Hate Me Like You Love Me

The Synopsis

What it's about

Serena is the good girl who learned early how to survive loss: a mother taken by cancer, a father who moves on too fast, and a house that no longer feels safe. Caleb is the boy she was raised beside and taught herself to fear-cruel words, calculated humiliations, a reputation built on breaking rules and breaking people. Forced into each other's orbit by family and circumstance, they sharpen themselves into enemies... even as something dark and unspoken coils between them. Grief makes cracks, and secrets slip through. Serena's carefully controlled world fractures under constant proximity, bullying disguised as banter, and a boy who touches everyone but looks at her like she's forbidden. Caleb wears the mask of a rake because it's easier than facing the violence he escaped as a child, easier than believing he could be anything but broken. She's the virgin who should know better. He's the bad boy who doesn't deserve redemption. And yet hatred turns intimate, attraction turns dangerous, and the urge to fix him feels as reckless as it is irresistible.