Review: "Getting Even" by Sarah Rayner

Revenge has never been such fun

How would you feel if your best friend at work betrayed you? Was secretly having an affair with an influential colleague? Won a coveted promotion, then teamed you up with a mere junior, leaving you feeling completely demoted? What would you do? For Ivy there's no choice. The only person she has ever trusted, Orianna, has blown it big time. So there's only one way forward: revenge.

Ivy's campaign is brilliant, if horribly destructive, and she's determined to get even with the woman who has dared to cross her. But is Ivy really the innocent party? Or is she hiding secrets of her own?

My Thoughts

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read and review an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I really had a hard time getting through this book, and I'm not sure exactly why.  Maybe I just wasn't in the mood for this genre of novel, or maybe the constantly changing POV's made it difficult for me to connect with any of the characters.  Whatever the reasons for my sluggish reading, don't let this deter you from picking up "Getting Even", as it was very well done.  

I just reread the synopsis, and I do feel that it's misleading.  I was expecting the story to be told exclusively from Ivy's point of view, and for her to be the party who has been betrayed and stomped on professionally.  In reality, this is far from the case and Ivy is instead very difficult to sympathize with.  Occasionally, she deals with a bout of guilt as she dishes out her revenge, but the main reason I kept reading was because I wanted to see Ivy get what was coming to her!  She is just an awful person!!!  But she's also one of those characters that people love to hate, which can make for an extremely fun read.  

The world Rayner creates here is an interesting one in that it is so far removed from my life.  Most of the characters are an insular little group working at a marketing firm in London, and from them we get to see an inside view of the politics and relationships that make up this web.  Rob is the outsider, the personal trainer who takes on first Dan and then Ivy as clients, and even though Rob's piece in the story is relatively small, I think I enjoyed his character the most.  He was such a gossiping old biddy, I found it really amusing!

Anyway, definitely worth a look if you are a lover of chick-lit or if you are looking for something with office intrigue.

My rating: 3 stars