Pride and Prejudice for the modern a fresh and stylish debut following a family of women who are thrust into the spotlight in the wake of a scandal and expertly exploit their newfound fame, perfect for fans of Blue Sisters and Good Material.
When Lili Lowe gets caught having an affair with her married boss, an admired local politician, she finds herself at the epicenter of a scandal that could dismantle her life as she knows it. She turns, as many women would, to her mother. But Lydia Lowe is not the kind of mother to offer gentle words of consolation. Instead she devises a strategy that doesn’t just manage the fallout, it actively exploits it, and Lili goes from making coffee and booking meetings to making headlines and booking talk shows. Soon, thanks to the commodification of Lili’s scandal, the whole world knows the Lowe family.
Lili’s three sisters—Stevie, Iris, and Katie—have differing reactions to being in the spotlight, but once the wheels are turning, it seems impossible to stop what’s in motion…and it doesn’t take long for the craziness surrounding the Lowes to spiral out of control. Money and celebrity, the Lowes discover, come at a price—sometimes, the louder one’s voice (especially a woman’s), the more others will seek to silence it.
With a potent blend of spectacular style, compulsive voice, sharp social commentary, and ferocious heart, The Lowe Job is escapism with a contemporary book club novel for the modern listener looking for fresh fiction that is at once funny, sexy, incisive, and heartfelt.
What a fun, witty and entertaining read! The Lowe Job pulled me in from the beginning with its scandal, humour, and a story that was impossible not to get invested in.
Lili Lowe finds herself at the centre of a media storm after her affair with married politician Teddy Landen is revealed. What follows is a brilliant mix of family drama, secrets, public judgement, and the chaos that comes when someone’s private life suddenly becomes everyone’s business.
What really stood out for me was the humour. Grace Alexander’s writing is sharp, clever, and so engaging. The podcast element added such a fun twist to the story and brought plenty of funny moments that had me smiling throughout.
I loved the characters and the way the author balanced the lighter moments with the more emotional side of the story. There’s plenty of drama, but the humour kept it feeling fresh and enjoyable, making it a book I looked forward to picking up.
Grace Alexander has written a witty, refreshing, and entertaining story that kept me hooked. Although it wasn’t quite a five-star read for me, I had a brilliant time with The Lowe Job and would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a clever contemporary fiction read with plenty of laughs.
Super bummed but had to DNF this book at 40%. Sometimes knowing when something isn’t for you is the best thing you can do for yourself but also for an authour.
This was a conglomeration of Monica Lewinskey and Keeping Up With the Kardashians and even with that premise I was down. But it felt like a knock off and didn’t land for me. The writing was very stilted with “X happens, Y happens, now dialogue” and I could not get past it. I don’t expect prolific prose when reading but I do wish there was more effort in flow and editing to help the authour along because for me it became unfeasible to continue without eliciting anger at the lack of technical skill.
I can see this being a BookTok star but I desperately needed more in every aspect.
It is my fault, perhaps, for miscategorising it in my head, but I thought I would find it more interesting than I did. I know I shouldn't have expected too much depth from a book whose title is a blow job pun, but when Curtis Brown Creative quoted the author saying, "I’m endlessly interested in the way women are portrayed in the media", I was expecting something more than Keeping Up With the Kardashians by way of Monica Lewinsky.
What I've read so far has all been fluff— which is obviously fine if you're hoping for a light mindless read, but I'm not into it right now. Someone tell me if it ever becomes more interesting.
This book is packed with juicy drama that had me laughing, gasping, and shaking my head. An affair with a married politician creates an enormous scandal and the rest is entertaining and fascinating. The characters were amazing and so real and relatable. The themes in this book are super relevant today with exploiting things for TV, fame, money, and trying to speak the truth. I couldn’t put this one down. I already miss the characters. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Lili Lowe is the oldest of four sisters with a mom who is loving, in her own unedited, abrasive kind of way. In chapter one, she was also caught in a compromising position with her boss, a promising liberal politician, resulting in a political scandal. The rest of the book involves how that scandal shapes her life and the life of everyone in her family. While Lili is the main female character, there are points of view from her three sisters as well. Each one of them is forever changed by the trajectory of their lives following this occurrence. Since Mom, Lydia, uses this as an opportunity to capitalize on this fame in a way that is more flattering to Lili and their family, they are soon the subject of a reality TV series, called The Lowe Job.
The sisters and the mom hold nothing back in their conversations, resulting in some pretty crass dialogue. If this is not offensive to you, the story was juicy and really good. It is deeper than just the trainwreck you think it will be. It is about the standard for the woman being blamed in any sexual scandal, fame and the repercussions of that, grief, and the love of these sisters. They are all four very different and handle celebrity different. Despite all the drama, I found myself even tearing up a couple times. I love a good sister story when they stand behind each other, and I like it even better when women stand up for themselves.
To be brief, this book is like if Monica Lewinsky took back the narrative in the 90s and became part of a Kardashian-style reality show.
I listened to the audiobook which is a full-cast recording and quite well done. I would recommend this for anyone who doesn't have delicate sensibilities. 3.75⭐
Many thanks to NetGalley and Harper Audio for the ALC in exchange for my honest review!
If Monica Lewinsky had Kris Jenner as a momager and you added the drama of the Favorites you get The Lowe Job. Incredibly witty and poignant take on how the media portrays women.
Highly recommend the audio because the cut in clips of podcasts, news reports and commentary put this one over the top. Production and narration 10/10
A modern reimagining of Pride and Prejudice, mixed with Keeping Up With the Kardashians and the Monica Lewinsky scandal. It's an ambitious, well-paced story and kept my attention the whole way through, even when I wished the family had retained some of the charm they had in Austen's tale.
Lili is my least favorite of all the characters, which is a bummer because she felt so close to being the most relatable. She's an aspiring politician who wants to change the world and we're told she's brilliant.
Unfortunately, we never see this brilliance on page. We see her callously beginning an affair with her older, married boss -- fault on both sides for sure, but on *both* sides and that includes Lili. She isn't off the hook just because she's in a less powerful position, because she's driving the affair as much as he does.
In one moment she says a throwaway line acknowledging how she harmed his wife and wasn't a woman's woman, but we never see her really grapple with any sort of meaningful guilt about her mistake, nor does she make any attempts at restitution. Though what restitution do you provide for being caught on camera blowing someone's husband? Maybe that's why she didn't try.
We also see her repeatedly asking for a promotion during intimate moments (access she only has because of the affair). She's kissing him, he's aroused, and she's like "give me a promotion because I deserve it!" I know we're meant to be angry about the way he strings her along, dangling a promotion we know isn't coming, because the perception of impropriety won't let him bestow favors that could seem unjust on a woman he's secretly schtupping...
... but, um, she doesn't seem to deserve the promotion, so what am I meant to mourn? I feel indignant that she's asking, because without seeing her brilliance in action, it reads more like Lili trying to use her sexuality to get an unfair advantage than it reads as Teddy, the prick, stagnating her career because of their improper romantic entanglement.
The storyline would have hit so much harder for me if we saw Lili be a bright star, even if she stayed as unlikeable/unkind. I don't need my protagonists to be good! Just make them compelling. Lili felt like the worst pseudo feminist, ignoring all intersectionality and twisting the movement to shirk accountability and claim unwon spoils.
*deep breath*
I'm not going to go into my issues with each of the other characters -- Katie was the most likable, but I mostly pitied her at her young age, stuck in this family. Lydia, while not good or aspirational, was clever in a true Kardashian matriarch style. Iris and Stevie? Meh.
But that boy Iris and Stevie were both seeing (ew) was TOO MUCH. I slammed the book shut when he, after impregnating Iris (her sister!) asked Stevie what this meant for them.🫨
WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?' 🫨 Agog.
I would have never talked with any depth to that boy again. It'd have been 100% polite smiles and "I'm great, how are you? Nice to see you. Okay byyyeeeeeeee" for the rest of our lives.
Man, literature has been flooding me with some exceptionally smooth brained men recently.😮💨 I swear I'm not a misandrist, there are much better men (fictional and real) out there.
I could not for the life of me continue with this. The first part was such a slog. Nothing really happened and I was so bored; not one bit of the plot was capturing my attention. Every situation that occurred that was SUPPOSED to be exciting was SO BLEAK! Which is EXACTLY HOW I FEEL ABOUT THE KARDASHIANS!
What really made me stop was the writing. If the author used the adjective "kind" one more time, I was going to lose it. Very elementary descriptions. It was literally the most tedious and dull description of a miscarriage I've ever read.
Sooooo basically? I hated it, but BookTok will love it. Lol
Thank you Net Galley and the Publisher for the ALC!
I thought this was absolutely great. Such gossipy, soapy fun, but with some serious themes thrown in. Grace Alexander hit her debut novel out of the park! “It started with a blow job. They had aspirations for it to become the most notorious blow job of all time. It was a lofty aim. They knew that realistically they were never going to beat that blow job—you know the one—but the least they could do is try.” Lili Lowe is a beautiful and intelligent young woman who wants a career in politics. Her intelligence is often discounted because of her looks, and she is valued by her boss, who is a member of Parliament. One day she is caught by the paparazzi giving her boss a blow job in his car. A scandal erupts that threatens to ruin her life, while her boss seems to escape reasonably unscathed. But Lili has a hidden asset: her mother, Lydia. Once a ruthless talent agent, Lydia has a plan to milk the scandal for all it’s worth. Her machinations lead to media opportunities, endorsement deals, and a reality show called The Lowe Job. Lili, Lydia, and her three other daughters become household names—whether they want to or not.
The book follows the Lowe women through the ups and downs of post-scandal life, and also traces the past of each of them. Lili’s three sisters—ambitious Stevie, ethereal Iris, and distraught teenage Katie—each have their own reactions to their newfound fame, and each has their own issues to deal with. I really couldn’t get enough of this book. It definitely had some very pointed commentary about the double standard that exists between men and women when a sex scandal erupts. These are not totally likable characters, but I was hooked on their stories.
This isn’t something I would typically pick up, but I was in the mood for a gossipy type of book, and this delivered on that front. I felt like I was reading a diary at times 🤣 the messiness was absolutely juicy. I will say, I didn’t like a single character…but I think that is kind of the point. They all ended up growing on me in some way by the end.
I read through this SO fast because of the style in which it’s written. I also liked the message behind it when it comes to how women are treated as opposed to men in these situations. Overall I had an entertaining time!
Thank you Harper Collins and Netgalley for the early copy!
The title promises a job, and Grace Alexander delivers. The oldest profession meets the oldest ambition, and Lili Lowe converts a backseat scandal into a full-scale career. This is a book about fame as labor, about a woman deciding that if the world is addicted to watching, she will charge admission.
Lili Lowe gives a politician a blow job in the back of a car, and her mother Lydia turns the photograph into a press release. The cold clarity of Lydia's strategy for Lili's first television interview with attack journalist Simon Steen, establishes the book's driving proposition. Scandal is a raw material, and the Lowe women are manufacturers. Lydia tells Lili before the Steen interview that she must leave a sour taste in people's mouths so they spend weeks trying to spit her out.
The four Lowe sisters operate as a kind of emotional portfolio. Lili is the speculative asset, high-risk and stratospheric.
Stevie provides the sharpest lines in the book, including her observation that soft porn is an interesting pivot from politics, and her announcement that "Turns out you needed to suck off your boss for this lifestyle. Or you could have just read the bible."
Iris drifts through the story on a current of bracelets and borrowed spirituality, eventually turning religious in a way the entire family dismisses until they discover her website has an enormous following.
Katie, seventeen and swimming against the current of her sister's notoriety, carries the book's quietest devastation. Her eating disorder, her hospitalization, her slow return to the pool. Alexander gives each sister a distinct register and manages the transitions with considerable skill.
The book divides into seasons and intersperses interview transcripts, podcast excerpts, and panel show discussions, replicating the grammar of a reality television program.
The Lowe family produces a show called The Lowe Job, and the book produces its own version of that show on the page. The reader occupies the same position as the viewing public.
Fed curated footage, given commentary from multiple talking heads, expected to form opinions about women. Alexander considers the limits of this format and includes what slips through anyway. The Lowes give full access and reveal almost everything except the parts that matter.
The final act turns darker than the promotional comparisons to Vanity Fair and the Kardashians suggest. Jake Hamilton, Teddy's campaign manager and the man behind the original scandal, shows up at Lili's house in a state of dissolution. Alexander handles the subsequent confrontation with physical specificity.
The wet door handle, the cracked phone screen, the desk dragged across the doorframe. Jake grabs Lili's wrist, places his hands around her throat… The ratings triple.
Alexander keeps the comedy and the violence from canceling each other out. "All this started with a blow job!", delivers catharsis. What the women paid in private for everything they put on display in public. The Lowes gave the press a job and then took the job back. The game was rigged against them from the start. They played it anyway, and played it better.
Thank you to William Morris and Librofm for an advanced listener copy of The Lowe Job by Grace Alexander in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.
This debut novel may have drawn me in with its eye-catching cover, but it was the salacious opening sentence that secured my attention. The story involves a Monica Lewinsky-type scandal if it were managed by Kris Jenner. It’s a sharp, frequently funny story of one family’s attempt to capitalize on a scandal through an empowering, feminist lens.
I was quickly sucked in by the initial scandal but the family dynamics, especially the relationships of the four sisters, kept me reading. I was particularly invested in Katie, the youngest sister, who suffered collateral damage from the unwanted publicity. There was one plot twist involving two of the sisters that was disappointing and made me uncomfortable. But overall, I thought the novel was entertaining, sexy, and sharp. I would highly recommend the audiobook which features an exceptional full cast, including Heather Long, George Greenland, Beth Eyre, Rose Akroyd, Mitra Djalili, Julie Teal, and Antonio Aakeel. Reality tv fans looking for a witty social commentary should check out this novel 3.5/5⭐️
this book is so much fluff that it was hard to engage with and it acts like it’s carefree and fun but then has some really gross stuff in it
like no dude who is in love with you is going to have sex with your sister…. But the narrative is like, yay true love, it’s so weird! Really terrible dynamics going on with all relationships but the narrative acts like this is normal and ideal. I love unlikeable characters and morally gray but not when the narrative doesn’t acknowledge it
Book Title: The Lowe Job Author: Grace Alexander Publisher: William Morrow Pub Date: June 16, 2026 Dates Read/Listened: July 6, 2026 – July 7, 2026
🗣️ 𝚀𝚞𝚒𝚌𝚔(𝚒𝚜𝚑) 𝚃𝚊𝚔𝚎: Is it too much to say I’m obsessed with this book? Maybe, but I’m going for it anyway. The Lowe Job is just the type of drama-filled read I thrive on, and I went in expecting a fun-filled time. I did get the fun, but it also choked me up more than I could have ever expected. You really get to know each of the characters, and this is one of those times where it is beneficial to have so many viewpoints. It’s also pretty easy to keep track of them all thanks to their individual characterizations, and I especially loved the use of mixed media in the book. The ending was rather wild, and I was totally here for it while also kind of freaking out and yelling at the book 🤣. I am super impressed that this is Alexander’s debut, and I can’t wait to see what her sophomore novel will be like! She is definitely one to watch.
🎧 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘶𝘥𝘪𝘰𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬: You know I love a good full cast, and that is exactly what we got here. Heather Long, George Greenland, Beth Eyre, Rose Akroyd, Mitra Djalili, Julie Teal & Antonio Aakeel made this such a memorable listening experience, and I loved every minute I spent with this audiobook! I did have to dial back my listening speed for the mixed media (interview excerpts, etc.) because it felt like they were speaking a lot faster than our MCs. That was an annoyance, to be sure, since it’s a lot, but it didn’t take away from how much I loved it overall, including the sound effects!
I truly loved this. It was a wild ride and completely distracted me from reality. I also LOVE unhinged women. Lydia is iconic — I could’ve stayed with these characters a lot longer.
It reminded me of how much fun I had reading Lost Lambs (also featuring unhinged women)
This one was a like and not a love for me. It's billed as a "modern Pride and Predjudice for fans of Good Material and Blue Sisters." I think this comp is misleading. Both of theses comps are quite literary, and The Lowe Job is soapy, gossipy, quipy. Nothing wrong with that, but, again, this is more Keeping up with the Kardashions crossed with the Monica Lewinsky scandal. It is a far cry from Blue Sisters.
The Lowe Job follows the Lowe family after Lilli Lowe gets caught in a compromising position with her married, politician boss. Lilli's mom is a retired PR exec that pitches her family for a reality show to rehab their image. While it's a smashing success, the Lowe family begins to suffer from the traps of fame and stardom.
This is readable and I think a bunch of people will enjoy! It just was not at all what I thought I would be reading.
Lydia was once an actress and then a successful agent forced to give up her career once she became a mother. Her ambition has never wavered and she is determined to make sure her daughters become successful (i.e., rich and famous). When one of her daughters has an affair with her married boss, a politician rising in popularity, Lydia sees a perfect opportunity to control the narrative.
This is an entertaining and cheeky look at the way the media treats women and I was riveted by the Lowe sisters and their mother. 4.5 stars.
Thank you to William Morrow and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a copy.
From the moment I picked this one up, I knew it wasn’t going to take itself too seriously. The clever title, the witty opening, and the lighthearted tone immediately drew me in. The humor stayed consistent throughout the story and made this an easy, entertaining read.
My favorite part was the relationship between the sisters. Their bond felt authentic, and I found myself looking forward to their scenes more than anything else. They brought heart to the story, and their interactions often stole the show. I also thought the ending came together nicely and left everyone in a good place.
I listened to the audiobook, and I have to give the production a shoutout. The podcast clips, interviews, and other media elements were woven into the story so well. Those kinds of additions don’t always work for me, but they felt natural here and made the listening experience even more engaging.
The part I struggled with was the celebrity family aspect. While I enjoy stories about famous families from time to time, this one leaned a little too heavily into the glitz and drama for my taste. I kept hoping the story would dig a little deeper beneath the public image and give the characters more emotional depth.
I also had mixed feelings about the girls’ mother. There was no doubt she loved her daughters, but her role as their manager often crossed the line into controlling and manipulative. She frustrated me more than once, even though I think that was exactly how she was meant to come across.
As for the romance, I liked seeing a hero who was shorter than the heroine. You don’t often find that in romance, and I appreciated the change. Even so, I never became fully invested in their relationship. The family dynamics were the stronger part of the story for me.
Overall, The Lowe Job was a fun, entertaining read with plenty of laughs, a strong sister relationship, and an audiobook production that elevated the experience. While I wanted more depth from the celebrity storyline and romance, I still had a great time with it. If you enjoy stories about messy famous families, sibling dynamics, and light romantic comedies, this one is worth picking up.
4.5 stars. This was dishy, soapy, and delicious. This is in no way highbrow literature, and the marketing comparing it to a modern Pride and Prejudice is beyond misleading. This was very much a fluffy Kardashian type tale full of sex scandals, a reality show, and a matriarch that micro-manages the lives of all of her four daughters. I think it would make an excellent book club novel because in spite of its innate fluff, there is a ton to discuss in terms of how media can be manipulated, who is at fault in a taboo relationship, and how fame can impact mental health. If you aren’t interested in a book that is frothy and juicy with some characters with really poor judgment, look away. But if that seems up your alley, I think you’ll have as good of a time with this one as I did. Thanks to Libro.fm for the audiobook— the huge cast of narrators lended itself to such a fun experience on audio!
The Lowe Job is the kind of novel that feels tailor made for readers who love a little scandal with their summer reading. Pitch it as The Kardashians meets the Monica Lewinsky scandal, filtered through sharp British wit and biting social commentary, and you’ll have a pretty good idea of what you’re getting into. When a political affair catapults Lili Lowe and her family into the public eye, the resulting chaos is equal parts hilarious, messy, outrageous, and impossible to look away from. The behind the scenes celebrity drama, media circus, and endless family complications make for compulsive reading from start to finish.
What surprised me most was how effectively Grace Alexander balances the novel’s cheeky, satirical tone with genuine emotional depth. Beneath the gossip, headlines, and viral fame lies an exploration of ambition, identity, family loyalty, and the cost of becoming public property overnight. Each member of the Lowe family reacts differently to their sudden celebrity status, creating layers of tension that keep the story feeling fresh and nuanced.
Despite tackling the darker side of fame and public scrutiny, The Lowe Job remains incredibly fun. The humor is sharp, the dialogue sparkles, and the entire novel has a bold, unapologetic energy that makes it a perfect poolside read. Juicy, sexy, funny, and surprisingly thoughtful, this is escapist fiction with substance—a novel that entertains while still having plenty to say about modern celebrity culture and the people caught in its orbit.
I picked up this book because I love reality tv, even though this book is not the type I’d usually read. Even with my expectations of a quick, breezy summer read, I really disliked this book. One of my main complaints is that for a book about a reality show, there were only two tiny scenes about the show actually being filmed and those were both unrealistic. Reality TV is such a strange phenomenon and I think that unpacking how it’s presented and made would have suited this story’s themes more than the surface-level ideas present.
This book was so juicy and fun! The author herself compared it to being like if Monica Lewinsky’s mom was Kris Jenner…and that is SO accurate! I don’t watch reality TV really, but if you like the salacious drama like you find with the Kardashians, I think you’ll LOVE this book!
I actually loved each one of the sisters for various reasons, even though they are *very* flawed. If you read my reviews, you’ll know I don’t write off books solely because of unlikeable characters. That said, I never liked the mom throughout the book even though the author tries to give her a somewhat redeemable character arc. I also loved the glimpses we see of the girls reminiscing on memories with their dad—these were the most wholesome parts of the book (so so sweet), and really rounded out the characters and made them real.
I saw someone say this is like literary fiction Kardashians, and true. This book leans into a character driven plot as lit fic does, but there is pleeeenty of drama in each sister’s life to keep any reader entertained the whole way through. The ending required a bit of suspension of belief and felt rushed, but overall I really really liked this book! I think it was a clever idea for a story and has a surprising amount of depth I wasn’t expecting from the title’s *ahem* pun.
🎧DEFINITELY read this one with your ears! While all of the characters and dialogue are read by one narrator, the audio has a full cast that is utilized in the multimedia clips of interviews and such between chapters. There are also sound effects, really making you feel like you’re listening to clips from actual podcasts, TV shows, etc. My only complaint is that I could occasionally hear the main narrator swallowing, which is an audiobook pet peeve of mine. 🥴 But even with that, I loved listening to this one!
I liked it, but then I hated it. I don’t even know why I bothered to finish this… It felt like the author was trying to tackle a lot but ultimately not a single thing was drawn out, everything was kinda brushed over. The whole story is all telling and no showing, and when I finally finished the book I realized it may seem like you know the characters because you read just 400 pages about them but yeah no, you know almost nothing about them. Overall just bland.
Imagine if a political sex scandal collided with reality TV, social media, and a mother with the ambition of Kris Jenner.
That's basically The Lowe Job.
After Lili Lowe is caught in a compromising situation with her married politician boss, her life implodes. Or at least it should. Instead, her former PR-agent mother sees opportunity where everyone else sees humiliation and launches the entire Lowe family into the spotlight. What follows is part family drama, part satire, and part commentary on our culture's insatiable appetite for scandal.
Yes, it's over-the-top. Yes, it's ridiculous at times. But underneath all the chaos is a surprisingly sharp look at the double standards women still face. Lili becomes the public face of the scandal while the powerful man involved largely escapes the same scrutiny. Rather than letting the media define them, the Lowe women decide to take control of the narrative themselves, and I appreciated that the story framed that as smart, strategic, and empowering rather than opportunistic.
I also loved the dynamics between the four sisters. They're messy, complicated, supportive, infuriating, and believable in the way only siblings can be. Katie, the youngest, was the character I found myself rooting for most.
Funny, smart, and delightfully gossipy, this is one of those books that's easy to fly through while still giving you something to think about after you finish.
Thank you to @NetGalley and @WilliamMorrow for the advanced reader copy. All opinions are my own.
Thank you to NetGalley for the audiobook copy I received on pub day yesterday!! This book had me HOOKED from the first line. The audiobook is delightful with multiple narrators and clips of different media forms. This book goes from being hilarious to infuriating to heartbreaking so quickly that the second I start to think I have a concrete opinion about a character, I go from hating them to loving them or feeling so much sympathy to wanting to set them on fire.
I do think some of the plot points were brushed over way too quickly, perhaps because of how many characters we were trying to keep up with. There were also some moments that felt so completely unlikely but I’m okay suspending some reality for the tea, tbh. I love unhinged, morally ambiguous characters and I got exactlyyyy that!