By a Thread by Lucy Score.

Synopsis

Dominic was staring at me like he couldn’t decide whether to chop me into pieces or pull my hair and French kiss me.

Dominic
I got her fired. Okay, so I’d had a bad day and took it out on a bystander in a pizza shop. But there’s nothing innocent about Ally Morales. She proves that her first day of her new job… in my office… after being hired by my mother.

So maybe her colorful, annoying, inexplicably alluring personality brightens up the magazine’s offices that have felt like a prison for the past year. Maybe I like that she argues with me in front of the editorial staff. And maybe my after-hours fantasies are haunted by those brown eyes and that sharp tongue.

But that doesn’t mean that I’m going to be the next Russo man to take advantage of his position. I might be a second-generation asshole, but I am not my father.

She’s working herself to death at half a dozen dead-end jobs for some secret reason she doesn’t feel like sharing with me. And I’m going to fix it all. Don’t accuse me of caring. She’s nothing more than a puzzle to be solved. If I can get her to quit, I can finally peel away all those layers. Then I can go back to salvaging the family name and forget all about the dancing, beer-slinging brunette.

Ally
Ha. Hold my beer, Grumpy Grump Face.

Author’s Note: A steamy, swoony workplace romantic comedy with a grumpy boss hero determined to save the day and a plucky heroine who is starting to wonder if there might actually be a beating heart just beneath her boss’s sexy vests.

Review

5 stars

You know, when you are in the middle of a book and rush to recommend it to your friends, that it’s a great read!

It might by my favorite Lucy Score from the four books that I have read from her so far.

It has so many favorite tropes!

-Enemies to lovers;

-Grumpy/sunshine;

-Office romance

-The Devil Wears in Prada

-Slow burn

And the banter is exceptional!

The sparks are flying right from the start and I was snickering hard seeing Charming alias wealthy Dominic Russo bickering with Maleficent alias recently and temporarily poor Ally Morales!

The opening scene sees Dominic joining his mother, the very elegant Dalessandra, to have pizza. Dominic is working very hard for one year to replace his father as creative director of his mother’s fashion magazine. He also feels like he is an asshole and that every employee are terrorized in his presence.

When the luscious server with bed hair asks him to drop his phone call because it’s the house’s policy, he’ll resist and… she will end up being very creative with his pizza!

Outraged, Dominic will have her fired, only to see his nemesis reappear one day later in his office, recruited by his mother.

From that moment, the games are on and it’s who will up the other in trading insults and shocking comments, to the bewilderment of the staff who has never seen Dominic be so… passionate!

It’s a game of tug and war, even when we feel the air brimming with their passion. The chemistry is there but both have secrets to protect and that makes trust very hard.

Ally is a sunny heroine. She has many problems and is in a very tight spot but she’ll never relent and will always choose to see the bright side and keep hoping.

She is the light to Dominic’s darkness.

Dominic is cynical, disabused and unhappy dealing with his father’s mess. He has so many rules and lines that he doesn’t want to cross for fear of becoming his dad! But he is also very sexy, has a hidden heart of gold and when he’ll unleash his passion I was surprised my kindle didn’t combust spontaneously!

If you want a great book with a “Prada” feel, great characters full of heart and outstanding banter between Charming and Maleficent, you have found your next read!

Thanks for reading!

Sophie