Cover Image: To Love and to Loathe

To Love and to Loathe

Pub Date:   |   Archive Date:

Member Reviews

I did find this book fun and cute, even if the premise is slightly out there. I liked the banter and energy the characters had with each other, I think the author wrote their interactions very well and I enjoyed reading them.
I do wish there had been slightly more yearning and angst but that might be a me thing.
Overall it was a fun, cute, quaint romance with just enough heart and heat to be compelling.

Was this review helpful?

I must firstly apologise for the amount of time it has taken me to provide a review of this book, my health was rather bad for quite some time, something that had me in hospital on numerous occasions and simply didnt leave me with the time I once had to do what I love most.

Unfortunately that does mean I have missed the archive date for many of these books, so It would feel unjust throwing any review together without being able to pay attention to each novel properly.

However, I am now back to reading as before and look forward to sharing my honest reviews as always going forward. I thank you f0r the patience and understanding throughout x

Was this review helpful?

I enjoyed To Love and To Loathe but I didnt overly love it. Very easy to read with vaguely likeable characters, I'd like to read more from this other but this one for me just felt very formulaic with no real substance.

Was this review helpful?

I love a fast-paced, witty enemies-to-lovers, I love historical fiction that has fun with the genre, this was all of the above!

Was this review helpful?

This was a brilliant read - who can resist an enemies to lovers rom-com? It was a well written slow burn romance, with fantastic characters and so many intense, humorous scenes from our two leading characters. I can't wait to read book 2!

Was this review helpful?

Really enjoyed this one, was a big fan of Diana and Jeremy in the first book and I absolutely love an enemy to lovers romcom, so it ticked the boxes for me.

Really funny, slow burn romance with heart (as much as they would hate to admit) and a clever storyline running throughout.

Really excited to dive into book 3 now!

Was this review helpful?

Tried reading this one and it just was not meant for me. This does not mean that it is not a good book, I just was not in the right place to be reading it and have decided to not try picking it up anytime in the near future.

Was this review helpful?

I loved this book so much! Enemies to lovers is my love language and set in a historical period. What more could you want? This book was a solid 4 stars and it was so quick paced and left me wanting more.

Was this review helpful?

Like a lot of people I was inspired to read more regency type books after watching and loving Bridgerton. This book did what it said on the tin. I enjoyed it immensely.

Was this review helpful?

Loved this regency era novel! I haven’t read the first one in the series but I definitely will read it now! A definite must read if you love the bridgerton series

Was this review helpful?

I received with thanks an e-arc copy of To Love and To Loath from Headline Eternal and Netgalley. Even though I have been gifted this book for review all opinions are my own.

This is my review of To Love and To Loath by Martha Waters.

This is the second time I have read from this author and I enjoyed this one more than the first series. The chemistry is well done between Diana and Jeremy. I enjoyed the plot and the twists throughout the story. The authors writing style gets better with each book.

Would recommend it if you enjoy a good historical romance.

Was this review helpful?

In To Love and to Loathe we meet Diana and Jeremy who are always bickering. It’s their thing, they can’t be in a room together without it resulting in banter that would inevitably turn to insults. They are basically frenemies. However that all begins to change when Jeremy comes up with a very unexpected proposition for Diana. What follows is a fun, engaging and sizzling chemistry filled story.

To Love and to Loathe is book two of The Regency Vows series but you can easily pick this up as a standalone. However it’s well worth starting with book one because it is such a great series!

To Love and to Loathe was lots of fun! From the storyline that pulled me in to the characters tangled romantic moments. Then add in the characters themselves who made me smile and shake my head in equal parts. They were constantly sniping at each other but there was also a sizzling chemistry just simmering away below the surface. Both characters were flawed but I couldn’t help but like them!

Throughout the story I was guaranteed an enjoyable escape from everyday life. The pacing was pretty good throughout and allowed me to easily get caught up in Jeremy and Diana’s sparring. With both of them determined to retain the upper hand. To Love and to Loathe was light, fun and romantic!

Was this review helpful?

Filled with witty banter, perpetual longing & unbearable romantic tension! I tore through To Love and to Loathe. Perfect for fans of Bridgerton & THE Hating Game.

Was this review helpful?

Loved the concept of this book. Really fun, but then again I love period Rom Coms! 4/5 but I was tempted to give it a 5

Was this review helpful?

Absolutely fantastic read. I have loved this and been completely unable and unwilling to put this one down.
This is a great read which I will be highly recommending.

Was this review helpful?

This is such a fun book. I honestly don't know why it has such a low rating on Goodreads. I almost didn't read it for that reason alone. But I'm glad I ended up reading it.

Just to be clear, this isn't exactly enemies to lovers. The more correct definition would be friends with benefits to lovers. But that point aside, I really enjoyed it. The main characters are both very interesting and their banter is amazing. This book has the right balance of being emotional and funny at the same time, and I think that's what any romance novel should have. Totally recommend it if you're looking for an escapist romance with lots of humour.

Was this review helpful?

I received an e-ARC from the publisher on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

3 Stars for To Love and to Loathe. I found the book to be a fun premise. Rarely do we get regency novels featuring a widow who has a lot more freedom than the debutantes of the ton.

Diana Templeton and Jeremy, Marquess of Willingham are long-term frenemies, constantly at odds with each other which is really just masking underlying sexual tension. One evening, they enter a wager that Jeremy will marry within the year or Diana will give him 100 pounds. Then, a few weeks later, Jeremy hosts his annual house party and suggests that he and Diana start an affair with no strings attached.

My primary complaint was that it was not as spicy as promised! We could have had a fortnight of sexy, secret fun, but there was only one real night-time encounter and tertiary characters like Violet. Violet had her book and I did not need her doling out such poor advice. In the end, the promised banter and fun times fell short on a very belaboured plot.

Was this review helpful?

After loving To Have and To Hoax, I had every expectation that I would love its sequel. Naturally, my expectations were met - Martha Waters is nothing short of a marvel. This book reminded me immediately of Julia Quinn’s The Duke and I, but undoubtedly better. Where Quinn’s novel faces backlash for a hideous lack of consent and a lot of misogyny that can’t be swept under the proverbial carpet, Waters’ To Love and To Loathe turns the regency romance on its head with a sexually aware - and active - lady who knows what she wants and takes it.

To Love and To Loathe is an enemies-to-lovers novel full of beautiful tension between Lady Diana Templeton and Lord Jeremy Overington, Marquess of Willingham. Diana is by far one of my favourite protagonists to date. She’s fun to follow and her escapades prove truly enjoyable to read. I absolutely adore the fact that she’s not some shallow woman, or someone simply out to find a husband because that’s what society dictates. She’s a widow and she’s looking for some fun, which is precisely what she gets. She’s headstrong and completely independent, which I have been so desperate to see! Jeremy was just as wonderful to follow - on the surface, he appears to be the epitome of a 19th century rake. To be fair, that’s exactly what he is - but Martha Waters uses his character as a wonderful study of toxic masculinity, of society’s views of men as emotionally unavailable. Jeremy is absolutely available and it allows for such a beautiful, well-crafted relationship on the page.

The secondary characters throughout this book are just as fabulous. Jeremy’s relationship with his grandmother is so fun - she reminds me a little of the mother from Nanny McPhee in her determination to see Jeremy married to save his reputation as a rake. Her comedic timing is wonderful, but I also love the fact that she so deeply cares for Jeremy. I think Lady Helen Courtenay was weirdly on of the best characters, though. Her story arc is amazing once you finally work your way through it and understand her backstory. The characters in To Love and To Loathe are absolutely given more time to develop and show their true selves, which instantly puts it higher in my rankings than To Have and To Hoax (not that it’s been pushed much lower. It’s still my third favourite book of the year!) I also think that the plot of this book is a lot less convoluted. It’s still wildly predictable, don’t get me wrong - but there’s a lot more vulnerability and conversation which really improves the general tone of the book.

And, yes: there are absolutely some wonderful steamy scenes. To Love and To Loathe has some discussion about consent which I think was such a wonderful addition to the narrative. A lot of romances seem to head in the direction of ‘all the angst = good steam’ and, while I’m not averse to this, I do enjoy reading the stories where the characters take their time with each other and learn about the others likes and dislikes while they pursue their romance. The book is graphic, indeed, but I do believe the graphic scenes were perfectly written.

I absolutely loved To Love and To Loathe. It’s firmly solidified the fact that I adore historical romance. I simply hope we’ll be getting a third book - Emily and Julian, perhaps?

Was this review helpful?

It’s taken me a while to get my head around this enough to be able to write this because I really wasn’t sure what to say about this. The premise is sort of fine - as far as the modern historical goes - but some of the execution leaves a lot to be desired and there’s one particular part of the denouement/resolution which really, really annoyed me and I don’t know why the author felt it was ok to do at all and also isn’t properly tied up. Not cool and not great all around.

Was this review helpful?

After reading the first book this month I had to grab the second one and get stuck in.. from start to finish I loved this. I really hope there is a number 3 in the making!

Was this review helpful?