Rivals to lovers fans Not Safe for Work is for you! My favorite element had to be Tris’s character development but the spice was spicing! Keep reading this book review of Not Safe for Work for my full thoughts.
Summary
Engineer Trishara Malik once dreamed of being the first woman of color to smash the glass ceiling at WMC Purcell, but after years of dealing with white male privilege and blatant nepotism, she watches her hard-earned promotion go to her nemesis, Rafe Gallagher—the boss’s son. Teetering on the edge of burnout, Tris is stunned when she’s picked to attend WMC’s corporate leadership retreat in Hawaii. It’s a chance to revive her stalled career and compete for a coveted spot in an executive training program—plus, three weeks in paradise! The only downside? Rafe is her co-attendee.
Tris plans to avoid Rafe entirely, but when she arrives in Maui, a booking error has them stuck sharing the honeymoon suite. Sure, it’s not all torture. Rafe is a smoldering ten—okay fine, an eleven—but after years of competition, they can barely stand being in the same time zone. As they vie against each other during aptitude tests and team-building exercises, Tris begins to realize Rafe might not be the villain after all. With her dreams at stake, can she learn to trust the man who might have been standing in her corner all along?
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
While I’ve had a rocky relationship with Tuli, Not Safe for Work is definitely my favorite. I love this enemies/rivals to lovers as they are forced to go on this work retreat AND share a room together. But I think we all know the very thin line in these books between rivalry and attraction. Who else will know all of our tricks, our insecurities, and our tells than our rival? Not Safe for Work is a spicy and swoony romance. My favorite element was Tris and her character/professional development. The sexism for the engineering sector here had my blood boiling!
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
And while Tris is tired of it, when this opportunity comes she thinks maybe her fortune is changing. However, Not Safe for Work shows Tris that she is going to always be her best advocate. There can be a work culture encouraging us to be silent, to laugh along with the joke, we also deserve so much more. It’s easy to fall into Not Safe for Work. And Soneela Nankani does a great job narrating the banter and sarcasm which had be smiling and rolling my eyes! I enjoyed the romance aspect, even if I had a hard time with Rafe the whole time.
Rafe, unfortunately, just had some flags that kicked up bad memories for me. I felt like the ending let him off the hook too much considering his waffling, but we knew it was coming! Considering the pace of the will they won’t they dynamic, I do think we could have drawn out those last chapters a little bit more. For fans of fake dating and strong women in STEM, this is for you! Find Not Safe for Work on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon, Bookshop. org, Blackwells, & Libro. fm.