Look, sometimes you just need a quick smutty read to finish off the last hour of downtime at work lol

This is fine. It touches upon multiple kinks, but doesn't really linger on any of them. This is kind of like the appetizer that gives you a sample of six dishes and you end up finding one or two to order a full plate of next time.

This was a fun read with an interesting premise. I liked the use of the mixed media by throwing in transcripts of podcasts, text messages, emails, and some articles. That was really where the world felt more alive and gave more depth to the layers going on in the story. It's somewhat meta with all of the references while also giving off slightly Inception vibes, especially at the beginning because I didn't know how deep we were going to go.

I found a lot of it predictable and it sort of started to focus a bit more on the romance than the problem they're trying to fix, but I found Tess and Callum adorable, so I didn't mind. Because of their lack of urgency, I would say this would fall more on the cozy side of the scale despite there being some drama and an action scene or two near the end, but I wasn't too worried about any encounter. This was just a fun time with, admittedly, surface-level lore and personalities, but it was still enough to draw me in and made me actually want to learn more.

I will also add in a trigger warning for rape. Tess, our FMC, was drugged and raped three years ago off page, but she does eventually recount what happened to her and a large portion of the book is her still suffering in silence and afraid of a lot of people and interactions. There is also a transcript of her victim impact speech in the epilogue, so read at your own comfort.

I love Cian and Mash! This was everything I didn't know I needed right now. It's super adorable, low-stakes, charming, funny, and just silly fun times. Lost a half star solely because the ending felt abrupt. I would have liked a bit more closure in some of the dangling threads.