If You Liked The Partner Track. . .

If you liked The Partner Track (either the novel or the Netflix series), here are some other women’s fiction and romantic comedy novels with female lawyers and legal drama: Partner Pursuit, The Undomestic Goddess and Practice Makes Perfect. If you liked The Partner Track and you’re looking for more work drama romances featuring Asian-American women, I recommend Circling Back to You and So We Meet Again.

The Partner Track by Helen Wan is about a Chinese-American female lawyer trying to make partner in Manhattan, while dealing with micro-aggressions and discrimination and while balancing romance, friends and family. I read it in one day and really enjoyed it. Highly recommend!!

Partner Pursuit

My novel, Partner Pursuit, has some similar elements:

• a female protagonist trying to make partner and dealing with the old-boy network
• legal drama
• a love for New York City (included in the Book Riot list of 8 epic New York-set romances)
• the desire to please family
• falling in love when the focus should be on career
• a great bunch of best friends

PARTNER PURSUIT BLURB

Here’s the blurb for Partner Pursuit:

When a workaholic lawyer meets a fun-loving music marketing executive for opposites attract, friends-to-lovers adventures, which partnership will she choose?

Workaholic lawyer Audrey Willems is not going to take any chances with her bid to become a partner at her New York law firm—especially with only six months until the decision.

Until she bumps into Jake—her new neighbor. Jake is a fun-loving music marketing executive who might just be The One.

He’s funny, caring, supportive—and able to kill water bugs in the bathroom.

But Jake will never date a woman married to her job. His father was a workaholic lawyer who never had time for family.

And she’s just got the case of a lifetime—the one she needs to win to make partner.  Working 24/7 at the office may not even be enough hours to pull off a victory.

If only she had not met him now.

Audrey is determined to prove that she can juggle work and romance—even if managing court cases, candlelit dinners, and bike rides around Manhattan is a lot harder than it looks.  She keeps canceling dates for yet another case crisis.

But when making partner is like a game of musical chairs and the last seat is a business-class alone, which partnership will she choose?

The Undomestic Goddess

This is one of my favorite books because it is a laugh-out-loud hilarious romantic comedy. But that may be because I’m a lawyer who’s not good at housework. Here’s the blurb for The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella:

Workaholic attorney Samantha Sweeting has just done the unthinkable. She’s made a mistake so huge, it’ll wreck any chance of a partnership. Going into an utter meltdown, she walks out of her London office, gets on a train, and ends up in the middle of nowhere. Asking for directions at a big, beautiful house, she’s mistaken for an interviewee and finds herself being offered a job as a housekeeper. Her employers have no idea they’ve hired a lawyer–and Samantha has no idea how to work the oven. She can’t sew a button, bake a potato, or get the #@%# ironing board to open. How she takes a deep breath and begins to cope–and finds love–is a story as delicious as the bread she learns to bake. But will her old life catch up to her? And if it does. . . will she want it back?

Practice Makes Perfect

Here’s the blurb for Practice Makes Perfect by Julie James:

WHEN IT COMES TO THE LAWS OF ATTRACTION…

Payton Kendall and J.D. Jameson are lawyers who know the meaning of objection. A feminist to the bone, Payton has fought hard to succeed in a profession dominated by men. Born wealthy, privileged, and cocky, J.D. has fought hard to ignore her. Face to face, they’re perfectly civil. They have to be. For eight years they’ve kept a safe distance and tolerated each other as co-workers for one reason only: to make partner at the firm.

…THERE ARE NO RULES.

But all bets are off when they’re asked to join forces on a major case. At first apprehensive, they begin to appreciate each other’s dedication to the law—and the sparks between them quickly turn into attraction. But the increasingly hot connection doesn’t last long when they discover that only one of them will be named partner. Now it’s an all out war. And the battle between the sexes is bound to make these lawyers hot under the collar…

My review: I just finished this one in one day and really enjoyed it! Both Payton and J.D. have great best friends too.

If you liked The Partner Track and are looking for more work drama romances featuring Asian-American women, I recommend:

Circling Back to You

Here’s the blurb from Circling Back to You by Julie Tieu:

Cadence Lim has transformed from behind-the-scenes number cruncher to an integral part of the sales team at Prism Realty. But despite moving up the corporate ladder, her complicated relationship with her estranged elderly father weighs heavily and she can’t seem to shake the desire for a new beginning.

At least Cadence can always lean on her favorite co-worker and co-conspirator, Matt Escanilla. A top broker with an unsuccessful love life, the forever single Matt is constantly being nagged by his loving Filipino family to settle down.

Their relationship takes a turn when a business trip lands them both in their hometown and Matt enlists Cadence as a pretend girlfriend for a family gathering. The new after-hours setting forces the two friends to see each other in a new light, and their previously buried feelings rise quickly to the surface. When competing promotions threaten to separate Cadence and Matt, these office besties must work together to round up their ambitions and families to pursue their overdue romance.

My review: I was lucky enough to receive a Netgalley ARC of this book, and I really enjoyed it, especially the family dynamics and how thoughtfully and perceptively those were portrayed by Ms. Tieu. Cadence and Matt fit each other perfectly. The workplace dynamics were also spot on. And it even included some K-drama beta references like a piggyback ride and Matt picking up pharmacy supplies.

So We Meet Again

Here’s the blurb from So We Meet Again by Suzanne Park:

When investment banker Jessie Kim is laid off in a virtual meeting and then overhears why (“she’s already being overpaid anyway for a woman” and “Asians are worker bees, not someone who can drum up new deals”) she delivers an “eff you guys” speech and storms out. 

After moving back home to Tennessee to live with her loving but meddling mother and father, she runs into her childhood nemesis—golden child Daniel Choi—at the local Asian grocery store. The smart, charming lawyer appears to have it all…while Jessie has nothing.

Jess begrudgingly accepts Daniel’s help to relaunch her long abandoned Korean cooking YouTube channel: HANGUK HACKS, showcasing easy meal prep for busy professionals. But just as she discovers Daniel’s life isn’t as perfect as it seems and there’s more to him than meets the eye, he shows up for a life-changing business opportunity, and their rivalry is back on . . .

Let’s Talk

So, those are just a few suggestions for your #TBR if you liked The Partner Track. Have you read or watched The Partner Track? What did you think of the Netflix adaptation? What’s on your #TBR for September?