#TBRTrending: Circling Back to You by Julie Tieu

Offices romances have been a mainstay in the romance genre for decades. Even so, Circling Back To You by Julie Tieu puts a unique twist on the trope.

Maybe it’s just me but it feels like office romances have been everywhere lately. Whether it’s in the romance book world, in romantic movies, or on TV shows, everyone working in an office seems to have a romance with someone they interact with on a daily basis.

Regardless, the trope is still a lot of fun and is one with lots of different directions you can go down. Whether it’s hate to love or friends to lovers or anything in between, an office setting is a perfect way to ensure the characters are forced together.

However, Circling Back To You by Julie Tieu takes that to an entirely different level.

Julie Tieu’s Circling Back To You is the ultimate early fall read.

While Julie Tieu’s first novel skewed more towards women’s fiction, Circling Back To You is the ultimate romance. This book follows Cadence and Matt who work together and have this magnetic connection. While the book starts off with the two being friends, they’re quickly paired up because of work.

While Cadence is intending to go on vacation to celebrate her mother’s death anniversary, she is quickly recruited to help Matt win over a new client. Of course, that results in the two of them having to spend a lot of time together and then their feelings begin to bubble over. It all comes to a head when Candence agrees to be Matt’s fake girlfriend at a family party and the lines really begin to blur.

Circling Back To You does focus a lot on the characters dealing with their own messy lives as Cadence is dealing with a lot of emotions tied to the passing of her mother. Additionally, Cadence also feels a lot of resentment towards her father and his actions while her mother was still alive. Matt is also dealing with the idea of being left out as he’s one of the few members of his family without a wife or kids.

The book does focus on some heavy topics, but it’s nice to see the two characters grow and change throughout the story. Unfortunately, there is a third-act break-up but it doesn’t feel as annoying as it might in other books. If anything, the two characters needed to be apart so they could grow and become better people before getting into a relationship.

The reason why this book is perfect for fall though is that it’s set right before Christmas so it’s those fall and winter vibes a lot of us are craving. Honestly, this book was a major surprise for me so I had to feature it on #TBRTrending. Plus it’s a romance book featuring two Asian-American characters which is a rarity in itself. Overall though, this was a fun and sweet romance book that deserves more love than it’s getting.

Do you plan on adding Circling Back To You by Julie Tieu to your TBR? Be sure to share your favorite office romances in the comments.