I requested this ARC because I love a good enemies-to-lovers worplace romance. This one just did not do it for me.

Let me start with the positives:

The witty, snarky banter between Nami & Jae was top notch. They loved to push each others buttons and did it so well. There were a lot of moments I laughed out loud.

The story was well written. The family ties for both MC was lovely. The story itself was well fleshed out.

As my husband works in the "tech" industry, I also enjoyed the story on that level.

The negatives:

The first 30% of this was so difficult for me to get through as it seemed like the goal was to tick off every DEI box possible. Japanese american FMC, Koren, Filipino & Hawaiin FMC. Gay brother. Nonbinary life partner. and those that appeared to be written as white were toxic, misogynistic, sexist males thats sole purpose was to degrade women. Trust me, the scene with "Deuce" was gross on every level as he blatantly refused to let her speak and tried to lure her in to fulfill his Asian sex fantasy.

At arund 40% these talking points were put on the back burner and the story itself shone through. If it had gone on much longer I likely would have DNFed.

I appreciate these are real world issues and they should not be ignored, downplayed or swept under a rug or dismissed. To me, it was excessive and not needed to tell this story.

It was an fun book with really interesting characters. The premise of the book kept me engaged and the chemistry between the characters was very good. I enjoyed how the relationship progressed throughout the story. All in all it was you do not want to miss this book.

ARC kindly provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

thank you cara tanamachi and st. martin's press for my arc <3

overall, i had fun with this. very good chemistry between the characters. i liked how real both of their families felt. i definitely felt emotions while reading.

i'm going to be kind of negative, but please know that overall, i did enjoy this a lot. i'm only pointing out the things that i personally did not like because they might irritate other people as well. i think with a little reworking, this could've been a 5 star for me.

what i did like - i actually liked all of the scenes of them competing. i usually find these types of scenes annoying. i wouldn't say i LOVED them, but i definitely didn't hate them. i like how they humbled both nami and jae, while also showed how well they work together.

the biggest thing, for me, that kept this from being a 5 star book, is how the takeover was handled. 1. <spoiler>crypto ends up saving the day, so that the employees can create their own company and them out</spoilers>. which i.... hate. do not try to sell me on the idea that <spoiler>crypto is good, actually</spoiler>. and 2. i was hoping that, after an entire book of nami and jae competing and ultimately working well together, that the resolution would be them...... working together....... it's a romcom, it's fine. i don't necessarily have a problem with the guy having a Reveal where he Fixed Everything. but it would've been nice to see.

some smaller things:
- nami calling jae "satan"
- mention of the pandemic (it was only once, but i almost stopped reading because i hate "pandemic books" - it is not a pandemic book)
- nami and imani. i didn't have a problem reading both names back to back, but i can't imagine someone with say, dyslexia, having a good time with that
- way too many pop culture references, they were already outdated and this book comes out in january 2024.

technical -
this sentence is missing a word, i think
"I can’t tell her the truth without violating the NDA, and it’s not Nami would keep the secret."

I definitely enjoyed the vibe of this book. The characters feel very relatable, both in age range and characteristics, including all supporting characters and not just the lead characters. As someone that is the eldest sibling in an Asian-American household, it felt realistic with the character background and development.

The banter was very enjoyable, although maybe a little cringy at times. The build up to the romance was casual and it was great to see the specific "aha" moments of the lead characters' realizations for each other. There was not any descriptive (ahem, sexy) spice, which was fine with me. The alluded implications were still well written out.

I don't know anything about start-up company/culture but it was still easy to follow along and did not make a huge impact for those unfamiliar with it such as myself. I very much enjoyed the pop-culture references sprinkled throughout the book. The story itself had a satisfying ending resolution and I enjoyed reading the epilogue and how it played out.

I generally enjoyed this book, the hate-to-love was fun, and I enjoyed the fire-y build up to their romance, the camaraderie at work, and the likeable characters (except for the obviously dislikable ones like Dell and his chair.) Having been in on start up culture for the last decade or so, Cara Tanamachi captures some of that energy, some of the heartache, and some of the weird twists of fate that can happen. But this is a romance novel, not a book about start up culture - and it was delightful. I liked the ending and the epilogue.

This was a feel good book - I loved the banter between Jae and Nami, which was funny, silly, and never super mean, just sort of spiky fun. I thought the character development was excellent - we got to see a lot of depth in both of the lead characters, as their layers get peeled back,, and see their perspectives and motivations play out. This had some spicy (food) elements, but was tame in terms of sexy spice - some implied actions, but not much detail, which I thought was well executed. I enjoyed the dedication to competition, even on the silliest of things (see: hell ramen.)

I found the first chapter from Jae's perspective kind of awkward, but subsequent chapters felt better. Some suspension of disbelief is necessary if you've ever seen the inside of a modernish tech company, and/or one undergoing a takeover or dealing with VC fundraising or any of that, but I think it played out relatively well regardless.. When crypto and NFT's were mentioned a couple of times, I got nervous, but there was a reason, and it was cute. No one is actually singing their praises as a current thing to invest in, praise be.

I did not realize this was part of a series until after I had already finished it, and was looking at some of the authour's other books, (The Second You're Single, features Sora and Jack) but I think this is probably fine as a standalone.

This was fun, and laughed a lot throughout, Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the e-galley.