#14 - Blind Submission

I missed yesterday and the day before I think with my Book A Day challenge. I've got one for today though: Blind Submission by Debra Ginsberg. Angel Robinson (seriously, that's her name) finds herself out of a job when the bookstore she works for in Southern California shuts down (damn the fate of independent bookstores everywhere). She ends up, upon the insistence of her aspiring novelist boyfriend, landing a job with Lucy Fiamma at her literary agency.

There's a lot of bookish insider stuff going on in the novel, the role that agents play, how they do a good deal of editing and building up the books before they get pitched, how it's like being a salesman, etc. But Angel finds herself really good at it, until Blind Submission arrives. Written by an anonymous author and strangely echoing Angel's own life (the main character is called "Alice" for heaven's sake), it's the central mystery of the book, who wrote it and why?

As Angel goes somewhat mad trying to figure it out, the Devil Wears Prada-esque relationship with her boss escalates. Oh, and there's some aspects of chicklit thrown in too, will Angel choose Malcolm, her gorgeous but somewhat unstable boyfriend or will she end up with a fiery Italian writer-slash-pastry chef? (It sounds so ridiculous when I write it out here...)

In the end, I enjoyed the insider-type stuff with the book, and I did read it quickly; it's that kind of novel, where the prose isn't particularly inspired (and the sex scenes are embarrassing, as were the setups, dropping towels in hotel rooms, you get the picture, yawn) but I got sucked in regardless. Anyway, it's a good vacation book, perfect for beach reading and/or something light and fluffy for when you're tired from a long day of real life. But no hearts were broken, squished or otherwise, which is okay sometimes too.