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Barrett debuts with a delightful office romance for the #MeToo era. Wesley Chambers put off his internship at marketing firm Hill City to care for his dying mother. Now finally able to take the opportunity, he finds that his mentor will no longer be CEO and family friend Richard Skyler, but icy powerhouse Corrine Blunt, Hill City’s only female executive. After Corrine overhears what she believes to be Wesley laughing at a coworker calling her a slur, she demotes him to fetching coffee, running errands, and managing the department softball team. But his unwavering kindness and skill soon win her over as a boss—and his impulse to kiss her during a heavy emotional moment leads to a secret relationship. Though Corrine tries to keep Wesley at arm’s length, he helps her through both her mother’s illness and sexual harassment from her own boss, and his persistence through rejection comes off as warmhearted rather than pushy. Barrett expertly captures both the frenzied intensity of sex as distraction and the awkward drop back into reality as Corrine and Wesley face the limitations of their situation, but it’s the personal growth of both protagonists that really set this rom-com apart. This is a winner.[em] Agent: Kiana Nguyen, Donald J. Maass Literary. (Apr.) [/em]