Bond Girl by Erin Duffy

One thing is for sure -- a lighter read is a definite for pushing this reader out of a slump. Bond Girl by Erin Duffy was my latest slump buster.

Alex Garrett's dad is a banker on Wall Street, so Alex knew from a young age that finance was where she wanted to be. And Wall Street is the ONLY place to be. She lands a job at a great firm right out of college and soon discovers that nothing could have prepared her for the reality of the job.

Bond Girl is fiction, but Duffy spent years working on Wall Street herself. And while readers will no doubt (and have) compare it to The Devil Wears Prada -- with a Wall Street twist -- I still found it funny and entertaining. I'll admit that I don't understand the ins and outs of Wall Street and the world of finance, but you don't have to. Duffy delves into it just enough to wet reader's palates and get the setting down, then dives into the meat of the plot. It keeps the book light without getting bogged down in what could have been an overwhelming look at the industry.

As an aside, I did read that Duffy started off with the equivalent of a 700 page whopper of a manuscript. I'd have been interested to see Bond Girl run a bit longer than the finished product. Perhaps some of it will make it into the possible sequel Duffy says she's open to doing at a later date.