“𝐍𝐨 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐨 𝐢𝐧 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐮𝐩 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐨 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐟𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝, 𝐢𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞’𝐬 𝐚𝐧 𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐤𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐠𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐥 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐲𝐞𝐬.”

Sex And The City meets Working Girl in this story of the rise of two women in a cut-throat Hollywood talent agency.

The Sylvan Light Agency is the hottest talent agency of the 1970s and 1980s, where the who's who of Hollywood want to be represented by superstar agent, Beanie Rosen who clawed her way into the boys club, fighting for her seat at the table. This is her story from secretary to agent, in a fight for power.

Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas' debut novel seems semi-autobiographical, using her knowledge as an agent at William Morris in the eighties to spill secrets and giving readers a glimpse behind the curtain, with each chapter like a vignette in the lives of those working at Sylvan Light. The chapters are short, mixing humour and charm, with a lot of backstabbing drama. In a pre-Me Too era, it was quite uncomfortable to read of the treatment of women, where 'sexitaries' were the norm, with the belief that women could never rise to the top, like a man could. I found myself cheering for Beanie, as she worked her way through the agency and built a support system around her to help her claw her way up. Some of these connections don't seem important at first, like Hawkeye, Barry and Moze, but all develop into great side characters that help Beanie. The pacing did feel off with the middle lagging. Ella and Mercedes also felt like secondary characters, despite their early life being prominently featured at the beginning of the book. It really was Beanie’s story.

Climbing In Heels is filled with sex, drama, and corporate backstabbing. It will make an awesome television series, harkening back to prime soap operas of the eighties. Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for the gifted copy!

What a fun unexpected hovel. Written with wit and with cheeky young women making their way in Hollywood in the 1980's. I especially enjoyed fast talking Beanie especially when the three women come together. The storyline could have used more cohesion.
Thank you to the publisher for the opportunity to read an e-arc copy of the book. I look forward to seeing what the author/agent writes next.

Ambition, sharp, stylish, but a bit uneven. Women behind the scene in1980’s Hollywood with agent politics, whispered betrayals and intoxicating power plays that define the entertainment world. An interesting read.
Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Beanie Rosen wants to be a Hollywood agent, the problem is she was born when women were not generally allowed to be agents, they were secretaries at the whims of their powerful agent bosses and needed to use all the tools available to them to succeed.  Beanie and her best friend  Ella defied the odds and accomplished their dream, but what in the end did it cost them?

Usually I take a while to get into a book, this one I was totally into immediately and then lost steam for it.  The characters were all just so unappealing and I didn't want to root for any of them.  Friendships and relationships just didn't matter and there was no one to trust, it made me uncomfortable and sad to read.  I found the Hollywood history very interesting though, just needed it to be a little shorter or have the pacing be a little faster.  Loved the audio for it and listened to a majority of it.

3.5 stars

Thank you to St Martins Press and NetGalley for the ARC to review

3.5 rounded up for review purposes. Climbing in Heels is an exploration of motivations and alliances in 1980s Hollywood, with each character being pushed to decide what they would and wouldn't do in order to "make it." It was engaging at times, but I couldn't help feeling that it was a bit repetitive and caricatured. I would find myself picking it up, getting sucked into the soapy drama for a bit, putting it back down after a few chapters, and not wanting to pick it up again for a while. The characters themselves oscillate between "down on their luck" and "screwing over others to get what they want" continuously, which can make for interesting morality questions and conflicts among a cast of only-sometimes-likeable characters, but definitely lent to the feeling of repetitive cycles. All that said, overall it was a fun concept and the fact that I could get sucked into it at all in the first place says a good bit. The references to actors and projects of the time were fun, the "who's who" and "who's on top" aspects could be engaging, and there's just a broader glitz and glamor factor that's enjoyable as well!

This will be a good beach read for many - just fun and easy. The plot is entertaining and it is a quick read - you will fly through the pages. There is no real depth to the characters but you will be entertained and they move the story along. The 80s were a time filled with misogyny and I lived through them. This book kind of reminded me of the books written at that time where women were charging into the work force and fighting for a seat at the table. I didn't get to finish this book as I hate how Netgalley is removing books now - or did they always? Anyway - the first half that I read was good.

Really enjoyed this book and watching the women really take charge of their professional futures. So frustrating seeing the male side to industry.

I am all about the 80s so I began with this book eagerly.
It got off to a very slow start and never really gained much momentum.
I didn’t really care for any of the 3 women but it was interesting to see their rise to,power from the 60s-80s.
I also liked how there was a what happened to each of the characters at the end.

Climbing in Heels dives headfirst into the glittery yet cutthroat world of Hollywood, set against the backdrop of a changing industry. It’s a timely, relevant read —especially considering how many real-world stories have surfaced over the past decade about the power dynamics in the industry.

One of my favorite things about this book was the behind-the-scenes look into the entertainment industry —the deals, the deception , the ambition , and the evolution from an old boys’ club to something (slowly) more diverse. I loved learning about how the industry grew over time, and the writing in the first half was strong enough to pull me in right away. I honestly couldn't wait to see where it was going!

I also couldn’t help but wonder how much of this was based on real events… There were definitely moments that felt way too authentic to be purely fictional.

BUT ... the book didn’t fully stick the landing for me. The POV was third-person limited and shifted between three main characters—which can work well, but here it felt a little uneven. One character was clearly more fleshed out than the others, and the result made the transitions feel clunky.

As the story went on, the pace slowed... a lot. I found myself losing interest during the second half and seriously debated DNF’ing (I didn’t, but it was close). The ending? It was fine —not bad, just... not great either . It didn’t leave me with that satisfying final punch I was hoping for.

Would I recommend Climbing in Heels? Probably not. While the concept was, the execution just didn’t quite live up to the potential. Still, if you love stories about power, ambition, and the messy truth behind fame, you might find some enjoyment in it.

Big thanks to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for the eARC and the final copy—this one definitely caught my attention right away!

Link to Instagram review to come

What a fun book! I love the 1980s scene, the strong women and their drive to climb the corporate ladder. While the women say they won't let the men rule their lives or determine who they are, they also morph into women with the same characteristics of the very men they're trying to prove wrong. This was a great look into the culture of women in the workforce in the 80s

Drama ala Gossip Girl style. Fun and interesting read. It kept me entertained and wanting to read more.

There is so much happening in Climbing in Heels! I absolutely loved the premise of this book 1990's Hollywood, breaking into the industry and doing it in style. I loved the pettiness and the almost Gossip Girl / soap opera like quality to the book. I did find it a bit long and wordy at times, but overall did enjoy the book! I think this would make a great tv show. I would recommend this book to anyone that loves sex, drama, and Hollywood! Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this eARC!

Climbing in Heels takes you into the world of agents for big celebrities in the 1980s. It follows Beanie, Mercedes and Ella, who each forge their own path. The novel sucks you in and makes you feel like you are really there in the 1980s. It is seductive, entertaining and addictive. I enjoyed Beanies story the most, bringing herself up by her bootstrap to become a big agent.

If you enjoy stories set in the 1980s or about Hollywood, this book is for you.

Thank you St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the DRC of Climbing in Heels. All opinions in this review are my own.

I thought I was going to love Climbing in Heels so I'm disappointed I didn't. It felt too long and the stories of the three women didn't feel connected enough. It didn't need to start when the women were young and because it spanned so much time, I feel like the characters lacked depth. I also felt like I was reading three different stories. Although they are set in the same time and place, the three women only interacted on occasion so I felt like I was trying to read three different books at once. Overall, Climbing in Heels tried to cover too much and it lost depth because of it.

Living in LA, it is all around us and just an every day part of life. But Climbing in Heels put a new spin on it for me and I was enthralled. It is the story of 3 secretaries at a talent agency in the 1980s determined to make it as agents and bust through the glass ceiling. It had real celebrities and movies intertwined with fictional ones, it had sex, drugs and all the scandals of that time period and just Hollywood in general and it had my favorite, female empowerment. I loved seeing these women never give up, never take no for an answer and break the stereotypes in a man’s world. It was very juicy and entertaining.

I loved this book about the cutthroat world of entertainment talent agencies in Hollywood in the 80s. I had a hard time keep track of the cast of characters, which was very large. I did like that the author used actual famous people for the agency's clients as lent a sense of realness to the book. Overall, a very entertaining read and one I would highly recommend.

As an Executive Assistant, I was intrigued about a novel revolving around the lives of secretaries from the 80s. This was a fun vacation read and I was rooting for these women taking over a good-ole-boys industry and taking no prisoners, even when they were undermining each other. Each character was thoughtfully given incredibly interesting backstories that shaped and carried their decisions throughout their lives. Well done! I can't wait to see this adapted for television! I only hope that Darren Star does it justice.

Thank you to the publisher, the author and NetGalley for an advance copy.

It started out strong, hooked me from page one… then it didn’t. About 60% in I just didn’t care.

Possibly right book, wrong time?

✨ The Vibes ✨
‘9 to 5,’ the talent agency version

📖 Read if…
✨ You love a strong female character
✨ You’re equally interested in women’s fiction and historical fiction
✨ You want a book that feels like a beach read, but has some substance

On paper, this book was written for me – three women must navigate the male dominated world of talent agencies in 1980s Hollywood – but I think this book is sadly one of my biggest disappointments of the year.

In terms of what I liked, I loved all the details about agency life and you could tell Goldsmith-Thomas really used her personal experiences and observations to inform the story. Beanie, the main character, was an amazing character to follow. She sometimes made frustrating choices, but her drive and determination made the story, both in terms of emotional beats and plot points. I also think the story does a great job of showing how male dominated spaces can unite women and motivate them to work together, but can also create a sense of competition that can alienate them.

As for what didn’t work for me, I’m not sure why we needed so much backstory on both Ella and Mercedes. While they were both important to the story, they ended up being relegated to side characters once they arrived at the agency, and in the end, their backgrounds had very little impact on the plot. Additionally, at times, the prose was a little wordy and unwieldy, which made the story a bit hard to follow, and in terms of subject matter, it was brutal to read about the toxic workplace and the men that created it. I’m sure it mirrored reality at times, but it was tough to get through.

While this book didn’t quite work for me, I’m sure readers who are looking for a story that blends women’s fiction with historical fiction will find some enjoyment in this book.

Climbing in Heels is out now. Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was ok, not nothing special. The story seemed to drag on, and was way too long for my liking.

I'm sure it'll find an audience though, just not my kind of story.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.