3 Stars
This was a fun read with great banter. The curse element was really interesting but I was a bit disappointed with the execution of it - I wanted more background for sure. I did find it to start to get slow the last few chapters though. I wasn't super invested in the MCs and their relationship, it was just okay for me.

Thank you NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for the ARC!

This is one of the most memorable romances I've ever read this year - perfect enemies to lovers setup, a kind of zany solution to the mystery at hand, and some excellent spicy scenes (like, I read this three months ago and I am still thinking of one them 🥵).

✔️ Enemies to Lovers
✔️ Workplace
✔️ Forced Proximity
✔️ Opposites Attract
✔️ Grumpy/Sunshine

-- summary
A curse-breaker and an archaeologist butt heads as both are hired to work on the same site. Too bad they are both insanely attracted to each other while also feeling that they cannot achieve career goals with the other in the way.

--my thoughts
I was prepared to enjoy this (ask me how much I loved Rosie's other books), but it surpassed my expectations. It was so funny (situationally but also the dialogue) and just plain joy from cover to cover. I loved both characters though of course Clark was my favorite (I adore the buttoned up by the book type who is forced to let go and relax hahah). And did I mention how terrific the spice was - incredibly hot especially the caught in the rain scene.

A perfect low-angst, high-hijinx romance.

Steam 🔥🔥🔥
Banter 🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️
Swoon 💕💕💕💕

I really enjoyed this! It’s my third read by Rosie Danan and definitely my favorite of them. I love a good romance with paranormal aspects. Clark is so Roy Kent coded and I love that so much. Definitely would recommend, I had a great time with this book!

I'm not reading many straight stories lately, but I'm glad I read this one. Rosie Danan always has a way of keeping me invested from the first page. The humor is perfect, and the tropes are A+

I love that Rosie did something different with this book by adding a fun paranormal aspect and being set in a cursed Scottish castle. Like her other books this one also has fun characters, a slightly wacky plot, and AMAZING spice.

In this book we meet Riley Rhodes a curse breaker who was hired to break the curse on an infamous Scottish castle. At the castle she meets archeologist Clark Edegeware. Fresh off a professional scandal, Clark can't allow a self-proclaimed "curse breaker" to threaten his last chance for redemption. After he fails to get Riley kicked off his survey site, he vows to avoid her. Unfortunately for him, she vows to get even. Riley expects the curse to do her dirty work by driving Clark away, but instead, they keep finding themselves in close proximity. Too close. Turns out, the only thing they do better than fight is fool around.

I really loved Riley and Clark and their hate to love relationship. Their banter and spicy scenes were my favorite parts of this book. I do wish it was first person POV but that’s just personal preference the third person POV was done well.

My biggest issue with the book was the pacing. Some parts of it were just so slow to get through and I just wanted to get to parts where the couple were interacting. Overall I did enjoy this and am looking forward to seeing what Rosie writes next.

I LOVED the author's two previous books, rated them both five stars. This one has a totally different vibe and it didn't work for me. It's slow and I was bogged down by all the archeological stuff. Enemies to lovers sometimes doesn't work for me when the characters are too mean to each other and that's the case here. I just can't believe they would get past that and fall for each other. There are some nice sexy parts but overall this was a miss for me. I'm sure there are many romance readers that would like it though.

Included as a top pick in weekly November New Releases post, which highlights and promotes upcoming releases of the month (link attached)

A curse breaker and an archaeologist find themselves in an enemies-with-benefits situation that just might lead to romance.

I was a fan of Danan’s previous books, The Roommate and the Intimacy Experiment so I was excited to read Do Your Worst. I love a good enemies to lovers trope and this one did not disappoint. I really enjoyed the Scottish legends, magic, curses and mystical elements in this book. It was very different from Danan’s previous books that I read.

Clark and Riley were a fun, opposites attract kind of couple. Clark is rigid, logical and stuck on scientific fact. Riley is emotional and honed in on mystical elements. I loved watching these two come together and seeing them come to terms with each other’s beliefs. And can I just say that the steam here was on point and a bit kinky.

𝗣𝗨𝗕 𝗪𝗘𝗘𝗞 𝗥𝗘𝗩𝗜𝗘𝗪

Thank you #partners @berkleyromance & @prhaudio for the #gifted copies #BerkleyIG #berkleyromancepartner #penguinrandomhousepartner

𝗗𝗼 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝘀𝘁
𝗥𝗼𝘀𝗶𝗲 𝗗𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗻

⭐⭐⭐⭐

📖 𝗔𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁: What do you get when you cross an American cursebreaker with a British archeologist? Enemies with benefits, of course! Riley and Clark's dislike for one another is almost as strong as their mutual attraction. 🥵

💭 𝗧𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀: Rosie Danan was not 𝘿𝙤𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙃𝙚𝙧 𝙒𝙤𝙧𝙨𝙩 when she brought the spice to these pages!! 🔥 Whewwwwy this puppy packs a steamy punch. 🌶️ Bringing forced proximity, opposites attract, and TRUE enemies-to-lovers, Do Your Worst has so much to love: banter, angry sexy scenes, and angsty pining in spades. Blending themes of mysticism, Scottish lore, and adventure, this atmospheric romcom set in the Highlands is fresh, sexy, and fun!

📌 Out now!

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Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for providing the ARC.

This was a cute book, especially if you love things a little mystical and a very strong lean into the enemies portion of the enemies to lovers trope.

Riley and Clark couldn't be any more different in their professions. One places stake in the supernatural, the other deals in facts, research, and things he is able to perceive with his own two eyes. It's no wonder that even though there's a spark, these two would clash.

And clash they did. I've read some enemies to lovers stuff where I would have had a hard time coming back to a place of respect after what was said, but wow, some of the remarks that came from the two main characters were rough. It was hard for me to see at times how they would overcome their differences and actually get to the lovers portion of the book when everything was wrapped up in so much disdain for the other. Don't get me wrong, the payoff was well worth it in the end. I just wanted a bit more reconciliation and understanding before we jumped off the deep end.

It was a fun read. I loved Riley for her spunk and Clark for his steadfastness, and I loved how these two found a lot more common ground in a lot of personal ways that allowed them to fall in love with each other. The cursebreaking was fun too. Seeing Riley's thought process on how she deduced ways to break the curse was incredibly interesting, especially as someone who loves solving puzzles.

Had a great time. Will likely check out Danan's other book as well.

A fun and catchy beginning, but rushed romantic development dragged down the second half. This is such a perfect late fall read - cursebreaking, magic, a Highlands castle - I mean what mroe could you possibly want in an enemies-to-lovers romance filled with tension and chemistry. I thought the story got off to a bang with Riley and Clark's first meeting and it helped ramp up the drama even more - where Clark begins to question Riley's professional validity soon after meeting, without knowing it's her. What follows is a fun, low-stakes story with banter, bickering, and chemistry to spare.

I received a copy of the book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

riley rhodes and clark edgeware couldn’t be more different. riley an occult expert looking to turn her family’s knack for the supernatural into a legitimate career is called on to break a curse on an infamous scottish castle. she’s happily surprised to meet a handsome stranger when she arrives, until he tries to get her fired. clark, a disgraced archeologist, is using him last chance to survey and collect data on the castle. he doesn’t expect the stunning woman he met in the town bar, the first to make him feel something, to be the occult expert he tried to get fired. riley vows revenge, hoping that the curse will work its magic. instead they find themselves embroiled in a mess of attraction, feelings, and a curse that seems intent on driving them together.

y’all this fed my indiana jones loving soul!! the perfect blend of history, supernatural, and spice, rosie danon’s reentry into romance wowed me. this was such a fun read and i look forward to reading more from her in the future.

riley and clark were both characters that had gone through betrayals that rocked them from a young age. i loved the tender moments between them just as much if not more than the spicy moments. overall, i definitely recommend picking up do your worst.

Always fun for a romance to be set in Scotland!

Contemporary, sassy, and fun! The tension that the main characters build is compelling.

Curse breaking and enemies to lovers with an ample amount of spice (more risqué than I’m used to from Berkley)?! Could I ask for more?

This was such a fun read for me and I devoured it in a couple days.

While, sometimes I didn’t love how mean they were to each other in the enemies to lovers, the back history that Danan sets with these characters family makes it believable. How these two characters grew together and learned to trust each other made my heart melt.

I thought this was an easy and fun read and recommend it to those who want something different from Danan’s previous series and don’t mind a little kinky pain play in their spice.

I enjoyed this unique take on enemies to lovers.

Spice level is pretty intense. Doors are wide open and very descriptive although there aren't a ton of sex scenes.

This contemporary enemies to lovers rom com is (in my opinion) the one to read. This was my first book by Rosie Danan and it definitely won’t be my last.

In this book, we follow Riley and Clark. These two hit it off at a bar on Riley’s first night in town and they spend the whole night learning about each other and building the romance, until the next morning when Riley overhears someone trying to get her kicked off the site where she’s supposed to be breaking a very famous curse. It just so happened to be Clark who was trying to get her kicked off. From the point forward, they’re enemies but there’s always that lust feeling and tension that follows them with everything they do and how they interact with each other. The banter was amazing, the tension was written so well that you could literally feel it, and the depth these characters spoke about their lives to one another was amazing to see, especially paired with the growth they have that accumulated through the story.

This book was written in 3rd person, but it honestly feels like it wanted to be a dual perspective 1st person narrative. I also feel like if it had been written in 1st person, it would’ve been nice to see exactly how each person felt and what they thought about different events in the story. I still really enjoyed it and honestly, i’m hoping for a Patrick and Ceilidh book!

Riley's doing her best to make the family gift of curse-breaking her career and has been temporarily relocated to Scotland for a job. A castle in disrepair sits on grounds that seem to have been cursed for hundreds of years. On her first night in town she shares a steamy kiss with a handsome stranger, but all hopes of pursuing something with him come to a screeching halt when she overhears him calling her a fraud the next day. Clark is an archaeologist also working at the castle and clearly has no respect for the work Riley can do. I devoured this book. The tension between Riley and Clark is so well-written. The setting is expertly brought to life. The minor characters are interesting and developed. A great read!

Rosie Danan proves once again to have a real knack for crafting intriguing storylines with deeply complex characters that feel both wonderous and real, and in her latest novel, she pairs a tenacious expert in the occult with a wary archaeologist in need of professional redemption. Add a cursed Scottish castle to the mix, an ancient magic with its own cryptic agenda, and the result is downright spellbinding. I loved this book before I even read it, but I never expected it to become one of my favourite reads of the year. {Full review posted at: https://natashaisabookjunkie.com/2023/11/15/review-do-your-worst-by-rosie-danan/]

Okay, I loved it!!

Synopsis:
Riley is from a line of curse breakers and is trying to turn that into a profitable legacy, so cue the cursed Scottish castle in need of her services. Clark is a no-nonsense archaeologist trying to revive his career and repair his reputation on a job that isn’t entirely in his normal wheelhouse. When the two meet sparks fly ~ both the flirty kind and later the angry kind when they realize they’re working on the same site. Clark thinks Riley is a conwoman and Riley thinks Clark is a jerk. Will Clark get over his disbelief of the occult and accept that sometimes things have a more supernatural cause? And will the two make it out of this cursed castle with their bodies and hearts intact?

My thoughts:
Ooh the tension. The banter. The hilarious situations brought on by the curse. This book has it all! The main characters are both headstrong and looking for self validation in different ways. When they try to fight their attraction it just turns the heat up! They’re so likable despite their flaws which just serve to make them more relatable to readers. I loved their dynamic and they way they worked together from beginning to end even when they didn’t like each other very much. Clark is protective and serious ~ he gave me broody intellectual vibes and I am here for it. Riley is determined and confident and even when she’s not she’s willing to fake it and put herself out there. I just loved them both and this story so much!!

Recommended if you like:
🗡️Curses
🖤Forced proximity
🗡️Potential lovers to enemies to lovers
🖤Family dynamics
🗡️Personal growth

Rosie is also the author of The Roommate which I read a few years ago and I ate it up! She’s a queen at writing spicy scenes and tension so you will not be disappointed!

Thank you NetGalley & Berkeley Publishing Group for the eARC! All thoughts and opinions are my own!

This review is posted on Instagram & Goodreads.

this was such a fun read!!!!! i enjoyed this so much!! will definitely recommend to friends! amazing