PS: I Hate You was the first book that made me cry in 2025. Connolly manages to strike a balance between romance, spice, and emotions. There’s falling in love, but there’s also forgiveness, anger, and grief. It’s an emotional tour de force. Keep reading this book review of PS: I Hate You for my full thoughts.
Summary
Maddie Sanderson would be proud to honor her older brother’s dying wish, that she scatters his ashes over eight destinations that the adventurous 29-year-old never got to visit before he died from cancer. But in his will, Josh assigned her an impossible partner to help complete the mission—Dominic Perry. Seriously, if Maddie weren’t already at his funeral, she would have killed him for this.
Sure, Dom was Josh’s life-long best friend. He’s also the infuriating man who broke Maddie’s heart back when she was naïve enough to give it to him. But since Dom insists on following the rules and Josh didn’t leave much room for Maddie to argue the matter, they embark together on a farewell trip that spans thousands of miles, exploring new places and revisiting their complicated history along the way.
After a snowstorm leads to a shared bed, Maddie starts to wonder if her brother might be matchmaking from the grave. But when grief also reopens old wounds between them, Maddie will need more than Josh’s ghostly guidance to trust Dom again.
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
PS: I Hate You has an amazing title. Let’s just get that out of the way. It’s also an exes to lovers, second chance romance, brother’s best friend. So what more can we want? There’s heated banter, cutting remarks, and electric tension. But what makes PS: I Hate You stand out is Connolly’s discussion of grief. It’s a story about romance, but also of love and loss. The knowledge that sometimes we’re really mad at the person who is no longer in our life. To know that to forgive someone, to trust someone, takes time. Wounds from the past which ache.
When we feel hollowed out and changed by our grief. We don’t know how to handle this new version of ourselves. The one that snaps, that can’t smell the same perfume, that has to leave the party early. It’s also a period not only of loss of a person, but a future we thought we had together. PS: I Hate You is unhurried in not only showing us the memories with Josh, but also the timing of the book. It’s about new experiences, but it’s also about examining and sitting with the past.
(Disclaimer: Some of the links below are affiliate links. For more information you can look at the Policy page. If you’re uncomfortable with that, know you can look up the book on any of the sites below to avoid the link)
About realizing we made mistakes, but it’s not too late to make amends. To live our lives differently. As a character, Josh springs off the page even though he’s only there in letters and memories. The side character work here is emotional from head to toe. And as a whole, PS: I Hate You explores the fears of love. The fear we have to live with everyday that today might not be enough. We can lose someone like that. And that pain will crush us. But it’s about realizing that every moment we have with them is that much more precious.
The romance in PS: I Hate You is amazing. It’s in the little ways we protect and support each other. The snacks we bring, the fears we carry, and the burdens we can share. Find PS: I Hate You on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon, Bookshop.org, Blackwells, & Libro. fm.