Disclaimer: I received a free advance reader copy of Not Safe For Work by Nisha J. Tuli from Forever (Grand Central Publishing) via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
I was admiring Nisha J. Tuli from afar for years, and her fantasy series Artefacts of Ouranos has been long sitting in my TBR. So when I received an ARC copy from NetGalley last week, I was beyond excited to read this book.
However, this ended up being a very different reading experience than I expected. I actually DNFd it after the first two chapters, only to come back to it the next day when I was in a better headspace.
This was my first~ish workplace romance (minus all the Ali Hazelwood work romances, but those are mostly about the science and not so much about the work itself, per se). I kind of set myself up for a loss here, because I apparently just don’t like workplace romances, so although this one wasn’t for me, if you like office romances, it might be for you.
Once I moved past the initial shock of just how much of a workplace romance this was, I was able to enjoy the light moments between the characters and the romance.
Read my full review of Not Safe For Work below.
Not Safe for Work
Description
Rival engineers dabble in personal chemistry while at a tropical company retreat in this smart, zippy romcom.
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?
Overall Impressions ✨
Like I said, I was conflicted about this book the entire time. I wanted to love it because I was so excited about the author, but from the first two chapters, I realized this wasn’t going to be a good time for me. However, I wanted to be able to finish the ARC and focus on the other parts of the book rather than the workplace component, which, at times, was hard to ignore.
That being said, the romance in this book was cute, fluffy, and had some sweet moments. I think some of the characteristics of the characters are exaggerated, for example, the FMC is a bit too good at everything, while the MMC is a prodigy on so many levels it becomes unbelievable. Frankly, a lot in the book felt over-the-top. like a dramatized version of familiar romance tropes — which made it harder to fully buy in.
That said, it almost reads like a script waiting to be turned into a movie, and from that angle, it kind of works. If you go in expecting high drama and glossy characters, you might enjoy it more than I did.
Once I finished the book, I was glad to be introduced to the author, and I still want to check out her fantasy work — but I’m not sure if I would read more workplace romances in general.
Characters👥
The protagonists are cute in this book, but they don’t do anything I haven’t seen before. Trishara is your classic confident, capable lead — she’s great at her job, gorgeous, and her inner monologue is both relatable and funny.
Rafe is a solid MMC. He’s kind, sensitive, and surprisingly deep under all that brooding charisma. He hits all the notes for a swoon-worthy office romance hero, and his chemistry with Trishara has its moments.
I wanted to connect with them more, but both leads felt like slightly polished versions of familiar romance archetypes. It was giving “rom-com energy,” but with characters that felt more like templates from early 2000s movies than fully fleshed-out individuals.
Plot📈
The plot was probably my biggest gripe with this book. It’s marketed as an enemies-to-lovers romance, but honestly… it just doesn’t deliver on that promise. Maybe it’s my growing frustration with how overused the trope has become, but this just didn’t feel like enemies to lovers to me.
Mild spoilers about the enemies to lovers trope If the characters have obviously been infatuated from the start, it’s not enemies to lovers. I really wish authors would stop labeling books this way when it doesn’t actually apply.
The story arc itself is fine. I liked the forced proximity setup with the one-bedroom trope, and I appreciated how Rafe developed more emotional depth as the story progressed, even if it did start to feel a little unrealistic that he’s apparently great at everything.
The workplace backdrop was forgettable to me, which is part of why the story didn’t fully land. There were also a couple of plot threads that were introduced and then completely dropped by the end, like how Trishara suffers from headaches throughout the book, and it’s sort of addressed but never resolved. It left me wondering why some of those elements were included in the first place.
Mild trope warning about contemporary romances Although I was really hoping to be proven wrong, there was a third-act breakup, and honestly, I was disappointed. I don’t know why I keep getting my hopes up that a contemporary romance will skip it, but it’s one of those tropes that just always lets me down. At this point, it feels more like a plot requirement than a natural part of the story.
Writing Style ✍️
Despite my qualms with the rest of the book, I really enjoyed the writing style. The banter is funny, the inner monologues are light, and the spicy chapters are well done. The dirty talk is top-notch, if that’s a selling point for you, you’ll be well fed.
That said, the characters do act a bit like horny college students despite being full-fledged adults, which occasionally pulled me out of the moment.
Still, the writing was the best part of the book for me, and although I wasn’t the biggest fan of this particular story, it definitely made me excited to check out Nisha J. Tuli’s fantasy romances.
Closing Thoughts 🧃
Nisha J. Tuli delivers a solid contemporary romance if you enjoy office romances and exaggerated rom-com characters. I was looking for something a bit more refreshing and original that would keep me hooked, but after having so many romance books under my belt, this one didn’t quite stand out from the crowd.
If you’re already a Nisha J. Tuli fan, I’m sure you’ll enjoy this read, and it definitely deserves a spot on your shelf for the cute cover alone!
Although I’m probably done with workplace romances for a long, long time, I’m still looking forward to reading her other work, which should tell you everything you need to know about whether or not this one’s for you.
🖇️ Looking for a promotion in spice? Grab Not Safe For Work here 👉
Did you read Nisha J. Tuli’s other series, Artefacts of Ouranos? What did you think? Or do you have any workplace romance recommendations that might change my mind about the trope? Let me know in the comments — I love it when you guys change my mind!
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