A huge thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an e-arc all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Sadly, this book wasn't for me - hence the review rating. I always feel awful when I don't enjoy a book but I debated HARD about DNF-ing this book several times throughout reading and whilst I enjoyed the ending it didn't blow me away enough to bump up the review.

The female lead was a headstrong character but that timed with her actions made her hard to relate to, even when she had the best interests at heart. The male lead sections I was able to follow a lot easier and I enjoyed reading his side of the story more.

I found I was getting lost with the multiple names of people at times too but again I feel that is possibly because I wasn't into the book as much as I wanted to.

This book had so much promise, I am sad not to have loved it.

It's described as a romance, but the two don't meet until over halfway through the book, around 70% if I remember rightly. Once they met the romance felt a bit rushed.

If you like a slow burner, then you might like this one. However sadly not for me!

This was not a rom com. The 'couple' didn't meet and hardly interacted for about 75% of the novel and when they did meet they had hardly any time on the page together. The rest of the story had some good parts to it but marketing it as a romance is going to lead to disappointment!

This was surprisingly sweet! Initially I was ambivalent about a pandemic story (I feel burned out from reading a lot of these recently) but I found it had a light touch to the story and set up the hot desking plot well. I do wish we had seen more from Rebecca and Ben as this felt more like contemporary fiction due to the lighter romance elements, but overall I enjoyed it and was reminded a lot of Beth O'Leary's writing. I would be happy to read future work by Laura Dickerman.

I thought Hot Desk had a fun premise and really enjoyed the start of the story but I felt like it got a bit bogged down in the back story. Whilst it’s marketed as a romcom (and it does have both romance and comedy elements), I’d argue it’s more contemporary fiction.

I did find the back story of June and Rose interesting and I think it really added to the story (it would have been quite a simple book without it) however it did detract from Rebecca and Ben and meant they didn’t meet until nearly the end of the book. I’d have liked them to meet earlier and carry on their hot desk post-it’s banter throughout, it felt like the initial premise of the book just got left behind.

On a positive note, I usually haaaate books that include the pandemic but it really didn’t bother me this time! Like Rebecca I hate hot desking so it felt very relatable and not a depressing reminder of the past few years.

Overall a solid 3.5, just a bit of a shame it lost its way.

Thanks to NetGalley and Michael Joseph for this ARC!

Due to a money saving endeavour, Rebecca and Ben share a desk, but have never met. The story starts here but it's the least interesting thing about "Hot Desk". There are flashbacks to a different era of publishing and a whole heap of gorgeous side characters, with who you'll wish you spent more time. My main area of criticism is that with so much story and slow burn, the pay off at the end seems ridiculously fleeting. I enjoyed the first half of the book, but couldn't stop reading the rest and was a bit bereft with 5% to go, knowing it wasn't enough.

I adore books about the publishing world and this one is no exception. It is clever, funny, and sexy, and it reminded me a little bit of Nora Ephron films (as high a compliment as I can give!). Rebecca and Ben’s will-they-won’t-they was so satisfying and I just had the best time reading this.