A review by fossilreads
Her Nemesis until 5pm by Eve Pendle

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

3.0

Creepy in the beginning, but got better towards the end.

I wanted a short, spicy romance and that was indeed delivered! Unfortunately, I did not enjoy the MMC's POV in the beginning, he was just creepy and inappropriate. Constantly describing how horny you are because a woman simply exists in your presence is gross.

I was a little sad with the long time skips, but I absolutely understand why they were necessary to keep the story short and give enough time to set the basis for the main romance.

The part of them making up at the office ended up being quite cringy in my opinion: "And that was when clapping broke out behind them..." Made it feel like a tumblr shitpost.

I enjoyed the spicy scenes, though I didn't love how after the most important ones we just skipped through by mentioning how 'we did it like 5 more times before lunch!'.

The diversity felt lacking to me, why did our only(?) POC character only get described as "The door was held open by a black woman wearing a red shift dress."? She ends up being a business owner but was there really no other way to describe her? Was she only here to tick off a diversity box?

As the characters settle into their relationship, I very much enjoyed their interactions and this is where the story got very enjoyable for me. No more creepy guy, actual appreciation for the FMC's other traits too. The MMC's actions could've been cute and romantic from the beginning, if he hadn't displayed such toxic traits.

I loved the peek into their future at the end, it really tied the story up better than expected. The content warnings were great, didn't spoil anything too closely, and let me be mindful of if I was in the right headspace to read this story.