⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (3.75/5)

Perfect for fans of:
👔 Workplace tension & office politics
💘 Forbidden romance with a side of Shakespeare
☯️ Opposites attract (and combust)

This book delivers a fresh and fun take on forbidden office romance. Financial auditor Micah and literature professor Aidan Scott are at odds from the moment they meet—her job puts his on the line, and their clashing personalities only fan the flames. But when Micah stumbles upon the steamy Shakespearean fanfic she’s been devouring and realises the anonymous writer is none other than Aidan, things get very interesting.

The spice? Chef’s kiss. 😙 The concept? A unique blend of hidden identities, and fanfic-fueled tension. The execution? Enjoyable, but I couldn’t help but feel that the main characters acted a little too immature for their age, which made it hard to fully invest in their romance. I wanted more character growth, especially as their relationship evolved beyond the initial antagonism.

That said, the book flows effortlessly and doesn’t feel like a story I’ve read before, which is always a win. If you’re an enemies-to-lovers die-hard (like me), this one is definitely worth the read! ✨

This was an ARC Read so I want to thank Mills and Boon for giving me the opportunity to read this book in advance of its release in May 2025.

Aidan Scott is an English Professor at the Local University, which has decided to call in a Financial Auditor to undertake a review on whether changes need to be made within the English Department - to make it more cost effective, and could mean cuts across the Department, including people losing their jobs.

So when Micah Mila turns up to carry out this review, Aidan hates her immediately and makes his feelings towards her known, and thus begins a war of words and incidents between them.

By day Aidan is the quiet Professor, but away from work, he secretly writes steamy fanfic under the name 'ShakespeareInLust'. He really enjoys doing this and loves reading the comments, particularly the ones from regular 'Hot4Hermia', who he is in constant contact with, and eventually things start to get a bit flirty between them. He then starts to become more intrigued with her, particularly after he finds that she wants to write, but she was put off by her her ex. So he persuades her write some fanfiction and soon she is a hit!!

Then Aidan discovers who 'Hot4Hermia' is - it is the last person he expected, the woman who has been getting him in a fluster in more ways than one, and he doesn't know what to do, particularly as it could affect his job and the people around him, but he finds he wants so much more than he expected.

Once Micah discovers that 'ShakespeareInLust' is the man who is getting under her skin for all the wrong reasons, the hate she felt melts away and things soon become much steamier.

So with Micah's audit due and Aiden's job at risk, it could potentially put their new found relationship at risk - can they find a way to overcome the realities facing the both of them?

This book was easy to read, and the only real thing that let itself down, was how the characters were towards each other. I felt that although there was initially pure hatred between the main characters, it just seem to go a bit too far, as for people in these type of roles, I didn't feel that they should have gone to the extremes that they did and it went on for too long in my opinion.

Did like the fact that the FMC was an Auditor (a role I used to be), as you don't see this particular profession come up very often.

❤️ Enemies to Lovers
❤️ Writes Spicy Fan Fiction 🌶️
❤️ Workplace Romance
❤️ Forbidden Romance
❤️ Opposites Attract
❤️ Secret Identities

Thank you NetGalley

I really enjoyed this book, it was such a fun read and found myself constantly thinking about it. I loved the romance in this and will be definitely picking more from this author!

I really appreciated how this book addressed the stigma around romance books. I live in the UK and we (the romance reader) are very under appreciated here. The romance section of the bookshop if it even has one, is usually a dark little corner of the shop heaving with people, but we are considered not literary or ‘actual’ readers. Often dismissed and purely smut reader. Having the two main characters deal with this, definitely peaked my interest.

Aiden and Micah came off pretty immature for professionals in their 30’s, but the initial hate aspect worked pretty well here. I totally understood why they didn’t like each other and their rivalry while immature was pretty cute.
I would have liked a little more build up to them getting together. It happened too quick for my liking. The romance was pretty under developed I was pretty surprised when they hooked up. There wasn’t much build up and began to wonder if I was missing some pages.
The way they messaged each other in the fanfic app was also quite strange for people in their 30’s. They wrote to each other like teenagers in 2010’s. He’s English professor it makes no sense he would text like that, he sounded 13 years old. They have deeper conversations on The Bachelor.

Aiden is an ex hockey playing English professor who moonlights as a smutty fan fiction writer whose world gets shaken by the badass Micah, an auditor brought in to assess his University department. Putting his job on the line but that’s not all that’s on the line.

Right out of the gate I was sucked into this story. As an Ex English Lit student I totally resonated with Aiden feeling like his writing wouldn’t be appreciated because Romance and Erotica are so often looked down on in academic spaces and I felt for him and the whole department as their jobs are threatened but I also LOVED Micah.

A take no crap (anymore) kind of gal, she speaks her mind and isn’t afraid to call Aiden out when he’s being rude or disrespectful. And boy is he disrespectful!

As a die hard enemies to lovers fan it was so so nice to have a couple that were genuinely enemies for a good chunk of the book. It wasn’t just a bit of banter both of them were downright rude to each other at times and you could FEEL the tension and dislike but you could also see how these characters easily start to fall for each other from the confines of their own homes as they get to know each other through their online alter egos

Yep that’s right, Fesity Micah is a huge fan of Aiden’s fan fiction. It enables a really well thought out and genuine connection to build which made the story incredibly enjoyable to read.

Now on to the good stuff…The Spice was HOT 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Both the snippets of erotic fan fiction within the narrative and the physical spice between Aiden and Micah were gold! Especially when they got bratty/bossy. YES PLEASE.

All in all a solid spicy read for those of us who love a romance that burns hot.

I’ve got my fingers crossed I might get to find out what the deal is with L and K next👀

Thank you to NetGalley, Mills & Boon Afterglow Books and Sarah Echavarre Smith for the Advanced Copy

Shakespeare and smut!

When Micha is hired to audit the university Aiden works in, they set off on the wrong foot. What they don’t know is they’re soon to become pen pals on a fan fic site.

I liked the premise of this book, but I did find that the pair, particularly Aiden, were just too mean to each other to make it believable when they got together.

If you’re looking for some light hearted spice and some Shakespeare references then this could be the book for you.

Thank you NetGalley and Mills & Boon for the ARC.

While the initial plot interested me, unfortunately I struggled with the book itself! Don’t get me wrong, I love a good tropey love sick romance, but this one felt a little too overwritten and cliche. The first person narrating was also a buzz kill, Aidan’s inner monologue read like a 13 year old rather than a grown adult. Micah was also a walking trope of heartbroken woman waiting to be swept off her feet. Their romance felt very one dimensional and not authentic. Such a shame, I wanted to love this one!

Direct paste from Goodreads and storygraph:

Thank you Netgalley for providing me an ARC of this book! I was initially really excited to read a spin on shakespeare with a professional setting! I much prefer the two main characters of a story to be mature adults & have adult stuff going on.

If you enjoy a fun silly romance, short under 300 pages, not much character depth or seriousness to get into & plenty of smut you'd enjoy this. It's an office romance; I just don't think it's for me.

SPOILERS AHEAD! ‼️‼️

Unfortunately this book just didn't hit the spot for me, plot ways and narratively I just wasn't super pleased with the way the story went. The basic premise is Micah is a financial auditor hired in a university to audit their English department which includes her quick to be nemesis Aidan. Outside of this, the two adore each other online as their fanfic writing alter egos.

Micah has just come fresh out of a nasty breakup with her author boyfriend who essentially wiped her of all her money and cheated (given how much we were told she has an amazing salary at her job I can online imagine the money he took is a lot; this is important for my latter issues). Her family paid off the debt and she's currently staying in her sister's apartment as she moved in with said ex and now has nowhere to live and no funds to move away.

Aidan is an English professor by day, fanfic author by night whose quite popular on the site apparently (despite the niche of Shakespearian erotica being what I'd feasibly imagine is a caveat to audience levels). He used to be a professional hockey player but his love was with literature and he did have a massive scrap with his dad over this so he's got some daddy issues.

My first issue is that Aidan is absolutely vile to Micah, he questions her ability to audit the English department with her lack of educational qualifications (which I don't think is ever apologised for, if it is I don't feel it was enough so because it was so nasty. Literally Infront of an entire hall of people questioning her ability to do the job she is literally hired and qualified for). He rants and tries to brainstorm ways to get her fired for literally just doing her job to which she calls his bluff on it because she's literally done nothing fire-able and he's then angry at her for being right about his behaviour. He then oogles her once when her blouse is accidentally unbuttoned, and again just because he did, sexual harassment?? Not sexy. After all of that, she retaliates finally and spikes his lunch with hot sauce, to which he then withholds information about the coffee being decaf (she apparently cannot function without a pot a day, so she's going through caffeine withdrawal and not doing well) and she embarrassed herself Infront of the entire department that already hates her for screwing up her meeting due to being so sleep deprived and off her game. They argue more, and then they start fucking and then they're besties til the third act breakup where Aidan ridicules her job, tells her how heartless it is and how she should quit and everything it was honestly really pathetic of him, I wanted someone better for Micah she's been through so much and I think she deserved better.

The wider context of Micah's story (saving up to have her own place, no security after her last breakup) makes her ending honestly break my heart. This girl in a vulnerable position gets with another guy pretty quickly, they move in together in the epilogue so did she even get her own place?? Any security?

The worst offence; she quits her job for him. She decides her true passion is in writing (which is valid but she didn't need to quit her job to write fanfic outside of work hours) despite Aidan keeping his job and writing on the side for some reason she has to quit hers because she's ethically questionable (again, literally just hired to make recommendations her job isn't to "get people fired" her job is to see where money is mismanaged departmentally; I feel like there should've been more nuance to her job in general).

She quits her WELL PAYING JOB! FOR A MAN SHES KNOWN 6 WEEKS! TO BECOME AN AUTHOR! AFTER HAVING A FANFIC ACCOUNT FOR LIKE TWO WEEKS???? And he keeps his job of course 💅🏻 like maybe we see if there's job opportunities in publishing queen? Managing the financial aspect of book printing? Marketing? Financial stability alongside a passion project? Micah baby I'm WORRIED about you!

I just really struggled with how poorly Aidan treated her, how quickly it was remedied by sex, how she quit her job for him after knowing him for six weeks because he made her feel bad about it without considering the wider implications of her having no security of her own, and not even a year later they're set to get married. I couldn't stand it!

And just from a university stand point; the ending is magically solved by the university deciding an audit is too costly and they'd rather just keep hemorrhaging money. You're telling me A) the auditing company she worked for kept no tabs on her work, took no regular reports, and it was only that final audit she was doing that mattered and they wouldn't do another? Did they not have anyone else capable of completing the job? And B) the university after the first auditor left her job due to circumstances I'm assuming they don't even know have just decided ah it's too annoying to audit these departments too costly let's just keep hemorrhaging funding we don't have 💅🏻✨ in what world?

The prose was easy to get on with, but was quite repetitive (character would do something and then reiterate immediately like "wow she's holding my hand, oh god it's so warm holding my hand" like alll the time) and since I wasn't invested the smut didn't do it, I honestly ended up skimming all the smut bits it just wasn't for me.

Unfortunately just a case of this book wasn't for me. I know some people who might enjoy it and I will reccomend it to them but this book reeeeeally wasn't for me unfortunately!

Cute romance but for me they stayed enemies for too long. I needed to see the turn in opinion of each other quicker. Lots of shakespeare references but not a straight re telling.