Release Day Review! HATE ME TAKE ME by Laura Bishop

Last updated on 08/03/2026

For fans of Lights Out and You, this follow-up to Love Me Stalk Me is a dark rom-com about a woman matched with her fantasy boyfriend by an AI app—unaware he’s actually her ex-husband, back to win her over in disguise.

When Amanda signs up for a beta feature of the Obsess AI boyfriend app—a secretive new match program that claims to pair users with real-life partners who match their fantasy settings—she thinks it’s just another marketing gimmick.

Sure, the guy it gives her is hot. Brooding. Protective. Motorcycle included. But he won’t take off his helmet. Won’t tell her his name. And somehow, he knows things no one else should.

She should be freaked out. She should stop letting him make her feel things. But something about him feels…familiar. What Amanda doesn’t realize is that the man behind the helmet isn’t a stranger at all. It’s her ex-husband. The one who walked away without a word. The one she’s spent years trying—and failing—to forget.

Now he’s back. And he’s not asking for permission. He’ll stalk her. Protect her. And when she begs him to take off the helmet and finally show her who he is? He’ll remind her: She asked for this.

She thought she was falling for someone new. But the truth? She might be falling for the one man who already broke her heart…and this time, he’s not letting go.

Review:

Apparently I’m in my stalker romance era? Can’t say I’m mad about it…

Hate Me Take Me *might* take even more suspension of belief than a few of the other stalker romances I’ve read this year, but I was so entertained from start to finish that I’ll allow it. (Did even 8 years younger Amanda think that their insane Vegas lifestyle was sustainable? That a drunken marriage only hours after they met and which they participated in for mere weeks could really be a solid foundation for an HEA?)

ANYWAY, I loved Amanda with her snark and her pink Glock. I appreciated that Kade–once he was outed–allowed Amanda to make the rules and set the boundaries for their possible relationship going forward, and appreciated even more that neither of them stuck to every rule in the end. Or even for very long, for some of them 😉 And I absolutely adored Izzy and Cal, which I suppose means I need to go back and read their book ASAP…and you’d better believe I will be first in line for Raven and Jake’s! (Which had better be next! Please???)

Does even the thought of even fictional AI use bother me a little? Yes. But since her *actual* stalker takes over relatively soon into their “relationship” I tried not to think about it too much. I have to thank the author for her note at the beginning, because it absolutely made me feel better about loving a story so much that is essentially one giant red flag after another but still absolutely works as an OTT swoony romance.

IN FICTION. No one wants this IRL, that’s why we read fiction. 🙂

Rating: 4 1/2 stars / A

I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.