Synopsis (It's a fiction book, so it helps….)
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Risk or reward. Justice or revenge. Innocence or guilt.
Alex is used to getting the story by whatever means necessary. As Deputy Editor for the newspaper "The Daily Voice", she is revered and feared in equal measure, having lost her moral compass years ago. After all, if someone puts themselves in the public eye, they’re fair game, aren’t they? So when she’s offered salacious information about a beloved TV personality, she doesn’t hesitate to splash it across the front pages. However, when the woman—devastated by the shame of the exposé—kills herself, Alex questions herself for the first time.

Jess is fresh to the world of journalism, a rookie reporter not yet beaten down by the dirty tricks of the tabloid trade. As she works closely with Alex in the aftermath of the star’s suicide, Jess learns that what the paper published is only half the story . . . Soon, Alex and Jess realize that they have more power than they first thought, but must choose between saving themselves and revealing the truth.

As an avowed fan of the ballsiness of "The Daily Mail", I really enjoyed this book as it is nice and gossipy and salacious and both funny and sad. I am also a serious fan of Sandie Jones' works and recommend them all the time to our readers as they are always fresh and enjoyable to work my way through. The characters are memorable and the story is fast and enjoyable to read: I will highly recommend it to my readers of CHick-lit and contemporary fiction...along with all of her previous books to my clientele that has not read her books as of yet.

#shortbutsweetreviews

Sandie Jones has become a masterful scribe of women characters who question their own motives, morality and secrets (as evidenced in her previous thriller “The Blame Game”). And even though the main character, newly hired reporter Jess, insists in the first chapter that she won’t be trading her morals for a by-line, well, the title might be a terrific hint of events to come.

Jess reports to super ambitious Stella, a deputy editor at The Globe, who chucked her sensibilities into a bin years ago. Stella is always dealing with “The Trade Off” — a queasy bit of blackmail tossed out to a target/victim in exchange for a bigger story, and she’s about to send Jess down various rabbit holes.

Yasmin Chopra is this minute’s hot celebrity, a TV reality show cook-off winner gracing the covers of multiple glossies. Jess and Stella both approach her, but the seemingly harmless interview that Jess obtains is corrupted by Stella’s oddly merciless additions. And overnight Yasmin kills herself.

Complicating matters are Max, the morally vague editor above Stella, and Peter, a despicable Rupert Murdoch/Harvey Weinstein tycoon and predator who only cares about the newspaper, not about its victims. Peter’s take: “To be totally honest, I don’t care what did or didn’t make her do it. She means nothing to me. What matters is my newspaper and my reputation.” Stella thinks she is prepared to give Peter a pound of flesh to get promoted over Max.

Yasmin’s suicide breaks Jess. Stella is simultaneously pondering the release of a convict who vowed to kill her 4 years ago, and she now considers terrorizing Jess in the similar way to get the young reporter to salaciously re-slant her story about Yasmin. As anticipated, the action ratchets up from this point. Is Stella really that morally compromised? Can inexperienced Jess stand up to everything that’s ready to bury her? It’s not all black and white.

I loved this thriller — it had me hooked from the start and I read nonstop to find out what would happen to both Jess and Stella. 5 stars!

Thank you to St Martin’s Press and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review!

Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:
Green Eyes (only 2% of the real world, yet it seems like 90% of all fictional females): NO Black, blue, beady and narrow, but no green eyes.
Horticultural Faux Pas (plants out of season or growing zones, like daffodils in autumn or bougainvillea in Alaska): NO But the paparazzi have no qualms about trampling flowerbeds and Jess feeds white wine to snapdragons.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books for the copy of The Trade Off by Sandie Jones. This book sounded so good, but by the time I started it, I had forgotten what it was about. (Kindle doesn’t show the description on the “back cover”.) About 40% in I had to look it up because nothing was really happening and without more context I couldn’t stay interested. Luckily, the book and plot picked up soon after, but by then I was already disengaged. If you’re willing to wait for the real story to start, you would love this book because it was clever and twisty with some good characters. It just wasn’t really for me. 2.5 stars rounded up to 3.

I was looking forward to this novel since I am a huge Sandie Jones fan and she definitely blew my expectations away.. I couldn’t put this book down and finished within a few hours. Stella is the ruthless deputy editor and Jess is the brand new girl at The Globe tabloid. Jess is horrified about how they get their stories and some of the things that are printed. She is ready to quit, but stops when promised she can be a spy for the editor and not give up her values. This novel has many exciting plot twists and not everyone is who you think they are.

Stella is a ruthless deputy editor used to doing whatever it takes to make a story scintillating and sell more issues. Jess a new reporter starts to work there and she can’t believe the way that Stella manipulates people to sell a story. She is horrified that she took part in any of this and feels responsible for Yasmin’s suicide.

Jess starts to dig into what happens. I didn’t like the Peter Kingsley media mogul and all the female victims coming forward as it felt too close to real life events and I like to read to escape reality. Rich person who thinks they are above the law and do anything they want.

Alex will do anything for a story; as deputy editor for The Daily Voice, all she cares about are sales. Who gets hurt along the way isn’t her concern. Until Alex leaks an indecent story about a UK television star and the woman commits suicide. Shaken by the fact that her story caused someone’s death, Alex begins to question everything she’s been doing. Joining forces with fresh faced young reporter, Jess, the two begin looking into the story and discover that they have a big decision to make. Will they save themselves or tell the truth. A timely story, in a day when their are news “entertainment channels” and people will believe almost anything if it’s salacious enough, this book hits home