Book Review: "Holly's Inbox: Scandal in the City" by Holly Denham

Things are finally going Holly Denham's way: she's in love, she's getting the recognition she deserves at work, and her friends and family have graciously opted to avoid disaster for the moment.

Just when Holly is starting to settle into her new life, scandal erupts and Holly finds herself-and her in box-at the center of a gossip whirlwind that threatens everything she's worked so hard for.

This book has been on MUST READS list ever since I finished reading Holly's Inbox last year. That book was one of my top 10 reads of 2009 and it was one I could not put down. When I finished that one, I went online to find out if there was a sequel and was estatic to find out there was but then disappointed to to discover it was only available in the UK. I was going to think that I would never be able to read it until I found out that Sourcebooks would be publishing it in the US this year. I did a little happy dance then.

When I started reading, at first I was a little lost getting back into the story. The book jumps right back into the emails and office gossip and I had a little trouble remembering who everyone was. However after I did, reading the book was such a breeze. The email format makes it so difficult to find a stopping place (not that this is a bad thing) that you can't help but keep reading. Don't be fooled at all by the thick size of the book. You will fly through the pages like there's no tomorrow and then wish there were 500 more pages to read.

The story continues the adventures of the office staff at DK Huerst focusing on receptionist Holly Denham and her communication between her fellow co-workers, her friends, family and boyfriend. Through these emails, the reader learns about what goes on in the company as well as the personal lives of the e-mailers. There is a lot of humor that goes on here and I found myself laughing quite a bit. I wonder though at the number of personal emails passed through the work email site. I would never email such revealing stuff through my work email at my own job.

If you are a fan of chick lit or books that are written in email format, this book is for you. If you loved the first book in this series, you are going to have to read this one. Maybe it's just me, but I honestly don't know how you could not love this book. I felt like I was a part of the characters' lives and able to really see who they were. If you're worried about not being able to see the entire part of the story because it's only told in emails, don't worry about that. Everything gets revealed eventually and it's part of the fun in the process to see how it all turns out. By reading the story through the emails, it gives more insight to each character and we can really see how they are through their words. I especially loved the ending because people get what's coming to them in exactly the fashion I wanted to happen.

I really hope that there will be another book after this one. I need more Holly's Inbox in my life! Who knew that reading other people's email could be so fun? This book will probably go down as my favorite chick lit read of 2010. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Holly's Inbox: Scandal in the City by Holly Denham is published by Sourcebooks Casablanca (2010)

This review copy was provided by the publisher