“𝑨𝒏𝒅 𝒅𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒔𝒆𝒆 𝒎𝒆 𝒏𝒐𝒘?” “𝒀𝒐𝒖’𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝑰 𝒔𝒆𝒆.”

WHAT👏A👏BOOK👏

If you're a big fan of P.S I love You, let me tell you this book is going to top it!!!! Yes, I said it! This story is emotionally and devastatingly beautiful, and I could talk about it all day long. 🥹✨

The book follows Maddie Sanderson, who has recently lost her brother, Josh. His final wish? To take a trip to eight different states to spread his ashes. At each destination, there's a letter waiting for her. Easy, right? NOPE. Josh also insists that his best friend, Domenic Perry, accompany her. The problem? Maddie and Domenic have a history, and she is not ready to reopen those old wounds or forgive him lol she definitely hates him.

The author did an incredible job making this story feel so realistic! I was worried it would be rushed, but it wasn’t. The timeline felt authentic, showing just how long it actually takes to spread ashes across eight states (it took around two years). Each time Maddie and Domenic tackled another letter, let’s just say… Josh knew what he was doing 👀

Maddie Sanderson’s heartbreak was raw and relatable. The way she processes her emotions isn’t perfect (honestly, we all struggle), but that’s what makes her journey feel so real. Some heartbreaks leave scars, and with her past, you can feel her struggles and most importantly her growth. Meanwhile, Domenic starts off as this quiet, stoic character, but once he begins opening up? OOF. I fell hard for him. 🥰

“𝑴𝒂𝒅𝒅𝒊𝒆 𝑺𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏.” “𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝒅𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒔𝒖𝒈𝒈𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝑰 𝒅𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒐𝒓𝒅𝒆𝒓? 𝑰 𝒎𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒎𝒂𝒍𝒇𝒖𝒏𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏.”

"𝑰𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖'𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒃𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒕𝒆, 𝒊'𝒎 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒂𝒅𝒗𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒈𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖. 𝑵𝒐 𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒃𝒂𝒅𝒍𝒚 𝑰 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒖𝒄𝒌 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒑𝒐𝒖𝒕𝒚 𝒍𝒊𝒑 𝒚𝒐𝒖'𝒓𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒏𝒐𝒘."

Now, let’s talk about the romance. 🫠 The miscommunication in this book will have you wanting to slap everyone involved. But honestly? It’s what makes the story so believable. Once you understand their history and circumstances, you might find yourself thinking you’d react the same way. TBH, I just want to hug EVERYONE in this book and never let go. 🫂💖

"𝑴𝒚 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒇𝒆𝒄𝒕 𝒇𝒖𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒊𝒏 𝒊𝒕"

Why 5 stars?
1. I CRIED LIKE A BABY. SO. MANY. TIMES.
2. I was invested! The characters, the journey, the emotions—it all pulled me in.
3. This was my first book by Lauren Connolly, and now I can’t wait to read more from her! 🥹👏

Highly recommend this heartfelt, gut-wrenching, and ultimately beautiful read.

Tropes
🧩 brother's best friend
🧩 forced proximity
🧩 witty banter
🧩 enemies to lovers
🧩 miscommunication past
🧩 he falls hard and never lets her go

Thank you Netgalley and Berkley for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review!

Read this if you like:
•childhood crush
•found family
•sad romances

This book was heavy on the grief but it was also heavy on the laugh out loud moments. The characters were real, raw, and relatable. The found family was amazing. The story was absolutely beautiful.

when her brother passes away, maddie receives a letter from him that he’d arranged before he died requesting that she scatter his ashes in the places he never got the chance to visit. but she’s not going alone. her brother’s lifelong best friend will be joining her. aka the man who broke her heart years ago. maddie and dominic spend the next year meeting up in different pre-planned destinations to spread the ashes and read another letter that was left for them.

as you can guess from the premise, this definitely had some sad and bittersweet moments that tugged at the heartstrings! but i thought they were done so well. it made for such a sweet and unique set up to the romance, and it overall had a lighthearted, witty, banter filled vibe.

Loved how Dom was so transparent about his feelings towards Maddie— I’m sure all the girlies would like these real-life men to learn a thing or two from him lol! I found Maddie a bit annoying with her not opening up to her “best friends” about her brothers passing wishes and how she’s been spending her time, or rather who she’s been spending that time with. As much as I couldn’t stand her at times, you can’t help but to really feel empathy for her considering all she’s been through.

I think my fave part of the story was all the ways that Josh, though deceased, was a part of this story! I love how humorous he was and just how intentional he was about the places he sent Dom + Maddie and how he brought them together. He also pushed them both to do things that they wouldn’t do on their own and I found that to be quite endearing! Oh & I loved Tullah for getting on Maddie about having an important work-life balance. It’s so easy to get lost in your work especially when you’re really good at it but we’re all soooo much more than what we do Monday-Friday and once we all “clock out” or end the work day, it’s good to really disconnect from work & be present in everything else around you! 🌱

I really loved this. I laughed and cried my way through it and constantly felt like I got punched in the stomach (complimentary). So heartfelt with lots of yearning(!!!). Stories about grief can be really tough to read but I appreciated the compassion and humor that the romance arc brought to it. This is totally the blueprint for found family and I loved the support they showed each other. It was surprisingly spicy too??? Not a complaint per se but by the end the scenes (while short) didn’t feel like they added much to the story. I would have appreciated deeper dives into the emotional connection or longer/more detailed scenes instead of brief, vague descriptions of sex marathons.

Overall I enjoyed the writing. Maddie was bitter (same tho) but funny and Dom was h-o-t. However there were some stylistic choices that really irked me, the big one being the author’s use of “the man” in reference to the MMC when it’s clear who’s being referenced and she could have just used “he.” It appeared 150 times (I searched) and made for awkward reading.

big thanks to Berkley, the author, and NetGalley for the e-arc in exchange for my honest review! xoxo🫶🏻

Everyone grieves in their own way. As this book opens, Maddie is at the memorial service for her beloved brother, Josh, not yet 30 years old. Not surprisingly, Maddie is falling apart. Josh has left instructions in his will, that Maddie and his best friend, Dom, should travel together to 8 places in the US that he never got to (he was a global traveler and a professional wildlife photographer) and to scatter his ashes in specific places. Problem: Dom broke Maddie’s heart when she was 19 and she hates him! So that’s the premise of the book.

I had a hard time relating to Maddie’s behavior and her crude language. We eventually find out what made Maddie the way she is, and that made her a more sympathetic character. Dom comes off as wooden at first, but he turns out to be just as grief-stricken as Maddie; he just handles it differently.

Since this is a romance, I’m not revealing a spoiler by saying that the two of them wind up together. Their journey was a good one - real road trips to interesting places. But it took way too long to reveal why Dom did what he did all those years ago. (Miscommunication/non-communication trope - ugh). And once they started “being intimate”, they couldn’t stop. And that became problematic for me. It was just too much - and in too much detail.

Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a review copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

This was the best book I read this year!!! I laughed and cried. This book was therapeutic In a way. Lauren’s writing was perfection and I can’t wait to read more from her. This story was perfection. I’m coming several for gifts this year.

Such a pull at your heartstrings emotional, second chance romance. Based on the final wishes of her late brother, Maddie embarks on a set of road trips where the destinations are revealed in a series of letters. The caveat is that she needs to complete these with Josh’s best friend and her former crush, Dom. The story is told in first person from the PoV of Maddie. The overall plot was one of grief coping, but it was nicely balanced with pockets of humor, the romantic connection and growth (and some spice) between the main characters and a small twist near the end of the book. This epistolary driven book will be one I remember.

These days, I usually stick to cozy, low stakes, low angst romances as a way of escaping the real world. However, I requested P.S. I Hate You because of the author, who writes a fun paranormal romance series, Folk Haven, that I love. I ended up enjoying this book, but it's definitely a departure from the author's other series, with a strong focus on grief and how to move on after losing one of the people you most loved in the world.

At the start of the book, Maddie and Dominic are lost in grief over the death of Maddie's brother Josh, who casts a long shadow throughout the book. We come to know Josh through stories and through the letters he leaves them, which take them on a quest to spread his ashes in the seven states he didn't manage to visit before his untimely death at age 30. On top of that, Maddie and Dominic have a shared romantic history that did not go well, leaving Maddie barely able to tolerate Dom's presence and Dom filled with regret for the past. However, as they are forced together over a two year period after Josh's death, they have no choice but to re-examine their own shared history, make peace with it, and figure out whether they want their paths to converge in the future.

I have to admit that although I usually love "prickly" heroines, Maddie was a bit much even for me. She had a horrible upbringing where her brother was about the only person to show her any love or kindness, so her unproductive emotional responses made sense, but didn't make for an easy read. At least she finally realized that she needed help and got herself into therapy! As for Dominic, it was hard to know what he was thinking as the book was written solely in Maddie's first person POV. Overall, if you are looking for a heartfelt and emotional read that will put you through the wringer, this book fills the bill. My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions in this review are my own.

I went into this book blindly, only drawn by the funny title and cover. And wow was I blown away. I devoured this book! A must for anyone who has experienced grief or maybe wants to understand a loved one who is grieving. Maddie is tasked with scattering her 29y/o brother’s ashes in eight places he never got to visit before dying of cancer. The issue-his will designated that she has to do all of these trips with his best friend Dom - the man who broke her heart years before. Over the course of a few years, they reluctantly reunite on these trips to say goodbye to Josh, but little by little, the hate begins to chip away and it’s almost as if Josh knew what he was doing beyond the grave.
This was a beautiful story of finding hope and new beginnings after heartbreak and loss (with a touch of humor throughout). I didn’t want this one to end!
Thank you to Berkley for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

4.5 stars

This was such an emotional read. I started the audiobook and at first I couldn’t put it down and had to know what happened next. Then, much like Maddie, I started to slow down to try and make it last longer. PS: I Hate You will definitely make your heart hurt, but it will also make you smile and laugh. It’s a second chance romance, but it’s also a love story between friends, family, and one’s self. Maddie’s journey is the focus of the story though, so I would classify this one as women’s fiction.

Maddie wasn’t always the most likeable or mature character, but we all deal with pain in different ways. Her struggles were so relatable and I thought the topics of loss and grief were handled extremely well. Her history with Dom was complicated, but I appreciated that she stood on her own before opening her heart again. I was also pleasantly surprised by the level of spice in this one!

The performance by Karissa Vacker was fantastic as always! She conveyed so much emotion in her performance and I love both her male and female voices. She is definitely one of my favorite narrators.

Audiobook Review
Overall 5 stars
Performance 5 stars
Story 4.5 stars

CW: death of loved one, cancer, complicated grief, estrangement/strained family relationships, asthma, panic attacks, parental neglect and abandonment, miscarriage (past, secondary character), domestic violence/abuse (secondary character, past)

Maddie Sanderson embarks on a cross-country journey to honor her late brother’s dying wish, reluctantly teaming up with Dominic Perry—the man who once broke her heart. As they navigate grief, unresolved tensions, and a potential second chance at love, Maddie must decide if she can trust Dom again while fulfilling her brother’s final adventure.

I had mixed feelings about this book. While the plot was intriguing and the writing style binge-worthy, the overall execution fell short. I was particularly disappointed in the main characters, Maddie and Dom. Maddie has a lot going on in her life, but for someone who’s 26, she comes across as incredibly immature and lacking in empathy. The story is told entirely through Maddie’s perspective which could have worked, but her inner monologue was overwhelming and often excessive. As for Dominic, his character was severely underdeveloped and his actions made him come across as a terrible person. There’s no clear understanding of why he behaved the way he did and his lack of communication with Maddie was frustrating. If he had been honest about his feelings and the past, most of the conflict could have been resolved. Additionally, the book’s portrayal of Maddie and Dominic as “exes reconnecting” felt misleading as their past relationship wasn’t explored deeply enough to justify that description. On a positive note, the states chosen for the trip and the destinations themselves were interesting, but the pacing was inconsistent. Some scenes dragged on while others felt rushed with repetitive inner monologue bogging down the narrative. The ending took an odd turn and everything was tied up abruptly leaving it feeling forced and disappointing. Overall, the book had so much potential to be amazing, but it wasn’t for me.

The peaks and valleys of this journey through grief Lauren has taken us on made my heart ache. What a cathartic reading experience.

In the Author’s Note, Lauren shares: “This book deals with emotionally difficult topics, including child neglect, verbal and physical abuse, a car accident, suicidal thoughts, miscarriage, loss of a loved one, anxiety, and potentially unhealthy relationships with food.” All these, I thought, were handled with a lot of care and consideration.

But even though we go through all those heavy topics, the love that’s in this book—these characters, the stories, the relationships—are what truly shine. Personally, the sibling love (between Maddie and Josh) is what resonated with me the most. Maybe because I could so closely relate to Maddie.

After reading the book, the biggest thought I’m left with is to tell all the stories. We may have lost our loved ones physically, but we can keep their memories alive by remembering them and telling their stories, silently in our hearts and out loud with others.

I absolutely recommend this book, but bring tissues. Thank you so much for the ARC, Berkley.

4.25⭐
Devastated by her brother's death, Maddie Sanderson is shocked by his bequest/request that she go to locations in the 8 states he never visited and spread some of his ashes in each location accompanied by his best friend, otherwise known as the boy who broke her heart. Over the next two years, they do as asked and get to read a letter from him at each location. It's a powerful meditation on how grief affects everyone differently framed into love story complete with snark.

Maddie is grieving the loss of her brother when she is given a final gift from him- one last journey, filled with letters from him, his final goodbye to her. The only catch is that the trips must be taken with Dom, his best friend, who Maddie can’t stand to even be in the same room with. She wonders if it’s her brother’s idea of one last prank on the two of them. However, she’s desperate to read his last thoughts and Dom is equally determined to come along. They plan out the trips and begin the journey from Delaware to Alaska over the course of two years, leaving pieces of their brother and friend in his final resting places and reading his letters to them. As they do, they find they may not be enemies after all.

This book was everything I didn’t know I needed, and one I will think about for a long time to come. Even though Maddie was prickly, I loved her from the start, and found her humor endearing and her banter with Dom to be perfection. Josh was a heartbreaking character, but he was wise beyond his years and such a light to both main characters. I loved getting to know him through his letters and their memories. Dom was so sweet, loving, and caring, and really just the person Maddie needed (but didn’t know it). Honestly, I don’t love sad books, or second chance romance, or long, stretched out slow burns, so on paper this sounds like one I wouldn’t like, but it’s so full of heart that I loved everything about it. I laughed, cried, and wanted to keep reading it long after it was over. I’m begging you to read this book so you can feel all the feels with me, and then we can talk about it!

Endless thanks to Lauren Connelly and Berkley Romance for my spot on the tour and arc copy of this book!

This one intrigued me because of the blurb - and I ended up really enjoying it!

Read this one if you enjoy:
✨Road trips
✨Childhood friends to lovers
✨Second chance romance
✨He’s loved her all along
✨Witty banter

I was really nervous about how this book would come together and it had me feeling all the emotions. I was laughing and crying while listening to the way that Maddie and Dom dealt with their grief and interacted with each other on these trips to scatter ashes.

I loved the road trip aspect of the story. Having just checked off my bucket list of visiting all 50 states, I was totally engaged with the trips that they were on and the whole travel aspect of the storyline. The two MCs have some great adventures in this story.

There’s definitely a heavier aspect of dealing with grief that I think is worthy of a couple trigger warnings - make sure to check those out! The characters are well developed and they’re dealing with a lot of emotions in this book. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the eARC of this book.

Thank you Netgalley and Berkley for this arc.

Let me just kick things off by saying Maddie Sanderson is fucking exhausting. I will also say that I can understand a lot of where Maddie is coming from but she’s not the easiest heroine to read about.

And yet, I love the way that the characters are a product of how they were raised, what experiences have gone into them. None of this stuff is dumped too early, nor broadly hinted at. Rather the little things that have shaped (mainly) Maddie and Dom are slowly revealed over the course of the book. Still as I started reading it, more than once I wanted to shake Maddie and nearly gave up on her. Maddie is, at times, a mess of a person – an honest mess of a person but still a mess.

Maddie is someone who could easily post her story at AITAH and get people to sympathize with her about her toxic mother, grandmother, and father. Okay, dad really isn’t in the picture much at all and we never really learn why he ditched his children along with his [insert terrible adjective of choice] wife. Due to this background, Maddie needed to do a lot of self examination and growth in this story. Thankfully she (finally!) does and there is professional therapy involved in this.

Why did I keep reading? I love the relationship that we discover Maddie and her brother Josh shared. Josh is amazing but also not perfect either. Dom, the brother’s best friend who Maddie has had a crush on for years, is closer to (improbably) perfect, or at least he puts up with Maddie’s childishness far longer than I would have. Dom’s two younger brothers are sweet as well. Maddie’s two Seattle friends are basically two dimensional props there to unwaveringly support Maddie even though she lies to them and withholds important information from them.

Writing this review is revealing to me that the dead brother is my favorite character. Josh’s instructions that Maddie and Dom choose to follow show that he knows them well and loves them wholeheartedly. The things he wants them to do would hopefully, even in the absence of any romance, bring them some closure over Josh’s early death.

Whew – why did I keep reading? The way we learn about what makes Maddie and Dom tick is well done. Their actions might annoy me at times but I can understand what drives them. There were no “where did that come from?” moments. There’s also a hella lot of smoking hot sex and I applaud Dom’s reasons to hold back on that for so long.

I would recommend this book to readers who want a lot of angst and who don’t mind a bit of overwrought to go with that.. Also to people who enjoy watching relationships implode before being put back together. The first half was stronger for me. Read the author’s note which I’ve cut and pasted above to see if you might have issues with the things that are mentioned. Then decide if Maddie’s “tantrums on a loop” as she discovers what winds her tighter than an eight day clock are worth it. I stuck with it mainly because of the Maddie/Josh sibling relationship. This is a hard one to grade but I’ll go with an averaged C.

PS I Hate You by Lauren Connolly is a book that will break your heart and piece it back together again slowly, just like the puzzles Maddie loves to put together. The story of Maddie and Dom is rich, full of layers, and as they all reveal themselves, you'll find it impossible to put the book down until everything has been revealed.

When her brother dies, Maddie is devastated. They were close, she was all she really had. When his best friend, and the person who broke her heart at the age of 19, Dom, reveals that they're to embark on a journey together across eight states to scatter his ashes, she is initially reluctant. There are many things she would rather do than be stuck with Dom.

But, as they take on this final request from her brother, Maddie finds she doesn't hate Dom as much as she initially thought. Through saying goodbye to her brother, she and Dom find a connection neither of them thought was still there.

Connolly beautifully blends the romance between Maddie and Dom with the grief of losing a loved one. Not only that, she intricately weaves in a story of hope and fear of abandonment through the entire book.

PS I Hate You broke my heart, and I found myself reaching for the tissues often. At one point I had to take my glasses off and wipe my eyes. The prose is rich, the storyline complicated and Maddie and Dom are two people you can root for. If you enjoy a rom com with complicated depths, this is definitely the book for you.

This book pulled me out of my reading slump, but also I think Lauren Connolly needs to pay for my therapy bill after the emotional roller coaster this book put me through.

PS: I Hate You is an exceptionally written contemporary romance featuring forced proximity, brother’s best friend, and hate to love; but it’s also so much more. It explores complex family relationships, found family, coping with grief, and mourning the loss of a loved one.

Maddie is a complex character that readers will come to love if they give her a chance. She has a lot of emotional pain and anger, stemming from abandonment issues and childhood trauma. As the story unfolds, it was so rewarding to see her work on herself to come to a place where she was able to learn forgiveness and start a healing journey.

The relationship between Dom and Maddie was complicated but so angst filled that I could have read about it for hundreds of pages more. There was a lot of history (and hurt) but from the very beginning of the book it was clear that their chemistry was steamy and I was hooked from chapter 1. One of my favorite aspects of the story was how the book takes place over the course of a couple years, so the pacing felt very natural. I loved following along on their adventurers to give Maddie’s brother and Dom’s best friend, Josh, one final goodbye.

Apparently Rom-Traums are my new favorite genre, because a lot of the romance books I’ve absolutely loved lately have had a healthy dose of emotional trauma sprinkled in. If you enjoy hot, angsty romance, emotional healing, and a super compelling story about love, PS: I Hate You needs to be on your radar.

P.S. I Hate You by Lauren Connolly is not exact the rom com I thought it would be, but more of a heartfelt and engaging former hometown enemies, force to spread the ashes of her deceased brother with her brother's best friend. This story will resonate with readers who enjoy stories of emotional growth and slow-burn connections. While it treads familiar ground, its strong central characters and poignant themes make it a worthwhile read for fans of contemporary romance. Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book. Lauren Connolly is a new author for me, but one I will look for in the future.