By a Thread
A fired heroine, a grumpy boss, and workplace tension that gets personal
By Ember · Updated May 17, 2026
By a Thread gives readers Lucy Score's favorite cocktail: a heroine with too much on her shoulders, a powerful grump who makes her life harder before making it better, and banter sharp enough to hide real tenderness. The workplace setup adds pressure because attraction and authority are tangled from the beginning.
The fantasy is not just the boss. It is being seen when life has made you feel disposable. Ally is scrappy, proud, and exhausted. Dominic is controlled, privileged, and far more affected by her than he wants to be. The romance works when irritation becomes attention, attention becomes care, and care becomes something neither can keep professional.
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Quick answer
By a Thread by Lucy Score is a contemporary workplace romance about a fired heroine, a grumpy boss, class tension, forced proximity, and banter that turns into care. Similar reads usually feature boss-employee tension, grumpy heroes, resilient heroines, and workplace chemistry.
A fired heroine, a grumpy boss, and workplace tension that gets personal
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What you're really looking for when you search for books like By a Thread
You want workplace romance with bite: boss-employee tension, power imbalance, class difference, forced proximity, and the satisfaction of a grumpy hero slowly losing the argument with his own feelings.
You are also looking for contemporary romance where the heroine is not breezing through life. The emotional payoff comes from watching someone who has been surviving finally receive help, respect, and desire without being flattened by it.
The reader take
Score makes the power dynamic work by giving Ally bite and Dominic consequences. If you want workplace romance where banter is armor and care sneaks in sideways, this is the zone.
Personalized romance
Want a book like this, but written around you?
If By a Thread is the kind of story you keep looking for, Ember can turn that taste into a personalized romance novel built around your preferred tension, setting, heat level, and emotional payoff.
Ember carries over
- the tropes and emotional payoff you already know you want
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Book recommendations
Things We Never Got Over
by Lucy Score
Small-town chaos, a protective grump, and a heroine trying to rebuild a life she did not plan.
The Hating Game
by Sally Thorne
Office enemies-to-lovers with sharp banter, forced proximity, and attraction hiding under professional irritation.
The Spanish Love Deception
by Elena Armas
A grumpy coworker, fake dating, and extended slow-burn yearning with one person far more invested than they admit.
Part of Your World
by Abby Jimenez
A softer but emotionally adjacent romance about class difference, care, and choosing a life that feels honest.
Common questions
What tropes are in By a Thread?
By a Thread includes workplace romance, boss-employee tension, grumpy-sunshine energy, class difference, forced proximity, and banter-heavy contemporary romance.
What should I read after By a Thread?
Try Things We Never Got Over for more Lucy Score grumpy-protector energy, The Hating Game for office rivalry, or The Spanish Love Deception for workplace slow burn.
Common in these genres
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Ember can write the workplace spark around you: the boss you should not want, the job pressure, the class tension, the banter, and the moment someone powerful uses that power to protect instead of control.
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