Allegra Cobb works constantly. As a second-year analyst for Anderson Shaw, she is constantly on call to help her bosses put together multi-million dollar deals for their clients. The emails come constantly, seven days a week, and she keeps up her stellar work there. Because there is something she wants. Well, everyone at Anderson Shaw wants something. Money, power, prestige. Allegra wants money too, but not like the others. She’s just waiting to get her bonus so she can go after what she really wants.
Yoga.
With her bonus, which could be anywhere from 70K to 120K, Allegra can quit her job, quit the entire banking industry, and learn how to teach yoga. She can spend her days helping others find their center, instead of spending all her days instead of having to expend all her energy for other peoples’ values.
So when Instagram yoga celebrity teacher Skylar Smith contacts her because of the yoga poses on her Instagram feed, Allegra can’t believe her good luck. Skylar Smith wants to meet her, wants to help her, wants to do some yoga with her. It’s a dream come true. But Skylar’s advice makes Allegra’s day job even harder on her.
As Allegra makes more mistakes at work from her distraction, she has to decide which is more important to her: working at Anderson Shaw or working with Skylar. She’s already accidentally slept with her boss, fallen asleep in the coat closet, and embarrassed a vice president. How much more damage can her career take before it affects her bonus? Is she sabotaging her yoga career before it even begins?
Breathe In, Cash Out by Madeleine Henry is an absolute delight! Told in first-person, Allegra’s struggle to find herself despite being in a soul-sucking career is absolutely one of my favorite genres. Fans of The Knockoff, The Assistants, Big Law, The Devil Wears Prada, and Fitness Junkie will devour this like I did. I absolutely adored each moment I got to spend with Allegra, and while she certainly came up against some harsh challenges in this story, I had no doubt she was smart enough to figure it out in the end.
Henry writes from her own experience, as she herself graduated from Yale and worked at Goldman Sachs and now has a yoga inspired Instagram. Breathe In, Cash Out is her debut novel, and I can’t wait for the next one. I loved her funny, smart, sassy, determined characters, and I highly recommend this novel for anyone wanting some laugh-out-loud entertainment while getting inspired to live a better life.
Galleys for Breathe In, Cash Out were provided by Atria Books through NetGalley, with many thanks.