I received an E-Arc from Netgalley, the publisher and the author for an honest review!

Loved this story, Sajni!!

Thank you so much for letting me read it!

Oh my gosh…I laughed and squealed with delight reading this story! A rom comedy of two work co-workers which are enemies in a way. Both the main characters end up fake dating while in Hawaii! Cue the drama and more! (Hawaii is on my bucket list to visit one day!). It’s a must read if you enjoy all the themes I have mentioned.

The story was fast paced which I enjoyed personally. Some people don’t like that but I don’ t mind. I could see this book being played out as a movie. (I watch way too many rom com movies too!).

There were quite a few funny remarks of all kinds between Sunny and Bhanu. I loved that. I loved how their connection slowly began to develop. It just clicked in a sense. It gave me the feels from the movie “The Proposal” sarcastic vibe. Enemies to lovers type of moments!

I do love the family dynamics from Sunny and Bhanu along with the fact they take their career seriously too! I wish both main characters talked to each other more about their families. I do love Bhanu’s sister! She’s a riot.

Hiking, swimming, dancing, and food were all the cute moments in this story that I can remember. I’m not giving it all away because you have to pick this gem up to read for yourself! Do they get their happy ever after or not?

It comes out in July 2024!

Psst..isn’t the cover so pretty?

Chapter 1 was so heavily narrative and mundane, I couldn’t get into it. I stopped, but I’d anticipate three to four stars for the target audience.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for the ARC.

After a bit of a rough start this one ended up being really fun! Enemies-to-lovers is a favorite trope of mine and boy oh boy did Sunny and Banhu love to hate each other! I’ll admit their reason for being enemies is pretty immature and I’m not a fan of love interests having to compete for a job (this happens in a surprising number of romance novels!).

The main reason I didn’t enjoy this more is because a significant chunk of the book is filled with work chatter. While this is totally understandable considering this is a workplace romance, it’s a personal pet peeve of mine when the plot goes overboard on the specifics of a character’s job. Also, we are in the characters’ heads a lot and occasionally the thoughts or dialogue felt too detailed to the point of being simplistic. There’s quite a few paragraphs explaining something mundane that does nothing to move the plot forward.

Overall, this was cute and I loved getting to travel to Hawaii through the pages of this story. While this won’t go down as an absolute favorite romance of mine I did have a lot of fun with it.

I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book; all opinions are my own! Thanks to the publisher for allowing me to be an early reader.

Thank you to Sajni, Netgalley and Berkley for an arc of The Design of Us in exchange for an honest review!

Special thanks to Sajni for personally getting me the ARC!

The Design of Us is a fake dating romance sparked between two co-workers who dislike each other but must put their differences aside to commit to the scheme initiated by a white little lie.

As many of the romance genre loving girlies, I was super thrilled to hear that Sajni was writing another contemporary romance given how much I LOVED "Trouble with Hating you" and when I saw that this book would have the "dislike to like" trope I was more than thrilled to go into it.

But The Design of Us is much different than the Trouble with Hating you," The nemesis aspect falls short in this novel along with a couple of other things which I will go into further detail about.

The dislike to like trope is one that I personally enjoy if written correctly, in most cases, I am guaranteed enjoyment of the trope if there is a valid reason. In this case... There wasn't one.

We have one entire interaction that fueled this "dislikeness" over these characters, but it isn't even a proper one. It's based off a couple of exchanged words that led towards these MC's disliking each other. So basically, they disliked each other for a misunderstanding over a tone of voice... which just seems so unnecessary.

I want to start off with the overall feeling of the book, unfortunately the whole book felt childish (for lack of a better word).

The interactions between both MC's felt forced nor did I feel or see any chemistry between them. Despite their lack of chemistry, their personalities are very similar. Which normally would be a good thing but in this case, it made their relationship to what I consider "unfitting."

We barely had any relationship building and once the conflict hit, I just couldn't bring myself to care for their relationship.

Apart from the relationship and the characters, the writing felt very YA. It was also simply very descriptive; I was consistently being told what the main characters were doing rather than shown.

Overall, The Design of Us had its cute moments but it wasn't a book in which I can see myself rereading or remembering much about.

Bhanu does UX design, and Sunny does coding for the same company. They're both going for the same promotion, are infamous for bickering, and are such workaholics that they're practically forced to take their vacations.

Some time away from work and each other should be great, right?

Until they meet each other at the bar of their Hawaiian Resort.

When Bhanu saves Sunny from the ire of his toxic ex by claiming that they're dating - and offering him space in her villa when he finds himself without a room - the two have to pretend to be in a relationship as not to make waves during his friend's wedding weekend.

As the two spend time together, open up to each other, their animosity melts away to understanding.

Will these new tender feelings be able to exist and be explores once they leave the island?


Enemies to Lovers, Fake Relationship, and Forced Proximity!

Both characters are successful in their careers with realistic goals and prospects for advancement!

Both characters have healthy relationships with their families. Some annoyances exist, but nothing too angsty.

Both characters are Desi and seem to love and respect their culture and traditions

It's a fun take on some classic tropes. It's not breaking the mold, but is such a great example of a light-hearted contemporary adult romance.

This was genuinely so adorable and was such a lighthearted and sweet read. Watching Bhanu and Sunny try to figure each other out while also desperately trying to maintain a veil of illusive was themselves was both hilarious and cute. They’re far more in tune with each other than either of them realize for so long.

I loved their family dynamics, and how their friends balanced out. I loved how their competitiveness was never intentionally malicious, and how they both admitted if they’d gone too far by mistake.

The miscommunication was a little dumb because, have one conversation for real. Sunny was doing the absolute most 😂 but we love that about him.

Can you imagine getting stuck in one of the most spectacular places on Earth: Big Island in Hawaii, in a gorgeous resort with your arch-nemesis ? Characteristically a grump, not only are you suffering from forced proximity, but you also find yourself fake dating with him in front of an army of his friends, his vindictive ex, and your parents over the moon because they think your relationship is real!

Enemies-to-lovers, opposites-attract, fake dating, a little grump meets sunshine tropes couldn’t be blended so well that it satisfies your romance cravings, my friends. The best part is, this is a STEM romance with a smart, badass, impulsive heroine and a calm, controlled but deeply caring, intelligent, hardworking hero with a charismatic Denzel voice, as emphasized strongly in the descriptions of him.

Bhau is a powerful boss queen with creative ideas for designing, going head-to-head for a promotion with her arch-nemesis Sunny: the grump named after sunshine, the same man she always has long arguments and snarky banters within Zoom meetings. Unfortunately, her planned vacation in Hawaii to spend some quality time with her sister and secretly work more gets ruined the moment she bumps into her nemesis in hell at the poolside. Sunny is at the same resort to attend his longtime friends’ wedding ceremony, and he’s still looking for a place to stay because somebody (probably his vindictive ex) changed the reservation dates. And this is not her only move to humiliate poor Sunny; she also appears with her new boyfriend. When she finds Sunny alone at the poolside, she starts bickering about how incompetent her ex was during their relationship, which bugs Bhau more than she expected. She intervenes and blurts out she’s the girlfriend of Sunny to shut her ex up, but she has no idea what kind of trouble she's getting them into.

Sunny’s prying friends are insistent on getting to know her, and accidentally her sister also thinks they’re dating, informing their family about this latest update. Now, the pretending couple not only have to attend wedding festivities but also family dinners together until one of them bursts out and says enough to this game. Unfortunately, when they get to know the real versions of themselves, they start to like each other more than they expected. When the line gets blurry between faking and real intimacy, the alarm bells start to ring louder! Will they come clean about their feelings and find a way to be together against their competitive ways and work rivalry?

Well, this is an entertaining, engaging, enjoyable romance that I truly recommend.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange for my honest opinions.

There are a lot of wonderful book couples out there but the thing that made me just LOVE this book was how functional, adorable Bhanu and Sunny were. Despite having differences, they worked through everything functionally and passionately in a way that deeply warmed my heart!