This story was equal parts amusing, sweet, and gratifying. I love Tris as a strong FMC working in STEM and navigating the difficult road for women in her field, where men forget their manners and applaud her (and the author) for putting them in their place. The banter between Tris and Rafe was fun and their chemistry leapt off the page. I loved the equal time given to their romance and her workplace woes, showing that workplace balance is possible in life. This was a quick, fun read!

I’m such a sucker for workplace romances, especially when the setting switches to a resort—and this one totally delivered. I listened to the audiobook while reading, and Soneela Nankani brought Trishara’s sarcasm and sass to life perfectly. It felt like a full-on rom-com!

Trishara’s fight against the company’s bias toward white men hit close to home for me. She’s bold, smart, and unapologetic, and watching her find her confidence again was everything. The enemies-to-lovers banter with Rafe was so much fun—taking their tension from office to Hawaii was pure genius. That one bed situation? Hilarious and heartbreaking.

Rafe was hot and sweet but felt a little flat at times—I wanted more depth from him. The slow-burn chemistry was worth it though. Some pacing issues slowed the middle, and the conflict resolution could’ve been stronger, but the ending and epilogue gave me all the warm feels.

The Hawaii setting was gorgeous, and the book’s call-out of workplace sexism was powerful and relatable. If you love rom-coms with real issues and great banter, this one’s for you. Highly recommend!

This was a true slow burn!
I'm a sucker for a one bed troupe as well as a work place troupe!
Trips and Rafe had their own struggles throughout this book and I love that they found themselves along the way and how they had no idea how the other felt about each other!
The way he draws her....
SWOON!
Thank you NetGalley for this ALC!

Oooooh, such rivals to lovers goodness. I love that these two are not passive rivals seething from other side of their cubicles. Tris and Rafe have spent the past five-ish years competing to be the best engineers they can be. Tris, an Indian-American woman, is very much better but nepotism gives Rafe the upper hand by way of his company exec father.

When they're both chosen to go on a three week leadership retreat in Maui, it's only natural that the competition ramps up a notch (or ten!). But as it goes, there are a few kerfuffles and they end up spending much more time together then they anticipated. And OH LOOK! They have things in common. Like the fact that they both think they the other is super hot and they also hate the company they work for.

Whatever could go wrong? Or very, very right?

This is the perfect mix of vacation and workplace romance with a strong helping of lust, longing, and slow-burn tension!

Gimme that workplace banter! Gimme that woman trying to find herself when the world tried to talk over her dreams! Nisha’s contemporary debut is a TREAT! I love how Nisha wove in real problems with corporate America and how it burns us out emotionally and intellectually while also reinforcing that WE CAN DO IT! Hold on to that inner voice you earned. This book was hot with heart! For the overachiever in all of us, you deserve to be Not Safe For Work every now and then (consensually)!

4.5/5 stars!
Thank you Forever Publishing, Nisha, and NetGalley for the chance to review this book!
I really enjoyed this from start to finish. Trishara is related in all manner of ways and she is FUNNY. Her inner monologue had me cackling. I felt her emotions in my bones.
I longingly sighed, I lol’d, I even cried at the end.
The slowest of slow burns was WELL WORTH the payoff and I would gladly read Rafe & Tris antagonize each other for another 20 chapters.
The chemistry was sizzling, the emotions were high, and the retribution Tris got in the end was "perfect* I was incredibly satisfied with the ending.

This was giving he’s a 10 but he’s your work nemesis vibes. All while in a fancy Hawaii work retreat yes please!!! For a first contemporary romance you nailed this!!

If you’re looking for an easy read binge worthy book and with a bowl of popcorn (or favorite snack) this book is for you. I was smiling and kicking me feet the whole time. Something about a work place romance that just has the best tension. *Except please insert side eye glare at Hannah for entering my happy bubble.

My favorite part of book was seeing the representation of Tris as a woman in STEM and getting lost in the boy club of a large corporate companies. Always being pass over for being a women or a women of color. Tris wants to break the glass ceiling and I love seeing her advocated for herself was just perfection.

Now for Rafa, this man was secretly a little softie. I loved learning
about him and his back story. Along with some fun surprises on his hobbies. Something about a man dressed up for work and his sleeves are rolled up.

Truly the ending of this book was perfection. It just melted me.

Thank you Forever and NetGalley for the ARC!
This is my honest review.

I loved this book so much! The rivals to lovers banter is so good, Trishara's internal monologue is hilarious and all the desserts mentioned were making me hungry. If you're looking for a quick, fun read that also tactfully handles microagressions, racism, and misogyny this should be your next read!

4 stars!

I really enjoyed this one! Nisha J. Tuli delivers a rivals-to-lovers romance filled with tension, chemistry, banter, a refreshing look at corporate dynamics, and a heroine you can’t help but root for. Trishara (Tris) is such a strong fmc; she is driven, witty, and painfully relatable as she battles the frustration of being constantly overlooked in a system stacked against her.

Tris is caught off guard when she’s selected to attend a leadership retreat in Hawaii - and even more so when she finds out she’ll be sharing a room with Rafe, the guy who stole her promotion (and just so happens to be her boss’s son).

I especially appreciated how the story thoughtfully explored themes of bias, privilege, and career stagnation. Tris’s personal growth felt authentic, and her dynamic with Rafe was the perfect mix of tension, humor, heat, and heart.


A heartfelt thank you to Forever Pub for the ARC & ALC!

This book was such a delightful surprise that I couldn’t stop smiling through most of it. The chemistry between Tris and Rafe sizzled with all the delicious tension and witty banter I crave in a workplace romcom. The writing sparkled with humor and warmth, making the slow thaw of their icy rivalry into something tender feel so earned. The romance built up with just the right mix of playful push and pull, and watching Tris learn to trust wasn’t just about love but about believing in herself. It’s the kind of book I wanted to dive back into the moment I finished, and I’m already thinking about rereading it on a rainy day.

Not Safe For Work is such a relevant yet fun summer read!

Trishara is absolutely sick and tired of being passed over for opportunities and promotions at work…. especially since Rafe gets them all as the son of the boss. It’s shocking when she’s selected for a leadership development program! But alas, Rafe is too.

This book gave me a lot of feelings - sometimes it was really relatable, sometimes I cringed (people say some cringey stuff in the workplace in real life too), sometimes I laughed. And of course… there’s only one bed and they’ve accidentally been assigned the same suite!

I felt the author got it right with this fun workplace romcom!

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book. The review expresses my own opinions.

Honestly…I kinda loved this book. The only reason it’s 4 stars instead of 5 is because it took them so long to finally kiss. The tension and banter was there. Tris and Rafe were perfect together and I loved that it was interracial.

Next up I was Lan and Gabrielle’s story.

I really enjoyed this work place/vacation romance. This one had a lot of classic tropes that you would find in this type of setting/plot so it was a cozy, predictable read. The banter stood out as well as the specific character’s experience as a women and a person of color in a white male dominated work place. I loved the mix of romance with the workplace/character growth,

Thank you to Forever & Hachette Audiofor the Advanced Reader Copy. This review is left voluntarily.

I’ve been a big fan of Nisha J. Tuli and truly adore her as an author. Her writing has brought me joy with multiple spots in my top reads of the year and I went into Not Safe for Work fully expecting it to be another favorite. As someone who spent nearly a decade working at a big tech company, I was excited to see that setting on the page—particularly through the lens of a woman of color. I was hoping for a story that would reflect the quiet (and not-so-quiet) misogyny, the exclusion from the boys’ club, and the professional gaslighting I’ve experienced myself. In many ways, the book does touch on those themes—but unfortunately, the reading experience just didn’t land for me the way I’d hoped.

I typically enjoy a prickly heroine, but Trishara’s anger was always close to the surface bordering on explosive when things didn’t go exactly to plan. She often seemed to expect people to read her mind, while giving no grace in return. That imbalance made it hard for me to root for her. The book is told from her perspective, so I knew what she was thinking but her lack of empathy or ability to read a room was hard.

The romance between Trishara and Rafe was also hard for me to track. Their hot-and-cold dynamic swung so wildly that I occasionally wondered if my bookmark hadn’t synced or if I’d missed something important. I so wanted them to just sit down and talk it out, there was so much miscommunication. I picked up and put down the book hoping that it was just my mood. Which led me to I read the book both via ebook & eventually enjoying the audio once I was approved, I was trying to find my sweet spot. Narrator Soneela Konkani did a wonderful job bringing the world to life and I will look for more of her works.

That said, I know many readers have loved this book, and I fully believe this might just be a “me” issue. I wanted so badly to fall for this story the way others have, especially because Nisha’s previous work has meant so much to me. But Not Safe for Work just didn’t work for me.

Still, I’ll absolutely be picking up her next book—and cheering her on every step of the way.

Loved loved loved. This is a really wonderful love story but the setting of a corporate retreat adds a level of both hilarity and depth to the story, allowing us to understand the characters as whole personalities. Tuli also navigates parental relationships, the role of women and POC in the workplace and just the travails of dating in the 21st century as career focused people with aplomb. This felt fresh in a genre that often can feel repetitive.

This was a cute, over the top workplace romance. The horniness these two felt for each other was more funny than steamy, especially how much Tris was fantasizing about her supposed supervillain coworker. This was a great quick read, beachy setting romance, with lots of funny moments. I loved seeing a South Asian FMC with chronic pain be an absolute badass, and the descriptions of her outfits sounded amazing.

However I found some parts of the book to be rather flat. The depiction of Hawaii could have easily been any other beachy destination resort and had basically no culture integrated into it. The MMC is also a bit generic and read like a bit of a white knight with how much he was constantly jumping in to stand up for her. It didn't feel like any of the conversations they had about workplace sexism were very real or vulnerable.

Ignoring all that and not treating the book as a serious read made it a quick and enjoyable read, but a really standout book could've gone deeper in my opinion.

Big thanks to Forever for the gifted review copy! Thoughts are my own.

Thank you NetGalley and Forever Grand Central Publishing for providing this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

My first Nisha J. Tuli book and I’m so happy that this one did not disappoint! This was a super cute, witty, quick read for me and I adored Trishara and Rafe’s back and forth banter. Tris was a headstrong badass female character who learns the about the power of speaking up for one’s self, especially in male dominated STEM field. And Rafe 🥵 oh man! He’s a man who knows his way around, unlike most of the other Khakis 😘

For a contemporary rom-com that has a strong emphasis on workplace romance and work rivals to lovers, I cannot recommend it enough. Also if you’re familiar with Nisha’s Artifacts of Ouranos series, you’ll appreciate the subtle reference she makes in this book.

This was a solid summer read! The perfect book to bring to the beach with you. I really enjoyed the banter back and forth between our characters.

I loved this book! I love an enemies to lovers, forced proximity trope. And knowing that they’ve both been pining this whole time?? Loveee. I do wish it was a slower burn but I’d definitely recommend! The end also seemed a little too fast paced for me but I’m obsessed with reading a POC FMC. Can’t wait to read more of Nisha’s work!

What to expect:
- a strong-willed, driven BIPOC woman in STEM
- a slow-burning, forced proximity romance with so much delicious tension
- the one-bed trope!
- witty banter
- a kind-hearted MMC who will make you swoon
- a book that transports you to Hawaii (a.k.a. the perfect summer read)

Because this is a single POV, the focus is on Tris rather than Rafe. We see her heal and grow from her past relationship, and fight against misogyny and unfairness in the workplace, while falling for Rafe (even if she really doesn't want to 🤭).