Better Hate Than Never by Chloe Liese, narrated by Charlotte North & Stephen Dexter. Enjoyable, modern retelling of The Taming of the Shrew.
Better Hate Than Never is the second book in the Wilmot Sisters trilogy and is a modern day retelling of The Taming of the Shrew.
Naturally, given its inspiration, our main character is Katarina (aka Kate) Wilmot, the sister who returned from Ireland at the end of Two Wrongs Make a Right, allowing the other Wilmot sister, Juliet, to take over her Irish cottage rental after Jules’ relationship went bad.
(Aside: I assume the next book be based on Romeo & Juliet – except with adults and a HEA? That will be interesting.)
Christopher Petrucio grew up next door to the Wilmot family. His parents and Kate’s parents were best friends. When Christopher’s parents were killed in an accident when he was a young teenager, the Wilmot’s became his second family and he was raised by his grandmother who moved in to his family home. He left for college but got so lonely for family he ended up moving back into his old house six years later, by which time his grandmother had passed away.
Christopher has known Kate all her life. He used to babysit her – even changed nappies (aka diapers) for her when she was really little. But after he returned home, Kate was all grown up and he looked at her differently. Because Christopher feared losing more loved ones he wouldn’t let himself fall for Kate and so their vibe became antagonistic rather than romantic.
Kate, for her part, has never felt like she fit into the family. She’s the youngest, Beatrice and Juliet, twins, being a little older than she. She has ADHD and knows that her brain is a bit chaotic. Her family love her and she loves them but she’s tended to love them from a distance.
Kate is a photographer with a passion for social justice. She’s been to a lot of dangerous places in the world in pursuit of her vocation and isn’t home often. This drives Christopher crazy. He hates that Kate puts herself in danger and is resentful that Kate doesn’t stay. Partly this is also because Christopher has his own issues and is afraid to leave.
When Kate comes back home to give Juliet a place to stay in Ireland, she finds herself being drawn in to a friend group and belonging in a way she’s never felt before. Except, Christopher is still his mean, grumpy self and they clash at every opportunity.
After a particularly mean argument at Thanksgiving, Kate’s dad asks Christopher to make an effort to make peace with her; it’s uncomfortable for the family for them to be fighting and Christopher had been out of line. Also, asking Kate to make peace would be like a red rag to a bull so her dad thinks this is the best approach.
Christopher’s immediate strategy is to stay away. Kate never hangs around long. But this time she does and he just can’t stay away any longer. Still, it’s not until a moment of vulnerability from Kate where she confesses that she believes he hates her, that Christopher decides to actively make things right.
Kate is suspicious at first. Why is Christopher being nice to her all of a sudden? If she believes him will he turn on a dime and hurt her even worse than before? Kate’s animus toward Christopher has largely been in self-defence – if she let down her guard, can he be trusted with her soft underbelly?
Once Kate and Christopher start spending time together not fighting, they find themselves giving into their latent attraction – although their intimacy develops slowly because Kate is demisexual and lacking in experience. She needs a high level of trust before she’s ready for much naked time. When they finally do the deed the scene is long – well over 30 minutes of listening time. Very detailed!
The conflict in the book is largely at the front; once each puts their guard down there is little keeping them apart. They’re really made for each other, in all the ways.
Charlotte North narrates Kate’s perspective and Stephen Dexter reads Christopher’s. I’m more familiar with Ms North (she’s a big draw for me) but both performances were very good. Christopher could have come across are more unkind than he was but Mr Dexter softened him a little. (Nothing Christopher said to Kate was unforgivable but there were times where an apology was more than needed.) I tend to dislike when characters are mean to one another so I think the nuance both voice actors brought to the book helped me here. Of course, the listener is aware of what’s going on under the surface from the text and that’s important too.
Both performers have great character differentiation and solid comedic timing, as well as the ability to deliver the emotion of some of the sadder aspects of the story (for example, when Christopher was thinking about the death of his parents).
The story is actually funnier than I’ve made it sound. Even when Kate and Christopher are loved up, their banter is snappy. Their dynamic is vibrant – when the pair work together instead of against each other, they are a formidable force.
I liked how there were no magical fixes to issues they had; both Kate and Christopher had to work with what they had and take leaps of faith from time to time (and in Christopher’s case, start therapy).
Better Hate Than Never was engaging and enjoyable – and made better by great narrators bringing their talent to a good story.
Grade: B
