Not Safe for Work - Review

*I received an audio copy via Hachette Audio. All reviews are my own.*

I SAID NO SLOW BURNS IN 2025 AND YET HERE I AM WITH A SLOW BURN ROMANCE! I've been successfully dodging them left and right, yet this next title found its way through the cracks. It was a good thing I was able to remedy my minor temporary dislike for the simmers (which I'll reveal in a second), because I would've missed out on rivals-to-lovers, forced proximity, and the cayenne pepper-level spice that was definitely not safe for work. Taking a break from Romantasy, Nisha J. Tuli jumps towards the deep end with her new full Romance novel, Not Safe for Work.

"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?"

You know how I mentioned that I found the secret weapon to getting through smoldering texts? Audio. Yea. It shouldn't be a shock to hear that, being my preferred method of experiencing a book these days, but it's not always a hit when it comes to narration. Luckily, the Tuli camp picked a pretty good narrator to satiate my appetite for this drawn-out Romance. Soneela Nankani entertained me for 10 hours and 44 minutes with her characterizations of Trishara Malik and Rafe Gallagher. Nankani is a newcomer to me, and I'd like to hear more of her work, especially in the Fantasy realm.

Now it's a little unfair that I've pre-labeled this story a slow burn before I even got into the nitty-gritty of my review. While it was on a walking pace, the story was filled with corporate shenanigans, including nepotism, sexism, machismo … hell, all of the isms! Yet, Trishara Malik was able to trudge along through the bs to continue to shine in her way. When she wins an all-expense paid work retreat to Hawaii, it's the vacation she's been looking for ... Until she finds out she's going with her nemesis, the boss's son, Rafe Gallagher. Of course, things get a little uncomfortable and steamy on the beautiful sands of Hawaii.

I love that our star of the show is a brown STEM girly! Given the world's current behavior, I love to see women showcase their intelligence and not back down from it. The banter between Malik and Gallagher is cute and annoying at the same time. It's like the little brother who keeps hovering his finger in his sister's face while saying, "I'm not touching youuuuu"! And the spice! Oh, the spice! It took a while to get there, but when we got there, there was no stopping it. Apparently, all-nighters were pulled. And of course, my favorite was the ending. I won't give it away, but our girl bossed up in the most spectacular way possible.

My only gripe with the story is how I wish Tuli had described certain scenes a little better. There were a few misleading moments that had me worried for our girl Malik. I thought it was going to get dark. There was a point in the story where I thought she was drugged and Gallagher was trying to save the day, while shunning the abuser discreetly. Thankfully, nothing like that is in the story; it turned out to be the typical, 'I don't want you to have her, because I want her' trope, but how easy it was to misinterpret that whole situation without better signals from our characters. I'm not going to lie, it could've been a great white and shining armor trope that would still set off the events the way it did, but this creative direction was fine as well.

Overall, I rated this story 3-stars. My mood reading has landed on Romance, and I gave this one a shot. It's not on my top-tier shelf with the small number of novels I have on there, but it was still a good read. I'm happy I did it with audio, because I probably would've DNFed it because you know, slow rumble. But when it picked up, it picked up in a sexy way! Well, we left with Malik and Gallagher's story, which had a baker's dream. I want to continue the food porn craze and find another romance with food as the subtopic.

Not Safe for Work is available now!

#TheLittLibrarian #Review #Audio #Romance #Fiction #ContemporaryRomance