Review: Public Relations: An Enemies-to-Lovers Office Romance

Public Relations: An Enemies-to-Lovers Office Romance by Laura Lee
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I usually love the enemies-to-lovers and office romance tropes, which is why I wanted to read Laura Lee's "Public Relations." As it turned out, I did enjoy those aspects of the story. I thought that the emotional growth of the relationship between Liam and Avery was nicely paced, and they didn't exchange "I love yous" too fast. It was a good idea to have time jumps of several months between some of the chapters to really allow the "enemies-to-lovers" aspect of their relationship to develop.

That being said, I couldn't get past the fact that Liam was just too much of a dominant a**hole for my tastes. His behavior towards Avery on the day she came to work for him made me very uncomfortable, to be honest. He was very aggressive, and it almost felt like it bordered on sexual harassment to me. He didn't come out and say, "You must sleep with me to keep this job," but he didn't really give her much choice in the matter. He [immediately summoned her to his office because he decided that they needed to bang each other out of their systems, or whatever, before she started work, and the next thing she knew, she was bent over his couch (hide spoiler)]immediately summoned her to his office because he decided that they needed to bang each other out of their systems, or whatever, before she started work, and the next thing she knew, she was bent over his couch!

When they started sleeping together again a few months later, Liam was once again the pursuer, and he did it after hours by forcing Avery to leave a date to return to the office[did it after hours by forcing Avery to leave a date to return to the office (hide spoiler)]. Again, there seemed to me to be an implied threat of "You must do this if you want to keep your job." It was all about what Liam wanted, and he seemed to use the fact that he was Avery's boss to make sure she complied. Ultimately, Avery did want to be with Liam, so I don't think she'd agree that he harassed her. However, the fact that it made me so uncomfortable was a real turn off and detracted from my enjoyment of the book.

Then there was Liam and Avery's sexual relationship. I was expecting it to be very steamy based on the book's description, and normally I'm OK with that, but to me, this bordered on erotica in some places. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, but it's just not my cup of tea. Also, [Liam was really into anal sex. He brought it up at least 3 or 4 times, and there was an extended, detailed sex scene that included anal near the end of the book. Again, that is really not my thing, and had I known that it was going to be so explicitly included in this story, I wouldn't have read it (hide spoiler)]Liam was really into anal sex. He brought it up at least 3 or 4 times, and there was an extended, detailed sex scene that included anal near the end of the book. Again, that is really not my thing, and had I known that it was going to be so explicitly included in this story, I wouldn't have read it.

Bottom line, even though I didn't love this book, that doesn't mean that there aren't readers out there who will love it. It just wasn't for me.

*ARC provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.

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