Review: To Hate Adam Connor by Ella Maise

Note: This ARC was provided by Southern Belle Promotions in exchange for an honest review.

"I'm rooting for you," I whispered. "I never wished for a prince to save me, because I can save myself, thank you very much...but I'm for it now, Adam Connor. I hope--and I can hope really, really hard--that your kiss will break the curse. I hope it's you, Adam. I hope you're the hero of my story, because I deserve to be loved, goddammit. I deserve to have someone dance with me to no music." I stopped so I could breathe and watched Adam's eyes darken. "I deserve to have you to myself. I deserve to love you."

Take a snarky nearly twenty-three-year-old who finds herself living with her best friend--who just happens to be a bestselling author married to a movie star--and has made ogling and stalking their neighbor her new favorite past time and a twenty-eight-year-old world-famous, award-winning, recently divorced film actor--who could probably consider going into forearm porn (yes, there is such a thing) if the whole acting thing suddenly fizzles after fourteen years, and you've got yourself one of the wittiest, tongue-in-cheek, heartwarming romantic comedies to come out this year, or heck, in recent memory. To Hate Adam Connor is the first Ella Maise title I've ever come across but goodness, what a pleasure it was to read this novel! It's the spin-off to To Love Jason, which was released last year and is now officially at the top of my to-be-read list, and I'm sure that's pissed off all the other books that came before it and have been waiting for what already feels like forever for me to quit adding new titles and focus on lessening the reading load. If you're like me and you've got a list that feels kilometers (feel free to convert it to whatever measuring system you prefer), I highly suggest you add To Hate Adam Connor to it, or better yet, go and buy it now.

Lucy Meyer is cursed. It's a fact. Maybe just in her head, but her firm belief in it--reiterated further after her now ex-boyfriend left her without a backward glance--is what makes it an infallible fact. Not only has she lost her boyfriend, but she's also lost the apartment they shared, which is why she now lives with her best friend and her best friend's husband. One of the additional perks to living with publishing's latest darling and one of Hollywood's hottest actors is their neighbor, Adam Connor. Staring at him all day, snapping photos of him by the pool, and smiling like a loon as he spends time with his son Aiden are just a few of Lucy's favorite hobbies. It doesn't matter that she does all of this on top of a ladder but out of view. Stalker much? And that's exactly what Adam suspects she is when he finds her by the pool with Aiden. She's sputtering, claiming she rescued the boy, but those incriminating photos on her phone do not help her plight. Adam may have been a DILF in Lucy's eyes, but having cuffs slapped on her wrists--and so not in the way she possibly secretly fantasized about--now has her hating him with every single fiber of her being. So what if he's still a gorgeous temptation and his son is adorable? Lucy Meyer hates Adam Connor!

Was I fan of Lucy Meyer's in the beginning? Not really. She was both invasive and evasive, but how she grew on me. Maybe she's an acquired taste, but I think what turned it around for me was my realization that there was so much about her that reminded me of, well, me. She's sarcastic and either deflects or retreats instead of fully addressing whatever it is that demands her attention. But for all the pushing away and pushing back that she was doing, she was still a girl that wanted to find her place in the world--whether in whatever chosen profession she would end up choosing or by someone's side, no matter how much she may deny it. She's already been hurt one time too many, not just by the opposite sex, but by those you would expect to prop her up instead of knock her down. You see the softer side of her when she's with her "little human", five-year-old Aiden Connor, and how she goes above and beyond for her best friend, Olive Thorn, without expecting anything in return. She may claim to hate Aiden's father, but the man lights her up and that fire within her grows even brighter because neither one of them backs down and the push and pull between them belies the evolving and growing non-relationship-type relationship that they now have.

Adam Connor is...well, a DILF. But he isn't just that. The man doesn't pretend to be this specimen of perfection or a gentleman at all times. He makes it clear just what his opinion of Lucy is, but he also doesn't hesitate to alter said opinion every time a new piece of the puzzle that is Lucy is uncovered. His love for his son knows no bounds and ovaries everywhere will be weeping at the thought that maybe men like this only exist in fiction. Adam and Lucy together was entertaining and having Jason and Olive Thorn as Lucy's main support system, and later become a source of support for Adam as well, made me far too curious about their own love story (because I had NO idea that there was a book that came before this one!). There were other notable supporting characters aside from Jason and Olive, namely, Aiden, Dan, whose last name I don't recall being mentioned, and Adeline Young, Adam's son, bodyguard, and ex-wife, respectively. The story was light-hearted and humorous, but it also had it's twists and heart-tugging moments, especially when it came to what Lucy and Adam had to deal with separately and together. Ella Maise's To Hate Adam Connor is one of my favorite reads for this year and easily garners five-plus stars. ♥

Release Date: 09 June 2016

Date Read: 09 June 2016

Learn more about Ella Maise.

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