My Selling Pitch:
A second chance romance for two lawyers working on the same case, but it's poorly written instalove and no one passed criminal law 101.

On my do not read list.

Pre-reading: I fear I've been so busy and stressy this month that my brain has rotted, and I’m only able to consume rom-coms. Grayson Hemming has ruined me for lawyer romances, but we’ll see if this one can make me anywhere near as happy as Big Daddy Corporate Law.

(obviously potential spoilers from here on) Thick of it: I’m permanently 12 years old but Anil and Iqbal-phonetically almost anal and ickball in close succession like that marketed to an American audience is wildddd. It’s like saying her coworkers are Dick and Peter Johnson or a Virginia or an Astrid. (I can’t tell if I’m being trolled at this point with the names.)

Who wears lime green like that to a business meeting?

Can I be honest/vulnerable/adumbbitch/painfullyamerican? I have no idea where GOA is. (The Miami of India, got it.)

Another fucking cat book, and they’re already bringing up poop. Typical! I can’t escape it!

I can’t believe arranged marriages are still a thing. They piss me off.

This is not good writing.

I don’t know if I love the premise of queer man fucks her to get over his ex-boyfriend of three years. I don’t know if I like the optics of accidentally implying queer men are only queer because they haven’t met the right woman yet. Like if you’re bi, you’re bi regardless of who you end up with, but it’s odd to me if this is used as a way to prevent him from having to come out to his parents.

I’m pretty sure this is marketed towards an American audience so to make the abbreviation AKC when everyone’s gonna know that as the American Kennel Club is kind of crazy. (I couldn’t unhear it, and my hellscape of a brain kept chanting who let the dogs out every time they said it.)((Also, not everyone is gonna know this, but I feel like book girly and knows a little too much about animals goes hand-in-hand.))

Not wanting to exchange any personal information with the person you’re about to fuck is not ethical. Heaven forbid somebody gets a disease or pregnant. Like by all means have fun and have casual sex with consenting adults, but- Like have a modicum of decency.

Saying you’re a Game of Thrones character is psychotic.

She’s not like other girls, she hates pumpkin spice. Be so for real. We’re still doing this? In 2026?

I feel like it’s not correct for them to be able to do all different types of law. I figured if you’re a defense attorney for white collar crime, you’re not taking on murder. Like I’m very confused. Also, there’s no way they're putting two unchaperoned junior associates on a high profile MURDER case.

So that’s literally the case from Legally Blonde.

Not a piney boy.

If his wife was nervous that she was sniffing around again so she sent the text so she could murder the actress but then her husband walked in first... like that would be a legally blonde copy paste.

I hate karaoke.

There's no real tension to this book. Like I'm bored.

Sabrina, my girlllll!

Oh, he dunnit. Director was def fucking his daughter. (Nailed it.)

Security footage? (So they have security footage in the office but the mega high profile director doesn’t have one pointing at his trailer? I don’t believe you.)

I don't trust authors with puking women. Don't pregnancy trope me. (We are safe, but I was real worried for a minute.)

A very American book with all the slang and music and activities. It doesn't feel very india centered.

How about defensive injuries on her? Like those have to be absent. That’s your best evidence so far. Everything else is circumstantial.

So he already has one job through nepotism, and now you’re gonna get him a second one?

Boy, you don’t even know her real name. This is infatuation not love.

Girl, you've thought about it every day in the narrative, be so for real.

IM SO BORED.

They keep bringing up sex but nothing about these scenes is sexy.

Objection! Speculation and leading the witness, like are we kidding??? This book is BAD. She basically said guess why my client wasn’t covered in blood. I don’t even know law like that. This is a joke.

She hasn’t been out a lot, yet she’s a regular at that karaoke bar so… Make it make sense!

I'm so boreddd.

Doesn't want instalove?? Bitch, that ship has sailed!

Okay, when I said I liked pussy sweet talking, this isn't what I meant.

Just stopppp having sex. It’s never sexy. I'm so boreddddd.

It's a murder on the dance floor🎶

Authors need to be banned from using Mac’s Lady Danger. It’s oversaturated. You’re not edgy. Put it down.

Proposing with karaoke is insane. I’ll give you that she does love it and is a freak about it, so it works for her, but like such a lip curl from me.

And there's the title drop.

Wow, absolutely hated. That would be a one for personal enjoyment, but like technically readable and kind of on par with a closed door romance, except like technically there’s fuckin’, but like there’s no descriptions related to the fucking so-

Post-reading: As a Capricorn, nothing annoys me more than a workplace romance where the characters are bad at their jobs. If you're gonna force a legal thriller into your cozy romance, can you at least proofread your court scenes? I'm wildly unfamiliar with law, and even I'm firing off objections for speculation and leading the witness. It's egregious. You've got a shit editor if they let that through without comment.

For a romance that takes place in India, there's not much to indicate that. It honestly read like it could've taken place in NYC if you sub out rickshaws for yellow cabs. Karaoke of only American pop stars, pumpkin spice latte coffee shops, queer characters, and casual sex doesn't exactly scream international setting. They mention arranged marriages and homophobia creating friction within families, but it never actually affects the narrative. There's a lot more about nepotism and misogyny in the workplace, but it all feels tone deaf since the FMC offers to have her dad pull some strings to get her bestie a job, and she keeps insisting that she's not like other girls. You can take a hot shower and put sugar in your coffee without setting feminism back ten years, I promise. Similarly, the MMC keeps mentioning how awful his colleagues’ comments are, but he never stands up for her against them. He's a passive bystander the entire book.

The characters are constantly having sex, but the scenes are gratingly repetitive, inspecific, and never sexy. They read like fade-to-black scenes, but she’s technically being explicit. They’re so poorly written that they don’t feel like smut, and it’s not like there’s character development or dialogue during them, so they could be removed from the novel without changing it. I just don’t get the point of them. They’re not gonna get you hot, and they don’t advance the story, so all they do is bloat the word count. There's no banter or chemistry between the couple. The narrative tries to tell you that it's love, but it's clearly infatuation at best. His only personality trait is owning a cat.

There’s nothing in this that worked for me. I didn’t like the romance. I didn’t like the mystery. It spoonfeeds whodunnit to you, and you’re gonna spot the murderer the instant, they’re on page. It’s technically readable and attempts to have a plot which earns a book a two-star from me, but it was definitely a one-star for personal enjoyment. I’m usually a huge fan of workplace romances, and I have a borderline fetish for lawyers, and I’m telling you that I think you can very safely skip this one. I wouldn’t read this author again.

Who should read this: Generic second chance romance fans

Ideal reading time: Summer

Do I want to reread this: No

Would I buy this: No which sucks because I love the cover.

Similar books:

• Overruled by Lana Ferguson-if you actually want to read a lawyer romance. Rivals to lovers, family drama, workplace, contemporary romance
• The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas-these have the same energy to me even though the plots are very different. Enemies to lovers, family drama, workplace, contemporary romance

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