sugges The Shortest Distance Between Love & Hate.
Blog Tour
Of course there are other amazing blogs participating during this tour. If you want to check out the other blogs, click here for the schedule! The links are updated daily!
Author Bio:
I’m a teen librarian from New Jersey where I was born and raised. I have a BA in Communication and a Master of Library and Information Science from Rutgers University. When I’m not writing, or teen librarian-ing, I enjoy reading, slot machines, marathoning TV shows, and long scrolls through Tumblr. A LITTLE SOMETHING DIFFERENT is my first novel.
GIVEAWAY!
During this tour, there is a tour wide giveaway for the US/CAN readers to win a print copy of The Shortest Distance Between Love & Hate. This giveaway ends July 18th.
Even though there were a few things that bothered me in this story, I still enjoyed this book. Definitely a book to curl up with during a warm summer day outside. The Shortest Distance Between Love & Hate is a fast read and an enjoyable one!
Great review! I love enemies to lovers stories, so this sounds like something for me! I’d probably be annoyed by the sames things that annoyed you, but it does seem like a fun summer read overall so I’ll have to check it out 🙂
Overall it was a fun read, just a little annoying in the middle 🙂
Thanks for being on the tour! 🙂
Thank you for having me! 🙂