Enemies with Benefits

The first thought that I’d written down while reading this book was “Men suck!” No joke.

And honestly, I feel like this book managed something really interesting here. Already in chapter one, it manages to capture a feeling most of us women will know: being absolutely and 100% annoyed and disgusted by the behavior of our opposite gender.

Violet is on a date. And it is terrible. The dude is super rude, treats the waitstaff like shit and isn’t exactly nice to Violet either. Instead, he gets straight to the “point” and asks Violet if they should go to his place or hers. After all he picked out a nice restaurant so the least she could do to thank him would be to fuck him.

Yes – you can throw up now. Or rage and break shit. That also feels like a valid response. Honestly, I feel like every woman with an online dating profile knows how Violet feels right now. Is it sad? Yup. Could I go on a full rant about this and how the bar is so low these days? 100%. But that would for sure take up this entire review, so just know that I am super disgusted and angry.

Anyway, the date gets worse. When Violet makes it very clear that sex is not an option the guy ditches her. And not in a normal, semi-decent way either. No—he claims he needs to go to the bathroom… and then just disappears. Real classy. And because this situation wasn’t already bad enough, Violet realizes she forgot her wallet. Which means she can’t pay for the ridiculously expensive dinner. So she ends up washing dishes for the rest of the evening to pay off the bill.

Due to changing POVs, whilst Violet is washing the dishes we get to know Eli. He’s moved back to the small town he grew up in and has mixed feelings about it. His day hasn’t been great either—he works as a chef and just had to check the restroom to make sure there wasn’t some kind of emergency. Thankfully, the stalls were empty.

And for those of you who haven’t connected the dots yet: yes, this is the same restaurant Violet is in. Which is also why Eli suddenly finds a woman in heels and a nice dress washing the dishes in his kitchen. At first, he only sees her from behind—and let’s just say, he doesn’t exactly mind the view.

But then she turns around.

And he realizes it’s Violet Tulane. His childhood nemeses.

And this brings me to my next “men suck” moment.

Yes, they have history. Yes, they were / are nemesis. But the second he finds out her date ditched her and left her with the bill, his immediate reaction is to assume it was her fault—and he actually says that out loud. What the fuck? Like, grow up dude. It’s been years since you saw each other last and you can’t muster up at least some bit of human decency. You don’t need to like her. But then just leave her be and not start riling her up. Honestly, not a good first impression for our MMC. I get what the author was going for, but the execution just didn’t work for me.

We switch back to Violet’s POV. Since crappy dude picked her up and she has no wallet on her, she opts to walk home. Alone. In the middle of the night. Yes, I think all of us women collectively hear the imaginary alarm bells. And our feeling sadly proves to be right.

On her way home she gets cat called by a group of men driving by. They slow down and – TRIGGER WARNING: You can skip to the next paragraph if you want – she gets sexually harassed. One of the men starts pulling out his dick and starts to suggest jerking off in front of her. In the end they drive by though, which made me release the breath I was holding. Because even when it’s fictional this is really getting to me and I prayed for her to get out of this unharmed.

When Violet hears a car slowly approaching she understandably starts to panic and run. But the driver calls after her and it turns out it is Eli who spotted her and offers to take her home safely. At first she objects but in the end gives in and – thank the heavens – gets home safe.

This is also where we discover that Violet lives in a trailer park. Now, I am not American, but I do know this is supposed to be a bad thing and frowned upon. I don’t quite get it. Some people actively choose that lifestyle, and even if they don’t—why shame someone for not having the money for what society deems a “proper” home? That’s a much bigger, systemic issue tied to job opportunities, cost of living, and how difficult it can be to get back on your feet. But yeah… that’s a whole different conversation. Just know: if you judge people for that, that says a lot more about you than it does about them.

My thoughts on the matter aside: The next day, we learn that Violet in fact does not like to live in the trailer park and is saving up money to buy a small cabin by the sea.

She’s at work, and to this day I’m still not sure what her exact job title is. Since that is never clarified.  She studied law at some point… I think? And now she works at this wedding venue in what I can only describe as some kind of event manager/planner role. If anyone has a clearer understanding—please enlighten me.

So, Violet works at this wedding venue and manages the planning. She is a bit late to an all-staff meeting and on her way there runs into Eli. Turns out he had his last day at the restaurant and starts working at the venue too. Violet is pissed about that, but there is nothing she can do.

They make it to the all-stuff meeting and Eli has his fun riling her up again. During the meeting, Eli has a great time getting under her skin again. And then we get the big announcement: the venue will be hosting a secret royal wedding. Because of this, there’s a chance to win Employee of the Year—which comes with a bonus of 20 thousand dollars. Nice. But also questionable, since that will very likely lead to internal conflicts and jealousy. Why not just split the bonus and make it equal for all of them? I mean isn’t this all a team effort anyways? Not the best thing for team climate but hey, I’m not the boss of this venue.

Naturally both Violet and Eli are dead set on winning the bonus.

The same evening both of them are at Eli’s brothers’ bar. Violet tries to avoid Eli and flees through the backdoor. He follows her, obviously. And through a heated discussion they somehow end up passionately kissing. I’m not gonna lie. I was very happy with this development, since – you know – I was there for the smut. Sadly, I was let down though, because once again, after the kiss Violet flees and drives back home.

I would love to say that the next few chapters are about the weddings, the planning and the bonus. But that would be a lie. It’s more than just the next few chapters. Technically that’s not a problem. Good for the author to have a story and let us be a part of it. But sadly for me, those chapters entailed exactly zero smut. Nada. Not even a hint. I was very let down by that. And yes – I complained to Leonie about the lack of smut like every ten pages. I was promised spice people! Where is it?

But my sadness about the lack of smut aside, I’ll sum up what happens in between. Obviously, Violet and Eli are attracted to one another and constantly get into some sort of competition. During one of the weddings, there is a wedding cake disaster – since the kids topple the cake. Violet manages to somehow hold it up and Eli and the kitchen crew rush in to save the disaster.

Martin – one of their colleagues – takes the bonus competition very seriously and starts sabotaging everyone else, but the boss doesn’t see it. Due to that Eli and Violet decide to work together so that Martin won’t get the bonus. I mean – I did say, that this bonus would be a cause for trouble…

One of Martin’s sabotage attempts involves messing with an order of origami cranes for a wedding. Which means Violet has to pull an all-nighter and fold them herself. Eli, who has apparently traveled the world, helps her. And after this intense origami bonding session… They finally sleep together. About damn time. Yes, I know I’m grouchy. But at this point we are already halfway through the book. HALFWAY. And this is the first time we get some actual smut? Not fair.

And while we’re on the topic: Though I finally did get my smut, I have to be honest with you: I’ve read better. Sorry, not sorry. To be clear, the spice isn’t bad. But it’s also not toe-curlingly good. It’s… solid. Very much middle ground. And while a lot of books fall into that category, the fact that it took this long to get there—despite being marketed differently—made it a bit of a letdown for me.

But back to the story. Violet and Eli agree that this was the best sex they’ve ever had. However, they also believe they’re not compatible in any other way. So naturally, they decide to become friends with benefits. And yes—friends, not enemies. Apparently, somewhere along the way, they accidentally became… actual friends.

From here on we get a lot of chapters with suggested spice – yet another personal disappointment – and Violet and Eli spending every night together. They also regularly go on dates and deep talk about their dead parents. But of course they are not dating. Tbh, this felt a little bit too much like real life and situationships, if you ask me, but I guess we’ll have to get used to that being a thing in books as well.

Since they live in a small town I am completely baffled that they thought they could keep their situationship a secret. Spoiler Alert: The whole freaking town knows. Not surprised at all.

One of the weddings they’re working on gets canceled the day of, and instead of wasting resources, the boss decides to throw a party for the staff and their families. During that party, Violet and Eli sneak off to the wedding barn and—well—you can guess what happens. Afterwards, they cuddle, and Eli takes some selfies of them. And just to clarify: not secretly, so we’re good on that front.

Whilst they were having a blast in the barn, some of the younger employees sneak out a sneak out an inflatable mechanical bull and put it in the pool. Like you know, one of those electric bulls from country bars that you can ride on and that’ll try to throw you off. To this day I have no clue how that is supposed to work on the water. Especially since it involves electricity, but I guess I just have to use my imagination and put my very adult worries aside. Unsurprisingly, it goes wrong. Someone gets thrown off and doesn’t land in the water, but on the concrete next to the pool. An ambulance gets called. Boss is furious. Everyone gets summoned for a meeting.

Violet is super worried now, because she supposedly is tied to that incident since the bull was delivered to her and she hasn’t managed to send it back. Weird logic, but whatever. I will go ahead and spoil you: there won’t be consequences. This whole plot point just… disappears. No real consequences, no payoff. Which is frustrating, because it felt like it was building up to something important.

I’ll sum up the next bits too. Violet goes to Eli’s Sunday family dinner, which apparently is a big thing. Both want more from their relationship but neither of them fesses up. The huge secret royal wedding, which was so highly announced at the beginning of the book, comes around and gets exactly one page of actual page time. Cool, right? The Martin storyline also seems to get lost in translation. Somehow, we are already at the end of the wedding season. Eli wins the bonus. And we move straight into the final drama.

After the announcement, Violet’s boss calls her in. He reveals that he had originally considered giving her the bonus—or at least splitting it. But then he received an anonymous email with a picture of Violet, naked, in the barn. He’s disappointed, lectures her, and makes it very clear she’s lucky not to be fired.

Now, I have thoughts.

 Yes, from a professional standpoint, this isn’t great behavior. But—this picture was clearly taken on a private phone. Not security footage. Which means:
a) someone else was involved
b) this is a private image

I’m no legal expert, but I’m pretty sure that wouldn’t hold up—at least not where I’m from. And beyond that, it’s just incredibly shitty handling of the situation. But then again, a boss who creates a bonus competition like this probably isn’t big on healthy leadership anyway.

Violet immediately assumes Eli sent the picture to win the bonus—because, you know, rivals. (Side note: He did only took selfies in the barn, so why is only Violet visible. Lack of logic in the book)

Which brings us to my least favorite trope: miscommunication.

I hate it.

So I’m not going to dwell on it too long. They fight. They stop talking.

Eli eventually realizes that the leak is technically his fault—because he doesn’t use a password on his phone and just left it lying around. Turns out, Martin was the one who sent the picture. (Yet another lack of logic – if Martin wanted to win the bonus, why just send a picture of Violet and not one where Eli is visible as well?). Anyhow. Eli then proceeds to break into the venue with the help of some random military guy to prove it was Martin. This doesn’t work. But somehow, he still managed to get Martin fired. I honestly forgot how. But yeah, Martin is gone.

Violet and Eli finally talk to each other and actually become a couple. Naturally they sleep with each other to celebrate. And then—one final detail that I cannot ignore:

The next morning, Eli wakes up at 10:30, goes straight to the shower… and then proceeds to take off his shirt, jeans, and shoes.

Shoes.

Sir, where did those come from?

I don’t know about you, but I usually don’t go to bed fully dressed, shoes included. Especially not after a steamy night like that.

Caught you there, Miss Noir.

Eagle eyes. Even the smut couldn’t distract me from that one.

Anyway. Eli reveals that he used his bonus to buy the lake house Violet has been dreaming about. For both of them. Feels a bit over the top for me but it was also very predictable. I do love though that even the author felt the need to point it out by giving us the following sentence during the epilogue: “It might also be insane to buy a house with the guy who’s only been your boyfriend for a few months, but I’m choosing to ignore that.” She definitely knew she would be called out for that HEA logic, and I love it.

And with that, we’ve reached the end.

So, to circle back to my original question: did this book meet my smut expectations?

You guessed it – no.

And I’m still a little disappointed. Not because I mind a stronger focus on plot, but because I don’t love it when a book is marketed as super spicy and then doesn’t quite deliver. If that had been communicated differently—more romance, more tension—I probably would’ve been perfectly happy with what we got. The spice itself? Mid, but fine.

The story? A bit messy. Some plot holes, some ideas that weren’t fully explored (hello, royal wedding and Martin storyline). But overall? Still enjoyable. Not the best book out there—but definitely a solid, easy read. Perfect for in between heavier books or maybe a summer holiday.

Which is why I’m giving it 3 out of 5 stars.

So, my fellow Bookdragons—what do you think?
Is this a book you’d pick up? And if you’ve read it, what were your thoughts?

Let me know.