First, Joel does a fabulous narration as always.
The story and characters have massive potential but the conflict was just the MCs being oblivious which works sometimes but not here. I also never got a handle on who Ivo was. Like he read one way but then acted in ways that seemed out of the character established for him. Even hair color. I was surprised every time his blondness was mentioned.
I ended up skipping the last hour or so except the final 10 minutes.
I much preferred the second book (which still has an oblivious MC as the conflict). The first book – I don’t appreciate employer-employee “snarky” and oblivious romances.