I was so excited for this audiobook but it is not for me.
I found the narrator hard to listen to, and the story wasn't reeling me in.
I ended up DNFing the book.

Not Safe for Work by Nisha J. Tuli is a romance novel that contains tropes such as: rivals-to-lovers, slow-burn, office romance, single POV, and forced proximity. I read the audiobook version of this (narrated by Soneela Nankani) and thought that the narration was done really well. Sometimes slow burns move way too slowly for me, and I feel like maybe this could have moved a little quicker, but overall I enjoyed this!
I also adored the leads, Rafe and Trishara. Trishara is healing from a previous toxic office relationship, so it was so lovely to watch her fall for a kindhearted man who adores her (AND is an awesome baker- I need to eat a lemon tart ASAP). This romance brings attention to the different kinds of sexism and racism that are heavily prevalent in the workplace, and in this book, within STEM fields.
Overall: 4 out of 5 stars!

Side note- Ok but what if: a romance novel for Lan and Gabrielle? And a novel for Molly with someone??

Thank you to Hachette Audio and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of Not Safe for Work by Nisha J. Tuli. My comments are an independent, honest review.

Firstly, thank you so much to Hachette Audio for giving me an advanced reader copy of this book via audiobook.

When I tell you my curiosity on this book was at an all-time high, I mean it. I had just read a fantasy series by the same author, and so I wanted to see how it measured against it. All I can say is that Nisha J. Tuli THRIVES in romance. Not only was this a fun palette cleanser, it revealed how much Tuli understands the content they're writing. From the work dynamics to the realism in the characters to the serious discrimination that occurs in workplaces, this was exactly what I needed.

I am a huge fan of their writing style, and in this book, the story flowed well, great pacing, and the ending was satisfying.

I definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a workplace romance.

A solid enemies-to-lovers romance with a refreshing take on what it means to be a woman navigating toxic workplace dynamics. I really appreciated how the story didn’t shy away from showing the subtle (and not-so-subtle) challenges women face professionally. It added depth to the romance and gave the book more weight than your typical office drama.

The progression of the story felt natural, and the pacing of the relationship between the leads was really well done, slow burn without dragging. While the female main character is someone you’ll grow fond of, I have to admit there were moments where her behavior felt a bit childish or overly harsh, in her interactions with Rafe. Still, the chemistry between them keeps you hooked, and her growth by the end makes it worth the ride.

I listened to the audiobook version and have to give a big shoutout to the narrator, who brought so much personality and emotion to the characters. It definitely enhanced the experience!

Overall, a fun, slightly messy, but ultimately enjoyable read.

3.5⭐️
This is my first Nisha J. Tuli book and I really enjoyed it! Our female main character, Trishara is a woman of color in a male dominated field who is constantly getting passed up for promotions and opportunities even after five years at her company. The author mentions at the beginning that she drew inspiration from her own experiences as an engineer and I think that helped this romcom stand out and fell more organic when commenting on workplace harassment and other problems women face when working in male dominated fields. I listened to this book and I really enjoyed the narration by Soneela Nankani. I’ve actually listened to a ton of her work and I enjoy her a lot as a narrator!
This was a fun romance, with good chemistry between the two main characters and a fresh perspective on a workplace romance.


Thank you to NetGalley, Hachette Audio, and Forever for the advance audio copy!

I love this narrator so much! And she only made this book even better! Loved this enemies to lovers work place romance! So much fun with the vacation setting! Perfect summer read!

I could not stop listening to this book.

I’m fairly new to the audiobook scene as in the past I struggled to not be irritated by the narrators, especially when they were voicing the opposite gender. I was too easily pulled out of the story. However, Soneela Nankani absolutely NAILED her performance in this book. I honestly don’t think anyone else could have done better. Now to the story.

I am a sucker for work rivals/idiots to lovers. I love a woman who says it how it is, and this book DELIVERED that for me. Once I started I couldn’t stop, because the two idiots were circling each other, and I was kicking my feet because I love banter like that. I typically love a “rough around the edges” FMC who’s angry and jaded because she’s just repeating my inner monologue, therefore I love Trishara. And the tension and banter between Trishara and Rafe set in a competitive work setting but also in Hawaii, well just check all my boxes why don’t you?

This book reminded me why I love contemporary romance, and romcoms, and idiots to lovers. I can’t wait to see what Nisha writes next!
Thank you Forever and Hachette Audio for the gifted ALC!

Thank you ReadForever Pub for the ARC! I read this epub version in February.
Thank you Hachette Audio for the Audiobook! I was fortunate to listen to this book after reading the eARC. My review remains unchanged.
The audiobook is well produced and I had so much fun reliving Rafe and Tris’s story.

Summary:
Trishara Malik is feeling burned out. Between a blatantly misogynistic boss and a disgustingly handsome rival, who happens to be the boss’s son, Trishara is ready to throw in the towel. Until her name is thrown in the running for a promising leadership training course, taking her to Hawaii with none other than Rafe Gallagher. What starts as an easy vacation away from work dissolves to endless team building exercises, clashing opinions, and heated hearts..

My Opinion:
This book was a stunning and hysterical romcom, workplace rivals-to-lovers, with tons of tension and longing. I appreciated the slow burn, the build up and banter between our main characters, Trishara and Rafe, and the explosive chemistry when our characters come together. Trishara’s character is extremely relatable for those who are also women in STEM. Walking the fine line of saving face for the sake of job security and calling out the double standards is a relevant conflict and I loved that the FMC stays true to herself and what she values. Rafe, like many other millennials, is caught between pleasing his family and pleasing himself. I found myself falling more and more for Rafe as he stopped hiding his talents and embraced his gift of creativity. I was rooting for this couple the entire book and fell in love with the black cat/golden retriever dynamic.

Nisha is so talented and I am smitten with her writing in her debut contemporary romance!

Tropes:
One Bed/ Workplace Romance/ Rivals to Lovers/ BIPOC Rep/ Forced Proximity/ Migraine Rep

Thank you NetGalley for the ALC!
~the audio~ despite my rating for this book the audio was super good and even though I appreciate a dual pov audio I didn't feel like it was lacking.
Now despite my audio experience this book was lacking in just about every way to me. This book follows Tishara and Rate, lishara works in stem which is notoriously male dominated. After a traumatizing work encounter with her ex she decides to stop trying to climb the corporate ladder and kinda stay behind the scenes until one day she get selected to go on a work trip to Hawaii with her nemesis Rafe ( the bosses son) the rivalry between them is literally non existent and they are enemies for no good reason. It felt extremely childish and I felt so annoyed with Tishara. I didn't feel any chemistry between the two and I felt like the book being purely Tisharas POV didn't help me get to know Rafe and it just felt lacking. For these reasons I didn't love the book.

🌴Not Safe For Work - Nisha Tuli 🌴

This book had a similar vibe to The Hating Game. It featured workplace enemies who eventually turned into lovers. I found the characters to be quite well-developed throughout the book. This was a SLOW BURN romance 🔥

While it wasn’t as spicy as I had anticipated, it was still enough to keep me engaged. Overall, it was a good read, and I’m excited to read more of Nisha Tuli’s work in the future!

I’ll be honest: It was tough for me to get beyond the dedication with its internalized misogyny of referring to adult women as “girlies.” Add to that the content warning (which is not mentioned in the book description) and the vulgarity of the first chapter, and I noped out of this one pretty fast. Obviously, I’m not the target reader. The audiobook narration gives the book a veneer of class that’s not in the text. DNF.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hatchette Audio for this advanced copy of Not Safe for Work.

Overall: 4 out of 5 stars

Not Safe for Work is a spicy romcom about two enemies who get sent on a work leadership retreat. Tris is a multiracial woman who has experienced so much sexism and racism in the work place she’s not even sure if she wants to stay. Rafe is the boss’s son and clear nepotism choice.
What follows is a romcom where they’re both put in a singular room for the entire trip. It has a lot of classic romcom tropes, and decent spice.
The real seller for me was Tris finally standing up for herself. Nisha said this book was inspired a lot by her own experience working in engineering before writing, and you can tell. I’m glad Nisha got out and also didn’t let Tris take it anymore.

Thank you Hachette Audio and Forever for this ALC.

I loved Nisha's Ouranos series and when I saw this I knew I had to read or listen. But it fell slightly flat for me. It started out with the FMC, Tris, saying that she would never date anyone she worked with again but then she was ranking all the men in the office. And we don't find out until much later in the book why she wouldn't date a co-worker...and it's a totally valid reason and makes the utmost sense, wish we would have gotten that sooner!

And then there's Rafe, Tris's nemesis and also her crush. They go on a work trip and have to room together...how convenient. But as the trip goes on and they get to know each other more they find that the other isn't so bad and the tension and chemistry builds. And they definitely tip toe around their attraction

A dual POV could have really made this really come to life and would have bumped it up a star for me. But we do see very real life problems with the work place and women vs. men and the standards that exist. I really appreciated this and how the author dealt with it!

Overall it was good and if you like a one bed, work place drama, miscommunication, tropical setting trope you will like this!

I had a hard time getting into this one and then once I did the love story and plot just felt like it was missing something and maybe a little cheesy. I did love the women in a male dominated field perspective and minority representation.

Nisha J Tuli is a new to me author, and after this gem, I will definitely be actively checking out her books more!

I really liked this one. In the beginning, the author mentions using some of her experience in the engineering field in this book. As someone who went to school for engineering (and was actively low-key bullied by the all male classmates I had) I really felt for Trishara and her experiences. And I think the author did a really good job of showing the reality of anyone who isn't a white man being in the field. Great work there.

I LOVED the slow burn romance! It was amazing. I love them together and I loved the build up.

The only reason this isn't a five star for me is for two reasons: one, the obsession with his smiles got a little annoying after a while (it was talked about way too much) and two, Rafe and his very clingy ex-girlfriend. It was more specifically how he handled it (or didn't) and how long it went on for. It made him less appealing to me as a reader.

Also, Soneela Nankani is a fantastic narrator! She did incredible on this book. I love her as a narrator.

As a woman engineer, I loved reading about Trishara’s experiences in a male dominated field. She was such a great character and her strength and determination was inspiring.

Even while dealing with more serious themes, this book was a lot of fun. The dynamic between our two leads was entertaining, and the romance was sweet and felt authentic.

I do wish we got a little bit more of Maui, as I was excited to see this was the destination in the book, but I feel like we didn’t get much besides the hotel.

The narrator did a fantastic job on this audiobook, and it was an enjoyable listen.

⭐️ 3.5 stars

- Rivals to Lovers
- One Bed Trope
- Workplace Romance
- Slow Burn
- Forced proximity
- FMC POV
- 🌶️🌶️🌶️

This was my first book by Nisha J. Tuli. It took a little while to get into, but once the story picked up, it became a pretty enjoyable audiobook.

The story follows Trishara Malik and Rafe Gallagher, workplace rivals who are forced to share a room during a leadership retreat in Hawaii. As they compete for a promotion, they start to get to know each other better. The hate they've always felt might actually be something else.

I listened to the audiobook while doing chores, and it’s perfect for that kind of light, low-focus listening. It was easy to follow and kept my attention. Trish’s experience of being dismissed in a male-dominated workplace hit close to home for me. I’ve been through that, and the author captured that dynamic really well, even if it made me angry.

The book was good, but it lost me in the last pages. A lot happened, but none of it felt meaningful. The plot seemed to lose its spark and direction. I also felt a bit frustrated with how most of the female characters were written in ways that made them hard to like. I wish that hadn’t been such a big part of the book.

The narrator was actually really good. I listened at 1.5x speed, and she still managed to give each character a clear voice without making the male voices sound cringey.

Thank you NetGalley and Hachette Audio this ALC.

This story had so much potential - workplace setting, rivals(?)-to-lovers, women in STEM, there’s only one bed - but unfortunately it just fell flat. Coworkers rivals to lovers can be fun, if it’s done right. Unfortunately, I don’t think it is here. It’s so obvious from the very start exactly how the story is going to play out, which was disappointing.

As I listened to the audiobook of this, I’ll just say that I really enjoyed the narrator and thought she did a good job of bringing life to the characters.

I’ll start with what I did like. I really appreciate the author showing how difficult it is for Tris in the male-dominated area of engineering. I felt so angry on her behalf hearing how she’d been passed over time and time again for roles she was qualified for, just for them to go to another white dude. I think this was handled pretty well, and I really did enjoy how Tris finally put her foot down towards the end of the book. There were two ways that scene could’ve gone, and I’m so glad it went the way it did. The author did a good job of representation as well. Obviously our main character is not white but that’s never really mentioned, and the inclusion of her new bi/gay colleagues is treated as if it’s completely normal (which it is, but it’s often made into a really big deal in romance books even though it doesn’t need to be).

The two main characters are annoying for the get-go and both act like children at times. It’s hard to believe that these are professionals being put forward for leadership roles. They’re supposed to be nearing 30, but it’s almost as if they’re still in high school with the way they act.

It mostly reads like a crappy romcom hallmark movie, like I can easily picture how it’d all play out.

I thought the ending was cute, even if it was very predictable and not realistic at all.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ALC of this book in return for an honest review.

Nisha J. Tuli is a new to me author! This book made me feel giddy and smiled at the sweetest moments. The banter between Trishara & Rafe was AMAZING! I loved how she stood up for him in ways no one had ever done.

Wasn’t a huge fan of this one and the character purposely seeking out a workplace relationship. Kind of rubbed me the wrong way. The narration wasn’t horrible, but it was not my style. I was really hoping I would like this one more than I did.