“The Devil Wears Prada meets Wall Street” (TheSkimm) in this sizzling debut about a banking analyst who plans to finally pursue her yoga career full-time after her bonus hits, but until then she’ll have to keep her sanity intact (and her chakras aligned). Allegra Cobb’s resume: straight-A Princeton grad, second-year analyst at a top-tier bank, one-time American Yoga National Competition … American Yoga National Competition Champion. Allegra Cobb’s reality: Spending twenty-four hours a day changing the colors on bar charts, overusing the word “team,” and daydreaming about quitting the minute her year-end bonus hits her account. She no longer has no interest in the cutthroat banking world–she’s determined to launch her very own yoga practice.
But her plan isn’t quite as perfect as the beachfront yoga pictures she double-taps on Instagram. On top of the 100 emails an hour and coworkers already suspicious of her escape plan, Allegra’s hard-driving single father has always fiercely valued high achievement above all else. That his daughter works on Wall Street means everything to him.
But after a) unknowingly sleeping with the man now leading her banking cohort on one of their biggest deals to date and b) meeting the #blessed yoga guru who might just be her ticket to the life she’s always wanted, she realizes her happy-ever-after might be harder to manifest than she thought.
Fast-paced, laugh-out-loud funny, and totally irresistible, Breathe In, Cash Out “is a modern fairytale, a romance that’s not about finding the right guy, but finding yourself” (Eliza Kennedy, author of I Take You).
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As a blessedly former financial analyst at Salomon Brothers, reading Breathe In, Cash Out gave me shudders of PTSD. The untenable lifestyle, the claustrophobia of the job, and the risks to one’s personal health are drawn so realistically — this is a portrait of the devil in Big Finance, which promises untold riches in return for serving an inhumane master. Allegra’s fictional story is raw, unnerving, and sadly, very true.
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Breathe In, Cash Out by Madeleine Henry is just the quick, laugh-out-loud funny book I needed right now!
What it’s about: Allegra Cobb is a second-year analyst for Anderson Shaw and really hates her job. In a world where your work is already late when you get it and there is incessant use of the word ‘team’, all she really wants to do is teach yoga. So when her yoga idol, Skylar Smith, reaches out to her and offers to mentor her, Allegra jumps at the chance. But becoming a teacher and bringing balance to her life, might be a lot harder than Allegra thought it would be.
Breathe In, Cash Out is such a funny book, and I found myself laughing out loud several times. It is a light read, but also speaks to finding yourself and your way through the world. There will be people that want to bring you down, and you might not think you can do it, but this book says you can find a way. I really liked Allegra’s character and found her very relatable. From a dad who pressures her to succeed to a job that she doesn’t love, there should be something in here that will resonate with everyone.
The chapters are short, and the pace is quick so lots of readers should be able to get through this in one sitting. It didn’t even take me 4.5 hours to read which was a nice change from the 7.5-hour long book I read before it. I think Breathe In, Cash Out would make a good palate cleanser from thrillers, or books with heavy themes.
I never realized how intense the world of investment banking is, but after reading this I know there is no way I could ever do it. Allegra was such a smart character and one you want to love. Anyone that can do that job has to be dedicated, and I can tell Henry brought a lot of knowledge to the book from her work at Goldman Sachs and investment management. I love when author’s talk about something they know, and it made me like this book even more. I wasn’t completely satisfied with the way things are left with Skylar, but besides that Breathe In, Cash Out was a very solid book for me.
Song/s the book brought to mind: Falling Down by Avril Lavigne (from the Sweet Home Alabama soundtrack).
Final Thought: Breathe In, Cash Out reminded me a little of Fitness Junkie, and I would say Henry’s writing style is similar to that of Lucy Sykes. If you’ve read and loved that book, then I think you will like this one as well. It will definitely be a favorite for women’s fiction lovers, and anyone who likes a book that makes them laugh! I couldn’t even tell this was a debut and look forward to reading more from Madeleine Henry.
Thank you to the publisher for providing me with an advance review copy of this book, all opinions are my own.
Madeleine Henry’s new book, Breathe In, Cash Out, is a terrific read. It’s a fun and fresh window into the somewhat sadistic, highly competitive worlds of investment banking—and yoga.
Breathe In, Cash Out is a complete delight. Madeleine Henry’s writing is funny and as bracing as her heroine’s daily caffeine intake (which is insane). But this novel is more than entertainment: it’s a compelling, thoughtful story about how women work today—our ambitions, our uncertainties, and the pressures we’re under to please others as much as ourselves. Henry probes these issues with wit and warmth and a keen eye for the absurd. The result is a modern fairytale, a romance that’s not about finding the right guy, but finding yourself.
Madeleine Henry’s Breathe In, Cash Out, is a satirical romance, or, perhaps, a romantic satire, that improbably and hilariously juxtaposes the worlds of investment banking and yoga, sparing neither. Her portrait of the ambitious, sleep-deprived, paranoid peons of Wall Street, and their tyrannical masters, is brilliantly observed. This is a very stylish and entertaining debut.