2.8 stars, rounded up.
This is the first relatively decent book I've read in a while
To start, I personally wouldn't call this a slow burn. While they do get together officially towards the end of the book, it was clear they had feelings for each other around the 1/4 mark. Additionally, I think around the 1/2 mark, the writing became relatively sloppy and the pacing was weird? Like, after the hotel scene, the author was rushing to put them together or create this angst between them. Idk, it just read like a completely different book after that. There were also some editing errors? Like this guy named John was called Tom like two seconds after being introduced, and then they referred to him as John again. Idk.
Another thing that kind of irked me was the character inconsistencies. This is dual pov, but I felt like as soon as we got the MMC's pov, and some insight into how he thinks about the FMC, as soon as we returned to the FMC's pov, the MMC's personality changed. For example, MMC is first seen as this broody, silent, dominant type that comes off as rude and intimidating. When we first get his pov, we see that some of his actions towards the FMC were because he's had a crush on her for three years and he doesn't really have the confidence to speak to her. Then we get back to her pov, and suddenly he's able to banter back and forth with her? When he JUST talked about how hard it was to string a sentence together?
When we eventually get back to his pov, he talks about how bantering has become the only way he knows how to talk with her, but then we get back to her pov and he's smirking and flirting etc etc when he JUST finished talking about how hard it was to do that. The inconsistency irked me. I also got annoyed with how often he called her "Holland" (her last name). A couple of times here and there was cute but every sentence is a bit excessive, especially when I personally don't say someone's name so often when I'm talking with them.
*SPOILER*
The other issue I had was the third act 'break-up', which was too dramatic for no reason. I called that Carly had been the reason she was written up by Diana the first time around. Additionally, Jude freaked out at how Diana worded her and Theo being a couple (for the sake of getting the promotion) pretty mildly because it was how it looked from her own perspective. But suddenly Jude spirals excessively, even when Theo reassures her that he believes she didn't use him. Yeah, it was all about Jude's self-sabotaging, but it wasn't a believable reason to me. Also, her calling her mom and then suddenly realizing she wants to be with Theo was such a quick turn-around time that it didn't make sense. Yeah she said her mommy/daddy issues weren't immediately resolved, but it looked like she called her mom, refused to have a relationship, and suddenly she has the closure she needs to start a relationship with Theo. It didn't make sense or flow well. Not to mention the ending was a bit lackluster.
**SPOILER OVER**
I'm realizing I'm suddenly ranting, even though there were a few good things about this read. The banter (in the beginning at least) was pretty funny. It didn't always make sense, because they're both supposed to be professionals, though. This would have felt more like a slow burn had they actually ACTED like professionals for more of the time.
Also, actually, the title and synopsis don't make sense. 60 percent of the time, I was given the impression they would be hooking up or something intimate, while they remain professional 40% of the time. 1, I think those percentages should be flipped because they were 'professional' (more like casual business friends tbh) for 60%, and intimate for 40%. This wasn't a slow burn because they were flirting and going on non-date-dates etc. Also, they weren't ever really professional??? Idk who thought calling their client a prick, or babysitting him, or even throwing slights at him during a professional business meeting were deemed 'professional' but okay.
This was an easy read, though. I didn't like how the side characters were used only as a plot device to propel the main characters into their next scene together, and then are never seen again for the majority of the book. And again, the FMC's whole purpose in this book is to secure the job promotion, which she then gets in an anti-climactic way, but then it's never addressed again. Also, the MMC is a famous chef, but never once did he cook a meal specifically for the FMC, or ask the FMC which tasted better (yes, this happened once with the MMC's sous chef, but the scene focused on him being jealous about his friend flirting with her). I wish the author would have played into the chef thing a little more.
Overall, not terrible. Better than a lot of the nonsense that people on tiktok seem to be diehards for.