praise for buying in

Laura and BUYING IN are the cover story for the May issue of (201) Magazine. (Yes, Laura dresses like that all the time.)

The Citizen names Buying In one of the best books of 2013.

“Wall Street banker Laura Hemphill took her seven years laboring in the world of finance and spun them into a work of fiction that pulls back the door on life of the privileged elite.”

“Former Wall Street financier Laura Hemphill pens a riveting novel about what it takes to make it in the world of finance, particularly as a young woman competing with the boys.”

Glamour names Buying In one of its picks for December, along with Dave Eggers’ The Circle. 

BookPage names Buying In its book of the day.

Bustle.com calls Buying In "a new member of a genre of novels that depicts the stubbornness and anxiety of living in New York and having ambition. Let’s call it 'Lean In Lit.'"

"A solid, suspenseful Wall Street tale."

Bloomberg names Buying In one of its November hilights.

Buying In gets a shout-out in the San Francisco Chronicle's Grabbers Books column.

"We’re not through with these characters yet. It’s a testament to Hemphill’s talent that we want more, a lot more, of them."

"The world of high finance provides a thrilling setting for Hemphill’s fine debut. The author...clearly knows her way around Wall Street, but, more importantly, can make us care about her characters’ successes and failures, against a formidable backdrop rife with competition, backstabbing, and soul-searching."

Buying In gets a shout-out in this article about a new wave of female protagonists on Wall Street.

"I read Buying In in one sitting. It sucks you into an adrenaline vortex, obliterating everything but the deal. Work swallows family, friends, and scruples. A gripping and thought-provoking read."

"With assured prose, a compulsively readable plot, and insider savvy, Buying In offers a front-row seat to the downfall of Wall Street, with a terrific young heroine who outmans the men without sacrificing her soul."

"Laura Hemphill writes about Wall Street with the granular knowledge of an industry insider and the incisive empathy of an outsider. Buying In is an absorbing and affecting study of high finance and the toll it takes on one's non-capitalistic identity, with much to say about gender in the workplace, from a bright new literary talent."

"Laura Hemphill deftly pulls off a hat trick, offering readers an insider’s clear-eyed take on the subprime lending crisis, a chilling look at the lives of women in banking, and a briskly entertaining coming of age story. You’ll be thinking about her complicated, conflicted heroine, Sophie Landgraf, long after you devour the novel’s final pages."

"In Buying In, Laura Hemphill provides us a ringside seat in the inner boardrooms of Manhattan's investment banks in the months just before the financial crash. As her whip-smart, charmingly naïve protagonist Sophie attempts to navigate a deal that will make or break her career (and perhaps decide the future of the bank itself), you can't help but root for her to succeed even as you fear she will. Hemphill effortlessly lays bare the complicated machinations of the banking industry with the breathless pacing of a thriller, and with remarkable assurance describes the very real pull between family and career, success and sacrifice, loyalty and self-preservation. A stunning debut which is sure to catapult the author onto must-read lists."