By a Thread: A Grumpy Boss Romantic Comedy

You know how I found this book? A screen shot of a one-star review posted in a book rec Facebook group. The reader who shared the SS said the review made her giggle (reviewer's name was blocked out from what I remember) and instantly one-click. Evidently, the reviewer thought this book would've been a perfect 5-star had it not been for the copious amounts of explicit smut. 🤭 👀 👀 👀 👀 To each their own and all that, but I meannnn...did someone say COPIOUS AMOUNTS OF EXPLICIT SMUT? I ran and one-clicked, too. 🤣 **shrugs** Unfortunately for me, the book then sat on my Kindle for several weeks while I raced through one of my own deadlines. BUT I finally got to it, and sweet baby Jesus—or cheeses as Ally would say—I must now read everything Lucy Score has ever written. When I tell you I was blown away—I was blown tf away. The writing style is absolutely immaculate. It flows and it's just so easy to read and follow. Miss Score is hella talented and I cannot wait to devour her backlist! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 Okay, okay, I'm done rambling and singing my praises. 😅 Onto the story! "I knew many things in that moment. I didn't like her. I didn't want to like her. I had no intention of treating her as anything but an annoyance. Yet non of that quelled my desire to be near her." We all have a favorite trope, right? Mine will always and forever be enemies to lovers. The angst, the tension, the "I hate your guts but I wanna get IN your guts" is IT for me. I adore it. 😍 By a Thread was a perfect contemporary rom-comish version of it. I don't know if Lucy intended to make this a rom-com, but I lost count of how many times I literally cackled out loud. The beginning with the pepperonis had me on the floor. The banter between Ally and Dom was just 💋🤌🏻 Their chemistry—even during the hating phase—was 🔥 And when they finally got together? Oh, honey...I was swooooooning. "Was grumpy and rude suddenly the new hot? My v*gina seemed to think so." Ally is my kinda girl and the type of FMC I LIVE to read about in an E2L. She's not a doormat by any means, thank feck for that! She takes absolutely no shiz, isn't afraid/doesn't cower from Dominic, and...AND she's thick and curvy. 😩 YAS QUEEN. Plus, the last name Morales hints to the fact she's Latina and, helloooo, ya girl is Latina sooo... ✊🏻 #representationmatters Oh, yeah, and she's a graphic designer (another thing I have in common with her, so more bonus points there.) I also loved the fact that, despite everything terrible going on her life, she chooses to the glass half full and believes things will get better. Not in a naive way, just in a refreshing optimistic way. She's literally sunshine and fire, and I just adored her from head to freaking toe. Now Dominic... Dominic-freaking-Russo... The man is one delicious alphahole, I'll tell you that. But there were several occasions where I found myself wanting to strangle him—and no, not in the good way. 😒 The man is fecked up. He's been let down by his father and used by women in the past. He's got baggage, ya know? But he literally hauls that baggage around everywhere and uses it as a shield, keeping people away at all costs. I get wanting to guard your heart and spare yourself disappointment, but at some point, you gotta man tf up and realize that baggage doesn't make you. Watching him unravel for Ally, though, was a beautiful sight 😏 and in the end, he proved himself—and proved he had a huge, generous heart—which is all we can ask for in the MMC. "I was the beast to my mother's beauty. The monster to the heroine. When they looked at me, they saw my father." Some of my favorite background characters include Dom's mom (who had a very unique name), Gola, Linus, Ruth, and Missie. I liked Faith, too, but she wasn't around enough for me to really get to know her, which I did find a little odd since she's supposed to be Ally's best friend. In any case, I enjoyed something from each of these characters. They added that extra oomph to the plot with their presence and witty commentary. Overall, I fell head over heels for this book and these characters. I loved the fashion magazine part of the plot (had never read anything like that before) and the circumstances that led Ally to working there. As aforementioned the funny bits made me literally LOL, the angsty "I hate you" moments had me clapping excitedly in anticipation, the swoony moments were everything, and the smut...🥵 it was explicit but not erotica level, though there were quite a few scenes, so it was spicy enough for me. Now I will say, the last 20% had me stressed, and I do mean S-T-R-E-S-S-E-D. In the end, it all worked out obviously, but omg I was having a mini-panic attack. And the ending 😭💖 gahhh, I loved it so much! Charming and Maleficent forever! 💞 "This moment of heaven was worth a lifetime of misery." If you're looking for a contemporary E2L with a rom-com feel, you need this book in your life! 🥰 Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Spice: 🌶🌶🌶 Drama: 🔥 Dark/possibly triggering content: None

Ok...I have seen a lot of negative reviews on this book. Honestly, it was a very slow burn in the beginning and I was bored. But let me tell you, the spice and banter in this book was chefs kiss! I loved Ally and Dominic. Such a fun read! My first Lucy Score book and won't be my last!

Lucy Score always writes amazing books! This book is long, but it was so worth it! Ally works many jobs; she has to pay bills and keep her father (who has dementia/Alzheimer’s) at a facility with top of the line care. She’s been swindled and had some unfortunate things happen. One day, she’s at a pizza place and Dom walks in to meet his mother. As he strides in, they see each other and a sizzle sparks. But, because he has a haughty attitude, she talks back to him. I was giggling at their banter! He treats her badly and she gets back at him by arranging his pepperonis in two letters: F and U. He gets her fired, and she runs out upset. Dom’s mom, Delassandra, notices this and gets her a job (along with someone else) at their Magazine- Label, a very well-known, respected business. Dom and Ally are like oil and vinegar, but the attraction between them is combustible. They can’t help but be sarcastic and a$$h@!€$ towards each other, not to mention that the sexual chemistry is nuclear. As time progresses, it’s evident that they gravitate towards each other more than they want to admit. He maneuvers situations so that she ends up working with him. Although their connection is visceral and raw in the most delicious way, they both have walls around their feelings/heart and little by little, the walls start cracking. They each have trust issues- not that they’re the type of people to be unfaithful; it’s more about letting people in and sharing the problems that they’re going through. Ally has a lot of pride, which is why she has so many jobs. Her BFF owns part of a strip club, yet she won’t ask her for money. She prefers to kill herself, have thousands of jobs and live in an ice box of a house before asking for help. Dom likes taking care of people, so he finds sneaky ways of helping Ally. He’s not as cold as he makes himself out to be. As time progresses, so does their closeness. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. There are so many plot elements, so much description, which I appreciated, that I didn’t feel the length of the book- in fact, I was sad to see it end. Yes, there’s intimacy between them, but the buildup is so scrumptious that when it finally happens (over 50% into the book) it was satisfying (and hot as f 🔥🔥🔥). Both Ally and Dom have issues they need to work through in order to get to their HEA. I appreciated the groveling that happened... this book made me laugh, cry, swoon, and sweat. It was perfect!

If I want to be assured that I will love a book, I pick up a Lucy Score novel. Whether it’s a standalone like By a Thread or a series like Benevolence, the characters and the stories are wonderful! By a Thread was funny, sizzling, heartbreaking and infuriating. Ally was a straight talking, breath of fresh air trying to navigate personal and financial crises that would level most people. Dominic Russo is grumpy with such repressed anger and self-loathing that it’s not surprising that he’s a complete jerk. Dalessandra is a fierce woman who makes no excuses for her success, while doing her best to minimize the scandal that could have destroyed her business. Dominic inherited her heart and her values, even though he doesn’t realize it. Strong men need strong, loving women who don’t bow to their every whim and who can truly be their partner. Ally needed to learn that it was not weak to accept help and Dominic needed someone truly see him and to accept what he had to give. The road was rocky, but the destination was amazing! Thank you Lucy for writing books that make me swoon and smile in my sixties!! Can’t wait for “Mistakes were Made”!!!

3.5 Stars! Buy a Thread by Lucy score is a captivating romance with moments of brilliance, but it ultimately falls short of its full potential. While the initial chemistry between Ally and Dominic is undeniable, their characters lack depth and maturity, hindering emotional connection. Their actions of often felt incongruous with their supposed age, creating a disconnect. The novels extended length, unfortunately, doesn’t translate into a more satisfying conclusion. The rushed ending, and Ally’s sudden change of heart regarding financial support, felt abrupt and inconsistent with her previously established character. Additionally, Dominic’s controlling tendencies, reminiscent of problematic male leads in other popular romances, proved to be a significant deterrent. Despite the shortcomings, By a Thread offers, entertaining moments and glimpses of a deeper story. Overall, I enjoyed By a Thread and have officially joined the Lucy Score fan club. This book has solidified my love for her writing and has me eager to explore more of her work. Plus, after reading my first book on a Kindle, I’m hooked!

This book is not at all what I expected, but Mr. Grumpy McGrump certainly lives up to his reputation. With this wordsmith's books, I usually anticipate a light-hearted romantic comedy with a good-guy hero and a feisty heroine, and this book is light years beyond that. Dominic Russo (the aforementioned Mr. McGrump) is a wealthy, cold, heartless anti-hero; Ally Morales is a driven, big-hearted heroine with the weight of the world on her shoulders and barely two nickels to rub together, and their story is incredible! Ally has four different jobs, trying to make ends meet and take care of her father. Until a horrible patron decides to get her fired for standing up to him and putting him in his place. His mother/dining companion wastes no time in offering Ally a job at the Russo's fashion magazine empire, Label. (Wait, whose side is Dalessandra Russo on?!) Ally is the gal who, like the theme song of an old sitcom, turns the world on with her smile. She quickly develops friends at Label and an easy camaraderie with the other employees. She's loveable, loyal and fierce, and she gives as good as she gets. And Dominic? He's the one all the girls love to look at, but the one who strikes fear in the heart of every employee. But he's a bit of a mystery, the man with no heart who anonymously helps others in need. Dom and Ally remind me of a push-me-pull-you, two stubborn, independent minds with conflicting ideas and personalities, but basically joined at the hip. The push and pull, the snarky banter, the tension between them, are exquisite. Torturous. Divine. Utter perfection. They drive this book and made my heart race and squeeze with the starts and stops. The one thing they have in common is an inability to trust. There's also their incredible attraction which both resolve to do nothing about. This is the part where I grin maniacally and rub my hands together in glee. We all know they don’t stand a chance of sticking to their resolve, and their journey to forever just got a lot more interesting. This book is filled with laugh-out-loud hilarity, I’m-standing-way-to-close-to-the-bonfire steam, and heartstrings being manipulated to play the most delightful symphony. Dom’s past hurts, wrongs he's trying to right, and his vulnerability will make you want to hug him (between the times you want to shake him) and Ally's grit and determination while hanging on by a thread to barely get by will make you stand up and cheer for her. Ally and Dom's story is love-hate romance at its finest, and the story will enamor you from the first page. It's a story that‘s impossible to put down with characters who will own your heart. Get your copy of this book and fall in love with a cranky, heartless, generous, vulnerable hero and his amazing, admirable heroine. You absolutely don’t want to miss this enchanting, hilarious, heartfelt, extraordinary read!

– 4.25-4.5 stars ↬ Ally (h) and Dominic (H) are quite immature for their age (39 & 44) and I can understand why other ppl didn’t like their characters, but I was LOVING how petty they were with each other. 😂 it’s really not how adults with that age should behave, but I’m blind and going to pretend that each of the characters was at least 10 years younger to justify some of their behavior. ↬ that lap dance scene in the strip club was hot! 😈😏 or that scene when Ally saw Dominic mastrbatng in his office in the evening. 😏 basically every scene that got slightly sexual without going full penetration was so well done. ↬ The sexual tension between Ally and Dominic was delicious and I was just waiting for them to bang their brains out and when it happened I was not disappointed. Hallelujah. Their banter also cracked me tf up. Dominic and Ally already bickering like an old married couple. ↬ The scene where Dominic was drunk and Ally had to take care of him was so out of character for him and I love it!! When the H is completely drunk and confesses all kind of things to the heroine he wouldn't normally do >>> ↬ I love how Lucy Score always writes an epilogue and gives us an extra epilogue with years down the line to see the couples being domestic with their kids and friends. Other authors take notes. ↬ The only negative thing I can say is that Dominic should have that kind of daddy issues in his mid 40s, i’m sorry but he should have gotten therapy years ago and he went down the attraction scale a bit bc of how he handled the conflict. It was so stupid. This book was maybe 100 pages too long and didn’t need to be almost 600 pages long, but since I read this book so quickly maybe I don’t care about that page length that much. Conclusion This was such a fun slow-burn, enemies-to-lovers, grumpy-sunshine, office-romance book with tons of banter. Let's just forget for a second or for how long it took me to read this book that the characters were not acting their age at all and need serious help. 😇

Hands down the best aspect of this book is the characters. They really carried the story and made it come alive. They felt like weird people that occasionally did weird or stupid things that didn’t always exist for the purpose of advancing the author’s plot goals. Their random goofy texts, charming emails, and sometimes nonsense arguments gave the story a charm that many stories are missing and seemed to exist purely to make the readers smile and laugh. My second favorite aspect of this book is the author’s way with words. She could take some boring, basic thing, like body glitter, and refer to it in a way that it suddenly becomes a fun, comical illustration of the story. I love authors that can take a basic, boring sentence, and turn it into something charming and hilarious. It really helps set the tone for the story, and the author never uses it to detract from the more serious moments. There are certain aspects I wasn’t completely fond of. It felt like the stuff near the end was glossed over. I am not completely clear what happened to Gola and Shaylah. If it was mentioned earlier in the book, it was so brief that it didn’t stick. It makes it feel pretty unimportant even if the author is saving it for their own stories later. I always find a female character’s resistance to help beyond reason very off-putting. The more I read characters like that, the more I am disliking them. There is a big difference in getting some help when you really need it to being a moocher. It makes your average person who has likely needed help at times feel like they are falling short somehow. And I am a very independent woman who lives by herself with no significant other or remotely dependable parents or siblings. So if I think it’s overkill, it is overkill. I am glad she finally relaxed some. I can’t say I am a big fan of stories with characters these ages either. Which if funny, because I am almost the same age of the heroine. I just hate thinking about their time together being cut short because they found each other later in life. That is also why I am usually a fan of alien and paranormal stories, because the usual rules of aging and death just don’t have to apply. I like as little as possible of the bad aspects of reality to intrude into my fiction. But that is just a big personal preference. Otherwise, it was fun and I will be checking out this author’s other books in the future.

I reread the last 3 chapters multiple times. This book is heart warming, challenging and wonderful. And I love that it has 2 Epilogs. I really would love it when more authors would add an epilog or two to their stories.

This is the ultimate grumpy-boss romance! This book is almost 600 pages of will-they, won’t-they delicious office enemies-to-lovers romance. Dominic is a grumpy 44-year-old whose employees fear him. When his mother hires Ally, the woman he got fired from the restaurant she worked at for being rude to him, he’s infuriated. But his desire to get her to quit this job directly conflicts with his need to get closer to her. He has his secrets, and she has hers. She calls him “Charming”. He calls her “Maleficent”. This book is so cute and funny and very, very steamy. I love how Ally is 39 years old, especially when so many romance book heroines tend to be in their early twenties, as if once you hit a certain age, you’re no longer eligible to find love (fortunately for men, they’re allowed to wait until their late forties for that expiry date 😂). All in all, this was a fantastic book by Lucy Score - my second read after 'Things We Never Got Over', another fabulous rom com. 5 stars!

Cute, sexy and funny. Everything one wants in a romance book. I can’t wait to read all the other books from Lucy Score!

J’ai failli passer à côté d’un livre marrant. Tout commence par un drame, s’enchaîne sur une situation improbable mais parsemée d’anecdotes hilarantes. Et se termine d’une façon originale. Sans y en avoir l’air, l’auteur peigne les entraves aux bonnes relations humaines. Il y a une bonne dose d’optimisme et de bienveillance dans ce livre. Ça revigore. Et J’aime les personnages qui s’assument. Je reste fidèle à Riley Thorn and the dead guy next door mais Bon achat au final

This is the first book I read from Lucy Score and it was perfection. It has this kind of feel of the devil wears prada without the awful boss but with a hint of Bombshell. It is beautifully written. I loved it.