[Review] Delia Suits Up - Amanda Aksel

Summary: Just once, Delia Reese wants to be the one calling the shots—not the one waiting to be called. Despite her stellar resume, hiring managers at the big banks won’t give her a chance.

Following yet another failed interview, Delia commiserates with her roommates and drunkenly finds herself wishing she had the advantages that come with being a man. If society wasn't locked into gender roles, she'd be climbing the corporate ladder in designer heels with no apologies. By morning, her mirror reflects a surprising makeover.

Now that the world sees her as a man, Delia’s determined to double down on society’s double standards. With a smart suit and powerfully pink necktie, she hits New York's financial district with a big gamble in mind. (Pub Date: Aug 03 2021)

 

I had downs and lows with this book. I started super excited about the summary, the cover, the proposal. It's very easy to identify with Delia's situation, especially when her male coworker could get a job in a blink and she's on the verge of bankruptcy but still far from getting anything other than cleaning apartments. It is as good a job as any but not the one she's spent her life studying for, also not the one that'll be able to cover her bills at the end of the month. As I was saying, the beginning was even more promising than I had imagined, it spoke to me. 

But then she changes into a man... To be honest, the magic had worn off because it sounded to simplistic to blame everything on not being a man. So maybe I was already having second thoughts when she turned into one and it got too awkward. Why is she so fixated on her penis? Maybe every woman would be but I didn't really want to read so many paragraphs about that the whole book. And because it's a recurring joke, it is really all through the book. 

This said, for some time I was fearing this book would go too many levels below and beyond what I find bearable. Luckily, it didn't. Despite the fixation with her own penis, this book was pretty tame (thankfully, to be honest) and there aren't any sex scenes. 

Gradually, I found myself enjoying how crazy male!Delia's stunts got. I still felt bothered by the need to punctuate how underappreciated women were, but those were just in passing. To be honest, I wonder if the true lesson was that you need to be a man to be given value, because I concluded that Delia also lacked confidence to be more wild about what she wanted. And that was a new low for me, was this book a disservice or am I thinking too much?

But back to reviewing it, the whole adventure to help the company get the contract and thus securing a job gave me a good thrill and made the book a quick and pleasing read. Despite my doubts. Get this if you prefer not to think much and just want some laughs. It is a 3, but I'd call it a 3+ read.

Honest review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.

Rating: 3 out of 5.