Get ready for this humorous revenge plot where Vanessa and her ex-colleagues get back at their weird ex-boss. Vanessa got fired for her "face" which is so ridiculous yet made an interesting start for this book, But then I had to find what was even happening at this office and everything they did felt extremely suspicious. Once the revenge plot started, it got more funnier! Was it over the top? Oh yes, but it was fun so it works for me!

This was delightfully fun and humorous. I enjoyed Vanessa, her friends, her love interest, and let's be honest, even her horrible boss. The anticts were great and I couldn't put it down. I hope we will be seeing more from this debut author.

I like the premise of getting revenge for being fired for such a trivial reason. (I've been written up for not smiling. You can pry my mask from my cold corpse.)
The writing was good but some of the plot was disjointed. Because I didn't care about the ex, the flashbacks were annoying. The mother and her friends were a bit much, too.
An enjoyable revenge fantasy.

I never liked someone telling me to smile more and this book has it as a title. I know fun would begin and I would really enjoy this book much. Good story and enjoyed it all.

Oh this was fun! Vanessa is stuck at a dead end telemarketing job with an insane boss when she’s unceremoniously fired for her ‘face’.

She refuses to take it lying down and declines the companies three day pay severance package and instead applies for unemployment.

This action triggers an avalanche that uncovers embezzlement and a series of unfair firings. Which, of course, Vanessa and her friends expose.

This is funny, sweet and a little bit hopeful when the good beats the bad.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for this ARC.

OH MY GOSH! This book is SO good! The book starts off with Vanessa being fired for having RBF. s it goes on tt is funny, whitty, so much banter. It was the every boss from hell wish we would have revenge story. Plus add in some foster kittens, an overbearing Mom, the best support group and you have an amazing novel! It did get a little slow in the middle with all the shenanigans the group was working on to get back at their old boss but it did pick up at the end.

I really don't want to give away spoilers, this book is worth the read, especially if you have had a horrible boss!

Despite her degree in Latin Language, Vanessa Blair works as a telemarketer for Directis. The only benefit of her work is that it provides enough salary to allow her to eat and keep a roof over her head. Her real joy comes from her close friends and volunteer work with the local animal shelter.

Out of the blue, Vanessa is fired for “her face”. What follows is a hilarious romp as more and more people are fired from Directis. Vanessa’s coworkers and her mom are determined to find out what’s really happening there, no matter what illegal spying is needed.

I highly recommend this book for anyone looking for a fun read with crazy characters and a comical revenge plot. Also, anyone who likes cats!

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for this ARC.

What the hell did I just read?

You Should Smile More by Anastasia Ryan was the most random book I have read, in the best way. If you have ever had a boss from hell and/or been apart of a workplace environment that was bat shit crazy, this is the book for you!

Vanessa Blair has just been let go from her job as a telemarketer for her face. You read that right, her face. She spends the remainder of the book trying to collect unemployment benefits while avenging her preposterous dismissal. None of this could have been achieved without the help of some wacky side characters, an investigation into the illegal activity taking place at Directis, and a litter of kittens.

I highly recommend this book to those who are fans of cats, the slightly deranged, and looking for a good laugh.

Special thanks to Sourcebooks Casablanca and NetGalley.com for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest feedback.

Gosh, this one was everything I've ever wanted in a book. There were cats! And romance! And revenge plots! This one was so much fun

Seriously, I spent the entire reading experience laughing. Every page was hysterical. In between the Latin kittens, the Bridge Brigade, and Xavier (Excalibur) there was never a dull moment.

And the kittens deserve their own paragraph. Any book that has cats immediately gets a star boost. And the cats in this one were so adorable!!

As for the revenge plot, it was so much fun. It was nonsensical, but so fun. I wanted to be part of their plots :(

If you've ever even eyed this one, you should pick it up! It was tons of fun, and a great light read for a winters day.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review!

Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Anastasia Ryan's debut novel is genuinely a laugh-out-loud story about friendship and revenge. And cats.

Vanessa Blair has a lot of reasons to be glad she no longer has to work for Directis, a telemarketing company, one of them being that she won't have to look at the bare feet of her megalomaniac boss Xavier every day. But a job is a job, and she's not only unemployed now but humiliated, after being fired on account of "her face". What. The. Fuck.

While the people in her life want to find dirt on Xavier's shady company and get revenge, Vanessa just wants to put everything behind her, get unemployment help, and find a better job. She's put up with too many mandatory, off-the-clock "company bonding" events and degrading "worst employee" rankings to want anything to do with Xavier or anyone like him again. But Xavier is out for her blood, and Vanessa is not going to take it anymore.

I've never worked in telemarketing or any other corporate jobs, though I think it's very different in my country from North America (thank goodness for labor laws!). I've heard enough from people who do to know that the events depicted in this story might not be too far from what really happens in some offices, though. I thought that Ryan has a good balance of depicting how truly messed up and traumatizing for employees that is, and keeping it ridiculous and light so that it can be enjoyable.

The book leans on "The Art of War", which I've never read, and every chapter in the present starts with a relevant quote from it. Other chapters give us a flashback to past office events that shed some light into current situations and relationship dynamics.

While there are a couple of romantic subplots, romance is not the focus of the book, which worked for me. Both of these relationships were very cute and made you root for them, and the male characters in both of them are great without the author having to hit you over the head with how great they are. They just are, but it's not about them.

This is mostly about Vanessa and her support group. Vanessa and her friends were likeable, relatable, and supportive with each other. I also loved her mom's "bridge" group, and the rest of the characters who eventually join in the plan. And the cats, of course.

I really enjoyed following Vanessa's unemployment journey. Reading about her anxiety and insecurities felt relatable and understandable rather than a bummer. I don't want to read a book to get depressed about someone else's life! And I really appreciated that, while it is totally believable to get fired in the US based on your appearance, there was another reason behind it.

Overall, this was a really fun ride that will make anyone who's ever had a horrible boss (especially if you're a woman) cheer as he gets his comeuppance. Resting bitch face comrades, rise!

This novel is more than a 4 -- give it a 4.5 for the sheer fun and comedy of some bits. Vanessa is fired from her telemarketing job when her boss, Xavier, tells her "Your face makes it clear you don't think very highly of the management here. Quite frankly, it gives the impression that you have a dark soul." Xavier is an absurd man, a villainous manager who refuses to wear shoes and respect the English language, exhorting the team to "conjunctive with each other" and "coheese together," so it's good fun when Vanessa and her co-workers hatch a plot to Get Even. Throw in a litter of foster kittens, a nice guy at the unemployment office, and Vanessa's mother and her posse who are determined to assist in delivering justice, and you have a sly, entertaining caper novel that explores the hazards of the modern job market and what we do to survive at work.

This is not your typical revenge book. The author gives you background and really digs deep to make the characters realistic without being too preachy. This book does not disappoint. The bad guy doesn’t always win.

This was a delightfully fun read and as someone who knows people who suffer from RBF I would absolutely go all in for revenge with them.

You Should Smile More started out as a really interesting, engaging parody of corporate culture and capitalism, but about a third of the way through it started getting a little too wacky and unrealistic for me. I would have preferred a more nuanced satire. But, the characters were engaging enough to keep me reading; I wanted to find out what would happen to them. A good read if you're looking for something a little out there.

This book made me smile more and then, I found myself laughing out loud. Vanessa and her co-workers seek revenge after Vanessa and Trisha are fired from their tele-marketing jobs. It turns out that the company they worked for is crooked. When mom and the “Bridge Brigade” get involved in the quest for revenge, things get even zanier. The book also has a crew of kittens and “the old guy” from the unemployment office to spark some romance. I loved this book. It is a great debut. I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley and Sourcebooks. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This book really made me smile because of Vanessa's facial expressions.
Vanessa really is a loveable character. Especially since she's a cat lover like me.
This was another can't put down read for me. I totally loved this book! I finished it one night. Yes, I lost some sleep but it was worth it.
Xavier is a total drag. What a peanut head!
He made me want to scream at him sometimes.
I knew there was something about this book that reminded me of a certain movie lol. I just couldn't place it at the time.
5 stars for a well written book! One I highly recommend!
My thanks for a copy of this book. I was NOT required to write a positive review
All opinions expressed are my own.

This book was fun! Honestly, it combines several of my favorite things: cats, humor, revenge on the local jerk, a smidgen of romance, and of course, obscure references to a dead language. I loved how the obnoxious boss is portrayed and only wish a little more history into WHY he was such an intolerable jerk would have been written in. Was he always this absurd or was it a slow decline into absolute madness? And Carter? Dream boyfriend material. Vanessa's mom is over-the-top, but her unusual behavior doesn't hide her love and devotion for her daughter, and despite her and her gaggle of friends playing "spy" and acting out the true-crime dramas they love so much, Vanessa knows they have her back at every turn. Very enjoyable read.

This book had such an interesting premise. Vanessa is wrongfully fired from her telemarketing job, so with her two work friends decides to launch a revenge plan. At the beginning of this novel, I was so invested and loved the quirkiness to this novel, particularly in its characters. I will admit that this lost its shine by about half way through, but I think it was due at this stage to the pace of the novel. It felt like it really slowed down, and just became a bit too unrealistic in some of the shenanigans. Thankfully, the pace picked back up again in the last 20%.

You Should Smile More is a fun book, with eccentric characters and a light, feel-good romance. I look forward to reading more from Ryan in the future.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for a copy of this novel. ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

"You Should Smile More" was the perfect escape that I needed! The story of Vanessa being laid off because of her face, was the start of this hilarious book. Having an extensive background in human resources, I cringed and laughed out loud at some of these crazy workplace antics. Also, being a cat-lover, I loved reading about the rescue cats and Vanessa's work at a cat adoption agency. Honestly, this was such a different and cute story, that I can't wait to read more by Anastasia Ryan! 5 stars!

3.5✨

This book brought the belly laughter, the epic heroics, the heart-warming inspiration, and all the love. It was a delightful read!

The title is what caught my attention— I can’t tell you the number of times strangers or acquaintances have implored me to smile more. I felt so offended on Vanessa’s behalf when her ‘face’ got her first. The basis for her firing and the entire workplace plot is utterly ridiculous but damn it if I didn’t fall for it all hook, line, and sinker. I shouldn’t have sold so quickly into former bosses with bare-feet-on-fake-grass-under-the-desk, but here I am believing it. But even easier to believe and love was the friendship between the women who came together to right several wrongs against them. Their friendship is the core of this story and they carry it well.

I admit towards the middle I felt I lost my footing within the world, I looked more forward to its ending than its journey. I do think in part this is because I’m primarily a romance reader and this isn’t romance (although a sweet one develops subtly throughout), so my focus waned. Nevertheless, it’s very well written and our protagonist is a character so easy to root for. You want badly to see her get the justice she so deserves.

Thank you NetGalley and Casablanca for providing me an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.