Saturday, May 4, 2024

Review: By a Thread by Lucy Score

By a Thread by Lucy Score
Publication date: April 23rd, 2020
Pages: 584
Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️

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 bear, 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.


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Review:
Ally has a lot on her plate. The last thing she needs is some asshole with a god complex coming into her work and acting like he is above the rules. When she gives him a dressing down and spells out how she really feels about him on a pizza she is unsurprisingly dismissed from her job. But while she is cursing her luck and the asshole in question his mother is stopping her on the street and offering her an out: come to work at their company. Ally has no choice. She has family obligations that require money sooner rather than later. So she starts in the admin pool at Label fashion magazine. But she never expected that her boss would be the same man she had insulted in pizza toppings. The two seem to have a mutual hatred for each other but there is an underlying of heat that they can't deny. But their workplace is already reeling from scandal and can't afford another. So Ally must stay away from her grumpy boss or risk being out of a job again while Dominic fights his attraction to not turn out like his father. Will they be able to resist each other or will their futures crumble down around them?

Ally was a firecracker that I loved to see go toe-to-toe with Dominic. They wanted so badly to not like each other but they had a thing for one another from the moment they laid eyes on each other. The best part of any romance is the attempts to resist the attraction. Their heat melted the pages of my book to the point where i had to take a few moments away to recover myself. Ally is such a well done character. She has so much heart and loyalty. She is the sunshine to Dominic's expertly portrayed grumpy. By the time the two finally came together I felt like I had just run a marathon. But their romance was stellar. 

With the book having such great supporting cast I had to try to determine which was my favorite. And it always came back to Linus. I loved the sassy black gay man vibe he had. He loved Ally but is of the type to not want to show when he appreciates someone until the chips are down and he absolutely has to. I think that is what I like best about him. You know he's going to be in your corner and when he sharpens his claws, watch out. 

I have grown to have a decent appreciation for Lucy Score books. They are often massive but there is never any moments in them where i roll my eyes in a 'come on get to the good part' motion. The stories are always light and fun while having a healthy bit of comedy within to keep you giggling into the pages as you kick your feet in delight. Score another win for Ms. Score.