Working Girl Chick Lit Special Duo: Holly's Inbox Review & 100th Follower Book Giveaway

In honor of working women everywhere, to wrap up the month of May and to celebrate the 100+ followers who’ve joined my book blog, I’ve got a specially paired post today, starting with my review of Holly’s Inbox and read on for details of my 100^th follower contest! Read on…

Holly's Inbox by Holly Denham

Written under the pseudonym, Holly Denham, Bill Surie crafts an addictive novel full of gossip, scandal and all the office antics you could ever desire. Holly’s Inbox introduces readers to the world of one British receptionist and you won’t believe what goes on behind her desk. Told in a unique format, exclusively made up of emails between Holly, her coworkers, friends and family, you won’t miss a single juicy detail as there’s no one to censor Holly’s emails.

At the beginning of the novel, we meet Holly Denham who has just been hired as a receptionist at DK Huerst and Co., a banking company. Her first day is a nightmare, wrought with mean girls, tough tasks and frozen mice. Luckily by the end of the first month, Holly bonds with the other receptionist on the switchboard, Trish, which helps make the day go by much smoother, happier and faster. Still, an awful coworker, who they nickname Cruella, is out for Holly, constantly reporting her mistakes to management and looking for ways to get her in trouble. Things seem to be looking a little brighter when Holly starts dating a white collar business guy upstairs, James, but if old high school “pal”, Jennie, another coworker upstairs, can do anything about it, Holly’s relationship with him will be over before it even starts. To add fuel to the fire, Holly finds out an old flame of hers, Toby, will be starting work at DK Huerst and she couldn’t be more mortified. I was kept guessing til the very end what the big secret with Toby was and I think you won’t be disappointed.

Holly’s Inbox has a lot of the typical chick lit side stories going on, including the mean boss, Shella, the flamboyantly gay best friend, Jason, and the irresponsible, gorgeous, and very sexual best friend, Aisha. There’s a little something for everyone with other characters like a crazy Granny, an off-the-wall brother, Charlie and exotic animal lovers and friends, Alice and Matt. All in all, despite its common themes, Holly’s Inbox was able to maintain a mostly unpredictable story in the details of its plot and it was a really fun read. At 672 pages, it’s a little overwhelming to look at and a lot like carrying around a Bible, but with the email format, you’ll be amazed at how quick you can fly right through this novel. It was so good, I’m currently reading the sequel, Holly’s Inbox: Scandal in the City and it’s just as delicious. 

4/5 Stars

I read Holly’s Inbox as the book-of-the-month for my Goodreads’ group, the Chick Lit Book Club in honor of all the celebratory days and weeks in the month of May for working women. Some of the holidays celebrating women and their many careers included National Teacher Appreciation Month; National Health Administrator's, Nurses, Police & Emergency Medical Services Weeks; and Golfer's, Armed Forces & Memorial Day. Since I, too, am a working woman, juggling being a book blogger, a student and aspiring writer with my current day job as an administrative assistant, I thought what better theme to combine with my latest giveaway to celebrate my followers. I think most women these days, whether they work a traditional 9 to 5 job or do something else, are juggling many more tasks, activities, responsibilities and obligations than ever before. I don’t know about you, but reading chick lit novels has been one of my favorite releases and escapes from the reality of it all for some time. So in honor of working women, no matter what you might do, I have a fabulous collection of working girl chick lit novels to choose from in honor of my 100^th follower joining Lip Gloss and Literature. In the books below, you will get a taste of life working as a receptionist, image consultant, fashion assistant, psychologist, yoga instructor and a columnist. I hope you will find something from this list that you’ll like to try. See the links for my reviews.

***Working Girl Chick Lit 100^th Follower Contest***

1.      Open to followers Worldwide

2.      Must comment below with a valid email address where I can contact you if you win

3.      Must be a follower of Lip Gloss and Literature

4.      Winner will have their CHOICE of ONE of the below listed books.

5.      Contest will be open until June 8^th, 2011, 11:59PM.

6.      Winner will be chosen via Random.org and Announced Thursday, June 9^th, 2011.

7.      For extra entries: (Please post a separate comment and link to your blog or tweet.)

8.      Blog or Tweet about this contest (if you don’t have a blog or a Twitter account, you can post it on Goodreads, Book Blogs or another book related site.)

9.      Link to this giveaway on your blog.

10. Add this contest to another Sweeps or Giveaway Site.

11.   Follow me on Twitter or (at cgraceh)

12.  Follow my book reviews on Goodreads (cgraceh)

13.   Add a new comment for each extra entry.

Holly’s Inbox by Holly Denham

Love Struck by Chantel Simmons

The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger

The Map of True Places by Brunonia Barry

Tales from the Yoga Studio by Rain Mitchell

Everleigh in NYC by Cathleen Holst

A BiG THANK YOU to EVERYONE who's followed my blog, new followers and anyone who might follow int he future. As always, this contest is for YOU! If you ever have any questions, suggestions, comments or otherwise, please feel free to contact me at cgraceh at gmail dot com. Good luck, everyone!!!