The Hunting Wives meets Tomorrow, Tomorrow & Tomorrow .. lots of bad behavior, toxic relationships and office place gossip fill this novel with content. Sketchy people wanting to get ahead, money rules the actions and leadership is definately not exhibiting above board behavior. Fun listen, but honestly just a bit fluffy for me.

Very Bad Company
Emma Rosenblum
Macmillan Audio
Pub Date: May 14, 2024
4/5


Huge thanks to Macmillan Audio for an advanced audiobook!

A group of rich execs, an egotistical CEO, and a luxury vacation in Florida, is it really shocking that there is also a murder? In this summer read, we become intertwined in the gossip and scandals of Aurora, a startup tech company who is making waves. Every character is a love-to-hate kind of drama that rivals any reality show of the woes of the rich and famous.
Rosenblum takes us on this luxury vacation, following every character as they try to piece together what is going on with the company and if their colleague died from an overdose or was murdered. There were times where I found the book to be a bit slow, but then would be smacked in the face with some juicy information that made everything else start to click together.
This is the perfect summer beach read, especially if you’re looking for gossip and intrigue. The book focuses less on the murder, and more on the viciousness of the tech world and their need to succeed, regardless of who gets trampled under them during their race to the top.

I was the middle of the road for this book almost the entire time. The numbers thrown and the ridiculousness of it all fit so well while reading/listening about these out-of-touch people. But in the mean time,I think this could have been funner if I liked the characters even a little bit. The author did well writing them, sure, but there wasn't enough of them that made me care what happened to them. They whined most of the time, in which I got it if the author wanted them to be vapid and selfish. I didn't mind that; there just wasn't enough for me to care.

At first, I was put off with so many characters. Typically eventually they all blend together and you couldn't distinguish one from another. But the author did well on that, thank goodness, because I would hate to keep thinking - Who the heck was this? How did this person fit into the story? Even better was the narrator from the audiobook, she did a phenomenal job. Just too bad the storyline barely moved from mundane to excitement.

Overall, it was middle-road entertaining. There wasn't really a shock in any attempted turn, but I appreciated the effort. Reading about rich people doing selfish dumb things could be fun, but this one just wasn't enough to make it great through the roof.

Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for the audiobook version of this book. All opinions are my own.

I am not sure what your plans are this weekend but if you can, you should listen to this audio while you are doing them!

This was a highly entertaining workplace MESS and I LOVED it.

There are characters that drive you crazy but also ones you love. There’s some mystery and scandal that really keeps you baited. Oh the gossip and the frenzy. I really could not get enough!

I also really, really enjoyed January LaVoy’s narration. The story is told from multiple points of view and she does a great job of differentiating the characters.

Thank you so much @macmillian.audio for the early listening copy

4 stars

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC! This was the perfect almost beach read! This author is now an auto buy author for me!

Soapy, illicit fun! I loved Rosenblum’s last book, so I was excited to see it available for request on here. I thought the subject matter would lend itself well to audio. I’m glad to discover that I was right! The narration was perfection. I literally listened to it in two sessions. It was a really fun story: full of petty rich people behaving badly. I can’t wait to see what the author comes up with next!

L.O.L. This book was insane in the best way! Emma Rosenblum created the perfect cast of unlikeable characters whose lives are like train wrecks, you just can't look away. This book reminded me of a season of White Lotus: a bunch of rich, selfish, somewhat crazy individuals who all work at a tech start-up vacation in Miami and one of them goes missing. This book is tagged as a thriller, but I think it fits more general fiction. January LaVoy did an amazing job at voicing several different characters in this book!

So good! Every time I thought I had it figured out, I found out I was wrong. It kept me guessing until the satisfying end.

I am usually a fan of unlikeable characters. This is about a tech company on a retreat and someone gets murdered. While trying to figure out whodunnit, we realize everyone has secrets.

There were a lot of characters and, while the narrator did a fantastic job of differentiating, I still had trouble keeping up with everyone's story.

This one wasn't so much for me, but the narration was fantastic.

Many thanks to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for an ALC in exchange for my honest review.

Very Bad Company is an apt title for this story that revolves around tech, sex, and money. I loved Emma Rosenblum's last novel Bad Summer People and had high hopes for this new one. The characters are shallow, terrible, self-centered and highly flawed. The story is part women's fiction, part thriller, part dark humor. I didn't love this one, but fans of Emma Rosenblum should still give it a go.

I did enjoy the narrator and thought she did a good job giving a bit of added flair to this start-up business drama.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for this ARC.

The executives for a tech startup have a retreat in Miami. Led by a charismatic and eccentric tech guru CEO, with an obsession with Winston Churchill, what could go wrong…
There are several characters to keep up with, but Rosenblum does a great job developing each one and giving you a window into their good, bad, and ugly. Mostly bad and ugly. There is humor and a lightness to her writing that typical thrillers don’t have. Loved the flawed characters and following them as their poor decisions unfold.

Is this cover giving anyone else serious vacation vibes? Very Bad Company follows the executive team at tech startup Aurora as they travel to their annual leadership retreat in Miami. The CEO is an eccentric Winston Churchill obsessed guy, and he has a big announcement for his team.  On the first night, one of the executives disappears after a night out, and the rest of the team is now on edge. They are worried about their coworker, of course, but this disappearance could also result in bad press for the company and a loss of a lot of money for everyone.

Talk about workplace drama! This book alternates POV between each of the executives on the team (I think I counted 9?) as they attend the events of the retreat and think back on their time at Aurora. Everyone has secrets and skeletons in their closets just waiting to be exposed. There really aren't any likable characters here, and I think that was intentional.

I thought all of the characters were well done and were unique from each other. I didn't really have trouble differentiating between the characters, despite the number of them. Of course, January LaVoy is an audiobook queen and did an amazing job with the narration. She was able to give each character a unique voice that helped keep it from getting too confusing.

The plot was pretty slow. In fact, not much happens, but it's heavily focused on the characters and their relationships with each other.

Overall, I liked it but didn't love it. If you like workplace drama and books that really focus on the characters, you should definitely check this out! 3.5 stars

Very Bad Company by Emma Rosenblum is a dark comic workplace thriller. It is a fast paced novel with multiple characters who are all morally grey with secrets of their own.
The story begins with the executives of a start up AdTech company who have all convened in an exclusive Miami resort for a retreat.

The main characters include an eccentric CEO (almost Elon Musk type), his assistant, a few of the CEO’s top executives who are all seven figure salary earners of the company, a new Events Director with similar salary range, and an investigative journalist. Most, if not all, characters can be categorized as shallow, selfish, and competitive. There are multiple reveals throughout the novel that include company secrets, salacious rumors, planned and unplanned surprises, among others.

The novel had its comic timing though it wasn’t the laugh out loud kind. There were a few scenes/dialogues that brought a chuckle out of me. It was fast-paced, amusing at times, quirky, and mostly an enjoyable thriller.

There were too many POVs in this book. I was at times confused as to who was saying what despite the excellent work done by the narrator. Other than that the only flaw was with Black woman’s characteristics that seemed too stereotypical at times, specifically her background.
The narration by January LaVoy was fantastic, giving each character a unique voice, cadence, and manner of speaking. It was a pleasure listening to this narrator and I look forward to more of their work.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for the opportunity to listen and review this audiobook. All opinions stated above are my own.

"Very Bad Company" is an enjoyable, if not entirely memorable, novel of rich people behaving badly. The top-level executives of a well-known tech start-up are gathering for their annual corporate retreat in Miami. This year, they are joined by their newest hire, Caitlin, who is appointed for the somewhat nebulous position of Head of Events. Led by the eccentric CEO, John, the group of executives is already borderline dysfunctional even before one of them goes MIA during the event. And after that disappearance, tensions raise in a hurry.

This book isn't quite a thriller, but it's definitely got more intrigue than most contemporary fiction. There is a large cast, but most characters are well fleshed out. I will say that I rarely do well spending time humoring the misdeeds of the overpriveleged, but Rosenblum did a great job of crafting characters that were largely likeable despite their many, many flaws. The narration was done well, and the pages flew by. I was never tempted to put this one in my DNF stack, though I admit it's also one that likely won't stick with me for long. Not all books need to be life changing and with you for the long haul, though, and this one was a fun ride for the time I spent with it.

3.5 stars rounded up. Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for an advance copy for honest review.

Thanks so much to Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for the advance audio copy. Great narration!
This was such a fun listen, I love a book about terrible people. I love how the title plays on two different meanings. This would make a great movie, it’s hilariously dark! This book is all about a Corporate start up- Aurora-on a retreat and things just start to go wrong from the start. Caitlin is brand new to the company and was hired with an amazing salary and profit sharing, but she still hasn’t really even started her job…Everyone doesn’t think twice about walking all over someone or stabbing them in the back just to get ahead. Super fun, highly entertaining audiobook. I’d love to read more from Emma Rosenblum.

Aurora is a top tech company valued at hundreds of millions of dollars. CEO and co-founder John Shiller works his C-suite hard, but there are perks. The salaries are high, he’s generous with company shares, and then there is the corporate retreat. Once a year, he gets all his top executives together at a luxury hotel for several days and gets them to engage in activities designed to be fun and to develop relationships. But every one of those corporate execs brings baggage with them to the retreat.

Caitlin was just hired as Head of Events, and while she hasn’t officially started yet, she was invited to join everyone on the retreat. Not everyone is happy to have her join the team, as Aurora isn’t even a company that has events. They work in advertising, disrupting and updating the way traditional advertising works. But she’s walking into a situation where everyone else has a secret. One woman is pregnant a one-night stand and hasn’t told anyone yet. Two of them are having an affair. One has been looking for another job. And those are the smaller secrets. There is far more going on.

As the execs party in Miami, spending their time playing pickleball and parasailing, racing on jet skis and playing tug-of-war, there is a big deal bubbling in the tech world. A large company is looking to buy Aurora for $800 million. When the deal goes through, it will make all of them very rich. But there is still due diligence going on, as well as a tech reporter on the scene sniffing for a story, so John and his execs need to be careful. But their first night of clubbing leaves one exec missing, opening them up to extra scrutiny.

As the days go by and the alcohol flows, more secrets come to light. The Aurora execs fight to keep the darkest secrets in the closet, so the deal goes through, but it’s a struggle, especially when the missing exec turns up dead from an overdose. The women think that someone may have made it look like an accident to cover a murder, and they start to investigate. But what they uncover may not just unmask a murderer. What they find may bring the entire company down.

Very Bad Company is part thriller, part satire of tech company culture. Author Emma Rosenblum brings her personal experience with tech companies to this wild ride of a corporate retreat. And while not every bad person in this book gets what they ultimately deserve, that does ring true of modern tech culture. But readers get the intrigue, the secrets, the lies, the relationship gossip, and the investigation into Aurora, from its current predicament all the way back to its beginnings.

I listened to the audio book of Very Bad Company, narrated beautifully by actress January LaVoy. Ironically, she made her Broadway debut in the play Enron, which may have informed her reading of these bad company people. I thought she did an amazing job with this material, but the material is a little confusing when you only have the audio to refer to. There is a large cast, which gets difficult to keep straight, especially with the homogeneity of much of tech culture. I also struggled with the timeline a little, as there were flashbacks, and I didn’t always know for sure if we were still in the past or were back to the present. I think reading the book would make keeping track of such things easier.

For the most part, I enjoyed Very Bad Company. I love a good satire, and this does poke at tech culture in fun ways. But it was hard to find anyone to root for, especially since they all just kept moving forward with the retreat despite the death of a coworker, just to make sure their lucrative deal went through. Also, the CEO has a truly unnatural obsession with Winston Churchill, which I found tedious, and I really wanted the characters to find it as tiresome as I did and complain about it to the others. Even that would have made these characters a little more likeable in my eyes.

An early copy of the audio book for Very Bad Company was provided by Macmillan Audio through NetGalley, with many thanks.

Very Bad Company drew me in as a perfect read to start the summer with. Poorly behaved startup execs living it up in Miami? I’m in.

First, I loved the narrator. She did a great job with voices for all of the characters. Plot wise, I was definitely interested in the mystery that began to unravel about murders and the company’s origin. Unfortunately, that felt like more of an afterthought to the character dynamics, so much so that we sort of just get handed the answers instead of experiencing an exciting reveal.

I can normally overlook less-than-thrilling plot for some good character drama, but something just felt missing. The characters lacked depth. I wanted them either to be better or a lot worse.

ARC received from Macmillan Audio via Netgalley.

"Very Bad Company" by Emma Rosenblum is a riveting dark comedy that plunges readers into the cutthroat world of corporate retreats and the high-stakes drama that unfolds when one of the executives goes missing. Narrated by January LaVoy, the audiobook promises an immersive experience from start to finish.

Set against the backdrop of an exclusive retreat in Miami hosted by the trendy tech startup Aurora, the story follows Caitlin Levy, the company's newest hire tasked with overseeing the event. However, when a high-level executive disappears, the future of Aurora hangs in the balance, threatening the financial stability of everyone involved.

Rosenblum skillfully navigates the complexities of corporate culture, blending a lot of humor with a little suspense as Caitlin and her colleagues grapple with the fallout of the disappearance. From over the top team-building exercises to tense group brainstorms, the characters must maintain the facade of normalcy amidst mounting mistrust.

What makes "Very Bad Company" stand out is its compulsively readable narrative and satire of corporate dynamics. Rosenblum deftly explores themes of ambition, loyalty, and the lengths people will go to protect their interests, making for a gripping and thought-provoking read. Loved it!

LaVoy's narration elevates the experience, enhancing the enjoyment of the story with her engaging delivery and ability to bring the characters to life. Her performance adds depth and dimension to Rosenblum's already compelling prose, making "Very Bad Company" a must-listen for fans of dark comedies and corporate thrillers alike.

I’ve been traveling for work a lot and thought this would be a fun listen on my travels! The narrator, January LaVoy, was clear and did a good job differentiating characters with changes in accent and register. I would listen to a book narrated by January again!

Ultimately my opinion is that this book was good, but not great. The characters lacked depth. Some things near the ending felt random to me. I appreciated the nods to the struggles of being a woman in corporate America.

Thank you Macmillan Audio for the ALC in exchange for an honest review!

💭 MY THOUGHTS: This was my first book by Emma Rosenblum and I’m officially a fan!

The story is told through the view of different executives as they’re at the company’s annual retreat. Their CEO is an eccentric man who adds a hilarious leadership vibe his employees must tolerate, placate or navigate. Everyone has secrets that are slowly uncovered and it’s a really interesting way for the story to be told. I work in the tech space so the over the top workplace drama was really entertaining.

The audiobook was really fun to listen to given the different voices use for the multiple POVs. It helped me keep track of all the characters and helped bring their personalities to life.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 5
Spice Level: 🧼 squeaky clean

Read For:
💼 Workplace Drama
📱 Tech Startup
🏨 Forced Proximity
🎭 Cast of Characters
✳️ Multiple POVs
📍 Miami

➡️ What kind of work do you do for a living?