The Assistants by Camille Perri

My best friend Jess recommended that I read The Assistants and I'm so glad I took her up on the recommendation! Since I usually read books that are either super dramatic or dark, I like to break this up with a very light read. This book was a perfect palate cleanser.

The Assistants is about some young women who live in NYC and are assistants to high powered executives. These assistants make meager salaries, while their bosses live lavishly and flaunt their power. And we're talking about calling up the airline and getting first class seats for the next flight for free kind of power. After an expense report mistake, the assistants realize they can manipulate the expense reports to pocket some extra cash. The whole scheme is so they can pay off student loans.

Now there's the whole social justice/classism/underdog thing going on in this book and those themes are probably worth getting into. However, what I really enjoyed about this book was how funny and ridiculous it was. There were moments I actually laughed out loud because the scheme was getting so out of hand. There were also some parts where Perri talks more about the underlying issues the fun stuff is based on, which grounds the whole story. The main character and all of her assistant friends are great and each one has a totally different personality. All in all it was a great, quick read and I would totally recommend it to anyone looking for a laugh.