Oh man, do I love a good debut novel. Smile and Look Pretty is a thoughtful, timely look at four assistants – Lauren, Olivia, Max, and Cate – and their anonymous blog. These four assistants were so relatable, and you root for them throughout the story. Anyone who has worked as an assistant to a demanding boss will get a kick out of this one.

Smile and Look Pretty is the first novel I've seen by Amanda Pellegrino, and I love giving new thriller authors a shot. The title is chilling in a painfully familiar way – something I feel like many readers could say. That was enough to grab my attention.

Four office assistants have sworn to stick together through thick and thin. In this instance, that means they're going to tackle to the toxic environment that is their workplace – together. Their master plan? Start a blog highlighting their experiences.

Their stories resonate with many readers, causing their blog to go viral. Women share their stories, spreading the word with each passing day. Unfortunately, their blog going viral means they're all the more likely to get busted for what they're doing.

"...we can't speak up. Instead, we're told to be invisible but look presentable. To blend in but wear more makeup. To shroud our faces but put on tighter pants. To be grateful to have a job but barely make minimum wage."

Before I begin my review, I want to comment on something. I feel like Smile and Look Pretty is one of several books that came out in the past few months with a similar name. I had to double and triple-check my book notes before writing my review since I was terrified I would mix things up on you guys. I know book titles have trends, so it happens. Anybody else notice this?

Man, Smile and Look Pretty hits HARD. Even the title is based on something very relevant these days, which amps up its impact tenfold. The book itself hits even harder, and with good reason.

This book starts kind of slow but quickly picks up in place. I promise you that you'll be screaming at anybody who dares interrupt your reading by the end. Totally not speaking from experience here (I swear).

As for the characters, they're tough and in the best of ways. They're dealing with a lot, both in their working lives and with the pressure of it all. Seeing them find a different way to strike back was refreshing; I'll give you that much!

I liked Amanda Pellegrino's writing style and am looking forward to seeing what she comes up with next. Here's hoping we'll find out soon enough.

This one really had it ups and downs. I don’t think I enjoyed the plot as much but I did enjoy the writing which I find more important. I would read more from this author.

💄Best friends Cate, Lauren, Olivia and Max, overworked and underpaid assistants to powerful people in the entertainment industry, realize that no dream job is worth the toxic environment and demeaning tasks they put up with. Passed over for promotions, ignored, and worse, they reach a collective breaking point, and start a secret blog detailing their experiences. The blog takes off and hundreds of others come forward to tell their own stories. Telling their truths is so freeing but the consequences of getting found out could be severe.

💄This is not my usual read but something about the cover and the description really appealed to me. Once I started reading, I didn't want to put it down.

💄The author does an excellent job of developing the characters and their stories that as a reader (perhaps especially as a female reader) it felt so real. When they realize they have the ability to take back the power but must guard their secret, it is just a matter of time before the other shoe drops...

💄So, so satisfying, not a thriller but a thrilling and oh so satisfying read.

Smile and Look Pretty is a great 2022 release given all that's going on in this world! Cate, Lauren, Olivia & Max are underpaid and overworked at their assistant jobs. They suffer at the hands of their bosses, and they're ready to say that enough is enough! The four best friends reach a breaking point when they start a blog detailing their experience - Which causes others to step forward about their work nightmares, too. What was meant to be truly anonymous, may not stay that way.

This book is sharp, funny, and packed with drama. I could relate to these girls in so many ways. One thing I struggled with a bit at the start was getting each character straight in my mind with alternating POVs, but this gets easier as you continue reading. I look forward to seeing what Pellegrino writes next!

*Thank you to Harlequin Trade, Amanda Pellegrino and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review*

Previously published at https://www.mysteryandsuspense.com/smile-and-look-pretty/

“…Cate looked at her friends, the assistants busting their asses, making the rules from behind the scenes. What if they all got together? What if they called bullshit? What if they all said no?”
–Cate, Smile and Look Pretty.

Amanda Pellegrino’s debut novel, Smile and Look Pretty, is what happens when the famous movie 9-5 meets the #metoo movement. Lauren, the assistant to a head writer of a workplace comedy, has a big job getting coffee. It was a clear ladder to her dream of being a writer for a television series. But it’s been three years, and not only have they have passed her up for promotions, she has also been the subject of sexual harassment by another writer. A writer who has is rehired after being let go after she reported him for sexual harassment. Cate has her dream job at Larcey Press, working as the head editor’s assistant. She is officially the longest lasting assistant in Larcey history. It is her two-year anniversary and while she has done no editing; she does deliver her boss’s cupcakes to his child’s school party and makes his travel plans for a $37,000 safari while she can’t afford to go home for Christmas. Max works at the Good Morning Show, as an assistant to anchors Sheena and Richard (think Savannah and Matt) but every day she has to put up with Richard making lewd comments and pinching her butt. When she says something to the assistant producer, he tells her to keep it on the down low. Olivia keeps a running tally on her phone of how many times she has seen her boss’ penis, a c-list actor who hasn’t worked in a long time, in the three years she has worked for him.

Best friends Cate, Lauren, Olivia and Max have a weekly calendar date called “the shit list,” where they meet and discuss all the outrageous things their bosses have asked them to do over the week. Cate decides their weekly date isn’t enough. She presents the idea of a blog called “Twentysomething” where assistants all over the country can submit their own stories. They become the Aggressive One, the Bossy One, the Bitchy One and the Emotional One. Almost immediately, women are submitting their stories of sexual harassment and bad bosses. The blog quickly goes viral. When the four girls find out someone is trying to expose them, they find a way to control their own narrative. What follows is a fast-paced and frenetic race to reveal themselves, and what truly becomes the best part of the book.

As an assistant to a publisher at my first job many years ago, I was delighted to read this. Of course, a non-fictional version of this story has been told in the media for the last three years, officially canceling figures such as Matt Lauer, Kevin Spacey and Harvey Weinstein. It is hard to believe this is Amanda Pellegrino’s debut novel. Cate, Lauren, Olivia and Max are so self-aware, and their complex friendship with each other really shines brightly. The reader is rooting for them throughout the entire novel.

This is the perfect book for today's social media crowd!
Four best friends who work as assistants. As with most YAs now a days they are overwork, underpaid and under appreciated.
Every weekend, they get together to drown their stress together. Its a vent fest
Then in almost sort of a crazy 9-5 in a alternate universe sort of vibe, the girls decide to share their experiences on their blog and it just takes off.

I loved this book. Many many times as I was reading it, i felt myself thinking "You go with your badass self!"

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. Such a great fun read!

Thank you to Park Row for providing me with an e-ARC of Smile and Look Pretty in exchange for an honest review!

Who run the world?
Girls.

Smile & Look Pretty is a very timely book centering around workplace inequality, harassment & all of those other really non-fun things that women are forced to deal with at their 9-5. Definitely recommend it if you're looking for a book filled with GIRL POWER~!, friendships & taking the patriarchy down one anonymous blog post at a time.

My biggest problem with this book (& a problem I did get over by the end of it) is the number of characters & perspective-changing. But, once you adjust its smooth sailing from there!

Smile and Look Pretty by Amanda Pellegrino is a debut novel about four assistants who start a website in order to anonymously talk about how terrible their bosses are. They each work for a different powerful man in the entertainment industry, and they are tired of being underpaid and mistreated. Their website ends up going viral, and many other women start talking about their bosses too. This starts a very important conversation, and these four women are at the center of it. This book was very well-written and true-to-life, and I really enjoyed it. Thanks to NetGalley for the free digital review copy. All opinions are my own.

Well written clever enjoyed the characters women empowering women.This is perfect for my book club will make for interesting discussion.#netgalley #harlequinbooks

What's the worst thing your boss/ex-boss ever done to make you feel like crap? Or that was just totally outside your job description? I once had a lawyer ask me to cut his meat up for him - and that is NOT a euphemism. And that was just a small taste of how entitled he was - I lasted a whole 2 months at that job. You can't pay me enough to be treated like trash. I've gotten a manager fired for sexual harassment, have caught bosses staring at my ass or been handsy. I think probably most, if not every, woman has gone through something like this in their work life at some point... tragically.
SMILE AND LOOK PRETTY brings us four female assistants in their mid-twenties who work their ass off just to get looked over... over and over again. Reading their experiences, some were somewhat shocking but still I could see them happening. No assistant EVER should be put in a position where they can tally how many times they've seen their boss's penis. WHAT. They decide to put out a blog called Twentysomething that allows women who have been treated terribly in their positions to vent and talk about their issues anonymously. And, of course, this goes VIRAL.

As we have seen through the #metoo movement, and possibly through our own experiences, most of the time harassment of this kind can be washed over or there are little to no consequences. But what WOULD happen if so many people just said NO. Demanded the respect they deserved? NOT be scared at how easily replaceable they could be and how there are thousands, if not millions, of people readily available to take their place with a snap of the fingers. The manager I got "fired", I found out later, was just transferred to a different restaurant. Um, that doesn't really solve the problem, now does it?

In any case - this book gives us pure millennial anger and power. But let it be known that this doesn't just happen to the younger women... or to *just* women in general - men and them are also harassed or treated poorly on the daily. I loved this book as it just hit home, unfortunately, in too many ways. Was it a little too neat at the end? For me, yes but fuck it. I would 1000000% watch the adaptation to this and could see Zoe Kravitz, Jennifer Lawrence, Zendaya and Olivia Munn as the leads for some reason.

Loved the friendship between these four women. Remember y'all, there's not only powers in numbers, there's power in YOU.

Amanda Pellegrino's debut Smile and Look Pretty is the newest entry in what is essentially becoming its own subgenre - career stories of Millennial women in the #MeToo era. This book explores what happens when four female professionals decide to exploit their bosses' toxic behavior via an anonymous blog which encourages other women to come forward with their own harrowing stories of abuse and mistreatment. When the blog unexpectedly goes viral, the consequences are far-reaching and these four friends find themselves dealing with much more than they bargained for.

Smile and Look Pretty takes everything awful about working for an unsavory boss and combines it with fierce female friendship to create a novel that will inspire women everywhere to take notice and stand up for themselves. While not everyone will have dealt with leadership as toxic as the ones outlined in this story (although surely many of us have, unfortunately), most women can sympathize with feeling forced to suffer injustice for the sake of keeping a job. However, where Smile and Look Pretty takes a particularly lurid turn (that is in sharp contrast to the existence most women settle for) is in exposing these disastrous bosses for the scum they are. Smile and Look Pretty is a revenge fantasy novel for career-minded women everywhere that takes pushing back to the next level.

While Smile and Look Pretty has a strong and relatable premise, its execution is lacking. After skimming reviews, I wasn't surprised to learn that other readers had difficulty differentiating the four main characters and felt that the women did not vary greatly in voice or background. This is my main complaint with this novel - Pellegrino jumped from one character's POV to another without warning, and because the women were all written so similarly, I couldn't keep straight who was who and why I should care. A book that started off strongly lost appeal as I read due to lack of clarity and individuality among characters, hence my 3 star rating.

This felt like something I would like, but it didn't grab me. I ended up not finishing this title. I really think that others will enjoy it though.

I wanted to love this one, but I got about 20% in and knew I was going to lose interest. The premise is interesting, but one I started getting to know the women, I lost respect for them. I know it's probably controversial, but no career is worth being treated like they were being treated. I couldn't get behind the revenge plots. THis was a DNF for me

Love a good story that exposes inequities in the work place and Smile and Look Pretty does this in the best way. A feminist tale that I enjoyed every page of!

BOOK REVIEW: Smile and Look Pretty by Amanda Pellegrino
2022 Publication Date: March 8

⭐️⭐️⭐️️

CONNECT WITH THIS BOOK | T.I.M.E. SIMPLE LIVING TIP:
Know when to say enough is enough... ✨😎✨

T.I.M.E. BOOK REVIEW: A story centered on "standing up"... For yourself. For each other... Set in the worlds of television, journalism & the entertainment industry, we start reading expecting the female characters to need a "thick skin". But we quickly learn a suit of armor is even going to fall short... Has been described as "The 9 To 5 for the Instagram generation". But it also brings to mind so many other movies dating back from B&W classics to the many current streaming series devoted to this issue... And what I am always left with is: How many more decades will we endure before we all collectively say enough is enough?... ✨😎✨

Pages: 349
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Sub-Genre: Women's Friendship
Time Period: Present Day
Location: NYC

IF YOU LIKE THIS BOOK THEN TRY…
Book: The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post by Allison Pataki
TV: Good Girls Revolt (Amazon Prime)

--------------------

All my reviews can be seen at This Is My Everybody | Simple Living | Denise Wilbanks at www.thisismyeverybody.com

♡ Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. I voluntarily chose to review it and the opinions contained within are my own.

We are the assistants, the women behind the men and women who you know and love. We are unnamed, unknown, and uncared for. Best friends Cate, Lauren, Olivia and Max have each been assistants for years, each working in the field they yearn to succeed in, yet find themselves passed on for men. Their bosses, and those around them, take advantage of their positions of power, asking them to do unnecessary tasks like purchase cupcakes and make coffee that matches a paint chip. Even worse, some are subjected to unwanted sexual advances. When Cate finally feels like their weekly meeting isn't enough to get their grievances out she presents her friends with an anonymous blog she created, a place to share with the world how bosses take advantage of others. They become the Aggressive One, the Bossy One, the Bitchy One and the Emotional One. Soon others are submitting their stories to the page, the media grows interested, and the bosses names are revealed.

Smile and Look Pretty was such a smart, empowering read. Cate, Lauren, Olivia and Max are just chasing their dreams, letting slide the mistreatment in the hopes of finally being given a chance, but when they start to really look at what they've experienced they recognize that no man in their position is treated this way. The blog is initially just an outlet, but watching it grow in popularity and empower the four women is incredible. They each finally come out of their shell, admitting to who they really are, what their time as an assistant has done to them, and the morals they've let be trampled on. It's authentic and real, a book that reads like an expose, something you might see in The Times.

SMILE AND LOOK PRETTY

I immediately loved the bookish nuggets hidden throughout the storyline. And I’d like to say I’m tired of these feminist stories but I’m not.

This is a story of four assistants who decide to start a blog to vent and partly expose their very badly behaving bosses. Each assistant is unique although we kind of center around one.

I enjoyed the conversation and I consider this one of my revenge fantasies. So that was fun to explore with the author.

I recommend SMILE AND LOOK PRETTY to readers looking for a light revenge thriller with female protagonists and bookish subplots. My fave!

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thanks to Netgalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing/ Park Row for this advanced copy!

I had high hopes for this book but this one missed the mark. I was excited about the life of assistants and coming together but this book didn't grabbed my attention.

Smile and Look Pretty is the story of four women who work as assistants to some questionable bosses. There's Lauren who wants to be a writer, and her boss Pete, and Cate who works for Matt who's always worried about being fired. Olivia who works for past-his-prime actor Nate and Max who works in TV and is Sheena's assistant. It was a bit hard to keep everyone straight at the start of the book because the individual voices were not that distinct from each other and I had to work some to keep everyone straight.

Things really get moving in this when the women create an anonymous blog site where they can vent about all the incredibly terrible things their bosses do or have them do. It was really quite chilling and I found myself identifying with a lot of the stories and wondering if the book needed some trigger warning. These bosses broke plenty of HR rules and their behavior is appalling. At some point I had to ask why they stayed.

When the website starts accepting stories from anonymous contributors and its popularity soars, the women need to decide whether to come clean with their identities. I really liked when the women started seeing that they had options and didn't need to put up with some of these behaviors just for the promise of upward mobility in their jobs. This story makes some very interesting and relevant points about women and their place in business today and the male-female power dynamics that are involved.

The start of this book was a bit slow, but it picks up nicely once the website gets going. There are some romantic elements involved that I found a nice addition to the story, and of course there some lies and surprises between the women that cause some conflict.

Overall, I enjoyed this story of the workplace and I think many women would relate to some of the stories these women tell of their bosses. While I thought there were some aspects of the website that were omitted (why didn't they monetize that site?) this story felt fresh and new and captured relevant moments in our recent history.