With this month’s TBR Challenge theme of ‘Do the Hustle’, I found myself looking for a workplace romance. Love at First Spite, Anna E. Collins’ debut novel, started off in promising fashion. It’s something of a grumpy-sunshine romance, with an over-the-top revenge plot thrown in. While fun in places, some of the miscommunications in the story made it something of a mixed bag for me.

The revenge plot is the heroine’s idea. Dani Porter is an interior designer at a construction firm in Seattle. She moved out west with her boyfriend of several years, and after getting engaged and buying a house together, he cheated on her with their realtor. Suddenly, Dani is far from home and moving in with her cousin.  The one silver lining? Her ex insisted on buying the house in his name only, and he refused to buy the vacant lot next door. So Dani has savings and now she can buy a vacant lot suitable for building a tiny house that will block her ex’s water view.

Dani, her cousin Mia and Dani’s landlady-turned-friend decide to pool their resources to build the tiny house and rent it out as an Airbnb. The fact that vacationers and a blocked water view will drive the evil ex absolutely mad is a nice bonus.

And since every project needs a good architect, in comes Wyatt Montego. Wyatt is a hotshot architect in Dani’s office, but he has a reputation for being aloof and difficult.  Have you seen the internet meme that reads, “I don’t screw up often, but when I do, it’s always in front of the same person at work who thinks I’m the stupidest person alive”? Well, Wyatt appears to be that co-worker who makes everyone feel this way.

The author does a great job of showing Wyatt as aloof and a bit difficult in the early chapters of the book, while also hinting that there is more to him than Dani originally gives credit for. As the story develops, Wyatt turns out to be a truly decent guy who is perhaps just a touch socially awkward.  And as it happens, there are reasons for his limited socializing.

Both of the leads in this book have been going through something difficult that requires them to readjust their expectations for life, and much of the conflict arises from the fact that Wyatt has largely dealt with his issues, but Dani hasn’t – as much as she finds herself attracted to and pulled into a relationship with Wyatt, it’s apparent that she still isn’t over her ex and she hasn’t fully processed the trauma of that breakup. Her devotion to the revenge house is pretty much proof of that.

Speaking of the revenge house, Dani’s obsession with revenge is part of a character arc that ultimately ties up well. However, along the way, her determination to avenge herself against her cheating ex does get tiresome after a while.

On the positive side, I loved seeing Dani’s friendships with her cousin and her landlady blossom. Dani came to Seattle having no one to lean on emotionally except her ex-fiance. It was good to see her building a life and making solid friends.

Likewise, I enjoyed seeing her and Wyatt getting to know one another. They fall into a relationship rather quickly, but I found myself rooting for them anyway. Toward the end of the book, I got frustrated with their inability to communicate clearly with each other, but the author shows this as part of a learning curve for them rather than leaving the reader to believe that their relationship is going to continue being one big misunderstanding after another.

My only other big quibble with the romance in this book is that it is shown overwhelmingly from Dani’s point of view. For that reason, the reader doesn’t get to know Wyatt as well. He seems like a great guy, but I wanted to see more of his inner life. Seeing him through Dani’s eyes shows him going from aloof, intimidatingly smart architect Wyatt to almost-perfect boyfriend Wyatt, and I wanted to see more of him as a person.

While it was an uneven reading experience, I did enjoy Love at First Spite more than I didn’t, so I’d give it a qualified recommendation.