Tara Johnson works hard. She’s a senior executive, expecting to be promoted to Managing Director, but her 15-year rival, the unscrupulous Richard Boyd, also wants the position. There’s plenty of suspense as Tara discovers who she can trust and who her friends and her enemies are. She eventually finds herself in a compromised situation where her promotion, and what’s more, her career, is at stake. There is plenty of romance, suspense, back-stabbing, and devious office politics, in this office romance with an unexpected albeit happy ending. Especially for lovers of romance and happy endings. A pleasant summer read.

Tara Johnson is a rare female executive in a male dominated career. At the cost of a personal life and friends, she has almost reached the pinnacle of her career. In addition, she takes care of her mom who has early dementia. Tara also speaks at a women’s forum to encourage women to reach their potential. When you’ve advanced in your career by not having any kind of personal life or marriage and kids, how can you speak to balancing both to a women’s group? Other than the way she takes care of her mom, I did not like Tara. 

Richard Boyd has been her competition/rival for 15 years. They have not gotten along since they did their training together, he asked her out and she turned him down by humiliating him in front of their peers. The last 15 years have been spent trying to best each other. He is a smooth talker, charming, good looking and hard working. 

Tara has an affair with a subordinate she personally hired. When it turns stalker/abusive rather quickly, Richard comes to her rescue. After 15 years of being a total jerk, he suddenly becomes her knight in shining armor, and the best thing to ever happen to her? 

The book starts off slow then finishes too quickly. There are many inconsistencies. The story itself needs much more development. 

I voluntarily reviewed an ARC provided by NetGalley.

How far will one go to achieve the corner office in the fortune 500 company? For Tara that is sacrfice her personal life over everything in the name of work.  One problem with getting her office of her dreams... Richard her arch nemsis. They rose up through the corporate ranks together and have been competing since day one.  Author Baker takes a fear many women has and writes a compelling love story. Great twist and turns you will not see coming.

This book was an enjoyable contemporary romance and was more than a typical office romance. Tara is hard-working woman in the running for a upper level position in a fortune 500 company. She isn't the only one trying to get thr job. Richard is a playboy who wants the same promotion Tara wants. 
This book is like a rollercoaster of emotions, but it was worth the read.

I was so excited to read The Corner Office because I am an absolute sucker for office romances! Unfortunately, it didn't live up to my expectations. I didn't hate it, but it never quite got off the ground for me. The premise is this: Tara is a hard working, ambitious woman aiming for the MD (Managing Director) position at her company FortunateStart. She's not the only one, though. Richard, a coworker who started at the company at around the same time, is also after the position. They spend 15 years gunning for the position (and each other) and we readers are treated to lots of witty, snarky banter between the two. I could feel the sexual tension between the two reaching out from my Kindle to strangle me with it. Unfortunately, Tara gets the wrong impression of Richard from the very start, so spends the rest of the book disliking (while at the same time being attracted to) Richard because of it. Richard comes across for most of the book, as a chauvinistic, womanizing playboy who riles Tara up just for the hell of it. Tara, as smart as she is in her work life, doesn't see what the reader can plainly see, that Richard is totally in love with her, and is just bugging her because he likes her. So, she responds in kind to his snark, and they take barbs at each other throughout. It got a little tiring, but it was truly the best part of the book. Sigh...

Then there's the side story of Tara's stupid (yes, stupid) fling with one of the coworkers she manages, Aidan. He comes across as sexy and sweet, at first, but soon turns into a true psycho. The fact that he has a tattoo seems to of some sort of fascination to Tara, and she constantly thinks about it (in her mind only). It's as if the tattoo is some sort of omen of what's to come with him. That's honestly a really ridiculous stereotype, and I'm pretty ashamed that Katerina Baker included this in The Corner Office. 

I like the fact that Tara spends most of the book speaking to the Women's Network at her office about how women can empower themselves, find balance between their personal lives and their professional lives. And I like how inspiring she is to them. That Tara is a successful career woman is awesome, but she's a hot mess elsewhere in her life. I like her, even respect her, but for all her smarts, she is incredibly stupid to have a fling with someone who works under her. And when she doesn't come clean to HR about him when he starts harassing her, even more stupid of her. If only she had been as good with her love life as she was with her professional life.

I dislike how all the sexual encounters (until the end) are with Aidan, because I could tell from the very beginning that Richard was going to be her One. The One to capture her heart and give her the love she needed and deserved. I really don't like it when MCs spend significant amounts of time with other people in their lives when their true partner is present. It's obviously not cheating because Tara was never together with Richard until the end, but I think the whole Aidan thing could have been deleted entirely and it would have made The Corner Office that much tighter and more entertaining. I would have loved it if all the sexual tension between Tara and Richard had built and built and they finally gave in and spent the rest of the book running around trying to disguise that they were falling in love. Aidan would have been entirely unnecessary in this scenario, and it would have made The Corner Office much more palatable for me.

I guess I can just summarize this and say I like The Corner Office but I never quite connected with it. There were unnecessary plot points and details that added to the disconnect I felt and I just could not get on board completely with either the story or its lead characters.

The Corner Office is more than just your normal office romance!
First things first.... The blurb or as others call it the synopsis is misleading in regard with a few points when compared to the actual plot! This doesn't happen to me often and it irritates me a lot!

Tara, the lead female is a senior executive in her company who works putting her career first at the expense of a personal life, also speaks at the Women's Network seminars at her company. Her co-workers think she is cold-hearted as well as business oriented but there's that caring motherly side of her too of which you have glimpses. I had a rather difficult time bonding with her. At times I even wanted to shake her and tell her to get back to the normal world. 
However, when it came to Aiden I could definitely relate to how she was tempted for a forbidden relationship(one which could jeopardize her job). And also to how she tried to back away before she was put in an irreversible position.

Richard Boyd, a fellow senior executive, a rival of Tara’s since fifteen years is ready to give it all to become the MD (the position which Tara wants!) and he has worked hard for it. He is a playboy (let me clarify! Assumed to be a playboy by Tara and everyone else but is not!).

Aiden, the sexy co-worker / biker with a tattoo! Your image of a hero and everything else you want in a lead male but that's just for the beginning. As the story progresses you start seeing the different sides to him. He goes from being the swoon-worthy hero to a stalker to an abuser to someone you absolutely hate!



What I loved liked ?

The rivalry and the constant bickering between Tara and Richard.
Tara - I liked how even though she is focused on her job and doesn't have a personal life yet when it comes to her mother she leaves everything behind and attends to her needs, even the tiniest ones.
Also her speeches at Women’s Network.
Richard - He wasn't my favorite in the beginning but ah! I did fall for him soon actually too soon for my own liking and truth be told he was one of the major reasons I completed the book! 
Richard and Tara - The humorous banter between the two is one of the major highlight of this book and credits to Katerina Baker it could not have been written any better!
The Roller Coaster - So in a matter of a few page you  " absolutely hate Richard - like Aidan - like Richard - love Aidan - love Richard - hate Aiden - love Richard even more."
The book nicely portrays the workings in a multinational company.
 

Why 3 stars ?

The lead characters had no background and that made it harder to relate to them!
I would have given anything to know about Richard's background or even his family!
The Side Characters - There were a few lovely side characters like Martha (the secretary), Jon(the boss) and a few more but there was no background to them as well. There was no story related to them and that was a major disappointment!
The only bit-developed character was Tara's mother who had dementia but even there a lot of points were missing!
Aidan - The abusive side of him came a bit faster than necessary and it felt like the plot was being rushed.
Fast Story Line - After completion of half the book when the plot actually starts getting exciting there comes this RUSHHHH.... You suddenly feeling like the plot moving too fast and a lot of facts being thrown in and a lot of things happening at once.
It would have been really nice to know who gets the CORNER OFFICE!

The book definitely has a nice plot as well as story-line. So if you're in for a steamy ride, a roller-coaster of emotions as well as a quick read then this definitely is the book for you!
I loved the plot so I'll be looking forward to more books from the author!

I loved this book and I was hooked from the very first page. This is the first book that I have read by Katerina and I will be reading more of her work in the future this was a entertaining quick read and I couldn't put my kindle down while reading this book and when I was not reading this book I was thinking about what was going to happen next to Tara and Richard and I also loved the writing. This was a quick read. and I also loved the connection and the chemistry between Tara and Richard

Tara is a driven business women who loves her job so much, she often stays in the office over night. She worries about her mother and tries to make time for her in her busy schedule. She sticks to the rules, until that day when she doesn't and her (love) life get's an interesting new spin. 

Let me tell you, I don't like Tara. She is too full of clichés, there is too much going on in her head, trying to be the tough business women who isn't bothered by anything and can handle her own shit. 

Apart from my not liking the heroine, I also didn't like the development of her relationships throughout the book. 

Then there are several inconsitencies in this ARC that interrupted my reading stride.

The Corner Office was full of twists and turns, had a competitive nature among two rival characters (Tara and Richard, displayed the struggles of balancing a work and personal life, and just proved that you can't judge a book by its cover. I could not put this book down. It was well written, had a great storyline, and had me on the edge of my seat for more. Katerina Baker was able to make me fall in love with two men, each at different times, in this book. It's hard enough to get reader to fall in love with a character one, so thank you Katerina! 

Tara was a woman in her early thirties who was successful, beautiful, and always stuck to the rules. When she wanted something, she wouldn't let anyone stop her (even if her rival and co-worker Richard wanted to). It was time for the promotion of her dreams and it was down to her and Richard. Would her hard work and dedication finally pay off?

Richard was a a great worker, playboy, and did I say playboy? He was known to get the job done both at work and after hours. He wanted the promotion he had been working so hard for. He was around the same age as Tara and worked with her for 15 years. They had chemistry if you consider chemistry yelling and having an argument any chance they could get. He always had a crush on Tara, but was it real or just trying to check her off his list? Would he get the promotion? And if he didn't, would he go down without a fight.

I love the dynamic between Tara and Richard. Add in a hot new employee in Aidan and things get even more interesting. I don't want to spoil it too much, but I will say that I went from loving Aidan and hating Richard to loving Richard and hating Aidan. It was definitely a wild ride of emotions. I loved that Tara was finally opening up about her personal life. She was finally bending the rules a little and was bringing out an honest side of her. Richard wasn't always my favorite, but started to grow on me. He did enjoy his partying, after work was done of course, but he was also a one woman man. If he was committed he was all in.

This book will go up and down at many points, but make it worth the wild and unpredictable roller coaster ride.

Tara Johnson has always kept her end goal in sight, she's never really allowed herself to deviate from her career aspirations for multiple reasons. And she's not about to be derailed from a big promotion because of her coworker Richard Boyd, who is her direct competition for that advancement. Tara was interesting to me because she's incredibly intelligent and ambitious, she's also got a deeply caring side to her that doesn't really manifest at work, but it shows at home with her mother. Her coworkers don't view her as the fun and free spirited type, she seems cold and business oriented. At the same time, Tara isn't perfect because it's obvious that she sees things from a tainted perspective, especially with regards to Richard, and she refuses to ask anyone for help.

When Aidan, Tara's newest subordinate, comes along and seduces Tara, I could see how Tara was tempted and did everything she could to back away before putting herself in an irreversible and risky situation. With her current situation, I understood how she needed to be admired and appreciated and to take a break from the cutthroat environment, but still, I wanted her to put the brakes on. In the office, there are always secrets and rumors, the kind that can jeopardize one's entire career if there's any truth behind it. What I could appreciate about this story was how things aren't what they seem and that people on the outside are not always the same as on the inside.  This could apply to Tara, Aidan and Richard. I enjoyed the story and the character development in Tara, as well as the work relationship dynamics with Richard. I wish there had been a little more at the end once Tara realized what her priorities in life were and whom she belonged with.

‘Corner Office’ is a contemporary romance novel revolving mainly around Tara Johnson, a thirty five year old, ambitious senior executive, running for the position of a Managing Director at a Fortune 500 company. She has given it her all, ignored her personal life and relationships to reach where she is. But she is not the only one aspiring to be the Managing Director. Richard Boyd, a fellow senior executive, a rival of Tara’s since fifteen years is ready to give it all to become the MD. He is a charmer and he pretty much gets whoever, whatever he wants with much ease. The rivalry and the constant bickering between Tara and Richard is quite a lot of fun to read. Tara has always been a rule abider until the day Adian, joins her team and she gets into a steamy affair with him. This is against the office policy and the story picks up from here on.

Tara’s character is much likable from the beginning itself. I like her go getter spirit, the way she is focused yet when it comes to her mother she leaves everything behind and attends to her needs, even the tiniest ones and the way she inspires her fellow women employees at Women’s Network. Richard’s character is the one that you will strongly dislike at the beginning but fall in love with towards the end. Adian’s behavior was a bit ambiguous and hence the course of his actions was not justified well. His character seemed to change drastically in a short time. I really didn’t understand why such a strong person like Tara did not put him in his place sooner. Towards the end I really wanted to know who gets the corner office and how. Hopefully there will be sequel.

The story is narrated from Tara’s point of view. The writing is smooth and apart from the romance, the premise also offers a lot of corporate politics, stalking, blackmailing, etc. I quite liked the book. It was a quick read. I wish the author good luck for her book release and I definitely look forward to reading more books from her.

ARC kindly provided by publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a review.

----SPOILERS AHEAD----

This book should not have been catalogued under romance. It belongs under women's fiction alone, and if one has to narrow it down to another genre, then to chic lit at best. 

I suppose I was disappointed coming in thinking it would have a wonderful office romance (I was on "The Hating Game" high) and then came to the quick realisation that the dialogue between the h and H was few and far between, and the backbone of this book had its roots stemming more from feminism and girl power - particularly breaking all the glass ceilings in one's career. It depicted the h's struggle in a male-dominated, patriarchal work environment, and a one-night stand with a colleague that quite quickly - too quickly in my opinion - built up to sexual harassment and stalking. As in, why is that if a female sleeps with someone, she needs to proclaim that she is in it for the long-haul, and if not then she's a tease/bitch/slut what-say-you? Why can't a woman, just like her male counterpart, satisfy a sexual urge after meeting an attractive "potential" without having to promise anything? So many males don't, and it's an acceptable norm in society. However, there was no slow, thriller-mired build up to this stalking element. It just came along, like 2 comes after 1, and 3 after 2. So yes, a lot of focus on the h and her stalker but not enough between h and her ultimate H.

The other major focus of the book was how the h was a motivational speaker for the women staff in her company and when trying to address the age old dilemma of work versus marriage and motherhood, the h herself kept facing fears and doubts in regards to this - she is human after all.

I came in looking for romance and had to struggle to finish the book when I realised it wasn't.

This gets a 3 star for me. The author clearly cares about women's issues, but her writing was just not tight and gripping enough for me. Elements were introduced in a rather untidy manner that left me feeling a bit unsatisfied.

In the Corner Office we follow Tara, a hard-working woman in the run for a well-deserved promotion. In her way stands a man who’s not afraid to throw her under the bus if he needs to. The two of them have been fighting for over fifteen years and Tara can’t wait to put him in his place and get the promotion they both want. But an unexpected love-affair with a new coworker turns into something more sinister and changes everything.

The Corner Office is marketed as a contemporary romance, and I suppose that’s when I usually turn away and choose to read something else. I’m not a fan of contemporary, and especially romance novels tend to make me want to roll my eyes and hide somewhere. But I liked the premise of this novel despite it all, and I am truly happy that I took the chance to read it. Underneath the romance is an exciting plot that made me eager to turn the page, and before I knew it the book was finished. 

The writing is solid and the pacing is fast and constantly intriguing. I love the fact that it’s written in first person, this makes me feel closer to Tara and I immediately connected with her. She’s strong and determined, but inside there’s a different side to her that doesn’t necessarily show at work. Perhaps she ends up being a bit naïve when it comes to her love-affair with Aidan (and times I want to slap her in the face and tell her she’s an idiot), but I’m not sure one can blame her for it when she’s been alone and solely focused on work for so long.

For the most part I find that the relationship between the characters are genuine, but I do struggle a little bit with how Tara sees Richard. From the start, I thought their bickering sort of was a mutual love/hate thing that they shared. But at the same time, she constantly said she truly hated him and couldn’t even see him as a real person. Her actions towards him didn’t really reflect the things she claimed to feel about him. When it comes to their relationship I also believe that perhaps Richard changed a bit too fast to feel believable. He hadn’t exactly been kind before, so why the sudden change. I do have to add that it might perhaps be that Tara always initiated their quarrels and he just went along with her, and then his change isn’t as sudden as I think. But I’d have to go back and check the story to know if this is the case. 

Aidan is another character that perhaps escalated and changed a bit too fast for my liking, it became violent very sudden. There were warning signs there, but perhaps some more signs would have been a good idea before it all “went to hell” so to speak. 

But overall, The Corner Office is a very good book with lots of suspense, interesting characters, a theme that fits our current time, and lots of steamy sex. I do have to admit to skipping most of the steamy parts myself though, turns out I’m more of a prude that I thought I’d be. 

A solid 4 stars out of 5 from me, and I highly recommend this book. You won’t regret reading it.

I requested THE CORNER OFFICE because it came across as a dark, sexy, edgy and thriller-esque version of THE HATING GAME and was super excited to read something kinda familiar but also new and fresh. But unfortunately it didn't live up to any of my expectations and also I'd like to point out that the synopsis is rather misleading in regards to a few points of the actual plot. 

The hating game played between Tara and Richard felt really awkward. We're thrown into their lives with a brief bit of backstory, more of which follows as the story goes on, and honestly.. if not for the fact that we know the other man becomes the issue (as per summary, not a spoiler) I would've pegged Richard for the creep. He comes off vulgar and offensive and not remotely charming. So when the tables are turned and their relationship changes before the eventual happily ever after and Tara is looking back at their fifteen year saga of one-ups and competitions and "flirting" with nostalgia, even after only getting a glimpse of their history and the interactions that take place during the story itself, it's a lot to swallow. Because if someone had been treating me that way for even one year, to say nothing of nearly two decades, I would not be simpering with hearts in my eyes. His behaviour did improve by the end and we got to see a different side of Richard but good gravy, no. Too little too late.

Tara, herself, I found very hard to like, too. She is working in a man's world, putting her career first at the expense of a personal life, chairing and speaking at these Women's Network seminars at her company, and.. I don't know. That plus the relationship that she gets into against her better judgment.. I just found she was a hot mess of contradictions. 

The bare bones of Baker's story have the makings of something interesting, exciting and sexy, but a lack of chemistry and a lot of filler about their jobs -- which, if you asked me to explain, I couldn't for the life of me sum it up despite how time was spent talking about it -- a secondary plot involving a mother with dementia, and said aforementioned grown woman constantly fleeing from rooms, tripping on floors and basically acting nothing like a successful thirty-something year old, especially with her epic throwdowns and shouting matches with her love interest in their professional environment, made it.. not interesting, exciting or sexy.

This was made worse by two leads whose relationship is unconvincing, especially with how quickly all that hate and disdain turns to.. more after <b>fifteen years</b> of war being waged between them; a gaggle of weak or uninteresting supporting characters (their boss and the random weepy women who turn to Tara); inconsistencies in detail (is Aidan a VP or an accountant or an intern? all three were referenced); a modern woman who is all !!!! shocked about a grown up man having a motorcycle and a tattoo and how that isn't what proper accountants should do; a quick escalation of violence near the end; and after having to endure a constant litany of gasping every time Tara was in another man's presence.. I'm sorry to say this just wasn't a good time for me.

I enjoyed this book from start to finish!  Smart and sassy, sexy and fun!

Loved the book

Tara is an thirty five year old senior executive, who has spent her fifteen years at her firm, she has been so dedicated to her job that she doesn't really have a life!!

Richard is also a senior executive who has had the same goals as Tara, they have been pitted against each other since the first day of work.

Tara finds out that the rumours are she is a cold fish and only interested in herself, does this mean that all she has been told about Richard is a lie??

Have they been pitted against each other on purpose, if so why??

Great storyline with mixture of humour, suspense and romance a well rounded story.

The Corner Office wasn't what I expected. It turned out better than I thought. I love a good romance book and yes, this had all the makings - hot sex, humor, great characters, and it was also pretty funny too. But aside from that, it kept me guessing, kept me on my toes, wondering what was going to happen. The suspense was so great. There were so many twists and I went from laughter to anxiousness with every page I read. Tara was such a great character, and above all, she was someone who women aspire to be like. She's confident, humorous, loving, albeit a bit cold hearted when it came to her nemesis, Richard. Richard was so funny and I loved the banter between him and Tara. The chemistry was great, until Aiden was introduced. When he popped up on the pages as someone more than just someone Tara had pride in hiring and training, I was happy for her. The tension between them was good, but also alarming because I thought it was going into a different direction. And it did. It so did and I went from being elated for Tara to downright worried for her. There were times I wanted to shake her and ask her what on earth she was doing, let her know asking for help isn't a bad thing. But the thing with Tara, is that she is strong willed to a fault. The twists that came with that relationship was insane. Overall, The Corner Office is a great book. A really great romantic suspense read and I highly recommend it to everyone.

The Corner Office by Katerina Baker earns a solid 4 stars from me for good writing and a fast moving plot. I love a good enemies to lovers story.

A few caveats: While it can't be considered cheating, the heroine, Tara, does "hook up" with someone other than Richard, our hero. For me this doesn't usually work, but it set the tone for the book, as something darker comes out of this first relationship. Based on the blurb, I kept expecting Richard to ride in on a white horse and save Tara. Instead I found that the stalker aspect of the story went from zero to one hundred rather quickly. I think this could have been fleshed out more. Tara doesn't seem to fear her new stalker at all though, which didn't work for me. 

There is a side story involving Tara's mother, who suffers from dementia. This part is well written and provides Tara's personality with new dimensions. Otherwise she would have been work 15 hours a day with absolutely no life outside of that.

Good book; I would read more of Katerina Baker's work based on this title.

NetGalley provided a copy of the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Corner Office by Katerina Baker is an enjoyable Contemporary Romance. The novel introduces the reader to Tara’s world. She is an executive at a Fortune 500 company. Professionally she is successful, driven and ambitious. She has carefully followed all the unofficial office rules until she meets Aidan. Richard Boyd was rejected by Tara when they both started working at the same company and their many interactions are often stormy. The tension between Tara, Richard and Aidan is complicated. The short chapters move the story along quickly and the author draws the reader into the complicated triangle. The unexpected twists and turns make this a page-turner. The characters are well developed with strong and identifiable personalities. Their professional and personal lives drive the novel. This well-written book is character driven. The secondary characters add depth to The Corner Office as well. Is Tara ready for a healthy professional and personal life?