Scan barcode
rickireadss's review against another edition
3.5
i have mixed feelings with this one. i was liked all the computer science talk about his job. i really liked the female friendships in this. i loved the WOC (women of color) rep in STEM!! i just didn’t really care for the romance - i didn’t feel the chemistry & the third act breakup really killed the vibe.
⚠️: racism, toxic relationship, infidelity, misogyny, infertility, sexism
Content Warnings
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Misogyny, and Infidelity
Minor: Infertility, Sexism, and Racism
mikaelaandherbooks's review
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexism, Sexual content, and Racism
Minor: Infidelity
kingrosereads's review
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
A workplace romance with BIPOC representation and female friendship.
Samiah Brooks is in her early 30s and she’s killing it. She’s got the car, the condo, and the job. Now according everyone, she needs the man. Unfortunately, after reading a thread of a young woman live Tweeting an awful date, Samiah realizes the man she’s dating is two-timing her. She goes to the restaurant to confront him just in time for another woman he was conning to show up. The three women chew him out which is being recorded on the other patrons’ phones. Samiah finds a kinship with the other two women: personal trainer and nutritionist, Taylor, and pediatric surgeon, London. However, the video of them goes viral much to their embarrassment. The women band together and say “screw society” and decide to devote the time they’ve wasted on dating on themselves before trying again. Samiah decides to devote her time to developing an app she’s been dreaming of for years.
That’s until Monday, when new hire, Daniel Collins, shows up at Samiah’s job. She’s a badass, woman in STEM working for an extremely successful tech company and she’s rising to the top fast! She and Daniel hit it off and start a flirty work friendship. The problem is, Daniel is a government agent working for FinCEN in order to uncover a money laundering operation working out of Samiah’s job. What makes it even more difficult is Daniel is falling for Samiah, but is afraid to not only hurt her but compromise his job.
Now this book has its moments. I think the buildup to Daniel and Samiah’s relationship was cute. Their office flirting was a whole vibe. But their actual relationship? I wasn’t feeling it at all. In fact, it was pretty boring. It was cute and fine, but it wasn’t plucking any heartstrings. And the sex scenes where just so…bleh? Like foreplay? Who is she? We don’t need her. There’s no buildup to the sex to get you excited for it. And the scenes themselves were just lack luster. And I’ve enjoyed clean romances and fade-to-black romances without issue. I almost wish this was clean or FTB.
I liked the camaraderie between Samiah, London, and Taylor. I think the friendship started off fine and I could see the platonic chemistry there, but the book doesn’t devote much time to this blossoming friendship. Like I like the other women but I just barely care about them and the other two books are supposed to be about them! The book does devote A LOT of time to the work stuff. Which is fine, but it was A LOT. It’s more of a workplace drama in which a romance takes place.
I don’t mind the “hidden identity” trope, but in this case, I really hated it. Samiah has HUGE trust issues and was literally JUST conned by a man lying about who he was and now the love interest is also lying about who he is? No thank you. Maybe if he’d confided in her and they actually worked together, her as maybe an informant, and she slowly forgave him after working to bring down the criminals, then MAYBE I could accept it.
All this aside, I loved seeing a woman in STEM, especially a woman of color. I liked that Samiah talked about the difficulties of living up to her family’s expectations and what it’s like to be a WOMAN in STEM, especially the hardships that come with being a black woman in STEM and the pressure to be perfect to prevent messing up opportunities for the black women that come after her. Samiah’s experience working in a tech company is the experience of most women in STEM and most male-dominated fields, times 10 for women of color. So I think it’s really relatable and for non-POCs, it’s a good start at understanding even if it just scratches the surface.
I will read the next book, because despite the shortcomings of this book, Taylor’s book is fake dating which I LOVE and London’s is enemies-to-lovers, so there potential there, too.
Samiah Brooks is in her early 30s and she’s killing it. She’s got the car, the condo, and the job. Now according everyone, she needs the man. Unfortunately, after reading a thread of a young woman live Tweeting an awful date, Samiah realizes the man she’s dating is two-timing her. She goes to the restaurant to confront him just in time for another woman he was conning to show up. The three women chew him out which is being recorded on the other patrons’ phones. Samiah finds a kinship with the other two women: personal trainer and nutritionist, Taylor, and pediatric surgeon, London. However, the video of them goes viral much to their embarrassment. The women band together and say “screw society” and decide to devote the time they’ve wasted on dating on themselves before trying again. Samiah decides to devote her time to developing an app she’s been dreaming of for years.
That’s until Monday, when new hire, Daniel Collins, shows up at Samiah’s job. She’s a badass, woman in STEM working for an extremely successful tech company and she’s rising to the top fast! She and Daniel hit it off and start a flirty work friendship. The problem is, Daniel is a government agent working for FinCEN in order to uncover a money laundering operation working out of Samiah’s job. What makes it even more difficult is Daniel is falling for Samiah, but is afraid to not only hurt her but compromise his job.
Now this book has its moments. I think the buildup to Daniel and Samiah’s relationship was cute. Their office flirting was a whole vibe. But their actual relationship? I wasn’t feeling it at all. In fact, it was pretty boring. It was cute and fine, but it wasn’t plucking any heartstrings. And the sex scenes where just so…bleh? Like foreplay? Who is she? We don’t need her. There’s no buildup to the sex to get you excited for it. And the scenes themselves were just lack luster. And I’ve enjoyed clean romances and fade-to-black romances without issue. I almost wish this was clean or FTB.
I liked the camaraderie between Samiah, London, and Taylor. I think the friendship started off fine and I could see the platonic chemistry there, but the book doesn’t devote much time to this blossoming friendship. Like I like the other women but I just barely care about them and the other two books are supposed to be about them! The book does devote A LOT of time to the work stuff. Which is fine, but it was A LOT. It’s more of a workplace drama in which a romance takes place.
I don’t mind the “hidden identity” trope, but in this case, I really hated it. Samiah has HUGE trust issues and was literally JUST conned by a man lying about who he was and now the love interest is also lying about who he is? No thank you. Maybe if he’d confided in her and they actually worked together, her as maybe an informant, and she slowly forgave him after working to bring down the criminals, then MAYBE I could accept it.
All this aside, I loved seeing a woman in STEM, especially a woman of color. I liked that Samiah talked about the difficulties of living up to her family’s expectations and what it’s like to be a WOMAN in STEM, especially the hardships that come with being a black woman in STEM and the pressure to be perfect to prevent messing up opportunities for the black women that come after her. Samiah’s experience working in a tech company is the experience of most women in STEM and most male-dominated fields, times 10 for women of color. So I think it’s really relatable and for non-POCs, it’s a good start at understanding even if it just scratches the surface.
I will read the next book, because despite the shortcomings of this book, Taylor’s book is fake dating which I LOVE and London’s is enemies-to-lovers, so there potential there, too.
Content Warnings
Minor: Racism, Misogyny, and Sexism
bedtimesandbooks's review
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Classism, Racism, Sexism, Toxic relationship, and Alcohol
Moderate: Car accident
Minor: Cultural appropriation
More...