On The Corner of Love and Hate

Nina Bocci

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Release Date August 20, 2019

For fans of Christina Lauren and Lauren Layne comes a delightfully sassy and sexy romance about a campaign manager who reluctantly works with the local Lothario to help revamp his image for the upcoming mayoral elections, only to discover that he’s hiding something that can turn both their lives upside down.

What’s a campaign manager’s worst nightmare? A smooth-talking charmer who’s never met a scandal that he didn’t like.

When Emmanuelle Peroni’s father—and mayor of her town—asks her to help rehab Cooper Endicott’s image, she’s horrified. Cooper drives her crazy in every way possible. But he’s also her father’s protégé, and she can’t say no to him without him finding out the reason why: Cooper and her have a messy past. So Emmanuelle reluctantly launches her father’s grand plan to get this Casanova someone to settle down with and help him lose his lothario reputation.

Cooper Endicott wanted to run for Mayor, but he never wanted the drama that went with it. Now that he’s on the political hamster wheel, the other candidates are digging up everything from his past. Even though he’s doing all the right things, his colorful love life is the sticking point for many of the conservative voters. He wants to win, badly, and he knows that if he wants any chance of getting a vote from the female population, he needs to change his image. The only problem? He might just be falling in love with the one person he promised not to pursue: the Mayor’s off-limits daughter.

A perfect blend of humor and heart, On the Corner of Love and Hate is the first in a new series from USA TODAY bestselling author Nina Bocci.

This is a small town romance dealing with an election, old friends, and unresolved feelings. The past is still affecting their present and things are about to get more complicated.

Emmanuelle Peron is the current mayor's daughter and works tirelessly at the Hope Lake Community Development Office helping to expand their small town and allow progression without losing their small town appeal. She is put together, organized, and at times unforgiving. But she also still has romantic notions that seem to always go unfulfilled. 

Cooper Endicott is her old friend, her current coworker, her father's protege, new mayoral candidate, and her first crush that crashed and burned. He has made mistakes that both hurt her and have had an impact on business dealings, so they are in a state of perceived hate. His playboy rep is now coming back to haunt him. And now he really needs her help to clean up his image, and her family in on board with the idea.

The book is told through Emma's eyes so her thoughts sometimes cloud our judgment. I think if we had Cooper's point of view it would have helped. I had a love-hate relationship with these characters myself. At first, I was not liking Cooper as he seemed cocky and made poor decisions. But then I started seeing more of his vulnerability and realized that things might not be what they seemed. He had his own insecurities an issues and just kept trying to prove himself.

And then I started to realize how Emma's unresolved feelings and denial also affected him and his choices.  And she was judgmental, stubborn, and great at avoiding and repressing her feelings. Even when he did what she told him to do, she sometimes held it against him and would pout or act jealous. Thus their communication skills were terrible and they just kept dancing around the elephant in the room. They walked a thin line between love and hate, but it was actually more one-sided and based on perceptions. There were also a couple of antagonists that I really did not like adding drama to the mix. It was a big mess and frankly, the angst and miscommunication got to me. And after the slow burn and all of the misunderstandings, the resolution seemed to come a bit fast.

But there are a lot of things to like about this book. I loved the world-building of the small town of Hope Lake and the quirky inhabitants that shared close ties. There was plenty of witty rapport in this friends-to-enemies-to-lovers political romance. I liked all of the side characters, but especially their longtime friends, Nick and Henry. I will be interested to see what might happen in the rest of the series. 

Emma wants what is best for her hometown. Working for the community development office, and as the daughter of the current mayor, all her energy is focused on making the town the best it can be for the future. When she is asked to run Cooper’s mayoral campaign, she swallows her personal dislike of the man in favor of pushing for the best election outcome for the town. Cooper, for his part, wants to be mayor badly, but he can’t seem to help making major error after major error, particularly when it comes to women. His more conservative neighbors are having a hard time getting behind the Lothario image he has built over the years.

I love a good small town romance, and this book has small town charm throughout. The characters, from Emma and Cooper’s best friends, to the senior center posse add a fun flare to the story. Each aspect of the community adds a unique bit of humor and wit to the setting and helped boost my interest in the story as a whole.

What I found myself hung up on was the main characters themselves. Cooper is immature and unreliable. For as much as he wanted to be mayor, he has a hard time sticking to commitments. Emma is so stuck in her ways that she refuses to see a lot of what is around and in front of her, clinging to long held beliefs rather than allowing for change. There is a thin line between love and hate, but it took a very long time for these two to cross that line.

This was a slow burn, angsty enemies (of sorts) to lovers. Though Emma and Cooper were once the best of friends, time and other circumstances have left them butting heads more often than not. I loved the town itself, and I am cautiously optimistic about future books in this series, as I enjoyed the setting and the side characters.

MEET ME ON LOVE LANE

Book 2: December 10, 2019

FROM HOPE LAKE, WITH LOVENovella 1.5: Spring 2020

THE INGREDIENTS OF YOU AND ME