⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🌶️🌶️🌶️

Am I an audiobook girlie now???????

J.F. Harding needs an Oscar or something for his voice because Jesus Christ. The way he brought Aidan to life was INCREDIBLE. And Cindy Kay’s voice was PERFECT for Micah. I genuinely don’t think I could imagine different narrators for this book.

I’m all about rivals to lovers, workplace romance, and forced proximity and this book gave it all to me in one shot. Could I have asked for more????

Hot English professor in slutty little glasses who writes spicy Shakespeare fanfic meets hot auditor in business wear who follows him around and keeps tabs on his job who reads said spicy fanfic. Need I say more?

The chemistry between these characters was insane and I was constantly yelling at them to just kiss already 😩 but when they finally did?????? WHEW.

Now someone point me to the nearest university so I can find myself a hot English professor.

Thank you so much to Harlequin Audio for the ALC! 🫶🏻

5/5 ⭐️ 4.5/5 🌶️

🎧 Audiobook narration: 5/5 ⭐️, dual narration

I went into this book anticipating a little dash of spice qith some enemies to lovers and what I got was being dunked head first into a vat of ghost pepper hot sauce. BOY! Was this spicy! And it was HOT! Micah, our FMC, is an auditor who is assigned to audit a college’s English department for potential cuts. In order to relax after work, she loves to read filthy fanfic. Aidan, our MMC, an English professor at the college Micah is auditing, moonlight’s as a fanfic writer, unknowingly being one of Micah’s favorites.

Their first meeting was very contentious. Aidan insulted Micah, Micah triggered Aidan with some harsh words, so their enemies label was assigned. There was always an underlying level of tension due to reciprocal attraction. I loved reading the dynamics between these two! Between pranking, getting even, etc, I loved it all! The first “fuck it” moment had me SCREAMINGGGGGG.

The spice in this…. Y’all, I think my jaw was dropped listening. I don’t read enough books where the MMC properly fucks the FMC’s mouth and tits. So I was officially shook. I really loved when Micah and Aidan started writing spicy fanfic together. That was such a lovely touch!!

Thank you to NetGalley for this ALC!

Sizzling like chicken in a frying pan 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️.
I’m normally not a fan of enemies to lovers unless it’s in fantasy but this I liked. I loved the fast enemies development in the work place. The connection from a unique circumstance of meeting on scribble and knowing each others user names. The spicy scenes chef kiss, Mr Scott can call me a good girl anytime lol. I got the opportunity to listen to the audio book thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin audio, the voice actors really sold the story for me Cindy Kay; J. F. Harding great work.

🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩
The MMC is SUCH a red flag that there really isn’t any way to make the romance believable to me. It was a disservice to the excellent narrators that I ended up listening to the story at a speed of 2x. Aiden Scott is a whiny, thin-skinned, sexist, vengeful, lying a$sh*le who has an exaggerated sense of his worth. Such a Karen- he thinks it’s his right to try and complain enough to make others lose their jobs, just because he is butthurt. The FMC is an interesting enough character but I have NO respect for anyone who can fall for this horrible man.
The writing, while grammatical and showing good knowledge of a dictionary and thesaurus, does not help the story flow. The bits of erotica manage to be more cringey than passionate. Descriptions are terse and full of word choices that do not threaten to dampen anyone’s panties or shorts.
The overall plots are interest-worthy but it would require a significant rewrite to remove the red flags and make the characters likeable.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ALC. I look forward to listen to the narrators again.

Cute work enemies to lovers story. The audiobook narrator does an excellent job and can be listened to at many speeds comfortably. The phrasing felt repetitive at some points and the book attempts a lot of different tropes for its size.
Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced audio copy.

This was such a nice twist of a classic and was intrigued to see how this was going to play out. I’m glad it wasn’t too long of a third act and it was solved quickly and was to the point. I loved the idea of a teacher writing books on their version of Wattpad and the Micah’s characterization.

🎧 I really wanted to like this one, but it just was not for me. I found the FMC insufferable and miserable. The audiobook narration was excellent though. Great pacing and delivery, so I’m rounding up to 3 stars based on the audio.

What To Expect:
• Enemies to lovers
• Fanfiction and academia
• Secret identity
• Workplace tension
• Nerdy MMC

📖 Book Score: 2.75 stars
🎧 Audio Score: 5 stars
🎙️ Narration Style: Dual
📅 Pub Date: May 27, 2025

📝 Thank you to Harlequin Audio and NetGalley for the advanced listening copy. All thoughts are my own.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4 stars!

This was an easy listen with an excellent narrator duo—seriously, the voice work was top-tier. While I enjoyed the story overall, some parts felt a bit overdone or repetitive, which made it just a little hard to stay fully engaged at times.

That said, if you’re into:
🎓 Professor x auditor
🔥 “Enemies” to lovers
💔 Lost connections
🌶️ And a definite dose of spice…

…this one will absolutely hit the mark. A solid read with just enough tension and heat to keep things interesting!

Tropes:
╰⪼ Workplace romance
╰⪼ Professor x Auditor
╰⪼ Enemies to Lovers

A fun and steamy read! The pairing of an English professor and a financial auditor made for a unique setup. The plot was engaging, though nothing wildly memorable. Aidan’s lack of grace toward Micah’s financial reality was frustrating, encouraging her to quit without a real plan felt tone-deaf, even if things worked out. That said, I really appreciated how the author defended romance and fanfiction as valid, meaningful forms of literature. A nice reminder that what you enjoy reading matters and you shouldn’t be ashamed of it.

📚🩶ALC Review🩶📚
Thank you Sarah Echavarre Smith and Net Galley for this ALC Copy !
I had the honor of not only reading the ARC of this book but also the ALC!
The audio was AMAZING! The performance bumped up my ranking.
5 stars for the performance for sure!
Cindy Kay and J.F. Harding did an amazing job bringing this Audio to life!
First off the Enemies to lovers vibes in this one was on point and fun!
Sometimes I felt like each of the MCs took their part a little too far, but then again that was some pretty epic build up!
•
This one was SPICY!
The sexual tension between these two MCs was 🔥 and once it ignited between them it was 🥵
Plus both MCs dabble in writing erotic FanFiction anonymously online. (So those parts get steam too).
•
I absolutely enjoyed this book it was fun and flirty and a little deep, the characters were lovable. (Although in the beginning I wanted to slap Aidan and in the almost end I wanted to slap Micah)
I was truly worried about how these two would find out who they were, I love the way the author made this happen, how there was zero excess drama.
But in the end it was perfect!
Read this if you like:
🩶Spice
📚Hidden Identity
🩶Enemies to Lovers
📚He Falls First
🩶Hurt/Comfort

SPICY. SPICY. SPICYYYYYYY. 🔥🔥🔥 3.5 ⭐️’s


Much Ado About Hating You is a steamy, enemies-to-lovers romance featuring a retired hockey player turned English professor who is also a writer of smutty Shakespeare fanfics. The FMC is a once-hopeful writer turned auditor thanks to a messy breakup and life detour.

*Cue the forced proximity and the sizzling tension.*


This book is short, at just under 300 pages, so I knew it wasn’t going to be a slow burn or deeply developed plot. But wowwwwww, it’s heavy on the spice. If you like your romance books to read like a sauna with a side of Shakespeare, this is it. That said, the steam overshadows the plot. A lot of the time is spent either reading the characters’ smut, the characters writing smut, or the characters living out the smut and not nearly enough time deepening the relationship or fleshing out the storyline.

The concept was super cute (I'm a sucker for literary tie-ins… and spicy professors), but it felt like there was untapped potential. And the icing on the cake was a worst thing ever invented (the third act break up. Not literally the worst thing ever, but ugh).

The audiobook version of this was a great listen. The voice for the MMC was perfect and he portrayed how I felt Aidan would sound in my head! And the voice actor for Micah brought all the sass and attitude she needed to be that character.

Overall, it was fun, fast, and HOT. Buuut if you’re hoping for deep emotional connection or insane character development, you might want to manage your expectations. If you’re just here for the spice though…

Much Ado About Hating You is a cute, flirty workplace rom-com with sharp banter, sizzling chemistry, and a fun fanfic element. It’s a light, entertaining read with mixed parts of humor and heat—perfect if you’re in the mood for a quick, feel-good romance. I found it reminded me a lot of You’ve Got Mail with some Shakespearean flair.

I always have a special spot for books about books and writing.

I liked Micha and Aiden for the most part, but there were a few moments where their behavior was frustrating and left me wanting more from them.

That said, there was definitely steam and heat but I thought the character growth and emotional depth stayed fairly light. This one’s more about fun vibes and flirtation than deep character arcs, making it a great palate cleanser or quick flirty read.

The fanfic entries and text messages were definitely entertaining and hot!

I really enjoyed Cindy Kay and J.F. Harding’s narration—it added a lot to the audiobook experience, and I’ll definitely be checking out more of their work.

Overall, this was an entertaining and lighthearted read.

The Shakespeare puns are grand in this spicy enemies to lovers tome. Shakespeare in Lust who works as an English professor by day, writes spicy fan fic erotica via a website by night and has fans who are there for it. Shakespeare in Lust engages in a dm flirtation with one of his admirers, Hot for Hermia, who happens to be his current work nemesis, and encourages her to write and share her own stories, which has always been her dream job. Ere long Shakespeare in Lust and Hot for Hermia learn whom each other are and "work out" their frustrations for each other, with each other.🌶️🌶️🌶️ All is fair in love and war with this novel and I encourage everyone to give it a read and/or listen!

4 stars, i truly think listening to this instead of reading it was the way to go for me at least.

this was very good. I just snatched it up thinking it had a good blurb and the tropes seemed up my alley and i was not disappointed in the slightest. it was hot and the spice was SO good. i love a good enemies to lovers story because the spice and tension just hits so much harder and better and then add in workplace trope????? YES thank you. this was a first book for me from this author and while i didnt totally vibe with the mcs the entirety of the book, i still really enjoyed the plot and how the story played out and the tropes alone were done pretty dang well. it was such an easy and quick listen, definitely suggest to anyone who wants to read this that the audiobook is a good way to go about it.

This was PERFECT. A modern day Much Ado About Nothing retelling. Perfect spice, perfect tension, perfect chemistry. Yes yes yes!!!!

Just finished listening to the audio of this book.

I get why some folks were not too happy with the book. The getting the two MCs together was weird. We got enough built up on their angst against each other. Their coming together was very 'meh', like the reason of them coming together was so easily erased by just a hot kiss then leads to hotter other stuff. Like, that connection on the hate was strong, on the coming together was weak. It was better when Micah found out who Aiden really was then leads to the hot stuff - that's much better on that connection to make the story move forward.

Some of the arguments were weird, like he was unhappy with her using her job as an argument, and not thinking it's her job. While he called her out that she isn't happy, but he also is a professor, and has a job to do, why is he looking down on her job. As though making money is not a priority even though she told him what she went thru. It was weird.

The 3rd act, I get, even though I'm not a 3rd act person. But by then I'm invested enough in the couple that I do want to see it thru. Super happy that they came back on their own and in their own nerdy way. And thank goodness that they did! At any rate, do go read the extra chapter, it's cute.

I've never listen to Cindy Kay before, but she did fine. J.F. Harding on the grumpy mood, however it's awesome. Need more of that. Thank you NetGalley & Harlequin Audio for the ARC

This was a fun one and super spicyyyy. MMC and FMC have so much physical chemistry, but I feel as though the emotional chemistry was lacking a but there for me to understand how they were end game with each other SOOO quickly? Aspects reminded me of The Nanny by Lana Ferguson (two people working together do not realize they have actually been talking on a spicy website). A fun concept for sure. Overall, a fun read I would recommend, but wasn't life changing :)

I am always on the hunt for genuine enemies to lovers storylines and I was hoping this would scratch the itch. While this book definitely got the enemies part down it struggled to develop any believable love connection between Aiden and Micah.

Based on the triggering events at the start of the book, there is a near irrational hatred for one another. The enemies storyline is continually shoved in your face and felt so out of place for the characters considering they are supposed to be respected professionals in their field. Being in their heads and listening to them overly dramatize every interaction was exhausting. The move to lovers felt underdeveloped, with the epiphany moments for the characters lacking substance and depth. The eventual declaration of love was not earned and left me wanting more.

With all that said, the author did excel in crafting some really fun and sexy scenes for both the fanfiction entries and their interactions. I listened to this book and I thought the narrators did an excellent job bringing the story to life. Especially with Micah, you can really hear the constant indignation lacing her tone through the early half of the book.

Although this was a miss for me, I think people who are good with their romance being vibes-only or want something a little sexy and tension filled will enjoy this.

run of the mill romance. It didn't blow me away, but I had such a great time during the spicy scenes. I'll always finish a workplace romance.
Rounding up on my rating because I really enjoyed the narrators. <3

This book was just fair for me! I think it will find its audience. Those who will love it: people who love fan fiction, enemies-to-lovers/workplace romance, hot Shakespeare nerds, You’ve Got Mail/secret online identities trope, minimal third-act drama (it didn’t come out of nowhere/made sense and resolved quickly), and detailed open-door spice. It is fast-paced overall.

For me, a lot of the dialogue felt cringey and the first hook-up felt jarring after the tense meeting where things came to a head (y’all just gonna do the conference room like that? when any of your coworkers could walk in? lol). The chemistry was hot, but just went a little too zero-to-one hundred for me! I like more drawn-out tension (doesn’t necessarily have to be slow-burn, but medium?). Even though the third-act drama wrapped up quickly, it still annoyed me. Aiden knew what Micah’s job was from the start, and even if she decided not to do it, it seemed like someone else still would? The balance of telling vs. showing in the writing felt off for me, and the author used some of my less favorite spicy scene words (folds, why folds!).

I did think the production of the audiobook and the narrators were great!

I feel like there was possibly set-up for another book, maybe Liam (Aiden’s brother) and his coworker Kendall? Seems like there was some unresolved tension there. I would possibly give this author/series another go despite my critiques!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ALC!