Working It

In this warm office romance, d’Abo (30 Days) hits all the expected notes. Nolan Carmichael is struggling to recover from injuries sustained in a car accident. Zach Anderson is an accidental executive with a profound lack of people skills. When Zach bullies Nolan into becoming his assistant, both are acting on impulse and desperation. With office politics and personal weaknesses to overcome, they soon come to trust and depend on each other. In the end they unite to create a better future that they can share with those in need. D’Abo tightly controls the narrative, using the friction of the office setting to lend heat to the development of the relationship. Treading a comfortably familiar path, d’Abo creates distinctive characters to take on the traditional forbidden romance across class lines. The pleasure is in the anticipation rather than the resolution; each story beat is delivered deliberately, building expertly to a satisfying conclusion. Agent: Courtney Miller-Callihan, Handspun Literary. (Feb.)