“What Have You Done For Mia Lately?” is a contemporary literary fiction novel that follows the life of Kat, a lawyer who initially finds herself captivated by her old law school acquaintance, Mia. The story explores themes of toxic relationships and the pressures of modern work environments.

Kat works as a prosecutor on a case involving a landlord trying to evict rent-controlled tenants. During this time, she reconnects with Mia, who has become a successful partner at a prestigious Manhattan law firm. Tempted by the allure of better pay and opportunities for pro bono work, Kat decides to leave her government job and join Mia’s firm.

However, what starts as an exciting new chapter quickly turns into a nightmare. Mia reveals her true colors as a demanding and erratic boss who manipulates and gaslights Kat. As the story unfolds, readers witness Kat’s struggle to navigate this toxic friendship while dealing with the high-stakes world of corporate law.

The narrative captures Kat’s emotional turmoil and gradual realization of Mia’s narcissistic tendencies. It highlights the challenges faced when one becomes ensnared in a relationship that seems beneficial at first but ultimately proves detrimental.

“What Have You Done For Mia Lately?” serves as both an engaging narrative and a cautionary tale about the complexities of personal and professional relationships.

Such a good book that I feel like a lot of literary fiction girls would enjoy. The writing was engaging, and the character were built well, and made me actually care about them. Thank you for the opportunity to review.

Drawn in by the cover initially, I had fun reading this! This book was excellent because it accurately depicted the agony of being trapped in a toxic friendship or relationship with no apparent escape. The author masterfully conveyed the emotional turmoil and the sense of entrapment that often accompanies such situations. The characters were well-developed, and their interactions felt authentic and raw. I was deeply invested in Kat’s journeys, rooting for them to find a way out of their toxic entanglements. The pacing was just right, keeping me hooked from start to finish. Overall, it was a compelling read that resonated with me on many levels.

This was a great book. I connected with the characters. I felt engrossed with the plot. I would read another book by this author.

I really enjoyed this story so much. I too have dealt with toxic upper management. I felt as though Kat was relatable. The story was easy to follow and very enjoyable to read.

This was a quick read for me and was unlike my usual reading material so i appreciated it. Think lawyer workplace corporate drama with toxic friendships and narcissistic coworkers.

A shockingly fast read with characters that resonated with me for good and bad reasons! Mia is a frenemy if there ever was one and made this book such a compelling read. I would highly recommend it.

This book definitely shows how a lawyer can go bad…with unending abuse and demands of her staff, employees and partners. How associates have to work excessive hours and bill bill bill. Also the story of n idealistic lawyer wanting to do good. I was absorbed in the story and rooted for the underdogs.

WHYDFML was painful to read - not because of the writing which was fabulous, but because it so perfectly captured the limbo of being stuck in a toxic friendship or relationship and having no clue how to get out.

We start the story in a beauty part of union square park, with cherry blossoms turning pink and the sun in the sky - but the beautiful surroundings fade into the background as the stress and tension set in for Kat. Kat herself was a complex main character, a lawyer for white collar crime, overworked and tired and as we watch on as her life continues on as normal … until it doesn’t. Even with the third person narration, we still get a lot of her personality shine through as we spend more time with her and see beyond the cliche of the high-powered career character. It’s a little slow and quiet to start, but eventually finds a steady and interesting pace.

The pressure starts to ramp up right away, with cases about corrupt landlords, sly bosses, - it’s enough to make you anxious, or maybe run away and hide. If you’ve ever found yourself caught up in a friendship and not realizing until too late that they’re selfish, cruel or dishonest you’ll know exactly how Kat feels.

A masterclass in toxicity and the pressures of modern life, this book is a little too relatable for its own good.

For anyone interested in books about a lawyer and toxic friendship, I think that this book might be for you. For me, it was just boring and had so many characters that I kept forgetting who we were talking about, so it was really confusing. I dnf'ed it at 40% and there wasn't any romance (I'm a big romance girly, but if you don't like it maybe this would be a good book for you). Overall I just don't think this was my type of book.

*Thank you NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for sending me this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.*

What have you done for Mia lately? takes you on a ride of toxicity, narcissism and manipulation taking place in the corporate world.

It is sickening to sit back and read about how gnarly work relationships can get, especially when they go from syrupy sweet to venomous so quickly.

This fast-paced novel is unfortunately relatable to some degree but it felt good to see it through.

Bonus point: I learned a lot of new words which happens quite rarely! I really enjoyed it.

3.5/5

3.75 Stars

I enjoyed this book however, there were definitely some flaws to it. Sometimes the pacing felt a bit off the book spans about a year but it honestly felt like it was just a few months. There were a lot of words repeated and little typos but its worth noting I have early access so those may be fixed by the publishing date. I enjoyed the book and will definitely be recommending it to others. That being said I don't think I'm the target audience i enjoyed it but I didn't feel the urge to devour this book. I think Julia Flynn did a very good job writing a very believable toxic friendship and work relationship. There was a hint of romance to the book but I was left wanting more. Overall a good read and like I said, I'd recommend it to others.

Read from December 14th, 2023 to January 7th, 2023. Written on January 7th, 2023.

Took me some time but I finally finished this book and I am sad to say it just didn't do it for me. The concept is interesting but it felt a little bit all over the place, especially the first half. I do have to say that the last chapters were fun to read and it was amazing to see the change in the main character, Kat, from the beginning to the end. Great character arc. It's definitely the type of book that leaves me thinking a little bit about the real world, specially about friendships/work relationships. I hope someone picks up this book and loves it in ways I couldn't.

On another note, I love the cover art and the title, love the originality.

Signing off,
B.

(Free ARC from NetGalley and BooksGoSocial that I chose to review after reading)

Lawyer Kat works in the prosecutor’s office and is on the case of a landlord trying to force out rent-controlled tenants. She discovers the landlord has a silent partner in Mia, who sat her bar exam with Kat and is now a star with a leading law firm.
When someone else scores the promotion Kat was vying for, she’s tempted into joining Mia’s firm, where she can still do pro bono work. But Mia is the boss from hell, demanding, erratic, and often never around.
This is like a Devil Wears Prada on speed. The story is told at a crazy pace and it feels like the author knows the story so well in her head that she sometimes leaves her reader behind. But somehow, I still wanted to hang in there to see Mia get her comeuppance.

3 stars ⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with this ARC in exchange for a review.

Literary fiction isn’t usually my cup of tea, but I was pleasantly surprised by this one. ‘What Have You Done For Mia Lately’ follows Kat, the mc, as she becomes employed at a law firm under an old friend, Mia. We quickly learn that Mia has some toxic traits and takes advantage of her employees.
I wasn’t a fan of the writing in this book. At times it was very choppy and abrupt. The book would jump from one scene to another without any lead up or explanation and forced you to connect the dots. I often felt like I was taken out of the book as I had to reread a sentence or a scene multiple times to double check it. Sometimes the author would mention something in a way that made it seem as if we should already know this information, but I couldn’t find a mention of it earlier on.
I also didn’t like the way the dialogue was structured. Again, it was very abrupt. It sounded unnatural and it didn’t flow. I thought at times the characters talked very bluntly and it just was not natural at all. A lot of the dialogue lacked tags so it was difficult to figure out who was saying what at times.
There was also a lot (seriously- a lot) of grammar mistakes in this book. I’m not an editor- but simple things like repeated words in a sentence, or missing quotation marks at the start/end of dialogue, missing words in a sentence, can be found throughout the book. I am hoping this is just a product of the ARC that I received, and that the published version does not have these.
Overall, I didn’t like the writing style but I enjoyed the plot and story itself.

I was drawn to this book's cutesy cover design, even though it didn't look or sound like a book that would usually spark my interest. I think I was hoping for a protagonist with a dark secret, or some kind of story with dark undertones. I finished this book, and it was okay, but it just didn't resonate with me. I didn't really like or connect with any of the characters, and I found that the storyline in general didn't really interest me. I didn't really care about any of the characters or what happened to them. I may still try another book by this author, but this is the type of book that I would read once and then pass on to someone else

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for a free copy to review.

A fast paced and exciting read where you just loveee to hate the characters! I'm definitely interested in reading more by Julia Flynn.

A very fast paced and enjoyable read. Kept me on the edge of my seat, and the climax was very satisfying. However I found the writing to be a tad clunky, and that took me out of it a bit. Still enjoyed it.

A fast paced novel which at times could have done with slowing down but overall a great read.
I won't say much about the plot as I think it's best to go in blind but just know you are in for a ride!

Unfortunately, this one isn't for me. I thought the writing was fine but I just couldn't connect to the characters and couldn't stay focused. Thank you NetGalley, and BooksGoSocial for the opportunity to read and review this advanced copy.