This story has a really fun concept. The story is well written and the characters are funny and smart and I really enjoyed the Grandmothers. In fact, they kind of stole the story for me. I liked the bickering of the main characters the development of the romance and the obstacles that they overcame I just was disappointed in the enemies to lovers aspect. I wanted that to last longer and to build the tension between them more so that the eventually romance and HEA was a bit stronger. Still this was a fun fast read and I think readers looking for a light story will enjoy this one. I received an AR via NetGalley and the publisher and I am leaving my honest review.

For those who are regular listeners to our podcast, you’ll know that one of my favorite books of the past 5 years has been The Hating Game. For the uninitiated, THG follows an intense enemies to lovers office romance between a stodgy yet sexy hero and a homespun plucky heroine. For a good portion of the book, we are privy to agonizing and sometimes emotionally scarring arguments in which their juxtaposition provides the reader with the sweetest and most fulfilling denouement. You can feel it in your bones, people! All that being said, the premise of Aggie the Horrible vs. Max the Pompus Ass by Lisa Wells boasts to be a light impersonation of THG. Honestly, the hallmarks are present: two work colleagues with instant animosity who need to collaborate in order to complete an all important task. The follow through, however, is quite lackluster. There are some things to like in both Aggie and Max, I just don’t know if either character encompasses the charm to successfully fulfill the friends to lovers trope.

Let’s talk about the plot: or, The Tale of Two Meddling Grandmothers
Maxwell Treadwell (for f---s sake, really?) is in desperate need of a personal assistant; Aggie Johasson, is in need of regular employment. With over 100 jobs in the past 18 months, she seems more like a hindrance than a help for any employer. Both of their respective grandmothers play matchmaker, forcing Max to interview Aggie and Aggie to accept the job when offered. Aggie presents the worst version of herself in order to torpedo the interview; Max however, is left hot under the collar and with no choice than to hire her immediately. Sparks fly and soon Aggie and Max find they have more in common than they thought.

The Compliment Sandwich
Top Bun (The Pro)
Max Treadwell
Honestly, I found Max to be charming, realistic and unassuming. Through his close relationship with his grandmother, he’s been exposed to an unpretentious and open minded perspective which is exceptionally different from that modeled by his parents. When he begins to fall for Aggie her station in life, lack of career goals, or overbearing personality bear no weight in his overall feelings. “Agnes LaBelle Johansson, I love you. So. Fucking. Much. Your pedigree has never been an issue.”

I wonder if Wells intended to create a complex character that we would still ultimately root for, like Josh Templeman. Unfortunately, she forgot to include the contrarian underpinnings that Josh displayed in THG. We don’t have true enemies to lovers, and it’s a misrepresentation to categorize it as such. From Jumpstreet, Max is willing to overlook all of Aggies’ character flaws and absolute fuck-upery allowing himself to fall for her unconditionally.
Personally, I felt Max was way too good for Aggie. I read a review that stated they thought his Grand Gesture wasn’t grand enough, that he needed to grovel more. I’m sorry, when his spaced out girlfriend/PA fails to do the ONE THING he needed her to do, bebe is allowed to be upset. Poor guy should probably hooked up with more girls on acid in college and filled his ‘girl with responsibility issues and self-preservation mindset” quota. Aggie needed to perform the Grand Gesture, groveling, and taking responsibility. Max forgave Aggie, literally, every single time she fucked up. Every. Single. Time. At some point, he did become a bit of a doormat.

The Meat (The Con)
Agnes (Aggie) Johansson
Dis Bich. Seriously guys, this chick is the worst.
As I mentioned above, she’s had over 100 jobs in 18 months. The reason for this? If the job doesn’t make her happy, she just quits or gets fired. Cool. Cool. Cooooool. Real responsible, jackass. Did I mention that she’s living with her Grandmother who works 3 jobs and Aggie can’t even contribute because she’s too busy ‘finding her bliss’?
I’m very confused as to why Wells went out of her way to have Aggie not only sabotage her burgeoning healthy relationship with the first man who didn’t treat her like a complete slag. At one point, she finds a kitten in an alleyway and decides to take it into the office as a mascot. Wait. What? She doesn’t ask normal questions like, “I wonder if Max is allergic to cats?”, “How will the millionaire clientele feel about a random cat just shitting in the corner of the office?”, and, “As this is a temporary assignment, who will take care of said cat after I leave?”. Normal questions that people with healthy brains would ask. If you are wondering, Max IS deathly allergic and this is the second instance where he fires/rehires her. Seriously, I’m voting to canonize Max for sainthood.

I’m not going to spoil the ending, but lets just say, Aggie flakes off something fierce and almost ruins Max’s life yet she is portrayed as the lovable loser who can’t help but fuck up. Aggie reminds me of a bit by standup comedian, Mike Birbiglia. He said, we all have someone like Aggie in our lives, in his case, he referred to him as Wiffle Ball Tony. Wiffle Ball Tony is great to play Wiffle Ball with, but when planning a party, you never put him in charge of potato salad or burgers. “The burgers and the potato salad? I don’t think that’s such a good idea.” Aggie is the Wiffle Ball Tony of the working world...and also, life.

The Bottom Bun (The Pro)
The Pacing
At 400 pages, you could be saying to yourself, “um, Rae, wtf are you talking about? That’s a Zapata-length novel”. I would then say to you, dude, you need to add about 150 more pages for it to be a true slow burn Zapata, get it straight. The book takes place over a month, and Wells paces the plot in which we sometimes move along one day at a time, then skip a few in the future. We are not subjected to every monotonous second with the characters, which honestly, I was thankful for. If I had to sit with Aggie longer than I needed to, Veronica would be asking “which are we doing? Burnin’ or burying” and searching for a new cohost. Blessedly, the book moves at a quick clip. Is it enough to truly recommend it? I’m not so sure.

I’m doing a lot of soul searching on this one. I wanted to like this one so much: the promise of an enemies to lovers, opposites attract, and an ‘all on the line’ ending: how did it miss the mark so much? If I had to supply a theory, I’d say overambition. Ms. Wells wanted the story to incorporate so many different angles, and yet underperformed with each through line. Does Aggie learn to be more organized and find her true calling - that job that will make her truly happy?
Honestly, I have no clue.
Does Max gain independence from his father and become a respected and self-sufficient businessman?
Got me swinging… no clue.

So, my suggestion is, if you have the time and want a light fluffy opposites attract novel, go for it. Otherwise, settle in for a reread of The Hating Game instead.

This is exactly my kind of story; fun characters who annoy each other, romance, tragic families, and a lot of drama. I loved it. It's a cute romcom and I think every fan of the genre would enjoy this book.
Aggie can't hold a job. Max is in need of an instant. Their grandmothers decide to intervene and now the two must work together for the time being. But can they tolerate each other long enough to be able to work? Things are definitely going to get interesting. They have completely different personalities and backgrounds. The only common thing is the attraction they feel for each other.
It's a well-written story that made me smile, laugh, cry, and sometimes feel embarrassed for the characters. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and would recommend it to my fellow reader. If you are someone who loves romance then this books is for you.

Thank you NetGalley, author Lisa Wells, and Entangled: Amara publishing for giving me a free arc copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own .
4 stars
The title of this story drew me to it. The story had me laughing out loud and held my interest until the very end.
Agnes, is a poor woman from the wrong side of the tracks, and Max, is a a rich man who grew up with money, the right education, and a bit of a snob.
These two will meet in most unexpected way when their meddlesome grandmother orchestra Aggie to interview for the personal assistant job at Max's company. As they both are not willing to allow their grandmothers to have their way, Max and Aggie set out to make the other working conditions miserable.
The author did a great just developing the characters and their backstories. I defiantly was pulling for Aggie to find her place in the world despite her not so great childhood. I thought Aggie was good for Max. She brought out his playful side, at times, and helped him secure major clients. The grandmothers were a hoot and I would have liked to see them make more appearances throughout the story.
The premise of the book was a great hook, but the story fell a little sort of my expectations. I am a huge fan of the enemies to lovers troupe and this story had the marks for such a troupe, but by chapter 2, they seemed to have moved passed enemies and right into the flirting banter. It seemed like they were pulling things over on each other in order to avoid the building attraction between them rather than feelings of hate. Some of their pranks were a little over the top and were not realistic if they took place within a professional workplace. I thought the attraction between them was more like insta-lust. He seemed to have a lot of hard ons just by looking at her. I also did not really like how much they did not trust each other in the relationship they were building. It seemed one or both of the characters would misread or misunderstand a situation, then would precede to pull away from the relationship without talking things out! I am not a huge fan of lack of communication as a plot device! It becomes very annoying quickly. The ending was very sweet and I was glad to read the epilogue! For a debut novel, this was an above average book! I would recommend those who are looking for an office romance, boss/employee, poor woman/rich man book. I look forward to another new release from this author in the future.

I want to thank NetGalley and Entangled Publishing for the opportunity to read and review this ARC. I was immediately drawn in by the cover art. I think it's clever and fun. I also really liked the premise of this book: meddling grandmas trying to set up their grandkids. I also love opposites attract. Aggie is a free-spirit, do what she wants, in the moment person. Max is straight-laced, scheduled, and kind of uptight. This should be fun. Unfortunately, it fell flat for me. I was hoping for more enemies-to-lovers shenanigans, but that seemed to fizzle pretty early in the book. And then the miscommunication tropes popped up, and I am so over miscommunication as a plot device/drama point. You don't have to have third act drama in every romance book. I was having a good time up until this point. Overall, this is cute, but can we show healthy communication skills.

Thank you NetGalley, Lisa Wells and Entangled Publishing, LLC for the ARC of Aggie the Horrible vs. Max the Pompous Ass. This is my personal review.
The title of the book had me chuckling even before I started reading. The title alone made me want to read this just to find out why Aggie was horrible, and Max was an ass.
Their Grandmothers had an idea they wanted to put in to play and that they did! I want to meet these two based on how they think! These are my kind of Grandma’s.
Aggie and Max mixed like oil and water but soon turned into a hot flame the more they got to know each other.
This book was so easy to read because I enjoyed everyone in the story.

The name of this book threw me for a loop, but as I read the blurb explaining the book it hit me as a chance to read a fun romcom that would probably be full of laugh out loud moments and some fun characters that I'd really enjoy. It definitely didn't drop the ball, either. Both Aggie and Max were lovable characters that I thoroughly enjoyed. And, of course, both grandmothers held places of honor in their respective grandchild's life and used that to their advantage when "convincing" each other to take a chance and work together "temporarily".

I received a free ARC copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. Thank you Riki Cleveland and NetGalley for giving me the chance to read such an fun book.

First, if you want hot sex, and very hot thoughts about sex, this book has it all in spades.

I'm a little bit of a romance verigin, in that I read those YA romances where characters think about kissing and stuff, and not the size of the guys sexual organ, or the woman's breast.

There is lust in these pages from the first page onward.

Oddly, that is not what bothers me. What bothers me more is the chip on Aggie's shoulder about being from a poor neighborhood. She carries that around with her everywhere, which gets old really fast.

In the meantime, they think of all the things they would do to each other if they weren't working together.

So, if you can get past Aggie thinking bad things about herself, and stay for all the thoughts of lust, and if that is the sort of romance you want, then this is the one for you. Me, I like a much slower burn, where they aren't trying to keep their hands of each other from the moment they meet.

<em>Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.</em>

A great summer read. it was funny, sweet and sexy. Aggie and Max got me really entertain with their epic banter & hot chemistry. I loved their matchmaking grandmas, and the enemies to lovers storyline.

Thanks to their meddling grandmothers Aggie has a job interview with Max. They both don’t want to work with each other and at the same time, they don’t want to be the one who says no, and are now stuck working together.
Aggie and Max are fun characters are I really enjoyed how Aggie manages to keep Max on his toes, led to some LOL moments. I also enjoyed the chemistry between them. A couple of things I felt could have been done without, like the blackmail but that’s just my thought. The grandmas were adorable and do cute, just like peaches 😉.
Overall it was an easy read !

This was only an okay read for me. Was not a big fan of the writing style and I struggled to like the two leads. The chemistry was good but I felt Aggie and Max needed to communicate better with each other and with their respective grandmothers. Overall the story was fairly quick to get through.

The title grabbed me and I was hoping for a fun read to match, but overall, this enemies to lovers office romance didn't live up to it.

Aggie Johansson has no desire to work for rich-asshole Max Treadwell, and Max doesn't want to hire flighty Aggie as his assistant either. When they're thrown together by their matchmaking grandmothers, whom they can't stand to disappoint, they both agree to a 2-month contract.

Aggie was a little too self-conscious that she grew up on the wrong side of the tracks, and it became a bit grating how much she constantly projected that onto Max, when he gave no indication that he cared. Besides some work-related mishaps, there was little tension between them, and it was peppered with some cringey sentences. A few characters were introduced with no real purpose (honestly, where did Grant go after the first few pages), which was a little confusing, as well as Max's conflict with his dad that didn't feel fully dealt with.

Things I liked: the grandmothers - I would've liked some more antics from them. There were a couple of steamy scenes that were well done, too.

I received this novel from net galley and the publisher as an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I finished it, and while I usually love hate-to-love stories, this one felt flat to me.

The writing, the characters, and the plot were very chaotic. A lot of going back and forth, but basically having the same argument over and over. Aggie's chip on her shoulder about being born on the wrong side of the track felt exaggerated. It was mentioned so many times, and at times it seemed her whole personality was built around this. Which was in contrast with how confident and sassy she was the rest of the time.

With Max I already found it weird that, with the company he has, he didn't have more employees. Definitely, if you're doing such big deals. Just something about him felt off. His character felt shallow. He's either being unpleasant towards Aggie, or getting in her pants. They never talked out any of their issues.

This book was a fun, light, fast paced read. I really liked the connection between the characters and I liked Aggie’s ideas that she had. She seemed like a fun character. I liked that she tried to make Max think outside of the box a little.

The grandmothers were also fun and cute as well. I liked their little story line and what happened to them at the end because of the story.

My heart broke when Aggie went through her struggles during the story.

There were some things that were predictable and the romance did seem like it was instant.

I still liked this book because of the fun characters and the fast pacing. This was a four star rating. Thank you Netgalley and publishers for allowing me the chance to read and review. My thoughts and opinions are my own.

This book was hilarious and totally lovable. I really liked how both Max and Aggie were more than who they appeared and that Aggie had so much character growth throughout the story.

Aggie came off as a complete flake, totally flighty, and utterly unreliable. But below the surface, she wasn’t any of those things. She was passionate, ambitious and smarter than anyone gave her credit for. Even though she had a lot going for her, she didn’t want to work for Max the pompous ass and he didn’t want to hire Aggie the horrible. But, their scheming grandmothers pushed them together in a professional aspect in hopes something personal would spark between them.

Max and Aggie tried to keep things all business, I mean it was only for 2 months, they could handle that right? Wrong!! The passion and sexual tension was oozing and I was here for it!! It most definitely wasn’t all smooth sailing, but they bumps in the road were well worth it in the end!!

*Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.*

Oh my goodness. What a fun ride this book was. I honestly haven't laughed out loud so many times ever. This book has one of my favourite tropes. Enemies to lovers. Grump and Sunshine. The shenanigans.even as I'm writing this review I am smiling thinking of some humorous scenes. Aggie was such a delight. Ray of sunshine and Max a perfect broody hero.
Honestly if you looking for a light read,witty banter,smart writing and lots of laughing this book is for you.

I wanted to read this book from the moment I saw it on NetGalley. My request to read the book was initially denied but the publisher later invited me to read it. It’s no secret that I love an enemies to lovers romance and while that’s how the book started, the pair weren’t really enemies after chapter 3 or 4, and it turned into an office romance, which is fine, but not my favorite.

I really enjoyed myself until the ending where it dropped the ball on properly resolving everything. Considering how crappy Max was the entire book he needed to do a whole lot more groveling. Some of the things he did were out of ignorance but he was never held accountable for really anything he did. Like the title says, he was an ass, but he did not cease to be an ass as the book progressed. He did not have any sort of redemption arc or show any signs of growth by the end of the book which was disappointing. I liked Aggie more than I liked Max, but honestly she needed therapy and more than a boyfriend.

As I said, I did actually really enjoy the book and it was a fun escape. There was a lot of funny moments and some fun banter. I adored both of the grandmothers meddling in their grandchildren’s lives. However, where the ending was not great, it leaves a sour note on my overall impression of the book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Entangled Publishing for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The title of this one grabbed my attention, and honestly, I needed to know how things would turn out for Aggie & Max. I love an enemies to lovers, and add in a workplace romance, some meddling grandmothers and some hijinks(yes, that’s what I said), it really did come together nicely.
There was a lot going on in this one, and the characters didn’t exactly make me want to latch on and be friends, so it isn’t going to rocket to my ‘read again list’ but it didn’t leave me disappointed.
Overall, this was an okay read for me.

**I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

What a fun read!!! This is a workplace romance that includes witty banter, spicy trivia scenes, and meddling grandmas.
Aggie is a free spirited woman who has been through jobs like a revolving door for the last 18 months. She was raised by her MeeMaw on the wrong side of the tracks in Kansas City. However, she is determined to have her family name finally be one of respect instead of looked down upon.
Max is a self-made business man who grew up in the high society lifestyle. He buts his work above all else and love is not something he has ever had on his radar.

Both Aggie and Max's grandmothers have befriended one another and have decided to play matchmaker. Max needs a new assistant, and Aggie. needs a job that lasts more than two weeks. Aggie and Max see this for exactly what it is, and are determined to let put their grandmothers in their place. However, even though they are quite the opposite, their attraction for one another is instant (though they try their hardest to resist).

I loved these characters and their dialogue with one another. Aggie is very "fly by the seat of her pants" and Max is orderly and structured. However, you root for these two. Aggie is determined not to be seen as the poor little girl from the bad side of town, however, this is what gets in her way of owning up to her feelings.

This book is a perfect summer read! It is fast paced and entertaining. I love books that can have me laughing, crying, and fanning myself from all the "heat", all at the same time.

**You can see more book reviews and recommendations on my TikTok: @bethlovesbooks

This book grabbed me with the title as it made me crack up and sounded like it would be a fun LOL read. The book introduces us to Max who owns his own business and out of a temporary secretary and Aggie who is still searching for that job that gives her that "spark" of excitement and fulfilment. When Max's grandmother decides to use "the favour" and hire Aggie, he decides to make her hate the job so much that she will quit. Aggie decides to do the opposite and make it so he hates her and will fire her or not offer her the job. This led the book to remind me of the movie "How to Lose a Guy in 10 days" starring Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey. I enjoyed the chemistry between the two characters and the book had a few LOL moments. The other thing I loved was the characters' relationships with their grandmothers/mee-maws as both myself and my partner are close to our grandmothers/Nanas. If you are wanting a book that has laughs and romance, then Aggie the Horrible Vs Max the Pompous Ass is the read for you.