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.

This book hurt me. This book hurt me so much that it gave me headaches because of how hard it had me crying. I had to take breaks from this book because I knew it was going to make me cry.

It was amazing.

This book felt so real and it was like I was mourning Josh along with Maddie and Dom. If you’re not a fan of the miscommunication trope this book might drive you crazy but miscommunication is so realistic. I wanted to shake them both for how much I wanted them to talk to each other but was also sucked into their grief and how understandable their fear to say anything was.

Maddie and Dom are perfect and I loved it.

Thank you so much to Berkley, NetGalley, and Lauren Connolly for the opportunity to read this arc.

I read Lauren Connolly for the first time last year and instantly fell in love with her writing style. And I was so happy to get a chance to read her latest from Berkley - this book has the distinct honor of making me cry within the first chapter but then also completely enchanting me for the rest of the time (even though, to be clear, I was a mess of tears and sobs by the end).

This book is all about Maddie & Dom learning to love their lives after Josh (Maddie’s brother and Dom’s best friend) passes away. And that’s how we kick things off.

There is so much to love about this book - it deals with grief in a beautiful and raw way, it’s got absolutely perfect tension built up between Dom and Maddie (their history! the forced proximity! only! one! bed!), and it has such gorgeous imagery and locations the two visit.

Dom is a bit of a standoffish grump, harboring feelings he’s been trying to suppress for years. His sense of humor (dry and surprising), his love language (acts of service), his own grief losing his best friend (heartbreaking) - all of it made him the man he is (and whattaman, honestly). And Maddie - my heart broke for Maddie, grieving her brother, her best friend, and being forced to come to terms with the long-buried hurt caused by Dom. There was tension with these two, but also some hilarious moments and incredible chemistry and the biggest “if he wanted to, he would” moments throughout.

Lauren did an incredible job weaving Josh into the story through his letters (my therapy bill is in the mail, by the way), and at the heart of it all, this love story is really a story about not wasting moments. It’s about doing the scary things, taking the leaps, going to the places you dream of, and being with the people you love for as long as you can.

This was such a beautiful book and I cannot recommend it enough. Bring tissues, though, and be prepared to hug your loved ones a little tighter once you’re done.

The grief in this book was visceral and felt so real. If you’re someone who has been touched by a painful death recently, I’d either recommend this book or recommend you stay away from it, depending on where you are in the grieving process.

That being said, there were some annoying/suspend disbelief parts here. Her friend Tula could have been eliminated completely… I feel like her only purpose was for Maddie to have one female that she had a good relationship with, but she was very flat. This is an example of a book where a lot of the characters’ problems/disagreements could have been solved early on with a single honest conversation. If you’re someone who is annoyed by that, this probably isn’t for you.

The spice level is pretty high, and I like the MMC Dom a lot. Overall I’d recommend this one.

Thank you to the publisher - I received a complimentary eARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I started this book without reading the synopsis( as I do), only enticed by the title which promised some sort of enemies-to-lovers/dislike-to-love trope. This book delivered on that but also gave me: second chance romance, grief, (dead) brother's best friend (which I normally do not dig), scavenger hunt ash spreading, and SO MUCH TENSION.

I love second chance romance because throughout the book you're solving the mystery of what happened the first time, and something about that is so heartbreaking and satisfying. AND THEN you are learning what's changed since then (the growth, the situation, etc etc). This book delivers on all of that in spades. I love the contrast between family and found family and also how our main character is obviously in the middle of unpacking and healing from a ton of things. It's so messy, but so real and relatable.

Word choice in this book was sometimes odd. I am rating this book 5 stars despite how often the phrases "irresponsible word" and "the man" are used, purely because of how many times this book made me cry. I loved the pacing of this story and the writing flowed really well, I didn't want to put this book down (...and I didn't really, because I finished it in a day lol).

If you loved Happy Place by Emily Henry, The Ex Vows by Jessica Joyce, and Flirting with Disaster by Naina Kumar you will love this one (and also congrats on having great taste!).

Thank you to Berkley Romance for the free digital and finished copy!

One of my fave reeds of the year. I sat up all night crying while reading this but the ending still had my heartfelt. What a beautiful book.

if i had a nickel for every book with a dead brother who sends his sister and best friend on a scavenger hunt to help them realize theyre meant for each other and ruined me in the process i would have two nickels which isnt a lot but crazy that it happened twice 😭😭😭

lord have mercy when this book showed up in my email i was a little hesitant to go for it because i knew that it would hurt my feelings but once i saw just how many 4 & 5 stars this book had, that even though it was painful SO many people loved this story i just could help myself and knew that the pain would be worth it in the end and man was it ever 😭🩵

reading this book and feeling these emotions are akin to riding the hulk rollercoaster while absolutely plastered in the sense that youre laughing one second and then youre crying the next and then youre scared for whats to come and maybe you feel like throwing up a little because of all of these emotions youre cycling through 💀

this story had me hooked from start to finish, i loved both maddie and dom immediately and by the end of the first trip wanted these two to stop fucking around and be together immediately LOL. i was super glad to see that i didn’t necessarily have to wait very long for it to happen, i was pleasantly surprised by the open door scenes as well i didnt think this book would have any at all tbh!! this was one of my favorite third act break up books ive read because 1) i kinda agreed it needed to happen so maddie could get her shit together to be better for herself & their relationship but 2) because dom never stopped showing up, he did everything in his power to prove he was all in and i really admired that about him 🥹

i think that one of my absolute favorite things about this read was that even though the entire book josh has already passed away you feel like you really got to know him through the characters and his letters, you could just feel the love that he had for everyone and seeing the mark he made on those who were strangers to maddie & dom was very endearing. he is a character that i wish i would have gotten to know prior to his life ending bc he just seemed like one of the best kinds of people🥹

if you are in the market for a sad but very heartwarming and promises to put you back together again by the end of the book then look no further!!

This was a really sad but also really inspiring romance, and I have never read anything like it. The premise of the book is intriguing - Maddie's brother, Josh, dies and leaves her and his best friend, Dom, his ashes to spread out over eight states. Which would be fine if Maddie and Dom didn't hate each other. But, actually, maybe they don't. There were so many moving parts to this book, and I think it can be really difficult to pull it all together, but Lauren Connolly did a fantastic job. There was so much trauma (from all the characters) and so much growth.

I don't know about you, but I love a man who is understanding without being pushy or creepy or overbearing. Dominic was one of the most perfect MMC that I have ever read. Caring without being too much, listening, empathetic. Maddie really went through it in this book, but there was so much character development and you wanted to cheer for her the whole time. I really enjoy when authors understand and acknowledge the flaws their characters have, it makes it feel more realistic. There was, of course, the typical misunderstanding trope and the big fight in the third act, all of which you knew was coming. But it was written in such a way that it didn't seem rehearsed or overdone. It was predictable while maintaining its own storyline, and I think that is something to be really praised.

And Rosaline and Josh's story absolutely crushed me. Just, FYI, be prepared for that.

I honestly cried reading this and that NEVER happens for me while reading a book (unless a dog dies, but no dead dogs here!). It is heartbreaking and soul crushing but also amazing and so full of love. I wish I could read it again for the first time.

𝗣𝗦 𝗜 𝗛𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗬𝗼𝘂 is one of my favorites of the year and I hope everyone takes the time to read or listen to it, I feel like it has something for everybody. The premise of this story is without a doubt full of sorrow, as Maddie and Dom struggle with their grief over losing Josh, her brother and his best friend, while fulfilling his last wishes together. This book will break your heart, but make you laugh just as hard at the same time, I promise. I have so many notes, thoughts, and annotations throughout, and they are so hard to put into words without giving anything away.
As far as the characters, Maddie is absolutely amazing, and she overcomes so much. There were so many things that resonated with me throughout her journey, and I feel like Lauren created such a real, raw persona with her. And Dom is the ultimate book boyfriend, he made mistakes in their past but understood her enough in the present to know exactly what she needed. These two balance each other out in the most incredible way, and their relationship and character development played out in the best ways.
This way this story is written is perfection from beginning to end, and will stay with me for a long time to come. Actually I already can’t wait for a re-read, even though I’m still processing my first 😂

The audiobook is narrated by Karissa Vacker, who is one of my all time favorites. She took what is already a perfect story, and elevated it even more. She captured the humor, emotion, tension, and personality of the characters so flawlessly! I highly recommend listening.

Thank you Berkley Romance and NetGalley for this eARC!