Thursday, August 12, 2010

Review: Holly's Inbox : Scandal in the City by Holly Denham


Holly's Inbox : Scandal in the City(Sourcebooks Casablanca; ISBN:
978-1-4114-7;
$14.99; August 2010)

Holly's inbox provides unguarded access to heroine Holly, making her realistic and relatable, as you can picture yourself in her shoes, obsessing over how to phrase a message or waiting for a response. Author Bill Surie has created a novel that reads like the personal correspondence of a woman who is navigating her new relationship with her boyfriend and gossip at the office, with each snippet of information revealed through Holly's frequent exchanges with her best friends, her well-meaning but delusional parents, shifty brother and Internet-savvy grandmother.

Holly works in reception at a London investment bank and seems to spend most of her day composing e-mails to friends, family and her boyfriend, Toby. Occasionally, work intrudes and Holly must deal with the demands of her job. Through her e-mails and the subsequent replies from various people, we learn about Holly's quirky family, the day to day grind of working and her boyfriend Toby who also works in the bank. Seems that their relationship is floundering a bit and Holly and her friends Jason, Trisha and Aisha think that Toby might be harboring a secret. Is he having an affair? Why does he keep making trips to France?

When Holly is promoted to manager, she only has 30 days to prove herself. Holly does an excellent job but an unfortunate mix-up just before the end of the probation period sends Holly and the bank into a tailspin. Her at- work-nemesis, Tanya, tries to make Holly's life hell but Holly does manage to get her own sweet revenge.

About half way through the book started to flag for me and began sounding repetitive but then the author threw a few twists in that perked up my interest. Even though it is 523 pages long, it reads up quickly in the e-mail format. While I didn't love the book, I did like it, especially the nice neat ending. An easy read if you're looking for something extremely light and frothy with a comedic feel to it. 3***

About the author :

Holly Denham is the pen name for Bill Surie, who is the owner of a placement service for receptionists and secretaries in London, a direct inspiration for Holly’s Inbox. He started the Holly's Inbox website as a place to serialize his first novel, which became an overnight sensation.

Disclosure: A review copy of the book was provided by Sourcebooks, Inc.

14 comments:

  1. Thanks for this review - brings back memories as I read the Inbox from the beginning when it was online a day or so at a time. I was so disappointed when it ended and watched for the first book, but never saw it. I may have to try to find both of these!

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  2. sounds like a fun book, but I haven't read either.

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  3. I think I enjoyed this one more than you did.

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  4. I'm going to be reading this one soon. I love the format of the book so that's a major draw as to why I liked the first one.

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  5. This sounds like a nice read plus the format of the book sounds interesting too. Thanks for sharing this.

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  6. I do wanna read this one, and especially book 1 :D

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  7. Nice review! Sometimes I enjoy light and easy reads, so I'll keep this book in mind.

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  8. 532 pages just seems a bit long for a book like this.
    are authors getting paid by the page these days...I sometimes wonder.

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  9. Is this a sequel to the first one? I absolutely loved the first one.

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  10. Oh, I loved both of these books. If there had been a third one to start as soon as I finished this one I would have. lol. I wish you had liked it more. It is nice, light reading though.

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  11. I could definitely use "light and frothy." I think reading someone else's email would be fun. This one is going on the list.

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  12. I just know these books would satisfy my inner peeping tom!

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  13. I haven't read the first one...but I am chompin' to read it and this one too. Sometimes fun is good too!! :)

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  14. I think I liked it more than you. It was a fast entertaining read, and the predictability and neat ending didn't bother me at all. Still, Holly can be a dolt at times and I just wanted to slap her silly.

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