The Assistants

Bridget Jones meets Working Girl in this audiobook, and holy moly, is it fun. Tina Fontana is the assistant to a New York media titan who resembles Rupert Murdoch, but with charm. She and the other assistants at Titan Media are underpaid by some of the richest executives on earth; Tina accidentally finds herself embroiled with an angry posse of underlings intent on rearranging the distribution of wealth in their personal universe, or at least paying off their student loans. 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. B.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

February 8, 2016
If the characters from HBO’s Girls were capable of larceny and blackmail, they could be the main characters of Perri’s sharp first novel. At age 30, Tina Fontana is the executive assistant to media titan Robert Barlow (think Rupert Murdoch, but with a Texas accent) in New York City. A clerical error on her expense account results in a $20,000 check for Tina, enough to pay off her student loan, which she impulsively decides to do. When a colleague, Emily Johnson, stumbles onto Tina’s once-only scam, she talks Tina into performing the same financial prestidigitation for her. Emily also ends up becoming Tina’s roommate. In no time, they become the victims of numerous blackmail attempts as other assistants want to have their college loans paid off courtesy of an unknowing Barlow. Things escalate beyond Tina’s control, ultimately threatening her relationship with her new boyfriend, Kevin, a hunky lawyer who is also in Barlow’s employ. How Tina extricates herself from the situation forms the moral crux of this entertaining slice of millennial life. Perri has a gift for the glib one-liner, and reserved Tina and glamorous Emily make for a great pairing, resulting in smart and fresh novel.