Yeah, yeah, yeah–I am aware that there are, for many, problematic consent issues around workplace romances. And yet….
I do sort of love a boss/employee, coworkers in love, romance. Rachel and Ryan in A Match Made in Scandal, Connor and Allison in Bench Player, and Lucy and Joshua in The Hating Game all totally float my boat. It’s not just that I’m a bit of a rule breaker. It’s also that all that smart proximity works for me.
How about for you? Do you have a favorite workplace romance? Share it and, if we have a review, we’ll add the tag!
Off the top of my head… Lily Morton’s Rule Breaker is terrific, and still my favourite of all her books. KJ Charles’ A Gentleman’s Position is a romance between a lord and his valet – the power imbalance issues are well addressed. I liked Ava Wilder’s recent Will They or Won’t They, if that counts? It’s a romance between two actors in a popular TV show. Most of Lucy Parker’s London Celebrities books feature couples who work together in some capacity or other – Pretty Face is a romance between a lead actress and her director, and the couples in Act Like It and Headliners are also work colleagues. Annabeth Albert’s Burn Zone is a romance between two smoke jumpers, and many of her Out of Uniform books feature relationships between colleagues. I think Wheels Up is the only one where there’s a superior/subordinate situation though. There are loads of romantic suspense books with partners as the leads – Valor and Doyle, Hazard and Somerset, North and Shaw from the Borealis Investigations series, Vic and Jacob in the Psycop series are ones that spring immediately to mind. I debated adding Larkin and Doyle from C.S Poe’s Momento Mori books – they’re not technically work partners but they do work together on cases.
In most of these cases though they’re not boss and assistant, so the power differential isn’t really a factor.
Lucy Parker’s books are certainly what come to mind for me.
Rule Breaker is hard to beat! I thought of that one and a couple more by Morton: Oz and Best Man, plus Gideon, which is a nurse/patient relationship (they don’t hook up until after they are no longer professionally connected). Those three don’t measure up to Rule Breaker, but they were entertaining. Oz was the best of the three. I guess I should add The Sunny Side, also! Agency owner and one of the models.
I also immediately thought of several of the Lucy Parker books, although I haven’t read/listened to Headliners yet.
I also thought of Total Creative Control, and to a lesser extent, Home Grown Talent by Joanna Chambers, which I really enjoyed.
Rule Breaker is hard to beat but I think Lily Morton does it with another book in the same series: Deal Maker. Jude’s replies to Asa’s fan mail had me laughing out loud throughout the book. I love this book.
I’d forgotten that he replied to the mail!! I need a relisten.
Not workplace romance, but I love the little notes between Ivo and henry at the beginning of each chapter in Risk Taker, too. While Rule Breaker is the best, I really like all the Mixed Messages books.
If done well, I usually enjoy this trope. I find that all of Julie James’ novels are about intelligent women who have thriving careers. Two of her books, Practice Makes Perfect and The Thing About Love, are about workplace romances. She writes humorous stories with snappy dialogue and realistic romantic roadblocks. Since she was an employment attorney before becoming an author, I think she successfully avoids any undercurrents of sexual harassment and lack of consent.
Another contemporary author that writes great workplace romances is Lauren Layne. Her Stiletto & Oxford series is set at a magazine publisher where the Stiletto staff writes for women and the Oxford staff for men. While the setting of both series is in the same workplace, only five of the books have an actual romance between the co-workers. The other four find romance outside the workplace. This particular workplace trope can be found in Love the One You’re With, The Trouble with Love, Irresistibly Yours, Someone Like You and I Knew You Were Trouble. The entire series has humor, pathos and interesting characters. With a backlist of nine books in these two interconnected series, anyone who hasn’t read Lauren Layne will have plenty of books to choose from.
Finally, while I enjoy the workplace romances of Susan Elizabeth Phillips and Rachel Gibson (football and hockey series respectively), I know it’s fiction. In real life, the plotlines in some of these books would be a giant sexual harassment lawsuit waiting to happen. If you enjoy humor and good writing, they’re still worth reading, however.
If you like Practice Makes Perfect, I highly recommended Deal with the Devil by Elizabeth O’Roark. It’s essentially Practice without the problematic late reveal in that book. This has been my standard recommendation for the past year and I think it is well worth the Kindle Unlimited borrow.
I miss Julie James!
I do love many books in both the Chinooks and the Stars series.
I really enjoyed Julie James’ books. She makes it believable that her characters actually work at their jobs. I’ve read too many books where the “important career” is just an accessory.
Probably my all-time-favorite work romance is Sarah Mayberry’s HER FAVORITE RIVAL (which I always refer to as “the book THE HATING GAME could have been if it had had emotionally mature MCs or if Sally Thorne wrote as if she had ever been in a standard workplace”): two coworkers vying for the same promotion. There’s a lot more to it than that, but that’s the basic premise. So, so good—and currently available through Kindle Unlimited if anyone is interested.
Although they tend to be a staple of dark romance. I agree that power imbalances make boss-employee romances difficult. However, I thought Julie Kriss did a good job of addressing that dynamic in FILTHY RICH, about an executive assistant and her boss. Also currently available on KU.
“Sarah Mayberry’s HER FAVORITE RIVAL” that is a good one.
I so love earlier Sarah Mayberry. She is just the best.
Oohh DDD – you and I seem to be on the same page re: The Hating Game. So many raves for that I kept trying. I’ve DNF’d it – I kid you not – at least 3 times. But I’ve not read the Mayberry. Going to check it out now!
I know THE HATING GAME is beloved by many readers, but I found it utterly juvenile. The MCs reminded me of junior high school kids doing some sort of “let’s pretend we’re adults with corporate jobs” cosplay, and the whole time I was reading it, I kept wondering if Sally Thorne had ever been in an office, let alone worked in one. But as the old saying goes, no two people ever read the same book.
Yep. The fact that these people were working while in fear of losing their job to the other supports your contention that Thorne likely has never worked in an office. Having lived through company downsizings and being worried about losing my job, I just couldn’t get past the idea that these two would feel attraction of any kind to the other at all . . .
There seem to be a lot of unrealistic workplaces. One of the books I admired because I thought the workplace sounded real is decades old now — A Very Special Favor, by Kristin James, from Silhouette Intimate Moments in March 1986. It is set in a law firm in the South, and although the plot is far-fetched and also ethically challenged, I found the portrayal of the firm and the interactions of the lawyers much more plausible than usual. But then, Kristen James is actually Candace Camp, who trained as a lawyer (and also wrote as Lisa Gregory). The book is one of several featuring the Marshall family. The book is very dated now, but I do not think I have encountered a law firm that felt as realistic since then.
Caroline R wrote a great review of the Mayberry here at AAR, and there are a number of AAR readers who commented on how much they liked this book (and it’s companion about the sister). Off to click . . .
Ok, just finished Her Favorite Rival and I have to say it is everything DDD and Caroline R said it was. An excellent workplace romance that reads as absolutely plausible. Thanks to everyone who recommended it.
Two I remember enjoying:
Midnight Assignments by Victoria Dahl
Attachments by Rainbow Rowell
Rock Hard by Nalini Singh
London Celebrities series by Lucy Parker
Role Model (Game Changers, #5) by Rachel Reid … probably all the Game Changers books actually
Earth Bound (Fly Me To the Moon #2) by Emma Barry & Genevieve Turner
The Agency series by Ada Maria Soto
Wicked Sexy (Wicked Games, #2) by J.T. Geissinger
I’ll add the following books to those already mentioned:
Managed by Kristen Callihan, which is probably my very favourite m/f contemporary romance
Quite a few by NR Walker, but especially Dearest Milton James and the Thomas Elkins trilogy
I love that Callihan best, too!!! Good one!
EEEEEEEMM!!! *TACKLE HUG*!!!! 🙂
Oh hello there!!!
You are permanently loved here!
I generally dislike this trope but the Thomas Elkins series is SO GOOD! The issues around being in the same workplace are dealt with so well.
Oh my gosh, yes!! How did I forget that series. I’ve listened to it at least three times in the past three years. That’s a great example.
Some of the first contemporary reviews I relied on to inform my reading came from Dabney! And most memorable was the 49th Floor series from Jenny Holiday. I think the first 2 books featured this trope & I very much enjoyed both.
A few of Bec McMaster’s London Steampunk involve couples that work together.
Although I think Beautiful Bastard, by Christina Lauren, IS the book that comes to mind when you think about the problematic elements of this trope, it also massively launched this author pair. It’s the weakest in the series IMO; I liked the other workplace romance in the series better, Beautiful Secret. Still have big love for that series! Got me hooked on this writing duo.
My favorite workplace romance series comes from Garrett Leigh. She has Quite A Few in lots of different work environments but the Strays series is S U P E R. Love the characters, the world building, and the variety in love stories. So good.
Happy to see you posting here again, Em! A few weeks back, one of the blog posts was about reviewers, and I said how I used to enjoy reading your reviews. (I’ll always be grateful for THROWN OFF THE ICE—it’s a keeper-shelf comfort-read favorite for me, and I never would have looked at it without your review.)
Always good to see your smiling avatar, Em! Hope you’re doing well!
I love Garrett Leigh’s Angels in the City, which has a sort-of co-worker plot going on. Christmas Mountain and House of Cards are both stories of former work colleagues,, and I enjoyed both. I haven’t tried her Urban Soul series, although I have Misfit on my To-read-maybe shelf. Might be time to bump it up.
My favorite Leigh series is still Urban Soul. I spent many college years in restaurants working front and back of house & I think she nails this world.
Hi ladies! Happy to see you both here, too. Last year was my first year teaching elementary Art. I taught PE for 10 years and then decided to go after my dream job. Teaching, in general, is exhausting. Hard for many many reasons. But starting in a new specialty + getting certified + other was…A lot. I don’t know that I’ll ever get back to reviewing but I am finally getting back into reading and I’ve started making regular visits here. Thank you for remembering me!!!
Add me to the list of folks here at AAR who are excited to have you back Em, even if only posting comments. And congrats/best wishes for all your new ventures.
I have a friend who started got her degree started teaching art after her kids were mostly grown. It really is hard work! Good for you for going after your dream.
“Jane Eyre” can be read as the gothic version of a workplace romance. I highly recommend “Jane and Edward” by Melodie Edwards, great re-telling set in a swanky Toronto law firm. Jane is a former foster child who has moved from waitressing into her first job as a legal secretary. She meets her senior partner boss for the first time when he is lambasting the expensive coffeemaker for beeping at him, and he insists on calling her “Folgers” during her first few weeks on the job. If you know the Bronte version well, you’ll love the way Edwards echoes dialogue and plot points in the original and the way the story unfolds.
I am definitely adding this to my TBR!
I agree with other readers’ recommendations of Lucy Parker’s London Celebrity series.
I also enjoy Suzie Tate’s romances. Their angst, colloquial language and workplace settings are not to my usual taste, but their vibrancy, depth of characterisation and charming romances sweep me up in the stories.
For readers who want to read about werewolves who are lawyers, there’s C.M. Nascosta’s Run Run Rabbit, in which the ethics issues are raised and resolved. The book is from the female heroine’s POV. Nascosta suggests she may be writing a parallel work from the male POV, as she did with Morning Glory Milking Farm and the just-released Blue Ribbon.
Ooh, I did not know Nascosta had a new book out—even if it is a retelling of an earlier book—I’ll be grabbing it from KU this morning. I hope Nascosta gets back to the Girls Weekend books one of these days—that last one ended on quite the cliffhanger!
The second, parallel book is very good, in my opinion. It is a very different perspective with some issues that never surfaced in the first book, adding real depth to the male characters. In addition, I read the Minoan Bride right before I read the second book. It isn’t necessary, but I think it was helpful, although the short length and the endings lacked the more complete resolution I would have preferred.
I am with you on the third Girls Weekend book. I kind of feel that if you’re going to leave the readers hanging, you need to push your publishing schedule up a bit. If Nascosta has hinted about when that book will be out, I missed the news.
A lot of great picks here; The Hating Game used to be up there for me, but IDK if it’s held up. I’ll reread it some time.
I don’t think anyone has mentioned Kathleen Gilles Seidel’s AGAIN. I loved that book. It takes place on a daytime soap opera set during the Regency. The hero and heroine are actor/show runner so although theoretically employee/boss the power dynamics aren’t as direct or unbalanced as ones like boss/secretary so not as squicky. For me, as a romance reader who has read a lot of books set in the Regency, it had an added dimension which I very much enjoyed. There are parts that are quite dated (there’s only one phone for the staff, definitely not an issue today when everyone has cell phones), but I think the basics of the plot and characterization hold up quite well.