DNF at 20%

Boring, annoying, over the top characters. She spills the beans (being in love) drunk at about 17% and he is just too stubborn to believe it, so I wasn't in for the whole does he, does she when it's sooo obvious for everyone..
She is so judgmental and urgh.. Just didn't care for it.

i saw this book on instagram and thought i’d check it out; it was honestly not bad. i felt it a bit hard to get into but nonetheless enjoyed the dialogue and characters. i loved the way luke was so smitten for her every page of this book and layla was also very cute. the only this that annoyed me in the beginning was how quirky and adorable layla was supposed to be, i found myself not relating and therefore scoffing at her sometimes. but all in all, solid read. also no spice, which was a lovely surprise.

Nope. 

First of all, the prologue is 30 minutes long. I know that most people don't share my hatred of prologues, but that is just WAY too damn long. And it's not even good. It just made me uncomfortable. The MC starts off by bitching about how humorless her coworkers are, but she's not even slightly funny? Putting your name as "Ben Dover" on a work meeting is gross, weird, and not even funny. And she made some stupid Game of Thrones reference that no one laughed at, but it was just dumb. Also not funny and not a joke. Like...the problem is clearly her, not her coworkers. And the male MC started his first day at a new job by trying to prank his friend? What is wrong with these people? Or maybe the characters are all supposed to act like they're in middle school. Maybe this is a publishing company run by literal children. I've never read a book that I've disliked this much this fast. Yikes. 

My husband used to work with a 19 year old kid who was obviously in love with his best friend. Everyday this kid would talk nonstop about his best friend, but he rarely called her by name, he mostly just said "My friend said..." or "Me and my best friend..."

My husband would come home everyday to regale me with stories of this kid and his best friend. It was cute and a little immature. Silly and sweet in the way that being a kid in love for the first time and not knowing how to communicate and work through it like an adult can be.

This book gave me flashbacks to that kid. It was absolutely cringey the way Luke kept referring to Layla as his best friend. Do adults refer to their best friends as their best friends constantly? I don't.

You know what else was cringey? The nickname "Little One"

That is what I call MY CHILD.

Layla was the worst. She was nOt LiKe oThEr gIrLs in the absolutle worst way. She wore conservative clothes, which is fine (women can dress however they like), but she used that as a point of superiority. There was even a point where she said something about women in oversized cardigans don't get kidnapped or some fucking bullshit like that. She also said she dressed that way to keep her creep boss from checking her out and essentially slut shamed the women in the office who dress in low cut tops because he ogles them.

I was wearing a low cut top while listening to this. I was not amused.

She's also immature to the point that it was infuriating. I think the author was trying too hard to be funny and make Layla cool, but it came off as annoying and childish. Layla says that her first week of work she learned that people didn't appreciate when you sign into a meeting as "Ben Dover" and it's implied she drew a graphic penis in the women's restroom. Look, I find penises and all that funny, too, but Not. AT. Work. We're supposed to sympathize with Layla for having to work at a terrible uptight place with a creepy boss and women in tight clothes and no sense of humor, but instead I felt like she was the real problem.

The geek references were also forced. It was Game of Thrones this, Harry Potter that, Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars. It felt like the author was paid per pop culture reference, so was trying to stick them in when they didn't even fit.

Layla even laments that her Game of Thrones joke didn't land in her forst week of work, and again I am like "Calling your work place Westeros isn't really a joke and also who references GoT in 2023???"

I haven't worn my GoT shirt since the travesty of a finale and I haven't referenced HP since finding out Joanne is a big old TERF. I am tired of rom-coms making lazy references to these mainstream "geek" franchises to show that their heroine is geeky. There are loads of geeky fandoms to explore, let's quit with the basic "geek girl", we can do better.

When I am trying to fix a story in my head it is time to quit.