Review: "Holly's Inbox" by Holly Denham (Bill Surie)

After numerous bloggers whose opinions I have come to respect recommended this book (again and again!), I knew that I would have to pick up a copy for myself. One Amazon.ca gift card later it arrived, and I have been waiting for the right time to dive in. This past long weekend found me looking for something light and fun to read, and Holly's Inbox fit the bill!

Have you ever wanted to read someone else's e-mails? (Come on, you know that you want to!) Holly's Inbox is a collection of e-mails between the fictional Holly Denham and her collection of friends, co-workers, family members, and yes, even enemies. Despite the fact that the entire book is in e-mail form, we get a good grasp of who Holly is, and what she's been up to. We read e-mails as she starts a new job as a receptionist in a banking firm in London, falls in love, gets dumped, fights with her mother and more- all in the span of 723 delcious pages.

The only way that I can describe this book is to compare it to a box of chocolates, the really good kind. You eat one, then another, and then another and you swear that you'll stop after this one, but the next thing you know the entire box is empty. In other words, this book is extremely addictive! I warn you against starting to read this book of you have anything of a pressing nature that needs to be done, as chances are once you've started, you won't be able to stop.

I thoroughly enjoyed Holly's Inbox! I quickly got caught up in the life of Holly Denham and her absolutely charming best friend, Jason, her new friend and co-worker, Trish, her interfering mother (who really only means well) and her frenemy, Jennie. The e-mails came through fast and furious, and not once was I bored while reading this. One fellow blogger expressed to me that the book was "ruined" for her when she found out that the author was really a man who had gotten the idea for writing this book when he had seen one of his employee's e-mails. Thankfully I felt quite the opposite. It may have been a man who wrote this book, but you wouldn't be able to tell. This one screams chick-lit all the way through, and I can only hope that he will decide to write a follow-up.

Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Recommended to: Chick lit lovers, those looking for a thoroughly fun and addictive read
Challenges: 2010 100+ Reading Challenge, 2010 Chick Lit Challenge, New Author Challenge 2010, RYOB Challenge 2010