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The Assistants  By  cover art

The Assistants

By: Camille Perri
Narrated by: Jorjeana Marie
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Publisher's summary

A wry and astute debut about a young Manhattanite whose embezzlement scam turns her into an unlikely advocate for the leagues of overeducated and underpaid assistants across the city.

Tina Fontana is the hapless but brazen 30-year-old executive assistant to Robert Barlow, the all-powerful and commanding CEO of Titan Corp., a multinational media conglomerate. She's excellent at her job and beloved by her famous boss - but after six years of making his reservations for restaurants she'd never get into on her own and pouring his drinks from bottles that cost more than her rent, she's bored, broke, and just a bit over it all.

When a technical error with Robert's travel-and-expenses report presents Tina with the opportunity to pay off the entire balance of her student loan debt with what would essentially be pocket change for her boss, she struggles with the decision: She's always played by the rules. But it's such a relatively small amount of money for the Titan Corporation - and for her it would be a life changer….

The Assistants speaks directly to a new generation of women who feel stuck and unable to get ahead playing by the rules. It will appeal to all of those who have ever asked themselves, "How is it that after all these years, we are still assistants?"

©2016 Camille Perri (P)2016 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"Jorjeana Marie puts this diverse and hilarious cast of New York characters through their many-accented paces like Dorothy Hamill landing a triple axel. In every paragraph. Her warm, bright tone creates just the right mood, and her pacing, balancing humor and looming disaster, is perfect." (AudioFile)

“Anyone who’s ever struggled to pay down a student loan and make the rent on that rat-infested apartment will savor this wry, keenly observed debut.” (People)

“Five pages into reading The Assistants, you know Perri has a hit on her hands.... Nine to Five meets Thelma and Louise - except nobody dies at the end, rape is student debt and nearly every woman we meet is a survivor.” (The New York Times Book Review)

What listeners say about The Assistants

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Didn't Agree With the Moral of the Story

Some of it was funny but it was very "spoiled millennial themed". I'm technically of that age group, a woman, I work in corporate America & I had school loans & worked to pay them off. I didn't like that it made it seem like it was okay to steal from someone just because they are rich & you want more money. If you want a better job then go look for one or do something about it. If you want higher salary then ask for it in a review. It made women seem helpless when we're not. We have a lot of potential in corporate America. We also choose how much debt we take on in college & some people work through school to pay for it or to lower the cost. It's nice when things are handed to us but we don't just deserve things to be handed to us. My two cents. If you agree, then reading this book will be disappointing.

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14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

A light and fun read

Would you try another book from Camille Perri and/or Jorjeana Marie?

I might

Would you recommend The Assistants to your friends? Why or why not?

Yes as a beach read - it's entertaining.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

I didn't like the narrator much until the last half of the book. Somehow, she grew on me.

Any additional comments?

This was a light and entertaining book with a predictably happy ending, but the path to that ending was well paced, and well seeded with setbacks and consequences. Imagine the book Devil Wears Prada but now set in the financial district of New York. Fun. Good vacation read.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Meh

This is a cute book, but nothing more. The characters are one-dimensional with shallow relationships, and the plot is often predictable. Plus, the narrator's voice is childish and rather whiny.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Meh.

How could the performance have been better?

Is it just me or did the narrator sound like she had a stuffy nose the entire time??? It almost took away from the storyline.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Decent book

I had to get half way through the book before I was invested. It was too long of a set up. I did think the ending was worth getting through the book. I would recommend to a friend as a summer read if they needed something easy but this is not a must read. The narrator did a fantastic job of keeping all the voices consistent with each character.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

love this book

Any additional comments?

This book was AMAZING. I just loved it! I have been telling so many people that they NEED to read it. It is a fun, engaging story about what it would be like to take advantage of somebody else's mistake and to pay off ALL your student loans with a click of a few buttons. Would you take the chance to live debt free or would you fix the error and continue to the chisel away at the debt for what feels like the rest of your life??? There were so many times that I laughed out loud and thought to myself "What would I do?" The cast of characters in this book was just fran-freakin-tastic...a mix of misfits, that seemed to fit together. It was so fun watching the dynamics play out as the stress of the situation increased. I could see this as an AMAZING blockbuster movie! Actually, that is what I really want to see. It was one of my favorite books that I have read in a while. There was humor, love, friendship, shenanigans and fun galore (as well as some significant stress). I cannot wait to see what Perri comes up with next, because folks, this is her debut...there could be more of this awesome coming down the hatch!!! Aren't we so lucky??? I sure think so... 5 HUGE stars

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

I wanted to love this

Would you try another book from Camille Perri and/or Jorjeana Marie?

I wanted to love this book---the premise is great! But, there were so, so many holes. In addition, the reader sounded like she had a cold and it drove me nuts.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

Predictable

Would you be willing to try another one of Jorjeana Marie’s performances?

No thank you.

Do you think The Assistants needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

No thanks.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

All around forgettable

What didn’t you like about Jorjeana Marie’s performance?

She gave a lot of the supporting characters strange accents. An over the top Brooklyn accent for one woman, a snooty New England accent for another, and yet another got a truly bizarre accent and weird vocal tics that I can't even identify.

Any additional comments?

I hated this book and everyone in it. Tina, the main character, is an immature, clumsy doormat. It seems like the main character in a lot of chick lit I've read recently fits that description, yet all of these women somehow attract handsome, successful, and mature men and everything in their lives tie up in a pretty perfect bow at the end of the book.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Could not finish

I do not mind unrealistic occurrences in books, as long as the characters react to the strange occurrences in seemingly realistic ways. That was not the case here. I could not get a handle on who the main character was supposed to be, and the side characters were ridiculous stereotypes. I don't have to like characters, but their motivations should make sense. I stopped listening halfway through.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

It was fine... entertaining.

As a woman who was an assistant for a wealthy professional, it was entertaining. I didn't think it was any remarkable, though.

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