I was actually really disappointed in this one… I’ve loved Zara’s other novels but this one I could not connect with. I like the idea of her being current and having it set in Present day COVID culture but the desk share just didn’t work for me! I felt no chemistry and was very underwhelmed.

DNF due to being triggered by the pandemic. Just not mentally ready since the pandemic isn't over and I couldn't connect with a character who was excited to return to the office when I was forced back.

Same desk, different days.
A post-it note is just the beginning…
A must read for fans of Beth O’Leary, Mhairi McFarlane and Sophie Kinsella!
Alice loves her job and wants to keep it – whatever the price. But then she’s told the company is switching to flexible working and hot desking…Alice’s desk might look a mess, but she knows exactly where everything is. Or she did. Until she found out she’s going to share it with the most annoying guy in the office.
Jamie can work from anywhere. He’s quite happy to sweep his work life into a box at the end of the working day. But can sharing a desk with Alice be as much fun as teasing her in person?
With no option but to try it and see, will their relationship turn into open warfare or will it ever progress beyond
a post-it note?

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for allowing me to review this book. This book is funny! Alice with her passion for all things obscure and Jamie with nothing on his desk end up sharing. The story evolves and we learn that Alice comes from a family/housemate group where if there they can share.....or help themselves in this case. Alice wants a tiny bit of space that is hers and hers alone which is understandable. We see Alice grow as a person and flourish with some encouragement from Jamie of course. Thoroughly good read. I really enjoyed it

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

I really love Zara Stonely as an author, but I think that this came out too early for me. As someone who WFH and is sad to have to go back, and knowing that 99% of my coworkers are the same, I really struggled to get into Alice's head. It also seemed super odd that in a book set during Covid, people would go from working in entirely separate buildings to sharing a desk. Bit of a miss for me, but I will be looking out for her next book!

This book sounded so good, I was looking forward to reading it. Unfortunately for me the reality was it was a struggle to read. I found the main character unlikeable from the start. So much so I couldn’t finish the book. A real disappointment.

I struggled to get into this book. I didn't like the heroine at all. But I persisted.
The story did get a bit more interesting as it progressed but it took a while to get to the climax of the story and then everything felt a bit rushed and fell into place too easily - almost as if there was a rush to get book finished.
There were a couple of topics I felt the author could have fleshed out a bit more - especially with regards to social awareness of some of the issues.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me the chance to read this book.

Hot Desk by Zara Stonely
Source: NetGalley and One More Chapter
Rating: None, DNF at 54%

The Bottom Line: Honestly, I can’t believe I made it to the 54% mark with this book. The synopsis sounded so fun, and I do love a well-organized desk, but Alice’s whining simply became too much, and I had to throw in the towel. From the moment the book opens, Alice is whining either aloud or via her inner monologue about one injustice or another and at some point, I realized I was reading the same sentences (figuratively speaking) over and over again. I think I held on as long as I did hoping the book would take a turn and Alice would begin to evolve, the become something more, and really bring me around to rooting for her. Unfortunately, none of that happened by the halfway point and I had to, sadly, give up on this read.

Hot Desk by Zara Stoneley

Alice returns to the office after working from home during Covid. She is excited as she considers her office her sanctuary from the rest of her chaotic life - flat share and family! The staff are all summoned to the office and it is announced that everyone will only be in the office at certain times and must desk share. Alice must share hers with Jamie the office heart throb for whom she has a bit of a past .

The characters in the book are fabulous.

Although the book was a bit of a slow in parts for me but do stick with it as it follows Alice’s journey about herself and her somewhat crazy life.

It tackled a few awkward issues beautifully.

It does show things are not always as you first perceive them to be.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Thank you to Harper Collins UK, One More Chapter for providing me this arc via Netgalley!
This book really tried to be the next Hating Game, but unfortunately didn't suceed. Pass this one and read the original. I also really hated the amount of story that was told through emails, but that's just my personal taste.

Loved this book and how the relationship between.Alice and Jamie via post it notes! A very apt post Covid story relating the issues of working from home and the gradual return to the office.
Lots of humour and realistic characters. An easy read which I thoroughly enjoyed. Have only just realised I'd forgotten to post my review!
Would recommend.

This was a cute book that had a lot of potential!
I felt it dragged for a bit and books mentioning covid aren’t really my thing apparently…. I liked Jamie but Alice was a tad annoying and tiring!

*arc provided via netgalley*

A first kiss forgotten or is it. Alice and Jake have history and they're sharing s desk! The desk a character in itself! An easy read. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me review this book.

I really enjoyed this. Would describe it as ‘The Flatshare’ meets ‘The Hating Game.’ It had some totally unexpected but really effective plot points and I thought the main character was very believable.

Set in the UK in 2021. Alice Dixon lives in a share house and is constantly interrupted by her housemates. Alice feels she has no space that is totally her own. Her housemates borrow her things and take her food from the fridge, her younger sister Soph is always borrowing her clothes and her ex-boyfriend used to think he was being helpful by decluttering her room and removing her nick knacks.
For a short time, Alice had to work from home during a Covid-19 shut down and she was looking forward to returning to work where she had her own desk and space that was totally hers. Alice loves her private space and loves to keep precious objects on her desk, knowing that they are safe. Disaster strikes and Alice is forced to share her desk with Jamie Lowe.
This was a fun romantic story about secrets, family relationships and friendships. I loved the way the characters were developed and interacted.

This was the second rom-com set in the pandemic that I have read and I really enjoyed it! Instead of focusing on the lockdown, this love story takes place when we are all trying to get back to the offices and to find the "new normal". In Alice's case this means sharing her desk with a colleague, hot-desking, so taking turns being in the office and working the other days at home. It gives me a stomach ache just thinking about it! I wouldn't want to share my desk, although my office desk is not as crowded as my home office desk. If someone were to uses my office desk when I am not there, make sure you leave it exactly as you found it so I have no clue you used it! Sorry, I am getting off track.

This was a lovely story and I really liked seeing Alice grow and learn to stand up for herself in her personal life. I also liked how there was more to the story for most characters, so not just what you see on the surface, but reasons not known to all why people behave the way they do. A reminder for us all not to judge a book by its cover!

What to expect:
✅ A fun, quirky and relatable main character
✅ Funny moments ... laughter
✅ Rom-com set in the pandemic
✅ Cute guy that is more than just a pretty face
✅ No personal boundaries, what's mine is your's issues

Great premise but I felt like it was a bit too slow for me and I would have preferred a bit more animosity between the characters before they came together.

I’ve read a couple of Zara Stoneley’s books now, so was excited to read Hot Desk which takes a closer look at office life post pandemic.

I felt it was brave to choose this setting, making the story very much relevant to today’s strange post lockdown world. There is a little bit of a question for me over practicalities and whether Alice and Jamie would in fact have been able to leave anything on a desk all, but it was something I found I could overlook. I think the perspective of someone who does not enjoy hot desking was provided really well here, showing how different office workers would have different outlooks, and setting the scene nicely for the portrayal as a character that didn’t really seem to have her own space anywhere.

The relationship between the two central characters was quite sweet – starting with a passionate dramatic yet fleeting kiss, with a deeper connection then developing over a series of post-it notes and emails. And you really warm to Jamie quite quickly. Alice took a while to warm to, but I felt that was because she had a bit of growing up to do, she could have saved herself some heartache by asking him if he remembered up front, and also didn’t seem to know that her flatmates were nice people until she needed their help which seemed an odd state of affairs.

I found the ex-boyfriend character Dave however, a real creep! Bordering on stalkerish and in one part described as jumping out of bushes at people which was quite a surprise. It felt like the story focused a lot on Alice building her confidence, learning to establish her boundaries and stand up for herself, and it is these two elements combined that for me gave the book a bit more of a serious and at times sad undertone (further enhanced when we get to understand what’s going on for Jamie).

Others have described the book as being in two halves which I can relate to, but I agree it’s one not to give up on. My only complaint is I felt a little bit like we were left at the edge and would have liked a little more from Alice and Jamie before the story came to an end.

If you’re a fan of Sophia Money-Coutts of Mhairi McFarlane I think you’ll like this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and OneMoreChapter team for my ARC.

The story is about Alice going back to work after working from home during Covid. It is about how she gets around the changes that happen in the office following on from the pandemic. We see her take on a new friendship with Jamie and trying to make the best of what's happening.

The book, for me, started off quite slow and quite repetitive. Once you get past this, I found the story really well done and I enjoyed it.

I loved how it was real about the truthfulness of how Alice is feeling after having to work from home and not being in the perfect home situation and how she tries to do it but by making everyone happy and not seeming selfish.

I liked that it showed the relationship to be real, it wasn't just quickly fall in love with each other and be happy ever after. I could imagine this happening in real life and I think that was really well done. I think it also brought a certain things about the society about how easy it is to try and please other people and not pleasing ourselves and it definitely made me think in a different way.

Alice Dixon is really glad that the Covid lockdown has now allowed her to return to the office. She lives with several flatmates and since her bedroom is quite small, working from home has been a challenge. She loves having her own desk where she keeps some of her little treasures. She is still trying to get away from her old boyfriend, Dave, who tried to run her life. Getting him to understand that they are over has been very trying.

Back at work, she and many others are called into the office. They are afraid that they are going to be fired. However, the boss has said that office space will be less meaning that desks will be placed close together and employees will be sharing a desk. This is called Hot Desk. Employees will work at the office some days and at home other days to allow their desk to be shared.

Alice is shocked to learn that hottie, Jamie, will share a desk with her. They knew one another back in school but she’s not sure if he remembers her or not. As they divide the desk, Alice has to pack up a lot of her treasures. Jamie draws up a tongue-in-cheek contract with rules for them to follow as they share the desk.

Jamie and Alice begin leaving little funny post-it notes for one another which seems to draw them closer. Is there a future for them?

This book is a mixed bag for me. We have some humor and we have a woman who has a hard time saying no. Her sisters and flatmates take advantage of her and she lets them. Dave is a nutcase and I felt she should have called the police on him. He’s much too wacky. Alice’s relationship with James is too rocky to really call it a relationship. Even at the end of the book, I didn’t feel like things were settled in Alice’s life. However, there is enough to rate this book 4 stars. I’m interested to see what other readers think about it.

Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

After having read ‘The First Date’ (which I adored), I was given the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review. This is another absolute corker of a book from Zara Stoneley and another 5* read for me.

It has her tell-tale trademark humour to it, combined with flirtatious fun!

Stoneley has written another quirky plot line that piques your interest. It has the covid pandemic as the backdrop to the plot, but this doesn’t make the tone of the book serious, but sets the reason for the need to ‘hot desk’.

Jamie doesn’t mind sharing desks, unlike Alice who hates sharing her space with another person - she is a perfectionist that likes having her own sentimental things around her to serve as reminders of moments in her life.

I turned the pages quickly to find out what was going to happen and what ideas Jamie might conjure up next to tease Alice. I loved the post-it note messages between them - the shortness of them left the reader wanting more.

As characters, Jamie and Alice are cute and relatable - I loved them! I absolutely loathed the persistent, narcissist of an ex, Dave. The characters and situations made me laugh out loud, cry (just a little) and grrr with frustration, but I wouldn’t have had it anyway.

Get this book onto your Wishlist/tbr list - you won’t be disappointed!