This book turned out to be surprisingly fun. I thought the reason behind Naomi’s dislike of Donovan made sense, it came from a bad previous experience coupled with his behavior at work. On Donovan’s part, I don’t think he hated Naomi but enjoyed making her tick, poking the bear, so to speak. I felt like the background both characters came in with made sense. Many times, in hate to love romances, I think that the hate is either extremely over-the-top—he accidentally knocked over her coffee that one time and now, ten years on, he’s a monster—or not well-established. Because they were both professionals, they worked together, but, being human, couldn’t resist sniping at one another. I even believed it once they began shifting from enemies to lovers. It seemed like a (fairly) natural progression.
Naomi’s inner dialogue was great, wanting to make herself into a Naomi-burrito with shame sauce, saying that her unexpected chirp was appropriate as she was acting like a dodo bird, and then, the even better part, when she was so excited she asked to fist bump her boss. I don’t remember Donovan being as internally funny, but I do feel his actions and motivations made sense. With a book this length, I think the story could have gone either too fast or the MCs could have been underdeveloped but I don’t feel that was the case here. I’d definitely give Mia Sosa another try.
I also really enjoyed both narrators, Valentina Ortiz—new to me but I enjoyed her voice—and Sean Crisden. I kept flip-flopping between a 3.5 rating and rounding up or just leaving at 4 because while it was light and fun, I don’t think it’ll stick with me. But it made me laugh and I enjoyed the narration, so 4 it is.