A former beauty queen and a grumpy vet/dog show judge collide in this fun enemies-to-lovers rom-com. The banter between the MC's was fun and flirty and the book had me smiling and laughing periodically. I like that both MC's had insecurities about themselves that they needed to workout in order to make their relationship work.

The MC's did shift from hate to lust pretty early in the book, but the steamy scenes were well executed. Pepper scale rating ( )

I Hate You More by Lucy Gilmore
Contemporary romantic comedy. Enemies to lovers troupe. Sunshine / grumpy troupe.
Ruby is determined to have Wheezy the Golden Retriever in the local canine competition. Judge Spencer knows Wheezy doesn’t have a chance but his twin brother Caleb jumps in and offers to train the slightly overweight and overindulged dog for the show.
Caleb is charming and a handful but it’s Spencer that has caught Ruby’s interest.

I loved the banter between Ruby and Spencer as well as between Spencer and Caleb. The story was fill with heart, the adorable and lazy Wheezy, and some family dynamics that made the brothers real. Doesn’t every sibling have a bit of rivalry that is encased in love? There was also more heat and risqué than I expected from a romcom.
Lots of bumps and resolutions and sentimental titillation.

🎧 the audiobook is narrated by Alex Knox and Macy Sterling. These two did an amazing job with the audio performance. Alternating chapters had each doing more than one voice that were clear and easy to follow. I was enamored with Alex Knox, sure that he was a local newscaster. Nope. I looked him up and tracked down a photo from his website. I will watch for him in the future. I listened to this at 1.2 which is my preference. It would have also been fine at 1.4 or 1.0 depending on the situation.

I received a copy of this from NetGalley, and Dreamscape Media. ( )