Book Review: "The Haters" by Robyn Harding

After many years, Camryn has finally achieved her dream: her first novel has been published. She can’t believe her book will be sold online and in stores.

But Camryn’s joy is short-lived, because the night of her book launch party, she receives an email from a person she’s never heard of, insulting her and accusing her of horrible things related to the book. She can’t understand what would possess this person to do such a thing, but she tries to put it out of her mind and revel in her accomplishment.

When Camryn checks reviews for her book online, she is upset to see a one-star review, one which levels some of the same accusations she received in the email. More and more similar reviews and ones that react to the negative ones show up, and Camryn can’t understand who would want to ruin her career in this way. And when her publisher tries to intervene by getting some of the negative reviews removed, it sets off a larger firestorm.

Things continue to spiral out of control, wreaking havoc in her relationships with her boyfriend Theo, her daughter Liza, and her best friend Martha, not to mention her job as a school counselor. The attacks become more personal and more unhinged, causing Camryn to begin mistrusting everyone.

But in an effort to understand who might be behind all of this, Camryn makes misstep after misstep. She risks her relationships, her job, her publishing career—maybe even her life. How will she regain control, if at all?

I am a big Robyn Harding fan, but this book wasn’t my favorite. Everyone was a little bit crazy and weird, and Camryn didn’t strike me as particularly smart. And while I was glad the perpetrator wasn’t whom I thought it was when I started the book, I wasn’t satisfied with the resolution. But I’ll still read everything Harding writes!!

Book Review: "The Ex Vows" by Jessica Joyce

It’s been a while since a romance hit me so hard in the feels that I sobbed happy tears. But Jessica Joyce’s upcoming book, The Ex Vows, caused a waterworks, and I loved every minute of it.

Georgia and Adam were childhood best friends, and when Eli moved to town, the group became a close-knit trio, as much family as friends. That closeness remained as they went to college. Then Georgia and Eli fell in love, moved in together, and slowly but surely, their relationship disintegrated, as much for what they didn’t say as what they did.

Now, Georgia and Eli haven’t seen each other in 5 years. She’s back home in the Bay Area, while he is in NYC. But with Adam getting married, and their both being his “best people,” it’s coming time for them to see each other again. They’re both determined not to fully reveal how far apart they’ve drifted; instead they plan to present a united front for Adam’s sake.

As disaster after disaster occurs in the week before the wedding—the venue burns down, they can’t find someone to make them a cake, their DJ fell through—Georgia and Eli band together to solve all of the crises. At the same time, they both realize how intense their feelings still are for one another, despite both dealing with their own crises and issues. Can they have a second chance, or will the same things doom them again?

I seriously loved this book, with its friends-to-lovers plot as well as chosen family. It’s emotional, seriously steamy, funny, and absolutely beautiful, and I love Joyce’s treatment of anxiety and fear. I could totally see this as a movie!

Thanks so much to NetGalley and Berkley for the advance copy! The book will publish 7/16.

Book Review: "Mona at Sea" by Elizabeth Gonzalez James

Mona at Sea is a funny and sometimes poignant story about a young woman who needs to find a new direction in life.

“I’m unemployed, I’ve never had a boyfriend, I live with my parents in the most boring town on the planet, and I hate myself. I sing myself to sleep with these facts every night.”

Mona worked hard in college. She was valedictorian, she made all the right choices and connections, and landed her dream job at a prestigious bank. But in the financial crisis of 2008, nothing works out as planned, and her job is over before it begins when the bank has to be bailed out.

Left with no other choice, she goes home to live with her parents and lick her wounds. It isn’t easy—she’s realizing her parents don’t like each other much (if at all), and she has to deal with finding a job, any job, just to get by.

How do you reconcile things when life doesn’t turn out the way you thought it would? How do you consider a relationship if you’re dissatisfied with yourself and your life?

I definitely identified with some of this book because when I graduated from college there was another financial crisis (not the Great Depression, thank you) and jobs weren’t around either. Recalibration was definitely necessary.

I thought Mona at Sea was a funny and thought-provoking book. I wasn’t immediately wild about Mona but I liked the arc her character took.

Thanks to BookSparks and Elizabeth Gonzalez James for the complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review, as part of #SRC2021!

Book Review: "Have We Met?" by Camille Baker

Can a dating app really find your soulmate? That's the question at the core of Camille Baker's debut rom-com, Have We Met?

Do you believe there’s one person out there for everyone? Corinne doesn’t have time or energy to think about that—she’s just moved back to Chicago after the death of her best friend; she needs to find a job and figure out her life.

But when a dating app called Met mysteriously appears on her phone and tells her she’ll reconnect with four people from her past and one of them will turn out to be her soulmate, after some healthy eye-rolling she realizes she can’t resist the opportunity. And when she meets two people she hasn’t seen in some time, she thinks the app might be speaking the truth.

As Corinne tries to navigate her demanding mother, come to terms with her grief over the loss of her friend, and find the perfect job (if she can figure out what that is), she’s also been spending time with a guy she met outside the app. But if he’s not her soulmate, should she bother?

I thought Have We Met? was a cute, quirky, creative rom-com. I liked the chemistry between Corinne and her love interest. But what I liked best was the diversity of the characters—there were characters of different races and ethnicities, and a character with a disability, as well as lesbian, bisexual, and non-binary characters. And it never felt like this diversity was there for diversity’s sake.

Of course, the whole app thing seemed a little contrived to me and it never quite was explained exactly how it even wound up on her phone, but I didn’t dwell on the small details! This was a fun story that also touched on the challenges of moving on when you’re grieving.

Thanks so much to Amazon Publishing and Blankenship Public Relations for providing me with a complimentary advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review!

Book Review: "The Summer Job" by Lizzy Dent

What could go wrong when a woman pretends to be her best friend for a job? Read Lizzy Dent's upcoming novel, The Summer Job and find out.

Elizabeth “Birdy” Finch hasn’t had it easy. She had a tough childhood, she’s blundered from one job to another, and never found a relationship that would stick. But she’s always been there for her best friend, Heather, supporting her through her achievements as a sommelier, and as she chases after a love she’s so desperate to find.

When Heather decides to abandon the new summer job she’s landed at an old Scottish resort hotel to pursue a relationship, Birdy agrees to notify the hotel. But instead, Birdy decides to pretend to be Heather, like she’s done at parties and events before. How hard can it be to learn wine? And if the resort is old, how challenging will it really be?

Of course, the resort has been redone and the restaurant is now posh, with 124 wines(!) on its list. Birdy has her work cut out for her. The last thing she’s counting on is a handsome chef to distract/motivate her, not to mention actually starting to enjoy herself, despite the deception she’s perpetuating.

I really enjoyed The Summer Job so much. Sure, it was predictable in many ways, but it was funny and sweet and poignant (a little heavier than the average rom-com, which I always enjoy), and I love any book that takes place behind the scenes at a restaurant. This would definitely be a fun Hallmark or Netflix movie.

NetGalley and Putnam Books provided me with a complimentary advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making it available!

The Summer Job publishes 5/18.

Book Review: "Breathe In, Cash Out" by Madeleine Henry

Allegra Cobb has spent nearly two years working as an analyst at one of the most well-known banks. Between working an unbelievable amount of hours each week, redoing PowerPoint slide decks and bar charts for her supervisors, and trying not to lose her mind, she dreams of quitting her job to start her own yoga practice—just as soon as her year-end bonus comes in.

She's spent most of her life being an overachiever, driven by a father whose primary mechanism of communication and affection was coaching her to victory. She went to Princeton, excelled at every sport she played, and she even won gold at the American Yoga National Competition. But now she's tired of being treating like a slave by her bosses, working until 4:00 a.m. some days only to be right back at her desk before 9:00 a.m., and she's ready for it all to be over.

All she needs to do is be patient and wait for the year to come to an end. It appears, however, that won't be easy. She's just slept with a hot man from her yoga class—who is now her new boss on a major deal. She's also just met Skylar, one of her yoga idols, and she's taken a real interest in Allegra. The thing is, however, Skylar wants to help her begin to focus more on herself, become more centered and intentional about her goals and her yoga practice. That doesn't seem to reconcile itself with the hellish pace at which Allegra spends her workweek.

As Allegra tries to balance her daily responsibilities with following Skylar's advice, she finds she's successful at neither. And the results are spectacular—spectacularly bad, that is. If things keep up the way they're going, she might get fired before she gets her bonus, which, of course, will leave her nowhere. She's alienating her closest coworker and burning the candle at both ends is also taking its toll on her physically. What do you do if you fall asleep when you attempt meditation?

The closer Allegra gets to bonus day, the more confused she becomes about what path she should take. Should she follow Skylar or set her own path? Is she crazy to abandon a promising—if destructive—career in finance to pursue her dreams? And perhaps more importantly, what is her father going to say when she tells him she's quitting? It's enough to make even the most centered person feel completely off-kilter.

Breathe In, Cash Out is a humorous look at the cutthroat world of finance and the first-world problems of young people making six-figure salaries right out of college yet feel they are overworked and underappreciated. (Wow, I might have totally sounded like a grumpy old man just then.) It's also a fascinating look at how easy it can be to self-destruct when you're not 100 percent focused, and how sometimes it just takes one person's belief in you and your dreams to help you pull yourself together—however briefly.

Madeleine Henry worked for Goldman Sachs and then started her own yoga practice, so she definitely knows of what she writes. She has a breezy, funny writing style, and even though I didn't understand a lot of the terms her characters used when talking about the finance world, I found myself fully immersed in this story. The plot is a little bit predictable but Henry still created enough uncertainty in exactly how far Allegra might fall, or whether she'd decide to pursue her dream in the first place.

Things did get a little repetitive toward the middle, and there are times when I almost wanted to read the book with my hands over my eyes because I was waiting for everything to simply explode, but this was a tremendously fast and fun read. The marketing for the book compares it to The Devil Wears Prada, and while there may be a few similarities, this is an enjoyable book on its own.

Trust me: you'll see Breathe In, Cash Out in a lot of people's hands this summer and fall. I am just trying to think about who could play Allegra in the movie version.

NetGalley and Atria Books provided me a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making it available!

This book publishes July 9, 2019.

Book Review: "From the Corner of the Oval" by Beck Dorey-Stein

Beck Dorey-Stein was a twenty-something former teacher unsure of not only what she wanted to do with her future, but whether she'd even be able to find a job to sustain her until she figured out her life. Living in Washington, DC to be closer to her boyfriend, she cobbles together a number of part-time jobs to make ends meet, but she's envious of those who know what they want.

When she answers a Craigslist posting for a job, she figures it won't amount to anything. She's more than shocked to find out that this isn't a random clerical job—it's a position as a stenographer in the Obama White House. Stenographers don't take dictation anymore—instead, they're in the background of every speech, every presentation the president makes, no matter where in the world he is, microphone in hand, recording his words and transcribing them for history and/or public release.

From the Corner of the Oval follows Beck as she learns the ropes of her job and White House protocol, builds friendships with her colleagues in different positions throughout the administration, and begins to travel the country—and the world—viewing current events and the president's reactions to them at close range. She gets to have opportunities she never would have thought of, such as traveling on Air Force One and running on a treadmill next to the president.

"We're always just a few ticks, clicks, updates, and pings away from personal and collective disaster, but right now we're not our titles but our own selves—people with backgrounds and futures and exes and half-dead pets and crazy parents and broken hearts and broken hearts and big dreams; people who are listening to the president as he tells a funny story from two countries back, twelve hours ago, depending on which time zone you're counting in. We're so different, but we're swimming in this same punch-drunk delirium, and we have one major thing in common: We've found ourselves, shockingly, amazingly, how-the-fuck-did-this-happen crazily, flying halfway around the world on Air Force One. We are lucky. We are so goddamn lucky."

The constant demands of her job take their toll on her relationship with her boyfriend, who after volunteering with Obama's re-election campaign in 2012, becomes more desperate to recapture that enthusiasm and magic. Their on-again, off-again, often-long-distance relationship leaves her vulnerable to the advances of another senior staffer, someone far from appropriate relationship material, yet someone Beck finds unable to resist, no matter how many times she winds up hurt.

As the Obama presidency moves closer to its conclusion, Beck becomes ever more enamored with her job and the president, and more confused about what her next step should be. This book so accurately captures the enthusiasm so many felt around the Obama administration, his family, and his reactions to the events which unfolded—tragedies like Sandy Hook and the Boston Marathon bombing, and his historic trips to Cuba and Vietnam. At times I felt sad reading the book because of the immense juxtaposition between his administration and the one currently in the White House.

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this book. Dorey-Stein is so engaging, and she drew me right in as she began recounting her experiences. Her story was told almost in an "aw, shucks" manner, as if she couldn't believe her good fortune in getting to be witness to history and be in such close proximity to this president. Her description of the despair many of her colleagues felt when Hillary Clinton lost the election stung, because I remember feeling similarly, although for different reasons.

I don't read a lot of memoirs, but this was so appealing, so enjoyable, and such a quick read. All of the people with whom Dorey-Stein shared her writing throughout her tenure in the White House weren't lying—she really can write, and we are lucky she shared her seemingly unbelievable journey with us.

NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Random House provided me an advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making this available!

Book Review: "The Job Pirate: An Entertaining Tale of My Job-hopping Journey in America" by Brandon Christopher

"To see me in your office is surely cause for speculation. I look like you, I work like you, but I am not like you, and some part of you knows this. Some elemental part of you, deep down inside, knows that I am an imposter in your workplace. But your—actually, our—employer doesn't know this yet—he doesn't realize the person he just gave a unique login and password to is a professional at what he does for a living. But this particular profession isn't what he does for a living—at least it wasn't three days before the interview."

So begins Brandon Christopher's chronicle of the 81(!) jobs he held since graduating from high school—some lasted a few minutes, some a few hours, some a few days, some even a few months. While some of the jobs he had were exciting in their own right, some strictly called for menial labor, some required dealing with customers and even cash registers, and some were just downright gross.

Many of us have started jobs only to realize they're utterly and completely wrong for us, or the boss is a total douchebag, or what is required is far more taxing (physically or emotionally) than we imagined, and we've dreamed of just walking off the job in a blaze of glory, telling the boss what they can do with the job, or even, in the most passive-aggressive fashion ever, simply not returning the next day or after a lunch break. But many of us don't do that. However, Brandon Christopher did—more than once, sometimes in spectacular fashion.

From his experience as a not-entirely-skilled limousine driver hired to drive Wu-Tang Clan, to finding himself in the middle of a tug-of-war between coworkers (and a little sexual harassment) while working as a proofreader and writer for a series of gay porn magazines, from the physically and emotionally harrowing experiences as a mortuary driver and a member of a moving crew, to the disgusting (not to mention ethically challenging) work as a plumber's assistant, The Job Pirate is at times hysterically funny, and at times moving, as Christopher struggles with whether this path he has found himself on is the right one for his future.

I enjoyed this book and at times, certainly found myself nodding along with some of his observations (not to mention muffling my laughter so I didn't laugh out loud on the train). It is a little scattered, in that he jumps through different periods of time, so I found myself needing to re-acclimate myself occasionally to which jobs he had before the one he was discussing. And at times, he shifts away from his job anecdotes to share other reflections and incidents (including a BB gun battle he had with a friend, or an attempt to find a willing participant for a threesome with him and his coworker), and those aren't as interesting as his experiences working.

The Job Pirate is at times a cautionary tale not to do the things Christopher has done, but it's fun to read about someone doing some of the things at jobs you might have thought of once or twice (or maybe more). Lots of fun.