Oh my word. This one was a hard read.

I wanted to like this book. I hope it finds its audience, but I fear it was not me.

Positives: I liked the premise. I felt it had a lot of promise and I LOVE Suits, so I went into this with an open mind. Emily was driven, independent, and strong, and I love female characters like that. Elouise describes trauma and heartbreak with care.

Unfortunately, that's about all the positives I can give this book. This will contain spoilers.

Critiques: The ableist language used within the first two chapters was abhorrent. Please don't use "deaf and dumb" to describe a disability.

Second, I understand that liberties need to be taken to move the story along, but it was extremely jarring to be thrown into a cyclist getting hit by a car in the first few chapters ... and then a doctor hitting on our FMC in the midst of it? Don't get me started on their date. And then there was a near-fire, a gun pulled, a tumble down a hill, a broken/twisted ankle...

Third, the way our MMC acts towards Emily seemed so out of place in the beginning given what we know about the firm's past with scandal and harassment, while he's engaged, too. Conveniently, it seemed like everyone forgot about this fact. His talk about how strong his and Kate's foundation was when he found out what she was doing was ... well, wrong, given the facts that lead up to the revelation.

Fourth, the repetition of phrases (including scenes), names in dialogue, and conversations pulled me out of the book even more than the MAJOR plot holes did. (Did Jack tell Emily about Kate cheating on him? Yes. Did Emily "forget" what Jack told her? Yes. Why was she on a date with Anjay at the end? Why didn't she tell Jack Kate FOLLOWED HER HOME?). The Russian mafia subplot was NOT what I was expecting out of this, either. Sometimes it read like Jack thought he was a detective rather than a lawyer. This book felt like it was trying to be something it wasn't... an action movie maybe? "This is NOT an office romance" ... but does the book even know what it is? When she got to Scotland and the writing turned Scottish, I almost DNFed but by that point I was 90% in.

Fifth. Sometimes, in an Emily chapter and vice versa, we'd get an inner monologue from the other MC. Emily shouldn't be knowing the way Jack typically handled strategy or how he was feeling in the moment. Why in the world would Jack have to tell Emily about his romantic relationships?

How old are these characters supposed to be if Bronwyn is called a "petulant millennial"? They definitely don't act like they're in their thirties.

The fact that there seems to have been zero editing is unfortunate. "She had been hoping for a chance to prove herself, but she didn't want her first opportunity to be one where someone like Jack Taylor had doubts about her ability." His name is Jack Braun. Her name is Emily Taylor. Things like this shouldn't happen, and while I understand this is an ARC, continuity like this should have been nailed out earlier on and not on the ARC readers to call out.

Unfortunately, without major edits, I can't recommend this book.

I'm very sorry to say that this book was not for me, at all. I did not enjoy the writing or the characters, the chapters where very long at it felt unmotivating to finish a single chapter. The MMC frustrated me a lot, and the way he acted just seemed weird sometimes. Overall, would I recommend this? No. Is there someone out there who will enjoy this? Maybe.

Dnf at 53%

Naaah i didn't enjoy this book at all. The characters in this book annoyed me so much.... Can't recommend it

I felt that the writing style was much younger than I’d anticipated and maybe I’m not the right audience but the dialogue was very cheesy and cringey. Unfortunately this wasn’t for me

This was an easy to read romance book but also touches on some difficult topics like trauma and heartbreak.

I liked the FMC Emily who is a successful lawyer, I found her relatable as she is just a normal woman who has been through a traumatic time and just wants to start a fresh plus she’s very driven and independent. I also liked Stacey who comes into the book later on - she’s very likeable and would have liked to have seen her friendship with Emily a bit more.

I struggled with the MMC who also has a troubled past but I felt frustrated with the way he acted towards his feelings. He isn’t honest in parts which annoyed me and kept hiding his feelings - like just say how you feel!!

Overall though it’s a nice little read - perfect for a break between a big series or if you just want a quick easy read.

In the most women supporting women way possible, this was not the romance book for me. I will say that if you like excitement in the form of involvement with Russian organized crime there is a little sprinkle in there for you lol.

For the romance, I do respect what Eloise was trying to do here with creating characters who were complex to find and love one another. Their story just wasn’t grabbing in a way that appealed to my style. I recognize that Emily and Jack were both hard working, driven, and kind at their core but also deeply flawed and struggling individually with their own traumas. It leaves great opportunities for your characters to connect on a deeper level of understanding which can be very fulfilling in a love story. For my impatient little soul it was frustrating to follow the characters musings of their feelings to every single person they came into contact with including random people on the street, but not with one another, and have that go on for as long as it did.

Small piece of loving constructive feedback that I did find confusing is that often I would start a chapter labeled as one persons POV, but partway through the chapter find a short paragraph that seemed to switch POVs without warning or separation in the form of paragraph break, then in the next paragraph go right back to the original POV. Just made it slightly more difficult to follow along at times.

This book was so cute! The romance and banter between the main couple was very entertaining and the writing was very good!

Ambos protagonistas fueron una decepción, se enamoraron a primera vista, pero hay un problemita, él está comprometido y cada que está con ella se le olvida. Cuando Emily se entera de la prometida no le importa.
Me decepcionó que ella viniendo de una relación en donde le fueron infiel, sufrió mucho y ahora que está en esta posición en lugar de alejarse, sale con sus tonterías.

Toda esta situación se "salvo" porque al final Kate, la prometida, terminó siendo primero infiel. Odio la infidelidad y a los infieles, pero lo que hizo fue lo mejor que pudo hacer por ella.


Odie las platicas entre Jack y Nate porque cuando le contaba sobre su enamoramiento por Emily, el amigo le aplaudía, nunca le dijo que estaba mal e incluso lo insito para que intentara algo. Pero cuando escuchó lo que hizo Kate, el tipo no dudo en hablar pestes de ella, ¿o sea cuando lo hace un hombre está bien, pero cuando lo hace una mujer está mal?

Odie a J, el tipo no se hace responsable de sus acciones, por ejemplo: lo que pasó con Bronwyn.


Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Emily is a sucessful outspoken NY lawyer working in London after an accident. Her first project is with an uptight British lawyer Jack.

Love the sparks with Jack and Emily. It's funny and romantic. Really enjoy the banter. I really like Emily. A great character and someone that I can see myself being friends with. Jack took me a lot longer to warm up to.... But a light fun book overall.

Thanks to the publisher for the arc.

Sadly the writing style wasnt mine. The Charakters wasnt really near to me.
So i really Wanted to like this Book, it really speaks to me when i read Whats about.

I read this book in less than 24 hours which means it’s a quick read and held my interest. It was not a great book, but it wasn’t bad either. For some reason I was expecting a romcom. This book was not funny, nor was it romantic. It was kind of a love story with two professionals who aren’t that nice to each other. I’m not sure how they fell in love other than they were both hot and respected each other as great lawyers. It was also way too wordy and at times it felt like a self-help book. YET, it kept my interest! This book was not as bad as what the other reviews gave it.

I always like to start by thanking the author and publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of the book. I found this book to be overall good, but it did seem like it dragged on in some places.

Eloise Fox wrote a fun office romance in This Is Not An Office Romance. It was a solid read. You won’t regret reading this one.

DNF--I couldn't get through this book. The writing was very amateur and not enjoyable to read. I feel bad leaving a bad review, but maybe someone else will enjoy this read.

Unfortunately this book is a miss for me, which was disappointing because I really thought I held promise.

First, the characters come across as flat and lacking depth. Everything seems very surface level, the development of their personalities and motivations just didn’t seem defined. I was struggling to connect with any of the characters, especially our main couple.

Second, the dialogue is extremely stilted. No one talks this way in real life and it came across forced instead of natural. There were multiple times when characters used each others names even when no one else was present, which was disruptive to the vibe of the book as once I noticed it, I couldn’t stop. It started to become a game to me to see how often it happened.

Third, the book is simultaneously descriptive while also giving us no details. I know that sound weird, but sadly it’s accurate. This author spends the entire time “telling” us instead of “showing” us. I was unable to immerse myself into the book because it felt like information was being shoved at me instead of leading me there overtime. The writing was also repetitive, using the same words/ phrases multiple times on the same page. Third person perspective wasn’t the best choice to use in this book, especially considering that it does switch perspectives.

Fourth, It’s 2024. There were some phrases used within this book that would (in my opinion) be considered extremely offensive to the disabled community. I thought we were past this type of insulting language? Especially considering that one of the main plot points of this book is that she starts a job at a new firm due to a scandal around harassment. The language felt disjointed from the message the story is trying to portray.

Fifth, I’m not a huge fan of long chapters, and while this is a personal complaint, these chapters took me 20-25 minutes each. It felt like way too much was happening before the next break in the chapter.

I truly hope that this book finds its audience, unfortunately it wasn’t for me and there were just too many small things that tallied up into me not enjoying this story.

Sadly, this was a miss for me. I feel like I may not be the target audience for this book as it wasn’t what I expected and I found it quite difficult to finish.

Starting with the positives - I liked the character of Sarah, Jack’s PA, she was light and fun and a nice bridge between the FMC and the MMC at times.

I found Emily’s backstory interesting but it’s quite surface level. All the characters in this book are unfortunately. The two main characters were borderline insufferable and I found them very one-dimensional. Despite being a “feminist” lawyer, Emily isn’t a very feminist character - lots of focus on her looks in the descriptions from other characters and she’s immediately suspicious and sometimes downright rude to other female characters throughout (specifically Bronwyn and Jack’s ex).

In terms of the writing, the chapters switch perspectives. Which I think is a useful tool when the writing is in first person but in this case the author continues switching perspectives but writes in third person throughout. I remember reading a chapter from Emily’s perspective but reading what seemed to be from Jack’s inner monologue. There are points in the book that are sexist and ableist - surely we’re not referring to people as “deaf and dumb” anymore?

Furthermore, the dialogue between characters is unrealistic and repetitive - “oh my days”. The characters use each other’s name throughout the dialogue even when there is only two people present in the discussion. Emily said “Bea” in dialogue five times in one page.

This is a huge disconnect between the first half of the book and the second and whilst this book had a promising premise, the execution requires some closer attention prior to publication.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher Burning Chair for this advance readers copy in exchange for an honest review. Slow burn… work enemies to lovers to enemies to lovers…. Tropical vacation work trip. Excellent character development very descriptive which I love. The story ran slow so it was a perfect easy weekend read for me.

This is NOT an office romance is a solid 3 star read for me. It was a good comfort book that i was able to read in a few hours. There was strong character development. The author was very descriptive which I like because then i can really imagine what’s going on. The book did run a little slow at times and i found that the characters say alot of the same phrases - but i guess even in guilty of doing that in real life.

I was really excited to try this book as one of my favorite romance books takes place in an office setting. Unfortunately, while the idea for This is NOT an Office Romance was solid, the implementation had significant and distracting plot holes, and at times I felt as if I was reading a book by two separate authors.

Emily as a character was likable. I thought her backstory was interesting and gave her something appropriate to overcome. I liked how supportive her parents were, and appreciated that she was written as a woman with power and self confidence. Unfortunately her backstory came with significant plot holes, at times her ex was referred to as her fiancé and at other times in the book it's indicated they were never engaged. At one point Emily describes meeting her ex at uni, at another she describes him as being from her hometown and labels them to have been childhood sweethearts. Discrepancies like that play a significant role in preventing me from being fully immersed in a story.

Jack as a character was not as likable. His condescending remark that junior staff looked up to senior staff as children look up to parents felt gross; especially in a story where the idea of workplace appropriateness was a big plot point.

Also, I was very confused as to when the story takes place. If it takes place around 2024, it doesn't make sense that Bronwyn would be considered a millennial based on the age given for her. She would be a member of gen z, and the main characters would be millennials. If the story takes place in the past, there is no clear indication of that. Emily herself is described as 32, yet two years earlier she was in the accident (30) and it's said she was working in New York as an attorney for nearly 10 years. I'm unsure if law school goes more quickly in the UK than in the US but 20 seems very young for a lawyer just starting out. Additionally, Jack is said to have worked at the firm for nearly 20 years, yet he's written as in his mid-thirties. Did he start as an intern?

Another aspect that I found jarring was that around the 2/3rds mark, the book became much more descriptive and poetic. Frequently to an extreme degree. Some of the language was beautiful but it was also continuous and very different form the rest of the book which was jarring.

Finally, wiithout spoilers, the last non-epilogue chapter contains a discrepancy about what happened to a particular character. Two different and mutually exclusive conclusions were given.

Thank you NetGalley and Burning Chair for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own

This is NOT an office romance... or is it? I read this in less than a day! It was such a cozy stay at home book to read.
Emily and Jack are both at transitional points in their life and feel as though they have feelings for eachother almost immediately. They cannot stop thinking about eachother.
When they are assigned to work a case together for the law firm they both work at, they seem to get a little more than just work done.
However, their job and troubled history might not let them be together.
Read to find out if they get their happily ever after!
Things I liked: character development, the plot, and the writing style was very descriptive.
Things I did not like: some of the explanations were repetitive, with a character even responding the same way twice back to back in chapter 5.
Rating: 3/5
Thanks to NetGalley for my copy in exchange for an honest review. #ThisisNOTanOfficeRomance