Holly's Inbox - Holly Denham

Holly's Inbox is the story of Holly Denham, who takes a job as a receptionist at a large corporate bank. Within a day of first starting she has received the cold shoulder from the other receptionist, fended off numerous well-meaning queries from her mum, and made a few cock-ups.

The whole story is told through emails: exchanges between Holly and her two best friends Aisha and Jason; a gradual thawing of relations between Holly and Trish, the other receptionist; and some serious flirting between Holly and James, one of the bankers. Over the course of the novel we discover a few of Holly's secrets and enjoy the comeuppance of a couple of nasty characters.

It is extremely lightweight, but served its purpose well of providing fluffy entertainment during a long lazy bath. I liked the characters and the way their attitudes were revealed through pure dialogue. I also enjoyed the use of Holly's kisses to show her mood.

Obviously it wasn't perfect - in particular, I thought that the Toby mystery was handled in a rather ham-fisted manner. Also, when each email was introduced with the header showing 'To' and 'From' a time stamp would have been nice - especially to see occasions when Holly worried that she was bombarding James with emails.

Other than that it was a perfectly pleasant and disposable read.