Lagging Indicators

Wall Street phenomenon Mia has it all. A cushy apartment, a high salary, until she is not. Mia takes a sabbatical to her friends country house to find herself. Will she? Will she find love? Will she finally get revenge? This book was fantastic.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

One of the best books I have ever read! Ten stars!

This author draws you in and I finished the book in one sitting. Couldn't put it down. Loved the plot, the writing, the characters, everything! Checking to see if she has written any others. Do NOT miss this one.

What a great book! Super inspiring about a person who never gave up despite hardship. I read it in one sitting. Really enjoyed it.

Mia Lewis is head of Equity at a small bank, when she is suddenly fired by her boss and mentor. After she realised that she hasn't been as much on top of her own finance as well as she thought as she was, she rents out her Manhattan flat and moves to the Hudson valley where she learns how to overcome her failure. I enjoyed this book as it shows the struggle of women in a tough, man dominated industry. Mia is a flawed character and she shows us that fighting back is not always easy and admitting your failure to others can be daunting, but she is also very likable.

Every once in a while you read a riveting book that you just cannot put down and Lagging Indicators is one of those.

Mia Lewis had it all- an exicting job on Wall Street, a house in the right zip code a flasy car and desinger clohtes and then it all comes crashing down. Set amid the exonomic turmoils of 2008/2009 makes a comeback even harder so Mia retreats to a small town to beting rebuilind her life.

I enjoed the inside look at Wallstreet and trading and an interesting look at the life of the rich and glamourous. We definilty don’t get many African American women in fiction who fit the bill, which I enjoyed as well.

The story was a age turner as I wanted revenge and redemption for Mia as well as to know what really happened. The author even added a nice romance in there to keep those pages turning. I really enjoyed this book and would recommend to anyone looking for a great summer read!

There were two issues I did have- where was the apology from Liz!!!! I wanted to hear from her one more time. Also, one of the characters said that a salary of $200K isn’t enough for a 2nd vacation home?!?!

Her story is not her own life story, but you could have fooled me. Several pages in, I stopped reading the novel to learn more about the author. I was sure that she was writing an insider view into the financial world that few of us know, but imagine that we can imagine and judge. 
In her novel Lagging Indicators, Jennifer Anglade Dahlberg tells the story of Mia, a tremendously successful woman with fifteen years of experience on Wall Street, now heading up the equities trading desk for a small investment firm. She is smart, focused, worried at all times about her positions on stocks, wrangling with a newcomer gunning for her job. Mia does not have a personal or family life; she is a single, black woman in a rules-bound free-for-all world where the stakes are high along with the rewards.
What could possibly go wrong?
Everything. In a stunning series of events, all well-done and perfectly described and possible, Mia is out of work, a pariah known and judged by her former colleagues, Wall Street, and the larger world. 
Mia finds her way. And she does so magnificently, believably.
How did the writer do this? She never participated in the financial world in this way. She grew up in suburban New York and graduated from Columbia University where many financial types are educated. None of this is direct experience in the heart, the mind, the life of a character I was rooting for within the first few sentences.
Dahlberg lays out the phenomenally tough way of life, the unending demands and expectations of a woman such as Mia - and she does so with insight, compassion, and detail as rich and precise as Drago, Mia's onerous personal trainer and charity events requiring huge checks. 
How did she do this?
I don't know, but I can guess. I can guess that Dahlberg knows people who live and work in this world. I can hypothesize that she researched financial services firms and the overall industry including the unwritten rules and scandals, delving into what she could find about women of color in the financial world. The myriad settings are likely ones that the author experienced for herself or could easily research. 
Maybe that's what she did to get the information right. Believe me, she gets it right - I do not have direct personal experience with the world of Wall Street, but know many who do and keep an eye on the industry myself. 
However, Dahlberg's genius is what she did with what she learned. She made all these facts a part of the fabric of the universe that Mia inhabits. 
Mia moves in her world and we move through it along with her, inside her head as she struggles to figure things out, to be realistic and to dream. She is likable, believable, an incredible point of entry into that tiny, powerful universe.
Facts are interesting, spiky little entities until you think them through and feel them as your character would. A character inhabits their head, their body, their world as a fish does water. They don't have to think about it; they're living in it. 
That's the way that this story feels. There are no punches pulled, no sleights of hand that you catch if you keep your eyes on the right place. 
I felt the story, rode through it with Mia in the lead, swooping up and crashing down, all of it. It was an incredible ride - a truly wonderful novel by an accomplished world builder.

Powerhouse! This book, let me just say that Mia as a character gave me all the "Olivia Pope" feels. Such strength, intelligence, drive, sacrifice and love. I enjoyed reading this book and more that there's a strong female lead who is not afraid to go after what she wants and needs. I got this eARC off NetGalley and it made my Friday evening.

Mia’s story snagged my attention and I was hooked from the beginning.
I thoroughly enjoyed the author’s writing style and would love know how Mia's life turns out.

I really enjoyed this book. It had romance, treachery, and white collar crime. It was an eye opener about how women are treated on Wall Street. Mia, the main character goes through some hard times, beginning with being fired from your job. But Mia is strong and every time she gets pushed down, she always gets back up. The book held my interest and was hard to put down. The characters were brought to life. I'm glad the author wrote about such a strong woman. We need more books like this. I received this ebook from NetGalley for an honest review.

I really liked this book. A diverse cast, a strong intelligent woman as the main character - what's not to like! The story follows Mia, a Wall Street trader, after she gets wrongfully terminated from her job. There's a romance but it isn't the main plot, which was refreshing. Instead we get to see Mia figuring out what she wants and learning from her difficulties. I was so glad that she gets her redemption in the end! Also, I was amazed that the author does not have a finance background - the world of Wall Street and investment banking was set up pretty well. Definitely recommend this!
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

You will not be able to put this book down! Grabs hold from the first page!

What a fantastic read! At first, I wasn't even sure that I would want to read this book, but, I thought that I would give it a shot. Once started, I wasn't interested. I was riveted! I loved every minute.

I loved the fact that this book enabled a woman to be the smart and capable one, not dependent upon a man. A woman with 15 years of experience at the top of her game, comes crashing down. Why? Well, that's what has the reader turning every page faster and faster. I was seriously wondering if she actually just fell apart due to pressure, or some other reason. Was she crazy?

I loved that this book was not predictable, and that I had to read it to determine what happened. Could she come back after her fall from grace?
Would she want to? Was she really as much of an expert as one was initially led to believe, perhaps as she thought of herself? All of these questions and more were answered, all the while capturing and holding my interest. At the end, I found myself wondering if there was or could be a sequel.

A financial mystery, with romance and more.

I am looking for other books by this author, and hope to find more of the same!

WOW!!!!!

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC

I’m making my way through my Summer Reading List and so far I haven’t come across a book that did not interest me. For the month of July, I’m ranking Lagging Indicators by Jennifer Anglade Dahlberg as my favourite. The ARC was provided to me by Netgalley and I had no clue what I was getting myself into. I picked it because I liked the cover art. Fortunately for me, the book did not disappoint and is in my top 5 books of 2018.

We follow the story of Mia who has 15 years of experience on Wall Street and is only woman exec at the boutique firm she works at. She survived the major crisis layoffs but when a new man is brought on at the firm, Mia loses her job security and is essentially blackballed after a clip of her not taking her firing well goes viral. Then she goes into survival mode and this is when I wanted to smack Mia. We find out out homegirl was taking home 7 figures a year and only had 5 figures in her bank account. I was baffled that she only had 50K in savings. What kind of financial irresponsibility?! I think I was so upset because of the realness. This is the narrative of so many people who spent their lives working on Wall Street and balling out, but had little in their savings accounts. In the beginning, Mia came about as savvy, intelligent, and formiable.Yet she was so dumb.

Luckily for her, she has a great best friend that offers her a place in the burbs to lay low, while she figures out how to salvage her name, reinvent herself, and get her finances in order. Mia’s time in this quaint little time had some of my favourite moments because we see so many themes explored. What it’s like to but a motherless child and an orphaned adult. Things I often mind myself thinking about, as an only child with one parent. What happens when the strong, black woman who is everything to everyone else starting thinking about herself and allows others to help. How to come to term this company and people you’ve dedicated your life to, don’t have your back and you’ve experienced sexism and racism due to their actions. I could go on and on because it was such rich writing.

There is a romance aspect to this book, which I was not expecting. What I enjoyed the most from that was Mia choosing the relationship that worked best for her life and career goals. We so often get romance stories where the woman has to sacrifice by moving and finding a new job or moving and leaving behind her friends for love. Which is cool because people, or in this case characters, have agency, but it was refreshing to read something that did not necessarily follow the path. Throughout the entire book, I felt as in I was going through the motions with Mia. When a book can do that, I am more than happy to give it the highest of ratings.

If you have watched and enjoyed TV series like Scandal, Billions, Suits, or The Good Wife I think you’ll appreciate Mia’s journey throughout this novel and find yourself rooting for her too by the end of it all.

Pitch perfect. Features characters who act infuriatingly human. Thanks to NetGalley and to indiebooklauncher.com for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Such a great book! This book has a strong, flawed female lead that I just loved. She was so afraid to show her vulnerability that it made her even more endearing to me. As a female that often put (and still does put) work ahead of my personal life, I feel like I was able to see a lot of myself in Mia. Some of the decisions she seemed to wrestle with, I also have in my life.

I appreciate that the end of the book didn’t end as I might have hoped for Mia, but I almost feel proud of her for the choices she made. In the age of the “Me Too” movement, I think this is a timely read.

Great character development, and just an overall engrossing book.

This was a quick read which gave a lot of information about the life of a Wall Street trader without being too overwhelming and technical. I really liked Mia and was rooting for her!

First of all, my apologies for the late review on this one. I thought I’d already posted but apparently it got lost in the back to school shuffle. Anyway, I read and advanced copy of Lagging Indicators by Jennifer Anglade Dahlberg last month but Mia’s story clearly left an impact on me because, her I am, thinking about it a month later at 2am lol. I really connected with Mia for a few reasons.... or more so, one multifaceted reason. In 2008, I was also one of few women of color working in the finance industry. I was younger than Mia (fresh out of college) and welcoming my first child into the world. Prior to the Great Fall, what started as a part time customer service gig until I found a “real” job had rocketed me through so many promotions that before I knew it, going to work in the field I’d studied would have meant taking a huge pay cut. It was truly surreal. I left for maternity leave in May with enough money & perceived job security to take an extended leave even though it would be unpaid but by the time I returned, literally nothing was the same. I blame it on my youth that I hadn’t prepared for this kind of thing but despite our age gap, I found a kindred spirit in Mia. I so related to her feelings of “playing a role” to fit into a world dominated by straight, white men, how she felt an obligation to the community of color to be successful & the way you begin to live and breathe by the numbers on a ticker when you’re in that industry. I ended up riding out the wave and a few others over the next years before ultimately deciding to be a stay at home parent but, even though I left the industry by choice, I also relate so much to that “who am I now?” feeling. I didn’t intend to make this an autobiography but, I say all of it because I want to commend the author for her incredible authenticity. This book is a work of fiction but it felt like it could have just as easily been a memoir. I recommend it to anyone that was just getting the adulting thing down when the bottom fell out or anyone in general that has ever looked in the mirror and thought “Well, what in the world do I do now?”.

It is October 2009 and Mia Lewis is on top of her game professionally. Working and surviving on Wall Street is a dream come true. She is a 35-year-old independent woman and the Head of Equities at Atlas Capital. She always does what is best for the firm, and trust her instinct at the same time. But one heat-of-the-moment reaction ushers her downfall.

Suddenly Mia's entire career is taken away. Disgraced, broke, and thrown under the bus. No calling in favors. Jabbing elbows with those of Wall Street means nothing. So what better time than now to take a break from it all? She escapes to a cottage in upstate New York to repair her reputation and figure out what's next. She doesn't expect to connect with a handsome single dad. But a past she's intentionally kept hidden jeopardizes her future.

Finally a book about an industry I am familiar with and a main character of color! Author Jennifer Anglade Dahlberg really put her best writing hand forward and did due diligence. Her research is apparent in the details, yet it was not full of jargon that the everyday reader could not follow. From the book cover with stock quotes and a black woman dressed business casual to the industry related title, Lagging Indicators is on point. I am quite impressed!

I have not closely related to a main character in a long time. That is, before Mia Lewis came along. I understood her decisions, her connections with numbers and knowledge of the market. Not once did I roll my eyes at something Mia said or did. In fact, I predicted her next moves simply because it was something I would have done too. Readers in the finance industry will find this fiction book accurate yet a great escape. Lagging Indicators is a new release available now!

Disclaimer: This book was received directly from the publisher for review purposes only. In no way does it influence my review. The opinions I have expressed are my own and would be the same if I spent my hard-earned coins.

LiteraryMarie

As a woman in an analytical, male-dominated field, I greatly enjoyed this novel. There are not enough books about strong, working females. Mia falls from grace in her career due to no fault of her own, but refusing to give up, she takes on the system and men who tore her down. I greatly enjoyed Mia’s strength and determination throughout the whole novel. There was also a romantic love story for Mia, but it was only a small plot line. I appreciated the duel storylines of career and love.

Thanks to Jennifer Anglade Dahlberg and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for an honest review.