Cover Image: By a Thread

By a Thread

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Member Reviews

i. love. this. book!!!
lucy score never misses!!!
this is the best parts of a billionaire romance/workplace romance/grumpy sunshine. i love that the characters are a little older than most romance novels these days, it makes it relatable even if it’s an unrelatable scenario.
this is perfect parts humorous, emotional, and spicyyyyyyy! i love the banter so the spice was spicy as heck 😮‍💨
this is undeniably a 5 star read and i would reread it in a heartbeat!

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An okay-ish read that had several issues, chief of them being the 44yo (hero) and 39yo (heroine) main characters. The thing is it makes little sense to have older characters if all you're going to do is make them act as if they're 20 something.

Secondly, I would have liked a bit more backstory for both Dominic and Ally and it seemed too convenient that Ally would turn out to be good at everything (including being a muse for a top designer).

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I love Lucy score! Anything she writes is gold. So cozy and happy. Fluffy and sweet. Highly recommend. I loved ally and Dominic. So fire! Absolute hilarious

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This was a really sweet romance, I don't think I do justice to describing what happens. Its a nice story. I wouldn't say it was a 'grumpy' boss story but he is a jerk and she is on the receiving end of his attitude.

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I love Lucy Score but the characters act much younger than they are. That kind of took me out of the story a bit. While I did finish it, and enjoyed it I don’t think it’s something I will remember or think about again.

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I am now pouring through every Lucy Score title I can get my hands on. My new favourite!

This one was yet another fun, enjoyable read with fabulous characters.

Lucy Score ticks all the boxes.

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This is a good book. The two main characters are Ally and Dominic. Ally works four jobs. Dominic works as a fashion editor. They meet at on of Ally’s jobs, a pizza parlor, they start yelling at each other. Ally gets fired. Ally leaves and Dominic’s mother find her and offers her a job. She takes it. Every time she sees Dominic she gets mad at him and he gets mad at her. They each have issues but together they fall in love.

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Loved this book so much! I’d recommend this to my friends for sure! I even posted it in my book group too.

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I really enjoyed this one! It definitely is a read it once kind of a book and not a permanent purchase, but really fun!

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Lucy Score is fast becoming one of my favorite romance authors. I really like her writing style and the fact that this story had a dual perspective.

Dominic and Ally were the main characters with lots of backstory and Score did a wonderful job going into why the characters were the way the were.

Just a note, that there is a lot of steam in this one and some warning about sexual harassment in the workplace.

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Warning: this book will make your heart explode, make you sob, and give you the truth and dark side about consent and power.

I loved it. I was worried at first because I’m not into people who vehemently dislike each other but that stage was over quickly. This is most definitely classified as an enemies to lovers book. It’s a workplace romance. It’s a discussion on consent and power and what that does to an office space when it is ignored.
While there was definitely smüt happening in this book, there was a lot of real romance and discussions on trauma, therapy, and boundaries. I know it’s easy to fall in love with a book boyfriend who makes all the decisions and is powerful, but that doesn’t work so much in real life- which is exactly what this book is about.
I loved it. I can’t say much more than that.

Also, kinda confused by this one but I did get this for free from NetGalley so this is my review voluntarily- even though this book was published in 2020.

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Thank you to NetGalley, Lucy Score, and Soucebooks Bloom Books for providing this e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was such a great read. I read a lot of Lucy Score in 2022. She easily became one of my go to authors. I loved this book because I would literally laugh out loud at parts. I loved the sense of community that was formed within this book and the characters. I wasn’t sure how I would feel about the relationship in the story, of an older guy going for a younger girl. Once I was reading, I would forget about it until it was mentioned.

This review will be posted to my Goodreads and Amazon accounts immediately and also to my instagram account (@ginganinja333), and to my newly created bookstagram (@paulas.book.nook).

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Lucy Score was a new author to me this year with Maggie Moves On and loved that one so much I quickly resolved to work through her backlist.

Lucy’s stories are so funny, she’s truly a master of witty banter. I laughed so much during this one - both main characters had oodles of humor laced with sarcasm. The story was well paced, I just felt it was a bit too long. There are some heavy topics balancing out the humorous parts of the story and I thought the author used a deft hand in handling those. And wow there was some steamy parts this office romance/enemies to lovers/forced proximity story! My only complaint is that Dom routinely acted 15-20 years his junior. But that epilogue…..swoon swoon, made me forget all of that.

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By a Thread by Lucy Score was an accidental reread for me. I saw the cover on Netgalley and I thought it looked familiar, but requested it any way. I should have trusted my instincts, but it has been awhile so I went with it.

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 demure about Ally Morales. She proves that her first day of her new job, which just happens to be in my office. And I can't fire her, because it's my mother the CEO who hired her...technically, Ally doesn't work for me, and she makes it clear she doesn't have to listen to me either. 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 working here, 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.

By a Thread has a lot going for it. I like the humor and the heat. The exchanges between Dominic and Ally are great, and the sense of community she forms with those around her was fantastic. I love some good enemies to lover banter- and found family- so all of that works great for me. I thought the handling for Ally's situation and her father's health was done well and realistically. I thought the secondary characters and non-romance of the story were just as engaging and entertaining as the heart of the story. I have to be honest though, I really do not like Dominic, at all. He is painted as the alpha hole with the heart of gold, but even in the epilogues continues to do the one thing Ally asked him not to- make big decisions for her or with no conversations about it. He never learns to respect that one boundary- but because she is just so in love with him and can't think around him she just keeps letting it happen. That kind of takes the shine off the story for me, because there was the opportunity for him to change that trait- and it never happened.

By a Thread definitely has some entertainment value and serious heat.

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I typically really enjoy Lucy Score and this one was just okay for me. There were times I laughed out loud at the ridiculousness that was Ally and Dominic's relationship. The age old story of a man in his mid 40's that only goes after young women. The relationship they develop is both maddening and satisfying depending on what part of the book you are reading! I would recommend it to my customers, but it wouldn't be my first choice of a Score book.

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I had so much fun reading By a Thread. It was a great balance of humor and heart and I found that I just could not get enough of Ally and Dominic. He was the grumpiest grump who grumped, or at least he appeared to be -what with his impressive and constant scowls, lack of gratitude (ie entitlement), and his general gruff demeanor -but he met his match with Ally. Ally, my queen. She took crap from no one, had the hugest heart, and a stubborn streak a mile long. I loved how independent she was, while also shaking my head at how that stubborn independence never seemed to be her friend.



Through some parental scheming, Ally ends up working at Dominic's company and is a thorn in his side from day one. They constantly antagonize each other, while lusting after each other, and even though they put up a respectable effort, they could not seem to stay away from each other. Their relationship wasn't the easiest but it sure was fun to read--to see Dominic soften and show his kinder side and to see Ally relinquish some of the tightfisted control she had on everything was actually a relief. You couldn't help but root for them to get to the end without any heartache; unfortunately that's not really how this genre works and so there was heartache to be had but that make the forgiveness and making up that much sweeter...and that epilogue? So very sweet.



By a Thread was the novel I didn't even know I needed when I picked it up and now I can't stop thinking about how enjoyable it was and am so looking forward to reading more Lucy Score.

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This was another good book from Lucy Score! I loved the banter between Dom and Ally and I wish Faith and Christian had their own book!

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Ally and Dominic are quite immature for their age (39 & 44) and perfectly embody the enemies-to-lovers trope. I can see why some might not like their characters, but I was in the mood for how petty they were with each other. I like a boss/employee workplace romance, and Dom and Ally had great chemistry. The build-up to the moment they gave in to each other was 100% worth it. It also made a lot of sense to me for Dom to be as hesitant as he was to persue things.

I loved how it was depicted that there's times when we are all just hanging on by a thread and that's just how life is sometimes.

The 3rd act conflict was satisfying and I though its resolution was as well!

Only negative note: it's not a short book, you have to be in the mood for something of its lenght.

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By A Thread by Lucy Score
La’s Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice Level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️

Thank you to Netgalley and Sourcebook Bloom Books for the digital copy. My thoughts are my own.

Highlights:
enemies to lovers
Grump + sunshine
workplace romance
dual pov
spicy

Favourite quote: “You want someone you can trust with your nightmares. Not just your dreams.”

About the book:
Ally is working 4 jobs to try and not sink more into the amount of debt she is already in - all while she is trying to renovate her father’s house to put it up for sale. When Dominic Russo walks into the pizza joint she is working at to have dinner with his Mom, Ally never thinks he is going to be the one to change her life. After taking out his bad day on Ally, he manages to get her fired. Little does he know, his Mom is going to follow Ally and offer her a job at their fashion magazine. Dominic is obsessed with getting her to quit as she is the only person in his life that tells him how it is. Unfortunately neither Ally or Dominic realize how fast and how hard they are going to fall for each other.

I LOVED this book. I have seen Lucy’s other book - Things We Never Got Over - all over social media. I have been wanting to read one of her books for a while now and I am so glad I got the chance. This one was a winner! Ally is such a strong willed character who literally puts everyone and everything before herself over and over. She has been to hell and back but still does everything for others. Dominic is living a life he doesn’t want to live by having to work over at his family’s fashion magazine after his father’s sexual harassment scandal. He is handsome but also miserable and everyone knows it. Ally is finally the first person who puts him in his place and gives him a piece of his own medicine. I loved the writing and the dual POV of this story. It was way spicier than I thought it was going to be but no complaints there. LOL

This book was released in 2020 but if you haven’t read it - add it to your TBR today! I had a constant smile on my face as I read it.

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By a Thread by Lucy Score. This book took me awhile to get into but once I did I really started to like the storyline and dialogue. I look forward to reading more by this author.

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