Book 3 in the Bad Billionaire Bosses Series
Reviewed by CJ | Rating: 4.5/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
📖 Paperback / Kindle Unlimited
⚠️ This is a full spoiler review. If you haven’t read Hate Me Like You Mean It yet — go read it first. We’ll be here when you’re done.
The Opening Hook
An enemies to lovers story where the enemies part actually has bite. Ten years of buried misunderstandings and resentment, a decade-old frame job, a best friend who was never really a best friend, and two people who have been desperately, furiously, inconveniently in love with each other pretty much their whole lives. This book had me laughing so hard I had to leave the bedroom so I wouldn’t wake my husband up and I’ve now reread it twice.
The Full Story — Spoilers Included
Alice and Dominic grew up together. Her family had money and his mom Rosie, was their cleaner. They were raised together, almost as extended family where there’s rivalry and teasing and tension and underneath all of it, something that feels a lot like love. They were kids so they didn’t have the language for it yet, but as they approached the end of their teen years they both knew how they felt.
Then it all fell apart.
Right around graduation, stolen jewelry turns up in Rosie’s car and the polaroid photo evidence of it looks damning. Rosie never denies it, for reasons nobody fully understands at the time, and Alice’s family, despite their confusion and disbelief, lets her go. Dominic and his mom are gone. Frienemy infatuation over. And layered underneath all of that is a prom invitation that Alice thought was a prank and Dominic meant completely sincerely, because Alice’s best friend Rachel had been quietly, methodically poisoning the bond between them. Manufacturing misunderstandings, driving wedges in their friendship, and making sure they never quite got there.
Ten years later, Dominic has made himself into one of the most successful men in the country, and he currently spends a significant portion of that time and influence making sure Alice can’t get a job. Every application, every interview, quietly blacklisted. It’s petty and it’s ruthless and it is extremely on brand for a man who has been furious and hates that he’s been in love with the same woman all his life.
Alice, to her absolute credit, is not having it and gives as good as she gets once she finds out.
She goads him into an arrangement: she’ll spend thirty days doing the cleaning duties his mother once handled at his home, and if she sticks it out, he stops blocking her career and finally leaves her alone. The premise sounds ridiculous, and to be honest it IS a little ridiculous. But it never reads that way because the banter between these two is genuinely, intelligently sharp. They know exactly how to dig at each other. They’ve had years of practice. The pranks, the one-upmanship, the refusal from either of them to back down. It’s immature on paper and electric on the page.
Meanwhile, Rosie is living in twenty-four hour care with Alzheimer’s, comfortable and well looked after because Dominic can afford the best of everything for her now. He visits as often as he can, eventually taking Alice to see her. Rosie talks warmly about her son and about Alice, her daughter in her heart if not in blood, without understanding how tangled everything has become. It’s one of the most quietly heartbreaking threads in the book because we find out that she never denied the theft because she had started seeing slips in her memory and couldn’t trust her mind. Alice’s family can never fully make things right with Rosie with that window in time now gone. It sits in the background of every scene between Alice and Dominic like something neither of them can say out loud.
Alice’s grandfather Gampy showing up and finding Dominic in her apartment is another one of those moments that stands out. He hadn’t been able to reach Dominic in a decade so he’s shocked to find him standing right there. All he wanted was to make things right because the family always knew, deep down, that Rosie wasn’t responsible, but every call, email, and letter was denied and he is mad. Turns out Gampy is a little scary when he gets mad, haha!
The truth about Rachel comes out through Dominic as he’s going over old videos and notices that the jewelry Alice wore doesn’t match the hand in the Polaroid from Rosie’s car. He starts working backwards: who had access, who was there, who had reason. And it has to be Rachel. We find out eventually that it was always Rachel. Jealous, calculating Rachel who spent years making sure Alice and Dominic never found their way to each other and then framed an innocent woman to guarantee it.
When Alice finds out, that friendship is over. There is no coming back from that one. She’s brave enough to go confront her and let her know that there’s no apology that could make this level of manipulation right, and I appreciated that closure.
And then, finally, after ten years, who knows how many days, and a lifetime of almost, they both put their egos down and admit what has always been true underneath all the taunts and competition. That they’ve always cared. That despite everything that happened between them and around them and because of them, none of it ever actually touched what was underneath.
Best Part of This Book
The banter. It is some of the best written enemies banter I have read — witty, cutting, intelligent, and genuinely funny without ever straying too far into mean-spirited or stupid. They are so evenly matched and so infuriatingly good at getting under each other’s skin. This exchange says it all:
“Mom seems to think I have a crush on the boss’s daughter.”
“Do you?” I teased.
“No. She’s a mouthy spoiled brat who derives sadistic pleasure from causing me pain.”
I hummed, “she sounds really pretty.”
That’s the whole book in four lines.
Worst Part of This Book
Rosie. Not because it was written badly; it wasn’t. It was written beautifully. But because Alzheimer’s is heart breaking, and the reality is that they can never fully give her the resolution she deserves and that hits hard. The family can reconnect, Alice and Dominic can find their way back. But Rosie is just… unreachable in that particular way and that was tough to sit with.
The Steam Rating Breakdown
🔥🔥🔥🔥 — Spicy
There are explicit scenes. Dominic is a dirty talker and they have plenty of sexy moments together. The romance is absolutely central to the plot and this is enemies to lovers with more than a decade of history with a lot of feelings to work through; the steam reflects that. It earns every flame.
Content warnings: Alzheimer’s/memory loss, parental illness, themes of betrayal by a close friend.
The Ending — Satisfied or Disappointed?
Satisfied. Completely. It’s not one big dramatic confession moment but a series of small revelations and realizations. It’s two people who have been circling each other finally putting down their armor and admitting the truth. They care. They’ve always cared. Given everything Dominic built himself into, everything Alice fought to prove about herself, and everything Rosie represents to both of them, there was never any keeping these two apart. It lands exactly the way it should.
Would We Reread It?
Already have. Will again, and it’s on the permanent reread shelf – you know, the one filled with the kind of books you pick up when you need something that’s going to make you laugh out loud and feel genuinely good by the end. I should do a post on that shelf of mine because it is full of fantastic love stories.
The Character We Loved to Hate
Rachel. Oh, Rachel. Framed Dominic’s mom. Spent years manufacturing misunderstandings between Alice and Dominic. Made sure that prom invitation landed like a joke instead of what it actually was. A decade of their lives — gone — because of her jealousy. She didn’t get nearly what she deserved in my opionion, but I was happy to see her go.
Who Is This For
Anyone who loves enemies to lovers with real history behind it — where the hatred has roots and the happy ending is delicious. If you want banter that actually makes you laugh out loud and a romance that has genuine emotional weight underneath the chaos, this is your book.
Where to Get This Book
Where to Get This Book
📖 Physical Book
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📱 Ebook / Kindle Unlimited
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📚 More from the Bad Billionaire Bosses Series
Book 1 — Loved it, but have not yet reviewed
Book 2 — Liked it, but have not yet reviewed
Book 3 — Hate Me Like You Mean It | Reviewed by CJ | ⭐ 4.5/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥 — You’re here!
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Plot Twisted. 🔥
📖 | Series: Bad Billionaire Bosses Book 3 | Genre: Romance | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥