Date Read: January 22 - 25 2014
Date Released: February 1st 2014
Publisher: HarperCollins Australia
Source: Review copy via publisher
Genre: Australian contemporary
My rating: 
Synopsis:
"Josie Browning dreams of having it all.
A stellar academic record, an amazing career in journalism - and for her current crush to realise she actually exists. The only problem? Josie can’t get through twenty-four hours without embarrassing her sister Kat or her best friend Angel, let alone herself.
Josie’s luck changes though when she lands an internship at the glossy fashion magazine Sash. A coveted columnist job is up for grabs, but Josie’s got some tough competition in the form of two other interns. Battle lines are drawn and Josie quickly learns that the magazine industry is far from easy, especially under the reign of powerful editor, Rae Swanson.
From the lows of coffee-fetching and working 10-hour days, to the highs of mingling with celebrities, scoring endless free beauty products (plus falling for her cousin’s seriously gorgeous flatmate James) this is one year Josie will never forget.
Totally fresh and funny, this debut novel from industry insider Gabrielle Tozer reveals just what is behind the seeming glamour and sparkle of the magazine industry."
A stellar academic record, an amazing career in journalism - and for her current crush to realise she actually exists. The only problem? Josie can’t get through twenty-four hours without embarrassing her sister Kat or her best friend Angel, let alone herself.
Josie’s luck changes though when she lands an internship at the glossy fashion magazine Sash. A coveted columnist job is up for grabs, but Josie’s got some tough competition in the form of two other interns. Battle lines are drawn and Josie quickly learns that the magazine industry is far from easy, especially under the reign of powerful editor, Rae Swanson.
From the lows of coffee-fetching and working 10-hour days, to the highs of mingling with celebrities, scoring endless free beauty products (plus falling for her cousin’s seriously gorgeous flatmate James) this is one year Josie will never forget.
Totally fresh and funny, this debut novel from industry insider Gabrielle Tozer reveals just what is behind the seeming glamour and sparkle of the magazine industry."
---
University student Josie Browning dreams of being a newspaper journalist but instead gets landed working at high profile fashion magazine Sash. The poor girl is an absolute walking disaster – I’m actually not sure it’s possible for someone in real life to be this clumsy? I couldn’t relate to all her embarrassing situations as a result of this, I mean I consider myself a klutz but Josie was a different story. That didn’t stop my face from heating up in humiliation on behalf of Josie while reading. I think, in part, some of her clumsiness could be attributed to her unease and lack of self-confidence at the beginning of the book. She makes SO many mistakes throughout, but my high school maths teacher once said “I make mistakes every day, but I never make the same mistake twice”. I loved that about Josie – despite all the shit she managed to get herself into, she would always pick herself up and get on with life and make the most out of things.
I loved the insight into life working at a fashion magazine. I know Tozer’s worked at a few magazines herself so I could tell a lot of this stuff was legit. A lot of it seemed ridiculous to be honest – making interns do menial tasks, fetch coffee and be the errand girl (I guess someone’s got to do it, but really does it have to be the person in university who’s meant to be getting real hands on experience that’s meant to contribute to their degree?). As someone who’s done 3 internships, I’ve been told if I wasn’t given real work after a certain point I should speak up so Josie’s situation really made me flinch. But this is a different type of industry, one that admittedly has some shallow people but also required Josie to prove her worth. It was interesting to see the range of tasks she was faced with and how she tackled them.
There’s a pretty juicy scandal in the midst of this and I cringed at how the poor target got dragged through the mud throughout it all. This was my favourite part of the book – the way it was handled, the aftermath and what Josie and others took from this horrid situation. There was no sugar-coating the ordeal, only to get through it, learn and move on. And don’t make the same mistake twice.
Let’s not forget the really sweet romance in this. There’s an absolutely swoon-worthy boy and a bunch of really icky ones. Shant talk much more about this because you should read and find out.
My biggest issue with The Intern was the writing style. I felt that it was a bit over the top and because of that, it made the situations seem unrealistic so I couldn’t relate to some of the things that went on (aforementioned clumsiness). Don’t get me wrong, Tozer’s style is engaging and it’s definitely got the essence of someone who writes articles to draw the audience in but at times I would just pause in my scepticism.
Overall, I felt that Josie really matured by the end of the book and I can’t wait to see where Faking It takes her. This was a light read that’s very fun, swoony and I loved the fashion aspect.
