Better Hate Than Never

The Wilmot Sisters Series, Book 2

By: Chloe Liese

Narrated by: Stephen Dexter, Charlotte North

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Childhood enemies discover the fine line between love and loathing in this heartfelt reimagining of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew.

Katerina Wilmot and Christopher Petruchio shared backyards as kids, but as adults they won’t even share the same hemisphere. That is, until Kate makes a rare visit home, and their fiery animosity rekindles into a raging inferno.

Despite their friends’ and families' pleas for peace, Christopher is unconvinced Kate would willingly douse the flames of their enmity. But when a drunken Kate confesses she’s only been hostile because she thought he hated her, Christopher vows to make peace with Kate once and for all. Tempting as it is to be swept away by her nemesis-turned-gentleman, Kate isn’t sure she can trust his charming good-guy act.

When Christopher’s persistence and Kate’s curiosity lead to an impassioned kiss, they realize “peace” is the last thing that will ever be possible between them. As desire gives way to deeper feelings, Kate and Christopher must decide if it’s truly better to hate than to never risk their hearts—or if they already gave them away long ago.

©2023 Chloe Liese (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"Charlotte North and Stephen Dexter immerse listeners in Katerina Wilmot and Christopher Petruchio's tense romance in this reimagining of Shakespeare's TAMING OF THE SHREW.... North's distinct tone and delivery of Katerina's neurodivergent personality allow listeners to empathize with her. Dexter's smooth, melodic voice makes the charismatic Christopher easy to love. Listeners will long for Katerina and Christopher to put aside their differences, give in to their desires, and find their happily-ever-after." (AudioFIle)

“In the second stellar addition to her Shakespeare-inspired contemporary rom-coms, Liese puts her own clever spin on The Taming of the Shrew with a pinch of 10 Things I Hate About You thrown in for good measure. The result is a sweetly sexy love story that not only includes a paean to the joys of fall flavors, particularly in the form of doughnuts, but also addresses the challenges of living with ADHD with insight and compassion.”—Booklist (starred review)

“Another lovely contemporary romance from author Liese, who, with Christopher’s migraines and Kat’s ADHD, continues to realistically and lovingly showcase chronic health conditions and disabilities in her novels.”—Library Journal

“Liese’s charming second Wilmot Sisters romance offers a loose contemporary riff on Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew… Liese brings this unexpected couple to vibrant life, making a case for how their differences can work together beautifully. Shakespeare fans will enjoy the clever nods to the classic throughout, but readers won’t need to be familiar with the original to be swept away by this enemies-to-lovers tale. With a real depth of feeling and plenty of swoon-worthy moments, this keeps the series going strong."—Publishers Weekly

Another great Shakespeare reimagining

Can’t decide which story I liked better, so I recommend both. The first one was a bit funnier, but the bravery/honesty in this one (ie low angst) really made me happy. Love the 10 Things I Hate About You references and the use of a neurodivergent MC.

Feminist soapbox, but still wants a masculine man

I was really looking forward to this book after the first one but wow, I was disappointed. The feminist droll went on way more than the story needed. I literally couldn’t finish this book, I was so over the emotional damage monologue.

Good Rep

I felt like Chloe Liese was trying to retell the story so much that I couldn’t connect with Kat and Christopher. The novel started out okay, but there was a disconnect somewhere within the narrative. I did love the migraine and the ADHD rep, which both were done very well.

Good-ish

I enjoyed this one, but the first one was better. Ms. Liese does a very good job of writing Kate. I really disliked her. You know an author is good when you feel strongly about her characters!
The female narrator mispronounces SO MANY WORDS! And outs the wrong inflection on sentences. She definitely took some of the joy out of both this one and Two Wrongs.
As always I appreciate the realness of Ms. Liese’s characters! She does neurodiverse characters better than most. If you enjoy found family, good familial relationships, emotional growth, real friendships, and communication…this book is for you.

Representation

I loved the ADHD rep as well as the demisexuality. The use of “inexperienced” instead of virginity was noticed and appreciated!

Very Disappointed

The author went to extreme lengths to promote sexual equality, gender equality, and what she deems is appropriate behavior. Unfortunately, in her quest, she often overwhelms the story with confusing pronouns and excessive monologs. It becomes very difficult to follow. At the same time, while spouting all of these ideals, she makes unkind jokes about other people's religions, and writes that the concept of virginity is a patriarchal concept.

The lead felame acts as though stating she is a "virgin" because she has never participated sexual intercourse is a dirty word. She writes as if calling oneself a virgin is derogatory. I found that concept to be disturbing and judgmental, Worst of all, it's confusing to add such obscure concepts to the dialog of what are supposed to be intimate conversations.

How can a writer who claims to be so open minded be so closed minded to everything else at the same time? It is not only distracting in a literary way, it often feels preachy and judgmental to those of us who also respect the values of others but have more traditional values of our own.

From a purely literary perspective, it becomes very confusing to use pronouns that describe more than one person for characters who are not even substantive enough to the story to have names.

Their hate for each other makes zero sense?

I found this book really frustrating and hard to follow. It had zero plot and the motivations of the characters were unclear. DNF’d at 50%