Blind Submission

Really 4.5 stars, but I rounded up since you can't give a half star. Very well written mystery with laugh out loud funny situations of the boss, Lucy and some of the other characters, such as Anna. It's hard to believe this is a first novel. I found the writing well above that of many established authors. Not much to Angel's love story, but then I wasn't looking for that anyway, with this particular book.

This novel shared my nightstand with two well-reviewed novels, namely Laura Lippman's What the Dead Know and The Sister by Poppy Adams. I read the first 30-ish pages of all three books, and then figured I'd continue with the one that hooked my interest. That'd be "Blind Submission." This book has mistakenly been labeled a mystery. Not so; our protagonist works at a highly successful literary agency where every unsolicited submission is read carefully by two people. These two prepare and compare notes on these manuscripts before passing judgment. Further, this agency made and continues to make its fortune by carefully culling the ideas sent in by beginning writers. So clearly "Blind Submission" is science fiction! Issues of believability aside, Debra Ginsberg has concocted a very entertaining tale. I especially enjoyed the invented snippets of novels and memoirs that came in the agency's slush pile. I hate to call this book an "entertaining lark," but there it is. Nice work, and I look forward to Ginsberg's next book, The Grift. Sidelight: As most of this novel takes place inside the agency's offices, halfway through it, I was starting to feel the story was a bit confined and stifling. At that moment I came across the line, "It occurs to me that my novel might be...a little claustrophobic." Eerie!

I really loved reading this book. Angel was a fantastically written character that I identified with. I am an avid book reader, as Angel is, and it's great to read about a character that is as passionate about books as I am. It was great reading a book that is set in the publishing world and I learned quite a bit about what it takes to get a book published, even if it was fiction and had a driven boss like Lucy in it. This book had a lot of different things thrown in-woman having to deal with a nasty boss, a little romance, and a mystery. But all the themes worked well together. The mystery was really well-written. I didn't figure out who was writing the book that was being sent in chapter by chapter not long before the person was revealed. I had my guesses but I wasn't completely sure. So I would definitely recommend this book to anyone. It can appeal to many people because it's not a fluffy chick-lit book but it actually has depth to it.

Blind Submission by Debra Ginsberg Even though Angel walked into the job from hell, with completely unrealistic expectations from her boss and very strange coworkers, the book still made me want to work at a literary agency! This is a fun, smart, chick-lit mystery - a step up from the usual. Fun, fun, fun.

I picked this book up more or less on a whim, because I'm interested in the publishing field and this looked to be an engaging novel set in a literary agency. But the book surprised me with the clever style of narration and the details of the story that really kept the plot moving. It is a very well constructed novel that forced me to finish it within an afternoon (and being an English major in college, that sort of free-reading time is hard to come by!) Not "high literature", but I felt it took the narrative a step above the "bite the boss" fiction that it is associated with. Highly recommended!