Review – Holly’s Inbox by Holly Denham (pen name for Bill Hutton Surie)

Having worked in Human Resources, I have had my fair share of times where I had to troll through someone’s work inbox during the course of investigations. Most employees will let a personal email or two slip through, as always discovered. I’ve seen office affairs, love, fights and money problems when searching for a smoking gun. I always found it fascinating to discover a different part of this person’s life – here we sit together for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week and how much do I truly know about you? Holly’s Inbox lets you take that extra step and get to know her by reading through her inbox and replies.

Told entirely through email exchanges (epistolary novel), we meet Holly Denham – a newly-hired receptionist for an investment banking firm in London. From the website www.hollysinbox.com, here is the synopsis of the story:

Meet Holly Denham. It’s her first day as a receptionist at a City investment bank and, with no corporate front-of-house experience, Holly is struggling to keep up. Add to this her mad friends, dysfunctional family and gossipy colleagues, and Holly’s inbox is a daily source of drama, laughter, scandal and even romance. But Holly’s been keeping a secret from everyone – and the past is about to catch up with her…

With over 700 pages, the book may look daunting, but I promise you it goes quickly and is well worth your time! I laughed. I was shocked. I was intrigued. I wanted to be friends with Holly and Trish just so I could email back and forth all day with them!  I couldn’t put this book down. But it also drives the point home to not use work email on a personal basis!

For all fans of what can be classified as “beach reads,” you will want to pick this one up. And for more reading, here is a link to an interview with the author about Holly’s Inbox. I can’t wait to start the sequel Holly’s Inbox: Scandal in the City!

http://www.chicklitclub.com/hollydenham.html