The Assistants by Camille Perri

The Assistants by Camille Perri
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Behind every successful man is a busy assistant and Tina’s boss is very successful.

But Tina is tired of being overworked and underpaid.
She’s bored of her damp flat and her mounting debts.
Then a blip in the expenses system sends Tina a cheque.
She’s a good person.
But she’s desperate.
This isn’t stealing.
It’s an administrative error.
Right?

What would you do if you thought you’d get away with it?



Tina works as an assistant to Robert Barlow billionaire entrepreneur and has worked for him for 6 years. Like all assistants Tina does everything for her boss from squeezing lemons into his drinks to buying birthday presents for his wife and children when he forgets, she knows more about him than anyone even his wife and she is discrete and loyal. She is paid a pittance for always being at his beck and call and like all assistants she seems to be 'on duty' 24/7. She is overworked and underpaid with mounting debts, a shabby flat, nothing to look forward to and no friends or time to have a life of her own.


Through a mix up with a flight company and having to pay for Robert's tickets out of her own pocket as she has no company credit card, Tina is sent a cheque to reimburse her when the airline realise how important Robert is and having initially refused to give him a 'freebie' change their mind. Tina put her claim through to get her money back as soon as she had set up the flights and is paid by the company but when she receives the cheque from the airline she is tempted to keep it. She, like most of her assistant colleagues, has a student loan debt that takes a huge part of her salary each month and she fantasises how different her life would be if she could just pay it off. After all Robert pays more on lunch than she does on rent - where's the harm, it's not stealing after all.


She's not a thief and not a bad person but she longs for a better life and so succumbs to temptation and with a couple of clicks on her computer pays off her loan, it's as quick and easy as that, no one knows she's done it and she thinks she has got away with it until Emily Johnson assistant to the director of Travel and Entertainment and who signs off all related expenses for her boss calls her up to the 43rd floor and tells her she knows what Tina did.


From then on events spiral out of Tina's control and she is blackmailed into doing the same for Emily and it seems this is not going to end with her. Great read, funny in parts and good characters who all blend well together. Good pace to this novel, lots of twists and a good ending. Would be a perfect holiday book, a fun light hearted easy read.


Thoroughly enjoyed this book, has to be a well deserved 4 stars.


I would like to thank the publisher for sending this in exchange for an honest review.