Reviewed by Sarina
TITLE: Conflict Management
AUTHOR: Rachel White
PUBLISHER: Less Than Three Press
LENGTH: 283 pages
RELEASE DATE: March 20, 2017
BLURB:
Morgan works as an administrative assistant at Three Trees, a company that produces recycled paper towels. The only aggravating part of his day is Lawrence, his boss—and a persistent suitor who won’t take Morgan’s hints. But when Morgan finally tells him to back off, Law does so, and life settles back to normal.
Until he winds up helping Law with a family emergency, and learns more about the complicated man behind the office manager. But as their relationship shifts and grows, Morgan discovers something troubling within the company…
REVIEW:
I found this story to be a bit of a mixed bag, if that makes sense. While I was drawn in by the blurb, (hot office tension, yay!) I found it extremely difficult to get into the story itself and once I did begin to enjoy it, I was still incapable of truly losing myself in it. This is the story of Law and Morgan, two incredibly awkward men who, after a rough and not very pleasant start, begin to learn about one another through a series of accidental run-ins outside of the office. Morgan would like a relationship in general but doesn’t read cues all that well and doesn’t really do the whole flirting thing, even when he knows he really should. Law, on the other hand, flirts but flirts badly (leading to the aforementioned rough start) and is dealing with not only an important merger at work but also an ex that won’t take a hike and a brother suffering from schizophrenia. Their already tenuous relationship (to use the term loosely) is further complicated by Morgan’s discovery of a scandal within the company and Law’s wavering support on what to do about it.
Workplace tensions aside, these two men don’t appear to have anything to connect them and really, for most of the book that totally appeared to be true. I only really started to get these two together around 60% of the way into the story and, even then, I kind of wanted to bash their heads together a few times before walking away. This book is like the epitome of slow burn. We’re talking glacially slow here people, which I could’ve handled if they’d ever managed to pull themselves together even the slightest bit. The secondary characters were another bit of mixed feelings for me; the ex didn’t do anything for me but I guess you could say he added a little more to Law’s character. I was thrilled to see Morgan had a female roommate but instead of being the awesome female character I was hoping for, I found Anita to be irritating and by the end I just wanted to be done with here completely. Her attitude was grating but other opinions may vary. Law’s brother Christian was the best of the bunch in my opinion; he added a bit of depth to Law’s back story and I enjoyed him in general. While he had an unusual way of getting his point across, he was instrumental in getting both Law and Morgan to simultaneously do the right thing and also go for what was right in front of them.
Like I said, this was kind of a mixed bag for me. The writing was fairly decent but I just didn’t really enjoy the story until it was half over and that’s a total shame. If you adore slow burn romances this would definitely be one to check out but it a lot of dancing around or awkwardness isn’t you thing, I would look elsewhere, honestly.
RATING: 
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