The Holiday Hookup

Okay, there isn’t much to say except I didn’t like this. It was supposed to have that bad boy, enemy to lovers charm but it never settled into that. Finn genuinely dislikes him and with good reason. Hunter is forever walking into his office when he makes it clear he does not want Hunter in there. He constantly rearranges the stuff on his desk no matter how many times Finn complains. Has no respect for any of Finn’s personal boundaries. Even when Finn coincidentally shows up at the bar he assumes, even with evidence to the contrary, that he came there to meet him. And then when he tries to leave and makes it clear he wants nothing to do with Hunter he follows him. And he already knows where he lives. Stalker tendencies… not cute.

He then invites himself in and on top of that doesn’t leave and spends the entire weekend there. The levels of pushy and inconsiderate that Hunter lives on is a certain type of ego that Finn has every right disliking. But instead of Hunter being put in his conceited ego-maniac place Finn just lets him do these things. Seriously I can’t get on board with someone expressing their immense disinterest to a guy and that guy not only ignoring it but inviting himself to stay for the weekend. There’s literally an entire show on Netflix about a guy who did this to people by abusing roommate and state apartment laws and that did not end well. Then, to top it off this slacker is now finding reasons to stay at work late which is only to annoy Finn. Because he has decided they are a thing now after this weekend. Ugh.

Basically, the story revolves around a guy who should be disliked, deciding that he’s going to date the guy that dislikes him and doesn’t do anything to make him like him. Doesn’t alter his personality, his pushiness, apologise for making the man he wants hate him so much. IF anything he ups his disregard for all of Finn’s feelings even more once he decides he’s going to have him.

I think what really sealed it for me was at the ending Christmas party. Finn said he did not want to wear the ugly sweater/jumper and Hunter hides all his clothes so that he had no choice but to wear it and then, on top of that, he annoys him into going to the game that Finn doesn’t want to go to. His whole attitude in the one chapter screams if this is what I want Finn will get on board if I nag him enough and Finn just accepts this. The entire book.

The perfect example of this is him rearranging fins desk all the time and then close to the end he says the new set-up is better because Finn is left-handed. So, you, an adult male, couldn’t just suggest in a way that wouldn’t make him hate you this would be a better set-up and then for years just built upon this by not only repeatedly doing this one thing but many other things that you know he doesn’t like and expect him to just be your boyfriend. And then, most annoyingly, he does. I didn’t find anything likeable about Hunter and there’s zero accountability for his actions and Finn never actually says an outright yes without being coerced into one. It’s almost like his entire existence is ‘I don’t like you but giving in is easier.’

I just think Hunter needed to come to the realisation that it isn’t okay to just annoy someone, or push, hell even force them to like you without acknowledging that that behaviour is why they don’t like you in the first place. Honestly, Finn was right about him on all accounts and it was disappointing to see him choose the less confrontational approach instead of forcing Hunter to realise he couldn’t disregard his feelings and opinions like he did right down to the last page. This was definitely not the fun RomCom I came in expecting. And I’m surprised that characters like Hunter can be enjoyed or even rooted for. He has zero, zero redeeming qualities and Finn deserved better.