A fun sapphic romance

Sophie hasn't had it easy, but she's proud to be project manager at an ad agency. Focused and efficient, she drives her team to success, and when the prize is an exclusive cruise, she is determined to win it. That's until Ella, the CEO's daughter, joins her team. Worst thing is, Sophie has to train her on this particular project. Can she really trust this woman who's only skill seems to have a powerful father? Or will she be able to put her assumptions aside and make it work?

I had a lot of fun with this sapphic workplace romance! It's rivals to lovers in all its glory, with both women making assumptions about the other that are shattered throughout the story. I liked seeing them put their issues aside and start to really discover one another. Both women are very strong and determined in very different ways, which was inspiring, and seeing them coming together when it matters most was cool. The story was maybe a bit slow for me at times and not as sparky as I expected, but it was still a very good and enjoyable read!

I recommend if you like rivals to lovers romance in the workplace!

"Sophie had captured her heart. She owned her heart. But now she also owned her heartbreak."

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the copy of the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

So Not My Type, the third book in the Singles in Seattle series, is a fun, witty, and heartwarming take on the opposite attract and enemies to lovers genre. I really love the main characters in this book. They both feel realistic and you are compelled to root for them even outside the romance. I love Sophie and Ella's dynamics and how much they clearly love and care for each other. Plus, it is so great to see Seattle being represented in the book! We need more of them!!!

Thanks to Netgalley and Storm Publishing for this copy in exchange for my review.

So Not My Type is a opposites attract, enemies (kinda) to lovers romance that had me falling in love with these two. Sophie and Ella are from very different tax brackets and when they are thrown together on a project they find themselves struggling with preconceived notions and past issues. Sophie has always had to scrape and fight for what she wanted, coming from blue collar stock and a latch key childhood, but she's found her dream job at Mahogany and Moon and the opportunity of a lifetime when she's told to head a publishing campaign.

Ella has had to fight, but in a different way. Her parents are very well off and she lives in a mansion with everything she could want, except for freedom. Dealing with epilepsy from a young age has meant changing her life and losing out on opportunities that others might take for granted. Landing this job at her father's company is her way to try and get that freedom, to show her parents she is an adult and that she is ready to live on her own.

Ellie and Sophie's back and forth kept me reading, especially when misunderstandings were brought to light and their irritation with one another gave away to attraction and finally passion. They are extremely cute together and their dates were amazing, especially the 'grand theft auto' of a golf cart lol

The cast of characters were also well done and I found myself surprise by how much I loved Ella's parents by the end of this. This entire book is about appearances being deceiving and Hawkins does this really well in with showing characters we thought were one way are actually completely different, like parents that seemed controlling and indifferent are actually just scared and struggling to keep their daughter safe the best way they know how.

Overall I really loved this book. I kind of wish we got more at the end, but that might just be because of how much I loved the characters.

This was a quick read. Interesting, surprising and thoroughly enjoyable. A mixed group of characters and a fast moving storyline. Great conclusion.

Not every day you get to see your job represented in a romance novel. It's even rarer that you see it represented well. As a professional PM, I loved that this book was between two people working as PMs and showed them to be realistic and messy humans and not just two women whose whole personality is spreadsheets. Dana Hawkins understands that what makes a good PM is more about temperament and humanity that it is about organization. I liked this book so much I posted about it on LinkedIn! Drink this Book: enjoy with a cabernet from Walla Walla Washington, it will feel like a nice change of page from the big cali cabs.

Very cute! I liked it well enough, I think I was just looking for something a little deeper. Very easy, summery read!

So far, I’ve loved all of Dana Hawkins’ books. This one did not disappoint. Sophie has had to fight to get to where she’s at in her career as a project manager. She is forced to work together with the CEO’s daughter, Ella. I really enjoyed the workplace drama!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

𝚁𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐: 4⭐️
𝙶𝚎𝚗𝚛𝚎: contemporary romance 📚

𝙼𝚢 𝚃𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑𝚝𝚜:
A cute read, but it took me a little while to get into it.

𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚒𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎:
Sapphic romance
Workplace romance
Cute and lighthearted romances
Quirky characters
Opposites attract
Slow burn romance
Themes of personal growth

𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝙸 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎𝚍:
The playful and cute nature of the romance

𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝙸 𝚍𝚒𝚍𝚗’𝚝 𝚌𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚛:
It took a while to get into the story
Felt a little too childish at times

𝙵𝚊𝚟𝚘𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚎 𝚀𝚞𝚘𝚝𝚎𝚜:
★ “Sometimes love comes when you least expect it, in the most unexpected places.”
★ “You don’t always need to change for someone else. Sometimes, you just need to let them see the real you.”
★ “Being with the right person doesn’t make you perfect, but it makes everything feel a little more right.”

In this fun and dramatic new romance novel, readers follow Sophie Black, a project manager at a Seattle ad agency, and what happens after the CEO’s daughter Ella Northwood joins the agency to work on a high-stakes campaign where Sophie and Ella clash over everything. As they learn more about each other and their assumptions about the other disintegrate, one night might just change everything between them unless a single revelation and the campaign derail their relationship. Forced to confront their feelings and place it against their workplace relationship and their pasts, both Sophie and Ella have some work to do in this complicated dynamic. With two totally different protagonists and great tension and chemistry between them, readers will love the heart and heat in this fantastic new LGBTQ+ romance. With complex backstories adding to their dynamic and making this story interesting, the personal and professional stakes in this romance novel make the drama and payoff worth the intensity for readers. Excellently written, high stakes, and a rollercoaster of emotions, readers will love Dana Hawkins’s new novel and the drama waiting for Sophie and Ella, while the chemistry and tension in this novel really bring it to life in some fantastically detailed ways.

Sweet sapphic romance following two driven young women trying to make a place for themselves in the working world and also looking for love when trust is hard to come by. I really enjoyed the mix of tentativeness and boldness they both showed and the way they worked through their fear of communicating. This series so is cute.

Story ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spiciness 🌶️🌶️
Sweetness 🍭🍭🍭🍭

Thank you to NetGalley for my copy. These opinions are my own.

I have loved all of Dana Hawkins books so far, but I couldn't really get into this one. The dynamic between the two main characters just felt off to me and I had a hard time rooting for them in the beginning.

A good read. Sophie and Ella are opposites, but you know what they say opposites attract. Or in this case do they?

I wanted to love So Not My Type, but it just didn’t quite do it for me. The premise of Sophie and Ella’s opposites-attract workplace romance had great potential, and I enjoyed the sparks that flew between them right from the start. Sophie’s fiesty, career-focused attitude clashed well with Ella’s privileged persona, and I was invested in watching their assumptions about each other fall apart.

The chemistry between them was undeniably there, but I felt like the romance developed a little too slowly. There were moments where the sexual tension was palpable, but it didn’t always feel as emotionally fulfilling as I was hoping. By the time things started to get truly real between them, I was left wanting a little more depth in their connection.

The workplace drama was an interesting backdrop, but it sometimes felt more like a distraction than an integral part of the story. I also found myself wishing for a bit more character growth and less reliance on the predictable tropes. The revelation that threatens their relationship toward the end felt a little forced, and I would have appreciated more time spent on the emotional journey rather than the conflict that arose so suddenly.

In the end, So Not My Type was fun, but it didn’t quite live up to the promise of a slow-burn romance with emotional depth. It's a great pick if you're looking for something light and steamy, but I was hoping for a bit more to make it truly memorable.

This was a quick read. Interesting, surprising and thoroughly enjoyable. A mixed group of characters and a fast moving storyline. Great conclusion.

3.5 overall
I liked the office setting in this book very much.
Opposite attract worked very well.
Of course lesbian hookups with the same ex are is problematic (kind of dumb in a realistic way).
Loved the cruise ending.
Go Thomas! Go Malcom! Go George! Go Ben! The men in this story worked for me. 🤯
All the characters are written to be extremely relatable.
Is it my biased opinions on sex scenes or the writing I don’t gel with when the couple gets freaky?
I love Sophie and Ella’s relationship, they’re so cute!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC! This book was a quick read and overall I had fun reading it. The FMC was fairly unlikable throughout the book but I had hope she’d get less grumpy. The romance was believable enough, and I was rooting for Ella all along. Sophie didn’t have as much growth as you’d expect, but it was still fun watching them fall in love. I haven’t read the other books in this series, so maybe I’d be more invested if I was familiar with Sophie already?

This book didn’t grab me. I gave it three chapters to draw me in and it didn’t. I think if I listened to the audiobook, I could have made it further.

This is the third book I’ve read by Dana Hawkins and while I liked her first two quite a bit, I found this story was less engaging. I had trouble getting started with this book and though I did eventually get into it, I didn't enjoy it as much as its predecessors.

I’ve tried to think about why that was and ultimately I think it came down to not really liking the characters themselves. Nothing in particular stood out as unlikable, I just think the backstories and characteristics the author used were a little weak and I didn’t feel much empathy for either of them. This led to a domino effect of tepid chemistry and pretty much skimming the last few chapters to get to the resolution.

So overall I would say I definitely liked her first two books better, but if you’re a fan of this author and sapphic workplace romances go ahead and give this books a go.

This was a sweet, inclusive romance that brings the feels. Sophie and Ella are a great opposites-attract couple and Ella's illness is handled with grace. Fans of romances that deal with more serious issues will really like this one.

I thought the romance was cute in the beginning/ middle of the book and had a lot of fun reading, but unfortunately it kind of lost me towards the ending. I think I would’ve loved this more if the characters had a bit more depth to them and the way the workplace setting was written didn’t feel so juvenile.

Thank you to NetGalley and Storm Publishing for an advanced digital copy in exchange for my honest review.