"It's your typical coworkers turned enemies turned fake exes turned cohosts turned" … lovers?

I wanted to like this more than I did and certainly would have if it weren't for just a couple of things. First, what I liked: That ridiculously complicated enemies-to-lovers trope with not just fake dating but fake ... ex-ing? I've never read that before and was initially intrigued by it. The nerdy public radio setting in the Pacific Northwest with pop culture and podcasting refs galore. A strong, smart, struggling female lead who is Jewish (Shay) with a love interest costar who is Korean American (Dominic), a foot taller, and five years younger than her. The humor in the narration and the banter between couples. The depiction of grief and failed relationships and loneliness and casually devastating everyday sexism and precious weird shelter pets and friendship and misread cues.

Unfortunately, the things I didn't like made this a bit of a can't-look-away train wreck of a read. First, I never completely warmed up to Shay even though she's the kind of complex, stumbling-into-adulthood character that I usually love.

Spoiler

Her callous dismissal of Dominic's stage fright and anxiety before the conference ("Well. He'll just have to deal with it.") and her response afterwards killed any connection I had fought for throughout the first 3/4 of the book.

And about that fake ex-ing thing. Setting a fake relationship story in the arena of public radio and casting a serious journalist in that role feels pretty icky in this era of fake news and antipathy towards the media. And the resolution fell short for me.

Spoiler

People do stupid things for love and job security but I couldn't stomach the way this was presented, hated the feeling of waiting for the shoe to drop, and did not like the way Dominic set aside journalistic integrity. I try not to judge a book on my own expectations, but I really, really wanted his return to the station to result in his taking down the manipulative sexist asshole that was running the place. Why laud his investigative skills in the first part if he isn't going to use them the rest of the book? I appreciate a sweary on-air tirade/declaration of love/resignation as much as the next person, but it just didn't feel quite right here.

But I think I'll be in the minority on this one and most of the readers who pick it up will love it.

Content notes: Sexism and racism, death of a parent/partner (off screen and in the background but significantly featured throughout), anxiety/panic attacks, stage fright, lying, fake dating, steamy sex scenes, strong language