1) Well, that’s an interesting way to begin. The male protagonist is rich and powerful and accused of expressing retrograde thoughts about women and their appropriate roles. I wonder how readers (primarily women) react to seeing a case in which a man is falsely accused of having ideas that have annoyed them in the past. I don’t know the answer, but the idea makes me want to keep reading.
2) Great stories need big stakes. This novel begins with an explicit and powerful dilemma: Blake must choose between saving his job and saving his company. Good. Drama!
3) I love how the author allows the women at the beginning of the book to be both sympathetic and unsympathetic. Agnes (even her name suggests her age and generation) has surely dealt with her (un)fair share of Mad Men-style sexism. Much younger Michelle, on the other hand, is allowed to be a “devious” and “dangerous.”
Check out the author’s web site and buy her book!
