When I told my husband what the topic of this week’s rec list was, he was like, “shouldn’t we be discouraging that type of relationship?” Well, yes, if romance books were the real world. There’s generally an inherent sense of “wrongness” to boss/employee romances, which is one of the staples of the trope. The characters KNOW it’s a terrible idea that is likely to end badly, and that adds a level of tension. Romance authors often build in a workaround so that the situation isn’t so cut and dry – maybe the heroine actually reports to someone else, maybe it’s just a temporary situation, maybe they don’t cross the line until something shifts. But the forbidden element is certainly all part of the story.
What I love about grumpy boss rom coms is the long-term forced proximity; these characters see each other every day, and they have no choice but to deal with the situation. Sometimes the tension between them crackles from the minute they meet, sometimes it snaps after years of buildup. The journey is always interesting though, and a grumpy boss tends to fall in love while kicking and screaming. Metaphorically, of course – it’s probably more like smirking and growling, in actuality. Either way, the ride is always a lot of fun, and the perfect environment for tons of sexual tension. Add in the com part of these roms, and grumpy boss romances have all the makings of a great read… which is probably why we’re all so willing to overlook the real world impracticalities.
Every book on this list has its own unique vibe and scenario. From super spicy to closed door, there’s a little something for everyone on this list. They’re all contemporary romance novels that were 4 or 5-star reads for me. I’ve included the blurbs, links to my reviews, and links to Amazon for easy addition to your collection. Happy reading!
By a Thread by Lucy Score
Dominic was staring at me like he couldn’t decide whether to chop me into pieces or pull my hair and French kiss me.
Dominic
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 innocent about Ally Morales. She proves that her first day of her new job… in my office… after being hired by my mother.
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, 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.
Ally
Ha. Hold my beer, Grumpy Grump Face.
Author’s Note: A steamy, swoony workplace romantic comedy with a grumpy boss hero determined to save the day and a plucky heroine who is starting to wonder if there might actually be a beating heart just beneath her boss’s sexy vests.
Read the audiobook review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3NoUWRA
Things I Overshared by Kelsey Humphreys
If you’ve ever been told you’re too much…
Samantha Canton feels your pain. She knows she is, well, a lot. It’s been a rough year, to put it mildly, so she is overjoyed to find out she gets to go on her dream work trip to Europe. But she’s not going alone. She’ll be crossing the pond with the company’s CFO, Emerson Clark.
Icy Emerson, as the industry calls him, is logical, serious and quiet. He likes solitude, the color gray, rain and hot tea – he is British, after all.
And he cannot stand Samantha in all her extra, southern, chatty, upbeat, neon-dress-wearing glory.
No problem, she’s never met someone she couldn’t befriend.
Until Now.
Commence nervous verbal diarrhea.
And commence the ultimate Grumpy/Sunshine, Billionaire, Enemies to Lovers, Slow Burn Boss Romance with rich characters and a payoff that will leave you absolutely giddy.
**This is a steamy, full-length standalone adult contemporary romance. Prepare for Manhattan, London, Paris, surprise twists, laugh-out-loud banter, a happily ever after, and a sisters group text thread you’ll wish you could join. This is the second Heartlanders book but can be read on its own.**
Read the review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3kWzISD
Boss in the Bedsheets by Kate Canterbary
Mr. Santillian,
Despite the fact I’m currently living out of your guest room and sleeping with you most nights, I am writing to announce my resignation effective two weeks from today.
In other words, I’ll locate someone who is both obscenely overqualified and willing to devote their days to the handful of tasks you are able to wrench from your perfectionist, micromanaging grip. It may be difficult to find a Nobel laureate genius looking for basic filing work on such short notice, but I’ll do my best.
Don’t worry about your sister’s wedding this weekend. I still plan to attend as your date, assuming you’ve finished hating me by then.
Thank you in advance for your understanding.
Zelda
Ms. Besh,
Resignation not accepted.
I’ll see you at home.
Ash
Read the review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3f02WZO
The Sixty/Forty Rule by Ellie K. Wilde
six-ty for-ty rule (noun): a deal you make with your pain-in-the-butt client, when hating him starts to feel a little too good.
Jude Holland has slogged it for years at a chance to land a coveted job designing the city’s most breathtaking restaurants and nightclubs. And when a spot opens up on her firm’s design team, her boss makes her a deal: design Theo Jordan—the firm’s biggest client—a new restaurant, convince him to renew his contract with the company, and the job is hers.
If only he’d play along.
Theo is infamous for three very specific things: he’s a hot-shot young chef-turned-restaurateur, a thorn-in-your-side client, and the kind of attractive that makes you wonder which kind of psychedelics the great maker was taking, when he created him. Not that Jude notices. She’s too busy sticking to the plan, and it helps that he’s a total ass, anyway.
That is, until a steamy business trip leads to a very different deal between these enemies, who suddenly can’t seem to keep their hands off each other. Sixty percent of the time, they’d indulge those funny, fluttering feelings that seem to manifest whenever they’re together. The rest of the time? They’d be nothing but professional.
It doesn’t take Theo long to realize that’s easier said than done. But with a restaurant launch and a dream promotion on the line—not to mention a workplace rival hell-bent on ruining her career—Theo only has a handful of weeks to convince Jude to make that sixty percent full-time.
The Sixty/Forty Rule is a slow-burn, enemies-to-lovers workplace romance between a sunshine commercial designer and her grumpy client. It has a healthy dose of spice and a happily ever after. It is the first book in the Sunset Landing series of standalone reads.
Read the review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3HqyBU1
Boss Man Bridegroom by Meghan Quinn
“Will you do me the greatest honor of all time and be my bridegroom?” she asks, hope in her eyes . . .
How did I get here? My assistant, bent on one knee, holding my hand, her expectant face waiting for an answer.
Just . . . how?
How did I go from being insulted by Charlee Cox to hiring her to be my assistant? How is it that she’s chaos in color – making me crazy and my life better at the same time?
I never thought I would be staring down at her bright blue eyes begging me to go along with this ridiculous scheme I suggested.
Yes, I suggested. Like the idiot I am, I thought hey, why not start an HR nightmare and have my assistant ask me to marry her?
Confused? Don’t worry, so am I.
But try to follow along, because this is how I became Boss Man Bridegroom.
Read the review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3R9Thme
Faking Ms. Right by Claire Kingsley
“When I kissed you last night, I wasn’t pretending.”
Everly Dalton is a walking, talking, martini-drinking dating disaster. Forget kissing frogs. She can’t even get past the first date. But at work, she’s a badass—the longest-running assistant billionaire Shepherd Calloway has ever had. Her coworkers wonder how she handles the big bad wolf—and never gets bit.
Shepherd Calloway isn’t interested in being anyone’s sugar daddy. Tired of women who only want him for his money, he swears off dating, determined to focus on running his empire. Until his gold-digging ex hits him where it hurts, putting him in a difficult position.
His solution—to have Everly pose as his live-in girlfriend—is obviously crazy. But the timing is uncanny. It just so happens Everly needs a favor from her boss—a big and awkward one—and this could ensure everyone gets what they want.
Besides, Everly can totally survive a few months of faux romance.
Except there’s a problem. Shepherd is supposed to be a single-minded, unemotional robot boss. Not an actual human with a heart and morning wood. Between the awkward bed-sharing and tingly fake dates, lines are blurring. And as Everly gets to know the real Shepherd, she discovers there’s more to the man behind the bank account.
And faking it gets all too real.
Faking Ms. Right is a hot, STAND-ALONE romantic comedy.
Read the audiobook review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3xnZxyG
Honestly, I’m Totally Faking It by Amanda Gambill
Rach is a down-on-her-luck, happy-go-lucky kind of lady … Sure, she may be an assistant to personal assistants, crashing on her ex-boyfriend’s couch, and have a whole secret past, but mostly, things are great.
Until she:
- Meets Pres — an aspiring politician, certified Capricorn, and a definitely “unlikable” dude (He knows, he had a poll done on it), and
- Accidentally goes viral at the same time. (The internet is calling it “Boobgate.”)
His PR person says they should capitalize on the fame. Pres only wants to win an election. And Rach, well, she really just wants to keep her job.
Now she must decide if she can be herself and get the guy, too, or if faking it until you make it is all it’s cracked up to be…
Read the review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3A1EmDu
The Billionaire’s Wake-up Call Girl by Annika Martin
When my manager assigns me the task of finding a new wake-up-call service for our CEO, I think, how hard can this be?
Answer: practically impossible. It turns out that no wake-up call company in the world will take him on as a client. They’ve all had enough of his surly personality.
So in an effort not to lose my job, I secretly start making the calls myself, every day at 4:30 am sharp. OMG yes you read that right—four freaking thirty in the morning.
Confession: I’m not the nicest wake-up-call girl at that hour. Hello! Who wakes up before the roosters are even crowing? Luckily he doesn’t seem to mind my get-your-ass-out-of-bed attitude.
Day by day we’re becoming closer, and the calls start turning hot, like pay-by-the-minute hot and oh-so-wild. Snuggled under the covers with the moonlight streaming in the windows, we divulge our secrets to each other, but the one thing that he can never find out is that the sexy vixen who wakes him up every morning is just the lowly assistant who wears frumpy dresses. I can only imagine his disappointment.
Now he wants to take me out on a date and he’s scouring Manhattan to find me.
He’s an overachieving billionaire bent on a mission. How much longer can I keep up this charade?
Read the audiobook review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3HHVMGN
A Deal with the Devil by Elizabeth O’Roark
He might not be the devil, but working under him for six weeks is my idea of hell.
Hayes Flynn is an arrogant jerk known best for his scotch habit and the way he spreads his British “charm” all over Hollywood, never with the same woman twice. He’s the last person I want to work for, except he has a face I can’t look away from, and the longer we’re together, the harder he is to hate. Because under that smug exterior is a heart he doesn’t want to show—one that was badly broken a decade earlier.
A part of me wants to fix it for him before I leave…but can I do it without breaking my own in the process?
Read the review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3oQwXSB
A Very Bossy Christmas by Kayley Loring
What’s the actual last thing you’d ever want your executive assistant to see you doing the morning after you had hot, drunk, angry sex with her in a terrible hotel room? Dancing around your terrible hotel room to “Come and Get Your Love” like Star-Lord in 𝐺𝑢𝑎𝑟𝑑𝑖𝑎𝑛𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐺𝑎𝑙𝑎𝑥𝑦—naked? Yeah. Me too.
And yet, here we are.
This isn’t even the most unprofessional thing that’s happened between us in the past couple of weeks.
The first was when I agreed to let her have Christmas Day off, but only if she goes with me to three family gatherings as my fake girlfriend.
The second was when she caught me belting out a Christmas song on stage in the awful hotel bar.
The third was the hot, drunk, angry sex that followed, but I do not regret it.
And she hasn’t even found out the real reason I need her by my side this holiday season.
I need to pull it together before I do the dumbest, most unprofessional thing of all—fall head over heels in love with the only assistant who’s lasted more than a month at the job and claims to hate me and my moods more than she hates eggnog.
𝐴𝑛𝑑 𝐼’𝑣𝑒 𝑠𝑒𝑒𝑛 ℎ𝑜𝑤 𝑚𝑢𝑐ℎ 𝑠ℎ𝑒 ℎ𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑠 𝑒𝑔𝑔𝑛𝑜𝑔.
Read the review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3TB3Rm8
Say Yes to the Boss by Olivia Hayle
My billionaire boss is the absolute last person I’d marry.
Until a deal with the devil forces me down the aisle… ready to say yes to the boss.
I once compared Victor St. Clair to Satan, but that’s unkind.
Even the devil treats his demons better than St. Clair treats me.
I know his schedule by heart. He can’t remember my first name.
So when he calls me into his office, I’m expecting another rant.
Instead he says he needs to get married to inherit the St. Clair fortune.
Oh, and the kicker? He wants to marry me. His assistant.
A one-year marriage of convenience to the boss I hate.
It means living with Victor’s dark stares and silences for a full year.
But it’s also a chance to quit my job and start my own business.
He’s a jerk, but he’s also a respected businessman. How hard can it be?
Answer: very. Because there’s more to Victor than I thought.
Things beyond learning his lunch orders and sending company memos.
And while the man is cold, his kisses are hot enough to consume us both.
He drove me crazy at work. Now he drives me crazy in bed.
But craziest of all is… I might get used to being Mrs. St. Clair.
Read the audiobook review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3tib5Bu
How to Kiss Your Grumpy Boss by Jenny Proctor
Perry Hawthorne is my boss. Only my boss. And I do NOT have a crush.
When one of THE Hawthorne brothers—known by their chiseled jawlines and their family-run farm and event center—hires me to be his virtual assistant, I do everything I can to keep him firmly in the work zone.
His grumpy demeanor helps.
His smoking hot profile picture does not.
But even if I do have a crush (a very tiny one), I can’t catch real feelings for a million different reasons.
Besides the whole business part of our relationship, I’m a single mom. I have to think about what’s best for my son, Jack. And my grumpy, divorced, humorless boss isn’t exactly giving me “ready to be a stepdad” vibes.
When Perry upgrades me from virtual to in-person assistant, I wonder if I’ve gotten him all wrong. He’s actually pretty great with Jack. And with me? Let’s just say the chemistry crackling between us might vaporize all my reasons for keeping my distance.
Trouble is, after his messy divorce, I’m not sure Perry’s ready to bet on a new relationship. But it isn’t just my heart that’s on the line. It’s Jack’s, too. And after everything we went through before my husband died, I’m not sure that’s a gamble I’m ready to take, no matter how desperate Jack is for a daddy.
How to Kiss Your Best Friend is a sweet romantic comedy with all the sizzling kisses you want in a closed-door romance but no explicit scenes.
Read the review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3CT6Pf9
So That Happened by Katie Bailey
I spent the night with a hot, grumpy stranger in an airport hotel.
No, not like that. Get your mind out of the gutter. It was just sleeping. And… maybe a little cuddling.
Long story short, I embarrassed the heck out of myself. But at least I never have to see him again.
Except the universe is clearly out to get me, because Monday morning, I arrive at my new job and who’s the first person I see?
Hot stranger himself: Liam Donovan.
AKA my new boss.
AKA Annie, you are so freaking screwed.
While the HR rulebook doesn’t explicitly say you can’t share a bed with your boss, I can read between the lines. And I need this job.
Which is why I have to pretend that night never happened. Luckily for me, sexy as Liam—excuse me, Mr. Donovan—is, he’s surly, rude and totally not my type.
Or so I keep telling myself.
Because I’m starting to think there’s a warm, gooey cinnamon roll with extra frosting lurking beneath that impressive, muscular form.
I promised I’d never choose between my career and love.
But when a scandal threatens to break, that promise could prove impossible to keep…
So That Happened is a laugh-out-loud funny, swoony, closed door romantic comedy. Expect some mild language and suggestive jokes coupled with tons of chemistry and tension, but no explicit scenes.
Read the review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3NHNBwt
Revved to the Maxx by Melanie Moreland
Maxx Reynolds needs help.
His shop, house, and life are all in a state of disarray.
In desperation, he turns to the internet to hire a new employee,
thinking it will make his life easier
What he expects is a fellow named Charly.
What he gets is a quirky, sassy, red-head named
Charlynn who runs circles around him.
And she’s all woman.
He can’t stand her.
He can’t keep his hands off her either.
Read the review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3jHuTqk
XOXO by Deborah Bladon
This is how the worst Friday of my life started…
Subject: The Dick
Hey Sinclair,
Mr. Calvetti is as ornery as ever today.
He scolded me for taking a message from a woman who asked me to pass along this to him – “your lips are the purest form of pleasure this side of the Mississippi!”
She may not be a poet, but she is obviously head over heels for him, so I thought I’d play cupid and give him the message.
Dominick (The Dick) Calvetti told me once again to ignore all messages women leave for him.
He’s a cruel bastard with a gorgeous face and rock hard abs. I imagine he has those. He’s 6’3″ and works out every morning. He has to be built under those suits, right? I know that the nickname I gave him is based on his attitude, but I sometimes wonder if it “fits” in other ways if you know what I mean. Even if it does, I still loathe him. He’s the worst boss on both sides of the Mississippi.
I attached a picture of the lingerie I bought for my date tonight. I snapped a selfie in the mirror this morning since you were still asleep.
Let me know what you think, roomie.
Arietta xoxo
P.S. Tomorrow we’re getting you a new phone. I miss texting. Emailing is for old people like The Dick.
Subject: Re: The Dick
Miss Voss,
Thank you for your email.
I hardly think 34 is considered old, and for the record, I’m 6’4″.
Details matter. Sending an email to the intended recipient matters more, especially when you include a sensitive image exposing so much of your body.
Also, cancel your date, as you will now be working late tonight.
And report to my office. Immediately.
Signed,
THE DICK
“XOXO”
Read the review here
Amazon: https://amzn.to/2Qf54EC
Want more romance recommendations? Check out some of my other lists!
15 Great Women’s Fiction / Romance Crossover Books
15 Sexy Roommate Romance Novels
15 Marvelous Marriage of Convenience Romance Books
15 Sexy Fake Relationship Romance Books
15 Playboy/Manwhore Tamed Romance Novels
15 Fantastic Forced Proximity Romance Novels
15 Sweet Cinnamon Roll Heroes in Romance Novels
15 Sexy Office Rival Romance Books
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