Bond Girl

Great Read!!

Erin Duffy wows us in “Bond Girl” with her wicked humor, her wit and sense of honor and duty. She is a new voice in literature to be reckoned with and her first novel has set a bar that many will not be able to match.

Alex Garrett has always been a tomboy; having more fun playing sports with the boys in the neighborhood than hanging with her girl friends. So when she decides to follow her father’s footsteps and enter the financial world of Wall Street, no one is really surprised. Her Mom was the only one to offer advice – to put her pride in second place.
Alex arrives at Cromwell Pierce with a big smile and a heart full of hope, soon to be extinguished by the boys club she encounters. All the stories about Wall Street and the craziness of the trading floor are true. The brokers are petty, malicious, liars, flirts, tricksters and down-right embarrassing! Her boss, Chick, is crazy, demanding but loyal. Her first day, she is forced to sit on a folding chair behind everyone working at their desks so she can watch what is going on. No one will talk to her or answer any questions but at lunch time, she is the gopher who must pick up overwhelming amounts of food by herself – 100 pizzas, 200 philly cheesesteaks from Pennsylvania and as a punishment from Chick for disobeying his rules, a 50 lb. wheel of cheese from the Bronx!

But Alex hangs in, no matter what is thrown at her. Chick realizes her strengths and starts to work with her, teaching her everything he knows and giving her advice how to handle all the men in her department. And she does, even making some friends. But life at Cromwell Pierce is always two steps forward and 5 steps backwards – the worst being the antagonistic men who want to help her climb the ladder of success by offering her a place in their bed!! Mom was right: should she put her honor and pride in second place so she can earn oodles and oodles of money??? When the crash of 2008 happens, and Chick is fired, Alex has a lot of decisions to make, not only about her personal life but also relating to the reorganization of Cromwell Pierce and the golden handcuffs she’d have to wear.

Not only do we read a well-told tale about life on Wall Street but we also learn quite a bit about Wall Street itself – which makes me eternally grateful I’ve never had the desire to spend one iota of time there!!

Kudos to Ms. Duffy for a wonderful, fun-filled ride!

Definitely 5 stars!!!!!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Great read.

Highly enjoyed this page turner. Was interesting and engaging from the first page to the last. I personally found it very interesting and appreciated the lack of sutelty; you know what this girl is thinking and there is never any effort to hide her thoughts from the reader.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Read it cover to cover

Pre-ordered after seeing good reviews in magazines. Entertaining read. Great perspective of life in the investment world from a young woman's point of view. As someone who has worked in a male dominated environment, I felt like I was sitting in the folding chair right along with her!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

3 1/2 Stars. The author has a very engaging voice, and the trip

3 1/2 Stars. The author has a very engaging voice, and the trip through the workplace from hell to the financial meltdown was interesting.

What I found missing was the personal. Alex chooses to work on Wall Street because her father does, and she has wanted to do with since she was a little girl. But when she does, actually, get a job on Wall Street, we don't see her communicating with or even thinking about her father very much.

When she strikes up a workplace romance, I wasn't even sure that she had. She's out for drinks and flirting with a co-worker (something that could cost her her job). Next she's waking up in his bed - did she pass out, or did they have sex? As you continue reading, yes, apparently she and said co-worker are "hooking up" and she is becoming emotionally involved, but there is no THERE there. We don't see them kissing, having sex, or her daydreaming about him very much, just some innocuous emails.

Since we already know about the financial meltdown, that wasn't a surprise, and since I wasn't emotionally invested in Alex's romance, the ending to that doesn't really pay off, either. I would certainly read another book by this author, but hope she'll include some closer looks inside her character's heart.

Loved, Loved, Loved It!

I must admit the nice shoe on the cover is what initially attracted me - what can I say, I'm a shoe girl to my core. As a woman who spent 10 years in a national public accounting firm, I totally identified with the story Erin Duffy unpacked in Bond Girl. I was literally laughing out loud at some of the practical jokes the played. Anyone who wants to know what it's REALLY like for a woman in a tough corporate company, read this book.

The cover of Erin Duffy's debut novel, Bond Girl, is striking an

The cover of Erin Duffy's debut novel, Bond Girl, is striking and catches the eye right away. A black stiletto with a blood red sole placed on top of The Wall Street Journal newspaper. So if you thought by the title alone that this book was about a female spy, the cover sets you straight- it's about a woman working in the world of finance.

We meet Alex, a twenty-something who works in the bond department at Cromwell Pierce, "one of Wall Street's biggest powerhouses". She describes an overheard encounter in the elevator between two men trying to one-up each other in where they went to college, what college their sons' attend, which lacrosse position their sons' play, which golf course they played at this past weekend, and says that she works in "the giant sandbox from hell".

Duffy herself worked in the financial industry and this book is filled with anecdotes that you just know are true. On a slow day, one coworker takes a bet that he can eat one of everything in the vending machine before the end of the day. Alex is forced to keep track of everything he eats on a clipboard and keep every wrapper. That scene just rang with veracity, it made me wonder if the guy who did this has read this book.

Alex is a female in a mostly male environment, a hostile environment at times. The men that work at Cromwell are competitive, masters-of-the-universe type. Her boss, Chick, tells Alex that the job won't be easy but he will cut her no slack.

She doesn't get a desk, she has to sit on a folding chair while she shadows salesmen at their desks. Since she is the last hired, she has to do the scut work- making several trips up to the trading floor bringing boxes and boxes of pizza to rally the troops, running to Starbucks to get 33 cups of coffee, (each with specific instructions), and once as punishment, she had to go from lower Manhattan all the way up to Arthur Avenue in the Bronx to get hot sandwiches and a 50 pound wheel of parmesan cheese and get back before the sandwiches got cold. (Food is a big part of the reward system there.)

Working at Cromwell isn't for sissies, and Alex has to prove herself. She battles sexism, long hours, and a powerful, lecherous client who wants Alex to sleep with him or lose her job. She makes a few friends at work, and eventually becomes romantically involved with a good guy whose biggest fault is that he disappears on the weekends.

I don't know much about the bond trading world, and Duffy educates her readers while keeping them interested in her story. This is a fantastic debut, with terrific, real characters and snappy writing. Her characters aren't stock; her boss Chick at first seems cruel, but he grows on you once you get to know him, and Alex herself changes as she gains more confidence.

I raced through this book and thoroughly enjoyed my trip through the hectic, crazy finance world of Bond Girl. This book is ripe for a movie treatment, and I would look forward to seeing on screen soon. This is a terrific book to curl up with on cold, snowy day; once you start it, you will want to finish it in one sitting, rooting Alex on the whole way. It's one of the most enjoyable reads of this year.

Great Read

I loved this book and looked forward to reading it every night. I have been looking for a book I like as much, so far no luck.

Really good book!

This was a fun and interesting read. Very similar to Devil Wears Prada...but not a copycat of it. I can easily see this becoming a movie!

Great Read!

This was a great book for a first-time author. Extremely funny. A quick, easy read. The situation with the boyfriend was a bit predicable but overall the book was very enjoyable.

Great read!

Really enjoyed this book, fun read.

So so.......

The book started out great....so I had high expectations. The author's depiction of Wall Street was on target..reflective of her experience there. I liked the flow of the book until about three quarters through and then it seemed to drag a bit. The ending was abrupt and left me with an empty feeling.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Very enjoyable

Very entertaining. I look forward to her next book!

Great fun

I really enjoyed reading this book. The descriptions of people give a vivid picture of folks we all can recognize. Ms. Duffy has a very nice writing style and I had a hard time putting this book down.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Decent but not great

Bond Girl has funny moments. It's a fast read and generally keeps you turning the pages. It's predictable at points as many stories are such as the situation with her "bf." I wanted more interaction with the other woman in office. The ending was disappointing. It reminded me of devil wears prada but not as good or satisfying.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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