If You Hate Me

Beatrix Madden loses her job, her apartment and her long-distance boyfriend inside a few weeks. The only roof left standing is her brother's. Phillip plays professional hockey in Toronto, and his condo already holds one other resident: his best friend and teammate, Tristan Stiles.

Rix spent her teenage years hopelessly crushing on Tristan. A decade later he is a famous, arrogant playboy, and she cannot stand him. The futon she now sleeps on puts her in his space at every hour of the day. They trade insults on sight and needle each other over nothing.

Living under one roof turns old teenage longing into something neither can ignore. The book plays that tension for comedy as often as heat. Rix has to decide whether the man she has resented for a decade is worth the risk to her brother's friendship and her own fresh start.

It is the first book in Hunting's Toronto Terror series, set among Toronto's professional hockey scene. The pace is quick and banter-heavy rather than a slow build.