REVIEW: By a Thread by Lucy Score

In By a Thread by Lucy Score, Dominic Russo isn’t a guy who typically gets people fired. Even as the creative director at his family’s fashion magazine, Label, he tries to keep things drama free. But after about a year of horrible days, Dom snaps when the pizza parlor waitress gives him attitude. So who could blame him for verbally taking her down a peg or two and insisting she be let go? Yeah…okay. Not his finest moment. But karma laughs right in his face when Dominic’s mother hires Ally Morales–or Maleficent, as he prefers to think of her–at the magazine the same day. Somehow he finds himself seeking her out all the time, if only to see what cheerful and sarcastic barbs Ally will throw his way. But Dom can’t let himself fall for the gorgeous ray of sunshine no matter what. His family name is on the line. Even if he thought he could possibly tame the feisty woman.

“I wasn’t looking for you. But I still found you.”
“What are you saying?” I squeaked.
“I’m saying I found you. And I’m not fighting it anymore. You’re mine.”

Ally can’t afford to lose one of her gazillion jobs. Not if she wants to get back on her feet and keep her family, such as it is, afloat. While she’s not sorry to be leaving the pizza place behind, she’s ticked off about losing the wages–and super PO’d at the rich jerk, whom she dubs Charming, who got her fired. So when Ally finds out the new job that came to her out of nowhere is at Dominic’s company? It’s war. She resolves to show him just what she’s capable of. And that just because Charming is the broody boss everyone tiptoes around, that doesn’t mean Ally will kowtow to him. She just didn’t count on finding out there really is a human being underneath all those yummy vests he wears with his suits. Or that their chemistry would be so explosive.

‘It was humiliating to know that the man could insult me to my face and my body would still want to see his naked. Had I lost my self-respect along with my life savings?’

A romantic comedy that can only be described as The Devil Wears Prada meets Pride and Prejudice, By a Thread was utterly hysterical and hit every bell and whistle that I adore in the genre.

I leaned in. “Quit.”
“Make me.”
“I fully intend to.”
“Great. Now that that’s settled, how about you scamper off to whatever ring of hell you came from and let me earn my paycheck?”

I’m new to Lucy Score’s books and I have to say that I am *so* glad By a Thread is where I began. I don’t think I’ve giggle-snorted and howled with laughter over the course of one book in a long, long time. It really reminded me in a way of Emma Chase’s Tangled. The writing was that modern and snappy, the dialogue witty and downright naughty at times (*fans face*), and the characters were multidimensional even as they were slinging insults at each other.

Ally and Dominic were quite a unique and oh so very amusing pair. He was a brooding hero with hidden depths–and he had tons of pressure from his family heaped on his broad, deliciously muscular…shoulders. (lol) Ally was an optimistic heroine dealing with way more than she let on personally and didn’t complain about it at all, so I had to give her kudos for that. I loved that Dom and Ally were pretty much polar opposites on the outside, so their attraction was a surprise to them both. And boy didn’t they fight it–and fought each other over, well, everything else as well.

Ally and Dominic’s verbal sparring was memorable enough that I’m sure it will have readers rolling with laughter. And their attraction will nearly burn the pages up, it’s so hot. I will forewarn that their love scenes were a little explicit but it fit them as a couple perfectly. Dom was a wonderful, generous man under all the attitude, in every aspect of his life–including the bedroom. (Lucky Ally!) He did make a boneheaded blunder towards the end that won’t win him any favors. But the way Ally handled it spoke volumes to me about what she had been through and that she wasn’t willing to have anything less than everything Dominic was capable of giving her emotionally. So. Good. Sigh…

Flirty and hella sexy but with enough depth to give you all the feels, By a Thread is one book that should be on every rom-com enthusiast’s to-be-read list. It’s just that wonderful.

Book Info:

Publication: April 23rd 2020 | That’s What She Said Publishing |

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.