This was a super adorable and quick read! You often see a heroine who is curvy but you don't see a curvier hero in most romance novels. The journey he goes through as a man with his weight loss and internal thoughts was interesting to read. The story flowed smoothly and the characters were so easy to root for. I will check out more from this author.

This book was really cute! I think that it featured a bunch of popular tropes in a way that made the story really fun. I read a lot of spicier romance books so for me the change of pace and this being a clean romance felt like a really nice change up. I also tend to sort of dread third act conflicts, but I think the author did a good job of making necessary conflict while not making it drag out unnecessarily. Overall I enjoyed this read!

I haven't been feeling the women in stem vibe. I know im in the minority here but I just don't think they are for me. all in all it was cute but I think im going to stay away from this trope from now on.

Nette Abendunterhaltung. Die Sprecher waren angenehm. Schön an einem verregneten Freitag beim Putzen zu hören.

This was a cute romance between two people who seem allergic to their own obvious feelings and chemistry. It's also entirely chaste, which was a big change of pace for me after the sorts of steamy and/or smutty romances I've been reading recently. Some of the pop culture references and jokes were a little groan-worthy, but the book was fun overall and I'd happily read another in this series.

I don’t really like the friends to lovers trope, and this book didn’t change that opinion. I just hate the whole thing with not just saying it upfront, especially when you’re friends with people, it should be soo easy to just talk to your friend about it.
But I did like this book, it was a nice quick romance, that had some nice characters in it.
I liked that Blaine didn’t just fell in love with Lysander after he lost weight, but I would probably still have liked it more if it actually was about a plus size male, because there is a general lack of that in the romance genre.
I loved to hear Lysander’s thoughts about his weight loss and the people that changed around him and how he thought about himself.
I liked the narrators as well, they fitted good to the characters and had a nice voice.

Blaine’s luck in love is terrible and Lysander the IT guy dodges most in person communication. It’s nice to see the unfolding of a friendship that becomes more than a friendship.

Blaine and Lysander really help each other without them knowing they are helping each other.

Thank you #NetGalley for the advance copy

As someone who works in the tech field, I felt this was super cute! I think as an audiobook, it was hard to tell when the chat logs were being read vs the rest of the book and wish there was something better to distinguish the differences.

Looking for a cute story with geeky references and a sweet love story? Look no further, you’ve reached the right book and its title is “You’re My I.T.”!

In this lovely novel written by C.N. Holmberg and beautifully narrated by Kelsey Navarro together with Tim Paige, we get to explore the world a great love story set in nowadays’ corporate IT world between Blaire and Lysander. She’s a writer, he’s an IT guy. She likes to be friendly to everyone, he likes his gadgets. She’s a sports girl, he’s a sports guy… D&D sport guy, yet somehow, Lysander needs a bit more push to accept that Blaire is really into him!

I loved every minute of listening to B&L’s point of view stories and how wonderful they fit one with another! The narrators, Kelsey and Tim also did a great work of impersonating the characters they were assigned to, and I hope to hear more of them in Holmberg’s novels!

Special thanks to NetGalley, Tantor Audio, and the editorial team for giving me the opportunity to review the ARC in audiobook format and to you, my reader, for taking the time to read this honest personal book review.

If you are interested in other of my book reviews, make sure to follow me on GoodReads!

#YoureMyIT #NetGalley #LifeLongLearning

I was not a fan of this book. Blaine has liked Lysander for over 2 years and he is just clueless. This annoyed me more than anything. I listened to the audiobook and found the narration didn't fit with my perspective of Blaine.

You’re My I.T. was a fun, quick romance. I liked both of our main characters Blaine and Lysander (though I do wonder where the author got that name) and enjoyed the story, however the main conflict is the two of them not communicating which I didn’t love. Having been friends for 2 years I feel like they should have known each other better and talked about their issues. I also didn’t love the plot point with the sick family member that is thrown in and resolved within the last few chapters.I felt like that was unnecessary drama at the end of the book. Despite those two aspects that I didn’t love, I still found the book very enjoyable. I really liked that Blaine played roller derby. I thought that was a super fun addition to her character.

I enjoyed both narrators and enjoyed the audio.

I look forward to reading future romances that this author writes.

Thank you to NetGalley and and Tantor Audio for an advanced copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

I cannot for the life of me get engaged into this story. I keep trying but seem to be daydreaming, which does not happen often for me with audiobooks. I just don’t think this story is for me.

Thanks to NetGalley, Pegasus Books, and Tantor Audio for access to an e-audiobook arc of this title.

3★ - cute, mildly nerdy romance, with a bit of a miscommunication trope and a few too many body issues for my taste

Blaine & Lysander are an adorable, truly meant-to-be couple who both must overcome a series of previous relationship wounds to be able to turn their years-long office friendship/flirtationship into a true loving relationship. tl;dr: cute, realistic show of healing from relationship wounds together, but without the gentleness or thoroughness that traumatic issues like this calls for. those with similar wounds should approach delicately!

*(mild) SPOILERS AHEAD

This book has a really compelling set-up, with one character who has faced some truly traumatic rejections in past and another who is forced to face their long history of self-loathing and body issues after a sudden health kick leads to some substantial weight loss. The idea of these two characters working through their own issues to be able to come together and continue to heal together in a truly loving relationship is SO COMPELLING! The execution, however, was a bit lack-luster in my opinion.

While I loved both of these characters deeply, I think they ultimately had uneven and poorly developed healing. We spend a lot of time working with Lysander through his body issues, but not enough to see any real growth beyond the basic "oh, I can be loved!" trope-y healing. And that does not, in my opinion, make up for all the pretty triggering diet culture and weight-loss conversation that happens in the build up to that moment. I really enjoyed that it was the masc character, instead of the femme, who went through a major weight loss and was forced to face some body issues. I think that gender bent to a more typically female-centric trope was important, but still was not very carefully executed, and so some healing that on the surface was really healthy was still steeped in enough painful & judgmental language that it was not healing as a reader in the way I think it needed to be to make up for the earlier fatphobic content. And in addition to that, the MAJOR relationship traumas that Blaine experienced, which we learn about in more depth, are truly not resolved in the course of their story. We barely deal with the fact that Blaine has literally started her life over - new place, new people, complete cut-off of a previous life - because of a traumatic relationship ending that was steeped in shaming and public humiliation.

While I love the end of this story - it takes issues like health, family, and distance and handles them really realistically - I think it ultimately feels rushed and doesn't deal with the issues that it introduces thoroughly enough to be a satisfying story. But that's on me and my own history! Those without similar weights (no pun intended) and wounds might not have the same issue

This was a sweet romance. Blaine and Lisander are colleagues and develop a close relationship but Lisander is oblivious to Blaine's advances. Some time later he loses quite some weight and long story shorts She confesses her feelings but he believes she is only interested in him for his new looks. Eventually they sort everything out and find their HEA. No steam whatsoever, but i really liked the story overall.
*E-arc provided by Netgalley in exchange for any honest review*

A great performance by the narrator. I really liked listening to them.
I'm a huge fan of Charlie N. Holmberg's fantasy novels, so I was so excited to see that she wrote a romance novel.
Sadly, this one just wasn't for me. I liked the set-up and the characters, but the plot just didn't have enough to keep my interest. The whole conflict is based on the fact that they don't communicate and just one normal conversation would have resolved everything real quickly.
And when that finaly happened, a random plot point with a sick family member is thrown in and resolved in one chapter. It felt a little forced.
Also, even though I really loved the idea of a fat introverted love interest, I didn't really apprechiate that it was made to seem like his shyness/introvert nature would change so much just because he lost a bunch of weight (even though I liked his reasoning for losing the weight).
All in all I would read another of Holmberg's romances to see if the next plot has a bit more to it.

Thank you to NetGalley for this audio ARC. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I'm going to start with I liked this but I didn't love it. One of the reasons why is because of the miscommunication trope, I hate it with a passion. I'm also not a massive fan of friends to lovers either. The story was cute I just didn't like how easily the MC forgave her friend when he was being an awful insecure person. They've been close friends and he really should have known her better than that. But instead he calls her shallow and she's like yeah, it is what it is??? Excuse me!! Thats supposed to be your friend!! So yeah it frustrated me most times but the overall story was ok.

Blaine has joined an IT company as a Tech Writer, where she meets Lysander and instant messaging has started between them. Blaine almost immediately has a crush on Lysander, but is too shy to say anything and missed her opportunity when he is transferred to a different location. Six months later Lysander is back as a more confident and fitter version of himself.
I loved that this book had the body representation in a male character. This is very common with female characters. I really enjoyed this clean, slow burn, office romance and I'm excited to read the next book in the series.

Thank you to @tantoraudio @netgalley for the digital ARC in return for my honest review.
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My thoughts…
Likeable. Everything about this was likeable. The story was likeable. Both main characters were likeable and relatable. The pacing was likeable. The narrators were beyond likeable, they were awesome. This was a sweet, funny and closed-door friends-to-lovers romance. I appreciated the way Lysander’s weight was portrayed. I haven’t read a lot where the guy had weight issues, and the woman was the one trying to convince that he was still perfect.

Audio note: The audio is solid! Dual narration with two skilled narrators, I have zero complaints about the audio. I love both Tim Paige and Kelsey Navarro’s voices, so they made it a great listening experience. The runtime is short enough that I was able to binge in one sitting, and the upbeat tone works well in the format. There’s also no steam, so it worked as a workday listen as well. My issues are entirely with the story itself.

Review:
Super cute but also immensely frustrating, this slow-burning office romance is a quick and easy read. I LOVE that it features a HERO who starts the book plus-sized and unsure of himself. It was really refreshing to read about a hero who just assumes that the pretty girl at work wouldn’t be into him, and it explores some interesting topics revolving around weight, self-worth, etc, once he makes a concerted effort to get healthier and winds up with a conventionally sexy body. Unfortunately, the storyline is executed in such a way that it’s all miscommunication and pining, drama and time spent apart. We never see these two fall for each other, those feelings are already established when the book begins – and we barely get to see the payoff. So, while I really liked many of the individual elements, I didn’t love the book as a whole.

The story follows Blaine, a woman who has been crushing on her co-worker for awhile now. Every other time she’s spoken up about her feelings with a guy, it hasn’t gone well, so Blaine has never come right out and said how she feels about Lysander. Surely it must be obvious, right? She’s given him plenty of not-so-subtle hints, but they seem to be stuck in a friend zone. So when a temporary work assignment takes Lysander out of town for six months, Blaine decides that she’ll speak up… as soon as he’s back. The only trouble? In the time apart, Lysander decided to get healthier, and his new diet has left him looking like every girl’s dream – and he came back with a girl on his arm. Lysander isn’t comfortable with all of the attention he’s been getting since he “got hot,” and it’s made him reevaluate many of his relationships. He’s not quite the shy nerd he once was, and it’s only now that he’s changed that women have started looking at him differently.

It’s a quick, cute, and closed door romance, with an upbeat vibe and tons of pining. I really liked Lysander at the start, and the concept is a great one. Who doesn’t love a nerdy, cinnamon roll hero who has the potential to go from friend to lover? But the devil is in the details, and that’s where this gets things wrong. Lysander isn’t actually a compelling hero once he comes back to town, and I started to dislike him immensely. The endless miscommunication was frustrating, as was the fact that Lysander and Blaine spend BARELY any time together on the page when they’re not working. The development of their feelings happens off the page, so it was difficult to understand the reasons why they’re right together. Things didn’t play out quite like I was hoping, and I had definitely lost interest by the end. There’s a lot of good going on here, but I can’t say that I loved it.

This was a fun read! I love a good friends-to-lovers trope and this one is in the context of a slow-burn office romance. I enjoyed every nerd aspect and laughed aloud at the hilarious relate-ability of their gif message exchanges. The fact that this book dug deeper to discuss self-image and weight perceptions was a bonus because it was handled with such care. I loved the audiobook narration and am looking forward to reading C.N. Holmberg's next book. Thank you NetGalley and Pegasus Publishers for the ARC.