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 the first day at 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 son of a… fill in the blank, 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 back 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 beneath her boss’s sexy vests.

Review:

Buckle up buttercup for a ride with this book.  Expect to laugh out loud, shed a few tears, get angry on behalf of some characters, have your heartstrings pulled, swoon, and most of all fall in love with so many characters in this book.  You also need to settle in.  It is a long one, but the story moves along at a good pace.  You will be wondering where the time went.

This isn’t just an enemies to lovers book…it’s an enemies to frenemies to friends (sort of) to lovers story with many bumps along the way.  The chemistry and the push and pull between these characters leaps off the page.  The banter and snarkiness is hilarious, smart, and entertaining.  You can’t wait to see what they will say and do next.  The steaminess is hot with this one too.  You know it’s good when there is serious sizzle when the characters aren’t even touching each other.

If I haven’t sold you on the book yet then let me talk about Dominic.  He is one of the grumpiest heroes I have ever read…and he is wonderful and glorious.  He is one of my favorite grumpy characters ever.  Not only that but there are so many layers to him.  It was a true delight peeling back the layers of grumpiness to find what was inside, and trust me it’s even better!   Ally is the perfect self-proclaimed Pollyanna to him.  It’s not all sunshine and rainbows with her.  Somehow she keeps that optimism through grit, determination, and tenacity.   There is depth to both of these characters that is a true joy to discover.

There are some topics addressed in this book that are very relevant to society today and family issues many face.  Kudos to the author on how she incorporated the issues into the story in a very real and believable way.   As with any book by this author, the secondary characters are just as intriguing and captivating as the main characters.

This is a complete standalone, and it is not connected to any other book or series.  All of these characters are new and a joy to learn about.  Whether you’ve never read this author or you are a long time fan, you definitely need this book.  It’s one of those that will stick with you for a while in the best possible way.

Lucy Score is a Wall Street Journal and #1 Amazon bestselling author. Small town contemporary rom-coms are her lady jam and she enjoys delivering the feels with a huge side of happily ever after.

 
Her books have been translated into several languages, making readers around the world snort laugh, swoon, and sob. Lucy lives in Pennsylvania with the devastatingly handsome Mr. Lucy and their horrible cat.

In her spare time she enjoys sleeping, drinking copious amounts of coffee, and reading all the romance novels in the universe.