This crazy-hot enemies-to-lovers standalone novella pits boss lady Neera Malik against arrogant artist Gus Guillmand, and they fight dirrrrrty!

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Blurb

Smart, successful, and sitting pretty at the top of her game, Neera Malik has it all figured out.
Save for the small issue of Gustavo Guillmand.

The artist with a cult—and Instagram—following has a problem and it’s not his preference for shirtless selfies.
No, he has an attitude problem, a minding his own business problem, an infuriatingly sexy problem.

They can’t stand each other and they can’t stay away from each other.

This steamy enemies-to-lovers office romance originally appeared on the Read Me Romance podcast. This edition includes a seriously extended epilogue beyond the podcast content.

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Review

3 stars

This is a really quick novella, set in the Talbott’s Cove series, telling the story of Neera – right-hand woman to billionaire tech genius and hero of book #1, Cole McLish. Note that it can be read as a standalone, but there is a bit of crossover with characters from the previous books.

With Cole now living with his husband, Owen in Talbott’s Cove, Neera runs things back in Silicon Valley. She’s hard-headed, private and serious, and doesn’t let people get too close, but sexy artist Gustavo Guillmand is starting to get under her skin.

Gus won a 12-month place as artist-in-residence at Neera’s company, but for a man who is used to exploring the great outdoors, he’s creativity is struggling in the plastic world of Silicon Valley. The only inspiration he gets is from straight-laced, sexy, completely infuriating Neera.

Somehow, in the convoluted maze of human consciousness, I was able to find her desirable and aggravating all at once.
I wanted to fuck her and then I wanted to tell her to fuck off.

The antagonism and snark is strong, and it seems there is genuine dislike there, but when Gus gives Neera a push, it becomes clear that there’s also strong lusty feelings between them and neither of them hold back in exploring just how hot they can be together.

Though it’s new, Neera takes Gus with her on a visit to Talbott’s Cove, where the artist gets the chance to let his spirit fly in nature and giving them the chance to explore what is building between them.

I wasn’t backing off, wasn’t giving her an inch of space. No, this woman had me and now she was damn well going to keep me.

It’s a weird dynamic, and I admit that I wasn’t really feeling it, but that’s probably just due to the shortness of the novella and the quick pace that the story has to move at. There is some progression for them, but again it seems really fast and without a whole lot of feeling, but we do get to see where they end up in the epilogue, which was nice.

The highlight of this book for me was Cole, because OMG, the man is hilarious! Between his text conversations with Neera, his bantering with Owen or his presence amongst his friends, he steals every scene he is in, and I loved getting the chance to catch up with him again.

Owen shot me a pointed look. “My advice it to make yourself scarce. There’s room on the boat if that’s something you want to do.”
“Allow me to translate my husband for you,” Cole said. “They physical capacity of my lad’s sailing vessel will accommodate another adult, however, the social-emotional capacity of the vessel is limited to one adult. If you choose to go along with him, please do not expect him to speak to you. Oh, and don’t fall overboard. It’s only adorable when I do it.”

This is an ok read. It didn’t elicit any strong emotions for me either way, but it was fun opportunity to catch up with the Talbott’s Cove crew.

3 stars.

An Advanced Review Copy was generously provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.

Talbott’s Cove

About the Author

Kate Canterbary doesn’t have it all figured out, but this is what she knows for sure: spicy-ass salsa and tequila solve most problems, living on the ocean–Pacific or Atlantic–is the closest place to perfection, and writing smart, smutty stories is a better than any amount of chocolate. She started out reporting for an indie arts and entertainment newspaper back when people still read newspapers, and she has been writing and surreptitiously interviewing people—be careful sitting down next to her on an airplane—ever since.

Kate lives on the water in New England with Mr. Canterbary and the Little Baby Canterbary, and when she isn’t writing sexy architects, she’s scheduling her days around the region’s best food trucks.

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