Collateral Damage: A Steamy Office Romance

by Maggie Arnold

Abi moves to America with her job. She’s carrying a broken heart with her, and leaving a cheating fiance, Joe, behind.

A chance meeting with a new colleague, Seb, helps Abi take her mind off things. While he appears kind and easy going. He’s a little awkward at work and Abi sets her mind to helping him be more approachable.

Just as Abi starts to think there might be more to their friendship her ex turns up and everything gets very confusing.

Kindle Edition

Published August 1, 2024

Reviews

[The Bashful Bookworm by Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

ARC Collateral Damage by Maggie Arnold
Available November 10, will be on KU.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Maggie, thank you so much for the opportunity to read your book! It has been so exciting being a part of your journey.

Collateral Damage follows Abi as she moves to America nursing a broken heart. She is career-focused, type-A personality, and a total people person! A surprise encounter at the office with the very attractive Seb leaves her intrigued! Seb is quiet, serious, and can come across as awkward and unapproachable to staff. But with Abi’s help, she helps him develop a welcoming demeanor, all while she makes an impression on her boss with her creating a friendly team atmosphere.

Abi and Seb’s friendship is layered with chemistry and tension! As they navigate taking their friendship and attraction to the next level, they encounter challenging and unexpected obstacles. The couple shares steamy encounters, and the highs and lows the come with misunderstandings and complexities of life.

I absolutely adore Seb! He takes care of Abi when she needs help. He arranges to bump in to Abi at the zoo with his nephew. He falls first and hard!! 🫠🫠

This story had a couple surprises. One of them makes me love Seb so much! I was completely caught off guard by another very surprising twist! The secondary characters was 👌🏼. The support and friendship they gave Abi was so sweet!

I hope you’ll give this book a read!

[Lupi_reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am being a bit picky with my rating, but hear me out.

Spice rating: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️; These two be doing it everywhere, shameless

This book is about Abigail who moves to the US from England for a job opportunity. She meets Seb who's her co-worker and they instantly hit it off. But then, Joe - Abi's ex-fiancé - follows her in the hopes of getting her back, and now Abi is stuck between wanting to get back her previous life with Joe or moving forward and pursuing a relationship with Seb. Nothing complicated, right? Wrong.

I learned that in order to appreciate a book and to properly rate it and give it a fair shot, I can give 3 pros and cons;

Pros:
- I'm a sucker for the single-parent trope, ok. It's kind of my kryptonite. So when you present me with a book about a Man who's raising a child, you bet I'll be all over that book.
- I loved the fact that we have secondary characters who are more present and not just mentioned. Like we actually get some conversation with them and not just about sex, which in almost every book you have this best friend whose sole purpose is to talk about sex. We got to see some diversity. We get Abi's mum, Phil, Sheena, and her husband, the bartender, and Seb's sister. They all contribute, we see them, we hear their stories.
- I also loved Abi's enthusiasm at work, she's every Introvert's nightmare, that's for sure

Cons:
- The book dragged a bit in the middle, there were things that made it a bit boring, and the last couple of chapters were a bit rushed.
- I didn't like how certain aspects weren't explained properly, others didn't make sense. I don't want to get into detail about this.
- Something that ticked me off was the English slang. I think the author is English and she wrote an English main character who moves to the US, but my problem was the use of English slang, and idioms while the American characters are speaking. I think there should have been more research about this.

I'd like to thank Maggie Arnold for presenting me with an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

[Kimberley · Rating 4 out of 5]

ARC Book Review

Firstly, thank you so much to Maggie for letting me ARC read your book.
Collateral damage is released on November 10th and will be available on KU.

I really liked this book and went in fairly blindly to the plot, only knowing that it is a workplace romance.

When we first met Seb in the plot when Abi is getting herself set up in the new office after coming to America all the way from the UK, not only was Abi intrigued about him but so was I. He came across as so sweet yet also shy. And then to see that the other members of Abi's new team thought that Seb was awkward and ultimately unapproachable was shocking especially to Abi, but I loved the fact that she then made it her mission to improve his peopling skills to help make a more friendly atmosphere for everyone.

I absolutely adored all of the characters in this book. Like Seb was the sweetest ever, and I am a die-hard for a single parent. Abi's mum was absolutely hilarious throughout the whole book, I just love her

Throughout the whole plot at the start, I had no idea what would happen between Abi and Seb, and I would say I am not disappointed in the outcome at all. And the smut, oh the smut was absolutely amazing and so well written like I just want to read it again.

One thing I did not see coming with this book was the twists in the plot. They were so unexpected that even when they were going on, I was like, how could this happen and so shocked.

Overall, I really liked this book and I cannot wait to see what this author does next and how her writing style will change over time, I will definitely be reading more from this author.

[Iain Benson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I beta read Collateral Damage by Maggie Arnold, and really enjoyed it.

It’s about Abi who’s moved to America from England, leaving behind a cheating, gaslighting SoB called Joe. Still reeling from catching him during their engagement party, America gives her a chance at a new start. First day in the new office, she comes across Seb. He’s kind and makes her pulse race in all the right ways, but she’s not ready and he’s unsure if Abi could feel the same or even if he should be with her. We follow their hesitant interactions as Abi takes control of her life, until Joe comes over. Spanner in the works.

This book hits all the right tropes for a romance book, and has a little spicey action when the pair of them finally throw off the shackles of their lives, set against a backdrop of corporate shenanigans.

Well worth a read and I’ll be looking forward to Maggie Arnold’s next foray into writing.

[Annie Adams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Abi is new to the country for a job and she meets Seb. Things aren't exactly as they seem with him. Her past comes back to try and throw a wrench in things. Can they get through all of the bumps and find their happily ever after?

I loved everything about this book. Sebastian is one of my favorite book boyfriends. There is so much more to Seb than you first see and what you first see is amazing. All of the characters are so good. I felt like the pacing was great and there were some really tense moments that I honestly didn't know how they would get resolved. I can't recommend this book enough. I love love loved it!

[Erica G. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I greatly enjoyed reading Abi and Seb's love story! Our two main characters are absolute sweethearts who need to overcome quite a few challenges on their path to love. If you like unexpected twist and turns with your spicy romance books, this one is for you!
I can't wait to read more by Maggie!