Super well done book that keeps the reader on their toes the whole time. Loved how well this one was laid out for the reader and it was a perfect story.

I received this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is definitely one of my favourite read of the year, the characters were very well- estabalished, and in some twisted way, I was rooting for Anna.

This novel is perhaps intended for younger readers, especially women who are just starting out in their careers. There’s almost a hyper immaturity to the writing, but I think it’s probably on purpose to convey the satirical tone.

The dual points of view – Jamie and Anna – work well. The author definitely wants the reader to come away with the idea that neither woman will stop before they reach the top. At times we are beaten over the head with this (and other points throughout the story), and I wish the author trusted the reader more. Again, perhaps this was on purpose because it’s satire and meant to be, on some level, funny or super obvious.

The tension ratchets up with Anna learns what Jamie might expose.

This is a quick and enjoyable read, even if it’s over the top at times.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance e-galley; all opinions expressed in this review are 100% my own.

** A copy of Anna Bright is Hiding Something was provided by the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review **

Anna Bright is Hiding Something is Bad Blood x The Dropout x She Said! The best way to describe it is to say Elizabeth Holmes walked so Anna Bright could run! I devoured this book in a week and while I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about it. It's a page-turner about 'gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss,' female entrepreneurship, misogyny, and the lengths someone can go to succeed.

this was a really interesting and unique read that i think did a great job at capturing female relationships, especially when it comes to the business side of things. as someone who isn’t very involved in business, it could be a little dense and hard to understand that angle of the plot.

Witty ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
*ARC Review*

Anna Bright is Hiding Something by Susie Orman Schnall

AaaaAAAaahhhhhhaaaah. That's how I feel after finishing this book. It was a rollercoaster of emotions the whole way through and I came away from it feeling annoyed and not surprised. It was a great read!

The misogyny, oh the misogyny, so obnoxious, so real. I liked the duality of positions though where some women love to be viewed as a girl boss where others just want to be a boss without gendering it. Although I know the latter is Anna's position and meant to be presented as negative and blaming the victims, I feel like both positions are valid. What is NOT valid is putting down other women and not helping build them up just because *you* didn't have the same experiences.

ANNA BRIGHT IS HIDING SOMETHING
BY: SUSIE ORMAN SCHNALL

I have absolutely loved Susie Orman Schnall's two former historical fiction novels, called "The Subway Girls," and "We Came Here to Shine." I would highly recommend these two to historical novels to fans of historical fiction. They're both five star reading experiences for me. "The Subway Girls," took place in 1949, and 70 years later. "We Came Here to Shine," is about the 1939 New York City's World Fair In that vein I've been anxiously anticipating for years when Susie Orman Schnall would write her next novel as she had become one of my favorite authors. So I jumped at the chance to read her newest novel thinking that I would get the same reading high as I got after reading her historical novels.

In Susie Orman Schnall's latest novel called, "Anna Bright Is Hiding Something," I wasn't as impressed which the blame probably lies with me because I did have an instinctual aha moment when I read the synopsis and it's category was "Humor and Satire." I do think that this reminded me of the Elizabeth Holmes story who was the CEO of Theranos which was all too real and kind of scary if you value your healthcare. Elizabeth Holmes is now in prison after a journalist from the reputable Wall Street Journal exposed her company to have been fraudulent.

Elizabeth Holmes only took two classes of Chemical Engineering and dropped out of Stanford University and used her tuition money to start her company called Theranos. Many who have already heard about this scheme which basically promised that it could run from 100 to 240 diagnostic tests using a pinprick of blood versus the one vial of blood that it takes to run a medical diagnostic test that is the standard practice of screening. It also, brought to mind Bernie Madoff's infamous Ponzi Scheme who owed 68 billion dollars to those 4,800 victims and charities who gave him their money to invest. He got away with it for years paying the highest returns on investments out of the money he was given by new investors.

This latest novel is about Anna Bright who is the Female Founder and CEO to her Silicon Valley company called, BrightLife that is on the cusp of planning to launch its IPO (initial public offering). Anna is in NYC for Vanity Fair's annual Female Founder Conference where she meets Jamie Roman who works for an online publication called BusinessBerry. Jamie wouldn't normally have been given the task but her boss Veronica who is the founder of the publication they work at had gotten sick from eating a bad clam. Anna was there as one of the guests who talked about her company's latest round of funding over the breakfast brunch. Her company is believed to be getting ready to offer this eye implant called, BrightSpot complete with a biosensor and computer chip that can do all kinds of amazing things only it's also fraudulent. Only nobody knows that yet. Not her Board members, Investors or the media. While at the conference both women are impressed by each other. Anna happened to be ranting and raving unaware that her microphone was still on. It was Jamie who like Superwoman flew to Anna's side and removed her microphone which impressed not only Anna but the guests in the crowd who filmed the scene with a video that went viral. This led Anna to invite Jamie aboard Anna Bright's private jet with over the top amenities that are laughable for an exclusive interview. This private jet owned by Anna practically offers the best of everything you could imagine--if you can think of anything that you would like while flying you only have to ask and your wish is granted. Jamie Roman who is as hardworking and ambitious as Anna didn't end up getting her interview as they flew from New York City to San Francisco. Jamie who was promised by Anna to give her an interview didn't end up getting it. Anna claimed that she has a headache and sleeps during most of the flight So Jamie didn't get her assignment done and feels frustrated that she made the trip for nothing.

When Jamie is about to book her return flight home she gets a phone call from Ian who works for Anna saying that she'll do the interview on Monday. Jamie agrees to stay and tours Stanford among other things. She was entertained by Ian during the flight from her home in New York City to San Francisco. While Jamie is waiting to interview Anna on Monday over the weekend she learns from a few other women in the know of Anna's misconduct and fraud and wants to use this information by exposing Anna's misconduct so that she can make a name for herself. When Anna learns of what Jamie is up to she will do anything in her power to stop her.

I thought that this overall might appeal to readers who enjoy satire infused plots, but I found it to mirror Elizabeth Holmes's scandal with Theranos too closely. I found the formatting of this to be poorly done therefore making it distracting to read. I hope that this is fixed with a good editor before the publication date. While I have loved this author's above two prior novels much more, I did like this latest achievement by her. In summary this was a quick read that I would still recommend as women's fiction that entertains and even though at times I found the storytelling over the top it did garner some laughable moments throughout.

Publication Date: June 4, 2024

Thank you to Net Galley, Susie Orman Schnall and SparkPress for generously providing me with my eARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

#AnnaBrightIsHidingSomething #SusieOrmanSchnall #SparkPress #NetGalley

This book was the definition of gaslight, girlboss, gatekeep, and I ate it up.

I saw a live with the author and her agent and was interested in reading this book. I will say the title itself drew me in because I wanted to know what Anna was hiding and although we found out pretty early on, I kept reading. The chapters were bite-sized, fast-paced, and kept me on the edge of my seat because I just needed to know how it ended.

I loved how we saw the point of view of Jamie, the ambitious journalist, and Anna, the CEO who is definitely hiding something. Both women will stop at nothing to “win.”

I could easily see this on the big screen, but despite enjoying the novel, the ending didn’t quite do it for me. I expected more. It felt like there was this huge buildup and then nothing. Well, technically, everything was resolved so I’m still a content reader, but I would have enjoyed a more climactic ending.

Overall, I'd recommend this book to a friend!

Thank you Netgalley and Sparkpress for the ARC!

summary: this book features anna bright, an up and coming billionaire who is on track to launch her product- a insertable eye device that can track location, has gps, can record conversations, etc.- to the markets in her first IPO. and then there's jamie, who is confident there is another version of anna and her company entirely, one anna is desperate to keep hidden.

footnotes: this book has commentary about feminism, and the problems with feminism, and explores anna's relationship with the idea that she won't ever succeed given she's a woman while being a billionaire. there are also passing mentions of complicated child-parent relationships, and family dynamics.

thoughts: i absolutely loved this book. this was the closest i've gotten to a 5-star-read in a while. the characters were all so real and raw, and came with nuance and layers of themself they had to come to terms with. anna especially is a study in the mind of a successful woman who doesn't agree with the ideas and notions surrounding women today. jamie is such a relatable character, and at times my heart broke for her and the choices she had to make. the plot is completely crazy, filled with twists and turns you never see coming. we get to read the story from both anna's and jamie's perspectives, making this an even more thrilling read. setting wise, this book is a rarity, and stands out amongst the usual narrative for what a successful woman should act and think like.

overall, perfect for a cozy night in, when you're by yourself, and you're single or your husband is still at work, and you wantt to read a book that scares you a lot, explores success, and womanhood. a lot, and gives you a chance to reflect on yourself and how your point of view affects how you view everything else in today's world.

Wow. Wow. Wow. This book was so well written and on the nose when it came to the dialogue of female entrepreneurs and the current dialogue around the "Girlboss" era. Jamie and Anna's perspectives were so well written that despite Anna being a clear protagonist, you couldn't help but hope that she succeeded in all her lies and schemes. The workplace culture of today was brilliantly showcased as well. Loved this book, hope this author does more!

Anna Bright is on a mission to make her company BrightSpot a leading developer in the business world and craving success in doing so. But Anna Bright is playing with fire and soon the stakes will be high, very high.

Anna is actually creating a fraudulent company that will be unable to deliver on its promises and meet her investors high expectations. She runs her company with an iron hand and expects all her employees to be faithful to her and to be as dedicated as she is to creating the success of her product, she will do anything to succeed, lie and mislead people just so that she can obtain glory and fame . But all is not what to seems and many of her employees are incredibly unhappy, they do not have the respect for her that she believes she deserves and this leads to a very unhappy work environment which will come back to bite her in a huge way.

Young journalist Jamie Roman is also out to make a name for herself and when she becomes aware of what is happening at BrightSpot she makes it her mission to try to bring the ever confident Anna down. Jamie is also extremely ambitious and is a huge supporter of women in business, she recognises how hard it is for them to break through the glass ceiling.

Told in alternating POV's of Anna and Jamie this book grabbed my attention early and did not let go. A very interesting subject matter and the author has done an excellent job of conveying this particular world of business and presenting it to us. Thank you to Netgalley, the author and publisher for an advanced copy, all opinions expressed are my own. Highly recommended.

I first heard the author describe the concept for this book last summer at a book reading and I was already hooked. The Venn diagram of things I find fascinating include stories about journalism and fraud so this one hits the sweet spot.

It grabbed me very quickly and I stayed up late because it pulled me in so fast. It's told from the points of view of Jamie, a reporter at BusinessBerry (I have notes on that name) and Anna, the founder of a biotech company preparing for her companies IPO. I appreciated how the book managed to weave in the challenges of being a female entrepreneur -- although Anna wouldn't like the 'female' part being aded in and the misperceptions.

Anna isn't necessarily wrong to hate being singled out as a woman, but she's also a toxic boss with unrealistic expectations.

Overall, I very much enjoyed this book.

A few minor quibbles (POSSIBLE SPOILERS) I found it implausible that that Jamie would collude with another journalist to as Anna a pointed question about her company's fraud. It wasn't even that she stirred the pot trying to provoke her, but that she would share unvetted source material with someone else who could take the story and run with it. I wish that had been handled differently.

I also was bothered by Jamie's antagonism with her coworker Harrison. I don't feel like that was flushed out enough for a reader to understand and it made her seem petty and dismissive. Sure, they were competing for a promotion, but her attitude towards him was jarring without enough to back it up, in my opinion.

Note: The formatting for this file has problems. It's manageable to deal with and not as bad as some Netgalley files (I'm looking at you The New Couple in 5B), but slightly annoying.

Wow this book really shows how far some people will go to get what they want, very reminiscent of Anna Delvey.

In a story that seems inspired by Elizabeth Holmes and the Theranos fraud case, Schnall examines the price that women pay for positions of power, and the ways in which they are perceived as successful entrepreneurs.

Anna Bright is the successful, ambitious startup founder whose company is about to go public. Despite the fact that Bright herself knows that their product is flawed, she is determined to go ahead with the IPO.

When a young female business journalist realises that something is amiss, she sees it as an opportunity to break what will be the story of her career to date - and possibly the making of her reputation. But Bright has not come this far to let that happen, and Jamie Roman is not about to get in her way without facing consequences for it...

A compelling read, the book examines many of the social underpinnings of a system that is not always well-inclined towards women's success, as well as the compromises that some women make - not least wrt to their ethical standards - in the pursuit of success.

I am fascinated by the Theranos disaster so this book was right up my alley. It was well paced and very enjoyable. I could see this being a hit

There is a lot to like in this book. I loved the modern context and the truths about women in business which were told in a balanced and realistic way. The inter-relationships, often quite complex, were presented well amd explored to a depth appropriate to keep the plot flowing and engaging, I did not like the wrap up at the ending which outlined what happened next for the key characters - it struck me as a bit trite and lazy. It would have been better to end the book at the point of the story concluding.

Anna Bright is Hiding Something by Susie Orman Schnall

For readers fascinated with entrepreneur Elizabeth Holmes and the Theranos fraud saga, this novel is the perfect book to tuck into your beach tote this summer!

I raced through Schnall’s latest and loved everything about it—the style, the voice, the pacing, and the backdrop of Silicon Valley and the venture capital world.

Anna Bright, the founder of BrightLife, is about to take her company public. She and her team created BrightSpot, an implantable lens that will change how people live. However, there are problems with the lens and subdermal microchip. And Anna knows this … Dead set on leading her company through an IPO, she ignores the issues and misleads the public.

Nothing will stop her from succeeding.

Especially not Jamie Roman, a young BusinessBerry journalist specializing in startup culture and female founders.

I found the subject matter fascinating—strong women and what they face in the workforce, an excellent introduction to startup stages and mentality. And I enjoy a good how-in-the-world-could-she story. But I also realize an invention similar to BrightSpot is coming in our not-too-distant future.