Book Review: But I Hate Him by Page Powars

Official Synopsis: Rory is academic royalty.

As the heir to the most successful tutoring company in the world, he can be nothing less than perfect if he wants to gain his parents’ approval. So it's simple. Rory studies harder than anyone else. He does not make mistakes. And he never loses.

Except to Luca Melendez. The infuriatingly good-looking hockey player who wins every academic competition without even trying.

When Rory has a very public meltdown, throwing a smoothie at Luca and shattering his own public image in the process – it feels like one more thing Luca ruined.

To salvage his reputation, Rory has his sights set on winning the most cutthroat academic camp in the country, BRAIN. There is nothing standing between Rory and the final medal.

Until, Luca Melendez shows up.

This means war and Rory has the perfect plan: Make Luca fall in love with him.

And then break Luca’s heart right before the final competition.

Rory Prince has been the face of his parent's tutoring business for most of his life, and even after he transitioned, they kept up his looks and campaigns as they moved to get more clients. When Rory ends up throwing a smoothie at a competitor during an academic competition. Rory can't help but hate Luca Melendez, who seems to just walk into rooms with his hockey jacket and get attention from everyone, including the judges who ignored Rory. When a video of the incident goes viral, prompting people to stop using his parent's service and sponsors to pull out, his parents aren't happy. They send him to the only academic camp that will accept him, BRAIN, where hopefully we can win the academic contest and prove himself to his parents.

But when Luca also comes to the camp, even though he should be at Harvard for a high school program, Rory isn't sure how to keep competing against him. As the rivalries between all the cabins ramp up, and the competitions get harder, Rory and Luca start to end up together more and more. Their cabins are competing against each other, but now they also seem to be helping each other too, even if their cabinmates don't agree. As the final competition approaches the pranks and competition get harder, leaving Rory torn between the person he is by his parents and the person he enjoys being around his cabinmates and Luca.

One thing I really liked about this book is that there is a sports aspect, Luca is a hockey player who is also extremely smart, he dreams of going to an Ivy League school but mostly wants to pursue hockey. When it comes to the BRAIN competition and winning, it would give him scholarship money he genuinely needs to play hockey for an Ivy League school. Luca is also that character that, especially to Rory, presents as perfect, with an easy life who gets everything he wants, and I liked watching the persona fall apart the more Rory learned about him. Throughout the story Rory has a lot of trouble separating who he wants to be and who his parents want him to be. He is incredibly intelligent, but has expectations set by others that make a lot of things hard for him. I mean hell his parents have rules about distractions that essentially mean he is never a 'normal' teen.

This book also has some fun side characters with the other students in the cabin, who are again very smart, but still figuring out who they are outside of that. I think there is definitely a lot about 'breaking' parents expectations and finding who you are outside of those expectations. Another thing I really like about Page Powars books is that the characters who are transgender are already generally comfortable in who they are, and the story itself is never a 'coming out trans' story but instead that is already a pre-established part of the character. Even with how strict Rory's parents are they never questioned that part of their identity and I just really enjoy that.

Overall I think this was a sweet young adult book that has moments that are silly because they are teenagers while also working through expectations and dreams and how those are allowed to change no matter what you have been told.

I rated this book 4 out of 5 stars!

But I Hate Him comes out August 25, 2026!

StoryGraph