#CBR4 Review 04: Bond Girl by Erin Duffy

This book made me sad, not because it was depressing, but because I’ve officially out grown another book genre. Reading this book reminded of the day I realized that my reading level had left Cam Jansen and her quirky crime solving photographic memory in the dust.

Bond Girl by Erin Duffy falls firmly into the professional fantasy genre of chick lit. These are the books for girls who fantasize about a glamorous job, a corner office, and making enough money to support a comfortable lifestyle in the most expensive city in the world (aren’t these books always, always set in New York)? It’s like The Devil Wears Prada crossed with Wall Street.

I’m getting tired of reading books where the main character is constantly trying to prove herself in a male-dominated workplace. This book constantly discussed the hardships of working in a mostly male profession. I get it, it’s hard. But at the same time, it would be refreshing to see a character who works hard at her job because she loves her job and wants to succeed.  In this book, like many others, Alex, the main character, just works hard because she wants to prove to her male colleagues she can do it.

This book focuses a lot on Alex’s life long desire to be in finance. And yet it completely glossed over the hard work it takes to get there. I know girls who work in finance. I saw how hard they worked in college, the months of preparation for their interviews, the crazy hours they worked proving themselves during their internships.  This book  magically grants Alex the job. I want to read a book about the dedication it takes to land a position like this in the first place.

The book makes only a lackluster attempt at tackling the recession. Alex works on Wall Street during the initial crash, and her seemingly complete ignorance of the financial maneuvering that crashed the markets seemed impossible. I know it’s a lot to ask from a light-hearted read, but I would’ve liked to see a more in depth treatment of how young analysts like Alex were in the dark about the impending financial disasters.

Anyways, if you like chick lit, this book is worth reading. It’s definitely a high quality chick lit book. Smart, sassy, engaging. But I’m over the professional fantasy chick lit. Now that I’ve spent some time working, and I’m in grad school, I think my understanding of the reality of working eliminates my need to fantasize about it.