Thanks to the author, NetGalley and Set the Mood Publishing fir this Arc in exchange for an honest review.

I didn't really know what to expect with this pick because I honestly chose it because of the cover. We have a workplace rivals to lovers romance with great banter and lots of spice! I loved that it was a book that had representation with women in STEM. It really showed the issues with women in a predominantly male workplace which I really enjoyed. While I really loved the character development I found the ending extremely rushed, the third act breakup ridiculous and the spice was too much for me.
I highly recommend this book if you love a quick spicy romance!

I’m discovering Dani Mclean’s writing through this book, which goes beyond Fake Dating and Rivals to Lovers… We encounter topics such as sexual frustration, the fear of abandonment and failure, and the challenges of dealing with nepotism.

I loved the character of Charlie Walker, who touched my heart from the beginning with his devotion to his little sister, for whom he is willing to do anything. And especially because he is impeccably handsome and very intelligent.

I also liked Emma, who, despite how her colleagues saw her only because she’s a ‘nepobaby,’ didn’t let that stop her from doing what she loved—working tirelessly at her job and helping her parents out of the mess they got themselves into.

I had a great time, though the author’s writing style isn’t very immersive. However, my imagination and creativity took over, and it was still very interesting.

This is the first book by Dani that I've read, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it!

The only reasons this book wasn't a five star read for me were because a) there was a LOT of jargon which made it hard to understand what was happening even as it added to the authenticity of the book, and b) the third act conflict felt like it came out of nowhere, and that the author was trying to add it in for the sake of it. I also wish the epilogues at the end of the book had been more clear - both about the fact that they were epilogues, and also, how far into the future they're happening.

While this book wasn't my favorite book of the year, it was a solid 4* read. The banter was good, the spice was okay, and there were some quotes that the MMC said that were absolutely swoon-worthy. I also love a book where the MMC falls first!

If Dani writes a book for Ivy...I would definitely read it. No question.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and Dani McLean for giving me the chance to read this ARC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

4.5 stars
Ahhhh this book! The spice, the chemistry, the banter, the wounds, the healing, the LOVE. I had so much damn fun with TAKE IT OFFLINE.

I’ve seen Dani McLean’s books around, and while this was my first, it definitely won’t be my last.

I can just tell that Dani is an author that takes care to bring a real depth to characters and their lives. This is a workplace romance that actually features quite a bit of the workplace and the detail of their jobs. While the characters’ backstories and their development just add to the sweet heart of their relationship. (Speaking of ‘sweet heart’… every time Charlie said “sweetheart”? Swoon!)

Charlie is a big ol’ cheeky flirt. He’s a natural charmer. Clearly the man just can’t help himself and now I’m obsessed. And Emma, a woman in tech who is so dedicated and competent she parents her parents. Adored them both!

And the chemistry? Heads up if you like your spice spicy. Chapter 27 was the hottest thing I’ve read in a long time. Dear Lord 🥵

Highly recommend this if you’re seeking a hot little enemies to lovers romance featuring the guy who’ll become your next book boyfriend.

Dual POV
Women in STEM
Enemies to lovers
Workplace romance
He falls first
Female pleasure quest + toys 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

This was cute and I love the cover, which was what drew me in, but in the end this book wasn't for me.

Take It Offline carries an enemy to lovers trope (which i tend to hate but thoroughly enjoyed). It follows Charlie’s and Emma’s work relationship, starting as enemies and turning into lovers. Dani had me BLUSHING over the word ‘sweetheart.’

If you take office romance, enemies to lovers, and women in STEM, you get another amazing novel from McLean.

We follow Emma, a tech nepo baby. Except she's not really a nepo baby since her parents have squandered away the family fortune. Emma works because she likes to, and she needs to. Enter Charlie her work nemesis. After a project where Charlie got all the credit and glory, the two are put together on a project that will determine which of them gets the promotion they both desperately want.

As a women in STEM I really enjoyed the majority of the book. The struggles Emma has at work hit very close to home. They way the relationship between Charlie and Emma grows and how they fall in love was incredibly endearing. My biggest critique was the ending. As a tech girlie, I get that the ending was very Happily Ever After but it was really unrealistic compared to the rest of the novel. I know that is just being picky but it really did take me out of the story.

“My life turned technicolor the second you walked into it. Everything else pales in comparison.”

Happy Pub day to one of my favorite reads of the year! 🥳

Thank you to Net Galley and Victory Editing for giving me an ARC of this book.

This book is for all the corporate girlies out there trying to survive the capitalist and misogynistic world in which we live.

This story follows Emma. She is a badass corporate woman who works at a technology company. She comes from a very rich family, but they have had problems with money for the last couple of years. And that’s why she is trying to do everything she can to fix this mess. While she is trying to climb the corporate ladder and dealing with her parents, she has one obstacle: Charlie Walker. They have been enemies for a long time and now, they are competing against each other, (while working together), for a promotion. As they become a team at work and outside of work, they start discovering things about each other that they didn’t know and feelings start changing from hate to something more. (😍)

This is a classic enemies to lovers and it was such a delight to read a book where it is so well written. The hatred and tension between both of them is exquisite. I love both of their character developments. Emma is so relatable in so many things, her experience in the corporate world, in the dating pool and just being a strong, independent woman. And Charlie is such a different MMC than what I’ve usually read before. Both of them are flawed characters. which we love to see, but they really own up to their mistakes.

The book talks about very important issues in a way that feels light and deep at the same time. The se*ual freedom that the book has is so refreshing and nice to see. This book made me feel very seen in different areas, specially with being a corporate girlie myself. I felt so many things reading this book and I’m so grateful because this was exactly what I needed at this point of my life.

This is the perfect combination between a funny, sexy, deep and romantic read.

Go buy it right now!

Take It Offline is an engaging and fun rivals-to-lovers romance that will keep you hooked from the start. The story follows Emma, a strong, determined woman working in the tech industry, as she battles for the respect she deserves. I loved how the book explores Emma’s struggle to prove she's not just a trust fund princess but a hardworking woman dealing with the challenges of a male-dominated field. Her determination is inspiring, and her journey feels very relatable.

The romance between Emma and Charlie is filled with witty banter, and the tension between them makes the story even more enjoyable. Their chemistry is undeniable, and I loved seeing how their rivalry slowly turns into something much deeper. The spicy moments are well-written and unique (really, some of this stuff I had never read before in a book), adding excitement to the story. Overall, the characters are well-developed, and the pacing is great. Despite the technical work-related details, it’s an easy and enjoyable read. If you love rivals-to-lovers romances with strong female leads and plenty of heat, Take It Offline is a must-read!

I will be reviewing it on amazon as well when it releases!

3.5 stars

There was a lot about this book that I really loved. Firstly, the FMC Emma was incredible. In the romances I read, it is so rare to have a woman that starts the book knowing her worth, knowing what she deserves, and fighting for herself. Emma was an absolute force of nature and I loved how she stuck up for herself and fought for herself, and how powerful she became through her relationship with Charlie. She wasn't a character that was empowered by external forces, in fact she was constantly squashed by them until the relationship with Charlie began. Before that, she empowered herself and I truly loved that about her. As for Charlie, he was such a sweet hero. He had a lot going on in his personal life, but the way he made time for Emma and put her first was something every girl wishes for. She came to him with a very vulnerable issue and he gave no judgement and had a focus on her that is just so rare for most women in the bedroom. However, when it came to the more difficult moments of their relationship, his back-and-forth was incredibly confusing. It did jump to this need to push her away really quickly after he had been talking so long about trying to be with her forever and convince her to give him a chance. I felt like I couldn't really get a proper read on him, and that may have been helped by more time thinking about himself rather than her when I was in his internal monologues. Their relationship gave me everything The Hating Game couldn't, at least at first. The Hating Game had oodles of immaturity and incredibly toxic and petty hatred between the two main characters. This book had general dislike, but they weren't actively trying to ruin each other, which was appreciated. It just goes to show that a hate-to-love story doesn't need to have the two main characters inflicting hell on each other in order to create a believable hatred between them. I think the development of their relationship did get confusing though. There were a few moments throughout the story where it felt like things jumped ahead in time. For example, the jump from hatred to "let's have sex" and the later jump from Logan making a move on Emma in the cellar, to all of a sudden the heart to heart between Charlie and Emma. I think in the latter, Logan never officially exited the scene so there was a good period of time where I thought this big confession was happening with Logan standing right there and I thought that was just incredibly awkward. The only other issue I had with this story was the really obvious hinting at a sequel. There was a whole scene where Emma's best friend meets Emma's next-door neighbour and then later is made redundant from her job. None of that had any relevance to this story, in my opinion, so it felt really obviously planted to set up a sequel and it did take me out of the story. But other than those two things, I really did love this read. I thought the writing was amazing at pulling out the tension between Emma and Charlie, and then building the sexual tension that turned into this really supportive relationship. The smut was incredibly hot to read, especially the scene where Emma achieves her first orgasm. The build-up to that was incredible, and it truly did feel like a momentous occasion because of how it was written, so massive credit to Dani McLean for not making that moment feel awkward (as I've seen happen with other authors writing a scene of that nature). This was a truly addictive read and I had such a good time reading it. It does have me intrigued to read more from Dani McLean, so I'll be adding some new books to my never-ending TBR!

Emma and Charlie are pitted against each other for a promotion. Emma has been slaving away diligently at her job for years but never progressing thanks to being a woman in a male dominated industry. Charlie wants the role but recognises that Emma has what it takes to succeed. Will he play fair?

This workplace enemies to lovers romance was so fun. There is a fair bit of work talk however it is all justified in the storyline and I actually enjoyed the professional banter between our two characters. If you like your romances steamy, this is definitely the book for you!! There were quite a few detailed spicy scenes with the chemistry between our characters sizzling hot. I'm excited to see what Dani McLean writes next.

This book was a really mixed bag. In no particular order here are my pros and cons.

Pros:

-Charlie and Emma have excellent chemistry. Funny banter and the spicy scenes were spicing.
-Emma is a competent FMC which is really refreshing and I appreciated that Charlie not only saw it but stood up for her at work.

Cons:

-SO. MUCH. SHOP. TALK. and yet I still have no idea what their jobs actually were. It was tedious and confusing to wade through all the work details.
-There were several plot points that could have been interesting but felt disconnected. Work drama, parental drama, childhood trauma, their agreement…all could have been interesting but weren’t woven together in a satisfying way.

Overall this book wasn’t my favorite but I would definitely pick up another of Dani’s books in the future!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a free copy in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Super fun, with great banter - the characters really sell the story, they are really well portrayed, they feel like real people! I've never heard of Dani McLean before, but based on this I want to read more. Only thing is the corporate jargon was REAL - and I didn't get half of it and skimmed those bits, but it added to the realism so swings and roundabouts.

It was difficult for me to get into the story was I first started reading but as the romance progress it became easier. I loved the chemistry between the two main characters and the spice was great.

5 ⭐ 4 🌶

I have always loved Dani's stories and spice, but they took it to a whole new level with Take It Offline. This storyline was so much fun and the spice was amazing. We get a chastity cage. A ROOSTER CAGE MY FRIENDS! And it was insanely fun (although I forgot to go incognito on chrome when trying to find out what they look like, so I'm sure my ads will be interesting for a bit 😂).

The hate to love, albeit one ish sided, was freaking fantastic. The banter was so amusing and I loved getting to see Charlie play the game while secretly pining for Emma.

Logan is the worst and while I do wish we got to see a bigger downfall, him simply ceasing to exist was pretty amazing too 😂 The way Emma felt so broken because of her issue made me want to commit serial things against the men of her past and give her the biggest hug ever. Charlie was just so perfect for her, especially in this regard.

I'm really hoping Dani feels inspired to write Ivy's story next because I feel like there was a definite setup for it and I would absolutely adore more from this world. Regardless, I know I'll be picking up their next story and loving it to bits.

🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤
5/5 ♾️

𝙄 𝙙𝙤𝙣’𝙩 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙗𝙚 𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙮. 𝙄 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙞𝙩 𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙙𝙚𝙣𝙚𝙙, 𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙛𝙞𝙚𝙙, 𝙖𝙗𝙨𝙤𝙡𝙪𝙩𝙚. 𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙪𝙨𝙚 𝙙𝙤 𝙄 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙛𝙚𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙜𝙤 𝙖𝙨 𝙦𝙪𝙞𝙘𝙠𝙡𝙮 𝙖𝙨 𝙢𝙞𝙡𝙚 𝙢𝙖𝙧𝙠𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙝𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙬𝙖𝙮?

53 annotations. Do I even need to say more? (Do I need to explain how long it took me to figure out my quote above?!) DANI MCLEAN does it again!! I LOVED this book so much. I didn’t want it to end, but also devoured it so fast because I couldn’t help myself. Charlie & Emma were 👩🏼‍🍳💋….

Here’s everything I loved:

💻 this is a workplace romance with women in STEM

💞 enemies to lovers…my FAVORITE trope of all time

❤️ Dani & I share our love of supernatural….I pictured Felicia Day (aka Charlie) as Reese!!

🐶 loved that Charlie was a dog lover & helped at his sister Reese’s animal rescue

✨ Emma’s tough exterior & warm gooey center…I fell in LOVE with her!! Charlie stood no chance from the get go. Obv, he falls first. (I pictured Margot Robbie as Emma)

☀️ “Morning, sunshine.”

💋 Charlie is my new fav book bf! (my fan cast for Charlie is Chris Evans)

🖊️ the sides stories in this were realistic & so well written. It felt like I was watching the next hit romcom movie!

🧀 it’s okay, Charlie…I also eat cheese right out of the bag when my anxiety is bad

🖇️ how women are treated in the workplace is real in this…I used to work in the restaurant industry in management & I was never treated as equal to my male counterparts. I’m so thankful & lucky to no longer have to work in that toxic environment, but I feel seen reading stories that represent this struggle. 𝘈𝘭𝘦𝘹𝘢, 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘺 “𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘯” 𝘣𝘺 𝘛𝘢𝘺𝘭𝘰𝘳 𝘚𝘸𝘪𝘧𝘵

🧟‍♀️ “How long would you last in a zombie apocalypse?”

📺 the reference of The Boys

💞 okay, I could truly go on & on. JUST GO READ THIS BOOK!!

💜 Take It Offline is available September 24th! And will be available on KU!!

Ya’ll these two are so hot.
Like 10/10 chemistry.

Dani never ever fails with their writing. Ate the whole thing up and left no crumbs. I loved every second of it.

Fighting the patriarchy and prejudices with women in STEM.

Bondage, toys, a cage (? never knew that before), audio play, and so much more.

This was my first book by Dani McLean and it won’t be my last! This was the perfect read especially for those in the corporate world (lots of businesses talk). I devoured this Take It Offline and loved the tension and banter between Emma and Charlie!

Thank you Dani and NetGalley for the read! I look forward to seeing what Dani writes next!

I'd recommend this book if you like:
- an intelligent, kind-hearted fmc
- boy obsessed
- a bit of wine talk 🍷
- unconventional families
- dynamics of office work at a large corp

This is my first read by this author, and I was pleasantly surprised to read about characters working in operations like myself 😅

Charlie was willing to take Emma any way he could and he was a man obsessed. I also love that he was an animal lover and a fierce protector of his younger sister 🩷

Emma comes across as very intelligent and professional in the workplace. What I liked most was that she was human enough to snap at others when frustrated, but kind enough to turnaround and apologize for it. It's always validating to read about the extra hurdles women go through in the office, even if it's equally as frustrating.

The characters had good communication, the story was paced well with a nice balance between the plot in the office vs their romance, and there was some top notch groveling 🙌🏻

I'd recommend this as a fast, fairly low-angst, modern and relatable romance!

Another sleepless night, that's how good it was. A thousand ways heartbreaking as heart mending and lest not forget the steamy scenes, that are just perfection.
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Dani writes they characters in a way that it is impossible not to get under your skin. In my case, I fell for Emma, ​​every part of being a woman in the corporate world or having a job surrounded by chauvinistic men in higher positions, grr..yes, I felt it in every fiber of my being bringing back memories of another time in my life.
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So at first I had my doubts about Charlie, but page by page he showed that he was so much more and it make me change my mind.
Also the banter of two enemies to lovers in the same work environment, competing for a position that can change their lives drastically. And this book is a pure fireball ready for any fan of the trope.
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Charlie works in a large company and is surrounded by bosses who question every step she takes, but not only does she have to fight every coma in her work for being of a different gender, she also has a last name for which she is typecast as a nepobaby.
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But the truth is deeper, and she got to her position through many hours of hard work. That's why when her boss tells her that a new position, a promotion, is opening up, she doesn't expect it to be so easy.
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But she hadn't imagined having to compete with Charlie Walker. Favorite of the bosses, another man in an elegant suit willing to take credit at every opportunity. And even worse, having to share the office with him for six months while they work as a team.
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My only questioning, and that's why it's four stars, is that the breakup or third act conflict appeared out of nowhere, or at least that's what it seemed to me in the conversation they were having. I don't know if it was necessary for him to roll into such a big ball just with words. I always thought I was going to circle around who got the promotion.
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The level of spice and the scenes were perfect as always in their books, Dani Mclean writes the chemistry and connection between they characters so well and they always leaves me intrigued with the rest of the characters and what things are going to happen with their stories, I hope one of them is Ivy…pleaseee, can it be Ivy?!!
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Thanks to Dani Mclean and their team for give me a copy of this beautiful book in exchange for my honest and voluntary opinion