I usually pick up contemporary romance when I'm in a reading slump or I want a fast and fun read. Given that, I find that I enjoy the regular tropes and plot devices that are regularly used in this genre. In The Hating Game, Sally Thorne employs a number of this tropes (tiny woman - giant man, enemies to lover, office romance, hard guy is actually a softie etc etc etc), but I enjoy those aspects so it was a plus for me. I also liked how they didn't dance around each other due to too many miscommunication and other temporarily love interests (though there's a bit of both). All in all, it was an enjoyable read, and I raced through it. The rating is due to the fact that it doesn't add anything new to the genre or to the tropes that were used. The "big conflict" was also incredibly predictable and the build-up was therefore understandably anticlimactic.