Thank you to NetGalley and Afterglow for the opportunity to give my candid feedback!

I originally requested this book because it seemed to have everything I typically look for: dual POV, academic rivals, office romance, and the Shakespearean fan fic aspect got me. Also, the spicy cover is perfect!

Now, I did enjoy that the MCs were more mature and open with one another, especially about their previous relationships and family trauma. The use of dual POV here was also great! It was almost 50/50 which I loved because it meant we got a lot of the spicy scenes from Aidan’s perspective as well.

But, overall, I was personally turned off by how repetitive the prose was and I just wished the characters' maturity translated into how they treated each other in the professional setting. Also, the way the narrative took a turn at the end was a bit of an ick for me.

With that said, if you are looking for a short, sweet, and very spicy workplace romance I think you would enjoy Much Ado About Hating You!

I wanted to love this story, but the characters kind of fell flat for me. I usually love the enemies to lovers trope, but this felt more childish and petty. The "banter" and pranks felt very immature. Overall, the story was okay. It did have some redeeming moments in the end.

Much Ado About Hating You was a very short and quick read. Based the description, I really thought that I was going to like this book. Unfortunately this book just wasn't my cup of tea. The book felt very bland and the relationship between both main characters was just ehhhh. This book has the potential to be better, it just needs a little bit of reworking, especially with the characters.

This book was so fun!! Great enemies to lovers. Such good banter. Loved the Shakespeare meets modern romance throughout the story. The fanfic writing was really fun. The steam and the chemistry was perfect. This felt like a longer novella, not quite a novel. So the plot moves fast along with the emotions. But for the length, it was a blast and did not bother me at all. I seriously had so much fun.

2.75 stars

I had high hopes for this book after reading the summary a professional setting where two adults would get hot and heavy after some aggressive interactions. But why did it read like a Wattpad story, nothing was flowing, the sex scenes were not hot. I can see the effort it the author did with the characters giving their personalities more depth. But they didn’t hit for me they sounded like they were in college with their dramatic reactions and behaviors I felt cringe. Even when they actually started to talk to each other like real people it felt forced, a bit overdone with the romance. I see promise in the author but they definitely need more time to work out characters and story.

Thanks to NetGalley and Afterglow by Harlequin I received a ARC for an honest review !

this book opens really strong and can hook a reader really fast! there’s a lot of fun allusions to shakespeare, which adds to the uniqueness of the book! the writing style is also really captivating- the voice of each narrator is great!

University settings. College professors. Relationships that are forbidden. These are a few of my favorite things. I adored this book by Smith and thought she did a great job building suspense among the two main characters. I needed to keep reading because I was so enthralled with this story. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

So grateful to get this as an ARC on Netgally!! I was really excited about the premise of this book! The mmc being an English professor and her being a financial auditor tasked to cut waste in his department. It was a true enemies moment at the beginning which I enjoyed. This book was also SPICY!! I enjoyed that he was the secret erotica writer, it made a little different. As much as I did like the book, there were some things that got me. The writing at times felt flat to me and the mmc annoyed me. He got a lot more growth out of their relationship than she did. He got to repair his relationship with his dad and meet his person. She got a man who did not understand or accept that she HAD to do her job even if it hurt his. Yes he supported her in her writing but it felt like he pressured her to leave her very STABLE job to pursue a career HE DOESN’T PROFESSIONALLY DO!! Also the epilogue felt like it went back on all her personal progress (moving in with him after 3 months?? Like girl weren’t you traumatized by the last guy??) Overall it was an enjoyable read.

I want to preface that I usually love her books. So with that said,  this wasn’t a favorite of mine. Micah was the auditor for the university’s English department. Aidan wasn't impressed that his job may be on the line as an English professor.  They disliked each other early on. The first half there was a lot of immaturity between the two thirty year olds. Which was awful. Hiding a hot sauce in a sandwich was petty. Especially if you don't know what allergies the person has. Another issue was I didn’t like Micah in the beginning either.  At all. So it was hard to cheer for her. The second half was much better. I felt they finally had the right chemistry. The sex scenes were very hot and steamy. Yeah for that. The ending was cute. Overall, it was a good enemies to lovers romance that I’m sure people would appreciate. Thank to the publisher and NetGalley for my ARC.

This was fun & steamy!

I was drawn in by the spicy fanfic writing professor and the enemies to lovers romance. I found this to be a fun read. The characters have witty banter and great chemistry which made the steamy scenes great. I liked the secret identity plot and how it played out.

A quick, entertaining and steamy read!

i wanted to love this book. the premise had everything I adore—academic rivals, secret identities, spicy fanfic, and Shakespearean drama. but somewhere along the way, this story went from Much Ado About Nothing to A Comedy of Errors, and not in the good way.

first off Micah and Aidan have the chemistry of two wet socks stuck together in the dryer—full of friction but not the fun kind. their “banter” felt less like sizzling tension and more like an HR violation waiting to happen. i love a good enemies-to-lovers arc, but these two spent so much time bickering that by the time they got together, I felt like I had been third-wheeling an office argument for 300 pagealso, Aidan dude, your entire career is on the line, maybe don’t spend so much time thirst-posting in the fanfic trenches. i respect the dedication to the craft, but priorities, my guy. the Shakespearean nods were fun at first, but after the fifth dramatic monologue about love and fate, i started feeling like I was trapped in a high school English class where the teacher insists on reading Romeo and Juliet in an accent. by the end, I was less interested in whether Micah and Aidan would end up together and more interested in seeing if the university would just fire them both and put us all out of our misery.

im afraid im gonna have to dnf :( i dont think this is the book for me- it had an amazing set up and an intriguing premise, but the mmc right off the bat is too cruel to the fmc for no reason and their antics read less like enemies to lovers than immature adults. i wanted to love it and im so sad it didn’t work out. i will leave my review here instead of a public one, thank you!

I requested this book because of the gorgeous cover and the blurb seemed very intriguing, but sadly I just couldn't connect to the sorry. My main issue was that I just couldn't understand the character's motivations or the reasons behind their actions... it all just seemed very silly? Which I get is the premise, but I guess I just couldn't get behind that given that the characters are said to be in their 30s. They acted very immature and I don't think they had good chemistry together. However, I did enjoy the writing style! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I’m a fan of Sarah and so excited about this book. It has her usual wit and charm, it was funny and steamy.

We meet Micha, a financial advisor who has been brought in to university to reassess their English department, which is where we meet Aidan. These two get off on the wrong foot and go to war.
Aidan writes Shakespeare fanfic and is a popular writer on the site. A big fan of his starts commenting on his work and the two of them start chatting and flirting for weeks. Of course, this turns out to be Micah. Micah has a love of writing but stops when her crappy ex-boyfriend told her her work was too lowbrow, and she should forget about it.

Micah and Aidan discover who each other is after before getting stuck together because of a snow storm and work out their differences. These relationships move too fast. In a matter of weeks. Micah quits her job (she’s struggling with money and quits her job with no back). The end kind of lost me a little. It just feels like too much in the last 20% of the book.

Overall, I did really enjoy the book; I just didn’t love it.

Micah is a financial auditor whose latest assignment takes her to the english dept of the local university and professor Aidan. She loves reading spicy shakespearean fanfic after work- not realizing that Aidan is the writer....

Love the fun in the book. Totally romantic and swoony. Really enjoy Micah and Aidan...

Thanks to the publisher for the arc.

i wanted to love this book. the premise had everything I adore—academic rivals, secret identities, spicy fanfic, and Shakespearean drama. but somewhere along the way, this story went from Much Ado About Nothing to A Comedy of Errors, and not in the good way.

first off Micah and Aidan have the chemistry of two wet socks stuck together in the dryer—full of friction but not the fun kind. their “banter” felt less like sizzling tension and more like an HR violation waiting to happen. i love a good enemies-to-lovers arc, but these two spent so much time bickering that by the time they got together, I felt like I had been third-wheeling an office argument for 300 pages.

and let’s talk about the big twist: Micah, a dedicated reader of spicy Shakespearean fanfic, discovers that the man she’s been professionally (and personally) at war with is, in fact, her favorite fanfic writer. cue dramatic gasps, *GASP!!!* except instead of this revelation leading to any real tension or depth, it just led to some truly unhinged decision-making. GIRL, you find out your academic nemesis has been writing the exact kind of smut you love, and instead of riding that train straight into OTP bliss, you… continue being mad for 100 more pages???? gtfo

also, Aidan dude, your entire career is on the line, maybe don’t spend so much time thirst-posting in the fanfic trenches. i respect the dedication to the craft, but priorities, my guy. the Shakespearean nods were fun at first, but after the fifth dramatic monologue about love and fate, i started feeling like I was trapped in a high school English class where the teacher insists on reading Romeo and Juliet in an accent. by the end, I was less interested in whether Micah and Aidan would end up together and more interested in seeing if the university would just fire them both and put us all out of our misery.
—
sigh that being said, if you enjoy enemies-to-lovers fueled by pure chaos, dramatic misunderstandings, and academic pettiness, you might have a better time than i did. as for me, i need to go cleanse my palate with some actual Shakespearean fanfic. preferably one where the characters have more sense than these two......

thank you Harlequin Romance for an early copy. much appreciated.

The cover was the best thing about this book.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced reader copy.
The premise was great, but this book was much closer erotica than romance. The writing was repetitive and a bit juvenile. All around this book wasn’t for me.

In this steamy, work-place romance, we are given two hard-working individuals who have different views of what they focus their priorities on. Micah is a head-strong, independent woman who is working on herself and is an auditor. Aiden is an English professor who is passionate about his job despite the hurdles he had to deal with to get there. The two of them do not end up on the right foot when they meet due to work place circumstances. And unbeknownst to them, they have already befriended each other via fan fiction app.

It is an “enemies to lovers” type story but I honestly had a hard time truly believing the issues they carried with one another after the first time they met. I think they had valid reasons to feel the way they did but it continued to just be.. weird. Aiden’s annoying need to push his excuses on other people was ridiculous, I can understand Micah willing to put it aside for the fact that he gave good head—but girl GET UP!! Some of the spicy scenes were decent and it was overall okay. It was an easy read but nothing memorable.

I was extremely excited to pick up this book as someone who has an English degree and loves fanfiction. I think that this book could benefit from a once over with a fine tooth comb to remove the prevalent repition, e.g., "'Wait what about the tenured faculty? Will we be part of the cuts too?' one of the tenured professors asks." In this instance, when the professor speaking said "we" in reference to the tenured faculty, I did not need the word to be repeated more than once, or in the case of the "unicorn steak", the fact that it was mentioned as an option in the paragraph above took away the humor of his answer in my opinion. There were also more than a few times in which it felt like the book was spoon-feeding the reader a bit, e.g., "your retention rate, how many students drop your classes," implying that the reader lacks an understanding of what a retention rate is.

I also think as someone who loves classic literature, it did rub me the wrong way the way that Aidan responded to comments like "If they let us read this kind of stuff in school, I wouldn't have skipped out on my English lit class so much LOL". Upon reading that he feels a "burst of pride" which feels insane to me as an English professor, especially one who teaches Shakespeare for God's sake. I understand completely the disdain that he might have for professors or even students who think that Romance as a genre is lesser, but I think allowing the inverse is egregious.

The rest of the book was fine, but I have a really hard time reading a book, especially a romance, where I find one of the main characters unlikeable.

I would read future works by this author.