Title:  Buying In
Author: Laura Hemphill
Publisher: New Harvest
Publication Date: November 5, 2013
Source: copy received for honest review through TLC Book Tours

Plot Summary from Goodreads:

Bright, ambitious Sophie Landgraf has landed a job as a Wall Street analyst. The small-town girl finally has her ticket to the American elite, but she doesn’t real­ize the toll it will take—on her boyfriend, on her family, and on her. It isn’t long before Sophie is floundering in this male-dominated world, and things are about to get worse.
 
With the financial crisis looming, Sophie be­comes embroiled in a multibillion-dollar merger that could make or break her career. The problem? Three men at the top of their game, each with very different reasons for advancing the merger. Now Sophie doesn’t know whom to trust—or how far she’ll go to get ahead.
 
Set inside the high-stakes world of finance, Manhattan’s after-hours clubs, and factories in the Midwest and India, this is the high-powered, heartfelt story of a young woman finding her foot­ing on Wall Street as it crumbles beneath her. Written by an industry veteran,  Buying In  tackles what it means to be a woman in a man’s world, and how to survive in big business without sacri­ficing who you are.

My Review:

Happy Monday, readers!  Let's talk about how much I dig this book.

Admittedly, when I initially read the description, I thought this novel sounded like it could be rather chick-litty (is that a word?  let's make it a word).  Not that that's a bad thing--I like my chick lit every once in a while.  However, I found myself pleasantly surprised by the fact that this definitely does not fit into a "girly" category.  The writing in Buying In is whip-smart, as is Sophie, its fresh-out-of-college protagonist.  So smart, in fact, that I had to pay close attention in many parts, as the details about finance and banking can get quite technical.  However, I'd say the book written in a way that makes it accessible even to those with no background in those career areas (myself included).  If anything, it will make you feel more intelligent, and not frustrated over its complexity (as I originally feared).

Other than the impressive detail in the book, I also loved its characters.  They all have very distinct strengths and weaknesses, and those weaknesses are, for the most part, not resolved by the end of the novel.  That was rather refreshing, as I feel that so many books strive to make their characters close to "perfect" by the story's conclusion.  However, instead of fixing all of their individual issues, by the end, each character seems to have grown a bit within their own limitations.  They embrace their imperfections rather than attempting to erase them.

Riding the wave of this "imperfect" ideal, I was also happy with how the novel wrapped up.  This is not a book with neat-and-tidy conclusions for all involved.  This is especially true for Sophie, who (because of my previous assumptions about this being chick lit) I was delighted to see became progressively more independent and strong-willed by the end.  In a world full of men in both her personal and professional life, she finds a way to forge ahead without having to rely on them.  It's both inspiring and refreshing to see such a young female character be able to take that path.

In the end, Buying In left me feeling like THIS is what "new adult" novels should be.  None of that overly sex-and-romance-focused drivel.  Here's a 22-year-old trying to make it in the big bad world of Wall Street, balancing career, family, and love.  And in the end, does she find a perfect solution?  No--but she learns a heck of a lot along the way, and she's ready to live life on her terms.  Doesn't get better than that.  I was glued to this novel, and I hope to see more from Hemphill in the future!

As always, much thanks to Lisa and TLC Book Tours for including me on this tour!
Check out the other blogs on this book tour HERE.  And connect with Laura Hemphill on her website and Twitter.


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Back in April, I participated in The Broke and The Bookish's Top Ten Tuesday topic: Top 10 Words/Topics That Instantly Make You Buy/Pick Up A Book.  I had fun with that one, and today, they're doing the opposite:


I felt it was only appropriate that I cover both sides of the coin.  So, without further ado...

1. Faeries, vampires, and werewolves, oh my.
I'm just not into the paranormal/fantasy thing.  I read the Twilight series because I felt it was my duty as a reader to do so, but I didn't get a lot of enjoyment out of it.  I haven't been motivated to try much else since then.  Is Harry Potter considered fantasy though?  Because I would totally make an exception for that.

2. A cheesy tagline.
Or any tagline, really.  Why does a book need a tagline?  Can you imagine if Jane Austen sat around coming up with taglines?  If you've already chosen a good title, let it speak for itself.  I feel like taglines are just the author saying, "Okay, the title might not have drawn you in, but wait wait wait!  Don't walk away yet noooooooo..."  I don't want to be sold that hard.

Wow. That's crazy. Tell me more.

3. "New adult".
I don't understand this new genre.  Honestly, it seems like they just didn't want to say "erotica for the older YA's".  Yes?  All I know is, my early 20's were not nearly as racy as these authors seem to think.

4. Part 2/3/4/etc of a series.
I am way too type-A to start a series midway through.  I have to start with Part 1, or I'm not starting at all!

5. Fiction written by a "celebrity".
I side-eye anything written (or that claims to be written) by a celebrity (other than biographies/memoirs).  Lauren Conrad writes books?  Whaaaaaaaaaa?

6. Short story collections.
This is one that generally turns me off, but I DO make exceptions.  I greatly prefer novels to short story collections, because I like to really steep myself in a book...short stories pull me out of the plot too quickly.  That said--I will read ANY short stories that Stephen King writes, and I will try other authors if I hear enough good hype about their work beforehand.  (Jhumpa Lahiri, I'm coming for you.)

7. Hey look, boobs!
Erotica is just not my thing.  Much like "new adult" novels, I find them a little ridiculous and hard to take seriously.  WHATEVER, I'M A PRUDE, I KNOW.

8. A message from...above.
Apparently I am a middle-of-the-road reader, because just as I'm not a fan of erotica, I'm also not a fan of the opposite end of the spectrum: Christian and LDS fiction.  I'm not an atheist or anything like that, but if I want religious inspiration, I prefer to get it from sources other than my fiction novels.

9. The title is too similar to another well-known novel.
It's not that I avoid books with similar titles--it's just that most times, I honestly don't realize that they are two different books, thus causing me to not read one of them.  Do you know how long it took me to realize that Daughter of Smoke and Bone, and Shadow and Bone, are NOT THE SAME?

10. Mass-published fan fiction.
Just no.

In my search for a cutting meme about 50 Shades, I found this instead, and it was way better.

Readers: what words/topics are total book turn-offs for you?