I loved the idea of this book, the concept sounded fun, hilarious and with potential for good spice.

I however did not enjoy this book. I found the female main character extremely annoying due to her never accepting her part in things.

All in all this wasn’t the book for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sarah Eschavarre Smith for ARC access in exchange for an honest review.

Everything about the description of this book appealed to me! I'm a huge fan of enemies-to-lovers, forced proximity, and workplace romance tropes. I also love spicy fanfiction! All of these aspects led me to excitement but once I got into the story, I realized it wasn't hitting for me and I chose to DNF at 56%.

I didn't connect with Micah or Aidan. To be honest, I found Aidan to be more of a bully than an "enemy", and I did not like the way he treated Micah. The pranks they pulled on each other in the office felt very juvenile, and I'm honestly surprised both MCs managed to keep their jobs after multiple coworkers and Aidan's boss witnessed their petty interactions. While I loved the idea of our MCs conversing through the fanfiction site, I wish their identities would have been revealed to each other much sooner. If the storyline hadn't moved so slowly, I may have continued reading.

I really liked the narrators for this book, it was a pleasant surprise to have the two different main characters have different narrators. I think the voices suited the characters and expressed what was happening in the novel well. I looked forward to listening to them each evening.

This book was a fun romcom to read. It was quite fast paced and interesting. I really liked the characters, they felt like pretty regular everyday people which was appealing. They both had flaws and problems to work through making the story more interesting and relatable. I liked the Shakespeare fanfiction parts of the novel too as it was a super fun book to listen to. For the genre this book doesn't necessarily stand out however if you love the genre then you know this is a good one to read and enjoy.

This was ok!

Kind lacked the depth for me before the characters got to smacking! I need a little more from them. Which usually I love enemies to lovers, but this just didn’t do it quite right for me. I never actually ended up liking the MFC.

Give me a workplace romance and every time I eat it up! Now give me a spicy, rivals to lovers , with Shakespearean vibes. I devoured this!!! Needy and dirty ….and I was obsessed.

I will be recommending this to any customers looking for a good spicy time.

I didn’t love the narrators on this one . I’m not sure if they fit how I imagined the characters when I read rhe book.

4.5/5 ⭐️Micah is a no-nonsense auditor assigned to investigate the questionable spending habits of a university's literature department. Her biggest headache? Aidan, the charming but insufferable professor who refuses to play by the rules. They clash from the start.
What Aidan doesn’t know is that Micah harbors a secret obsession: she’s fallen hard for an anonymous online author of steamy, emotionally intelligent smut. What Micah doesn’t know? That author is Aidan.
When the truth comes out, will sparks fly in the best way—or will their mutual loathing burn everything to the ground? 3.5/5🌶️🌶️

Enemies to lovers
Workplace romance
Multicultural
Forced proximity
Hot professor
Secret identity

Audio review
Cindy Kay, J. F. Harding

Main characters
Micah Mika
Aiden Scott

Micah and Aiden meet under pressure . She is the auditor sent to evaluate his department/job. As an English professor, he is extremely sensitive about what he does and how she handles the situation. Their first impressions were not very good. She thinks he is arrogant and rude and he thinks she is out to get him.

While they both appear to be opposites, they have a lot in common. It was fun watching them both grow together and share their story. I love that they both were romance writers. They were supportive of each other. The banter was fun, the pranks were humorous and humbling (LOL).

Fun story with great characters.

This was a cute contemporary romance with a good bit of spice.

It gave some solid "You've got mail" vibes while also feeling a little fresher with the setting and the means of communication.

I liked the characters and the side characters, although the conflict with the dad felt like a throw away.

I think if you're a reader who has ever read or written fanfiction this will resonate with you.

Narration: I did receive an ALC of this and thought that the narrators were really good. This was a dual narration and the pacing and balance were entertaining and did not feel heavy sided.

I left this off of the goodreads review, but the only part of this that I will say I had some negative thoughts about was the first spicy scene in chapter 19. It was from Aiden's POV and I would highly encourage someone to review that section and count the number of times he said "p***y" when describing what he was doing to Micah. When narrated it was repetitive and abrasive - maybe find some synonyms or other phrases to help with the action transitions.

3.75⭐️

This is a review of the audiobook.

I really wanted to enjoy this book but I had to almost force myself to finish it.

I liked Aiden's character but Micah wasn't for me. I had a really hard time liking her character and feel like she was super rude and for no reason. I understand she was trying to stand up for herself but it could have been done another way.

I also don't really feel like these 2 characters should have ended up together. I get the tension and lust between 2 people who have it out for each other but with the way they treated each other throughout the book, I can't see them lasting very long.

Thank you Harlequin for the pre-approved ALC.

This book had so much potential and just didn’t met my expectations. I love a broody professor on any given day, but the MMC was just plain rude and say and did things that were low-key narcissistic. I wavered between laughing at the jokes to being confused. The relationship between the two main characters had no build up or chemistry whatsoever. They just started to make out and I was in shock!

I feel like this really needed some more work, and I hope that the author finds their groove because, again, this truly had so much potential!

Thank you to Harlequin Audio for this ARC! A book about books and bookish people is always up my alley, and this was a fun time but is for SURE a listen you’ll want to make sure your headphones are working for 🥵. It was a super fast listen and easy to listen to above 2x speed, however I just didn’t find myself particularly attached to or invested in the main characters, even with the benefit of dual narration. The insta hate and then insta lust was a bit too much whiplash for me and the multiple “he’s staring at my boobs” incidents were kind of tedious. Overall, I’d definitely recommend this for a day at the pool or the beach if you’re looking for something quick and spicy, but not sure I’d read again.

Very much enjoyed this book. I love a good prank war, and this one cracked me up. Overall very very enjoyable!

You had me at Shakespeare, what more can I say? The leads have usernames as Shakespeare_in_Lust and Hot_for_Hermia, I mean, if that doesn't tip you off to the nature of the tale, not sure what will..

Micah Mila is recovering from a bad case of breakup and is picking her life back as an auditor, her most recent assignment is he local university's English department. Thankfully her after hours escape of reading spicy fanfiction of the Shakespearean variety.

Professor Aiden Scott enjoys his job in the English department and his equanimity is threatened by Micah's criticism and presence in evaluating his teaching methods, which causes him to bristle.

Add in some passive aggressive moments, followed by fanfiction geeking out, flirty texting, locked in a snowstorm and boy!! does it get hot and heavy fast. This is a spicy book for sure, the narrators do a great job of alternately reading the chapters and keeping the tension thick!

Thank yous to Sarah for this dirty talk ode to the Bard's comedy and Netgalley and Harlequin audio for the arc!!

This is a very hard book to rate. The FMC was really difficult to like. She was so harsh at the start. Yes, Micah sort of had a redemption ARC, but it came a bit late. She just sounded a bit immature, especially for the job she had.
Aiden was quite lovely. Too lovely in the way that he just fell for her without really knowing her. All of a sudden, Micah was who he could confide in about his father? It just felt a bit rushed, especially with how she treated him.
BUT, the chemistry.. damn their scenes were hot. It saved the story.
3.5 stars

This is for the audiobook specifically: it was enjoyable! The narrators were great! Audiobook 4 stars!
The story itself - I’m giving 3 stars.
It starts off rocky; Aiden, the English professor with a secret penchant for steamy Shakespeare fanfic, and Micah, the sharp, take-no-prisoners auditor, clash hard and often. Their banter teeters on childish and grating at times; I found myself internally yelling at them to grow up already. That said, the spice? Absolutely scorching. If you’ve got a partner nearby, they just might reap the rewards of you diving into this one. Proceed with caution (and maybe a fan).

*** I received this ARC copy of this audiobook through NetGalley thanks to Harlequin Audio and Sarah Echavarre Smith***

4/5 ⭐️
4/5 🌶️
5/5 audiobook

Tropes:
⭐️ enemies to lovers
⭐️ hot professor
⭐️ work romance

I didn’t know what to expect from this story and I was not disappointed! Micah is a financial auditor hired by a college to determine if staff cuts need to be made. In walks sexy AF Professor Aidan Scott. There’s immediate hatred for one another until they unknowingly form a flirty connection on a fan fic site they both share fiction on. When the sparks begin to fly they begin to exploooode!! The chemistry is off the charts for these two!

The ONLY thing I didn’t love is that Aidan essentially guilts her into quitting her job to write books, but she really hadn’t ever written much beyond some paragraphs here and there. That’s a lot of risk after just a few paragraphs.

Audiobook was amazing! JF Harding has my heart! He’s so swoon worthy!!

Narrators were well suited to the story, if not exceptional- they definitely did not distract from the story.

This is a quick and extremely steamy read, with a fun academia bent to it that I enjoyed. Despite being on the short side, there is decent character development and story.

I honestly thought this book was a really fun time. The chemistry between the two main characters was absolutely insane and so enjoyable to read through and go with. It had a lot of clichés and felt a little basic at points, but for me, I kind of went into it knowing that that was gonna be a possibility and when I go into something knowing that it’s gonna be a little cliché or a little basic, I’m going just for vibes just for a good time and this definitely did deliver. It was short sweet spicy Fun. It really was just easy and that was kind of what I felt. I needed right now it was a good short easy good time. I listened to the audiobook while I was at work or while I was driving and it was just a really nice thing to keep me company for a while. I really liked it. The two main characters have insane chemistry. They’re so fun and it’s wonderful to watch them. Go from their hate to love Stage. It really was well developed between the two of them in my opinion.

I really enjoyed the audiobook narrators and the story overall. If you want a fun, easy listen/read this is a great option.

However, if you want to dig a little deeper, I didn't believe that these characters would last in a relationship beyond the page. Their chemistry was okay, but they were mostly surface-level discussion (outside of Aidan's issues with his dad) and they jumped from "we enjoy somewhat spicy sex" to "we are in love" pretty quickly. They also gave into the attraction way faster than I thought they should/would.

Overall, a fun read with somewhat spicy sexy scenes, but not a read I will remember in a few months..

n. It was just very basic. The enemies to lovers was been there done that.
The writing was nice, though, and it was a quick read.