Summary

Your next career move could be your last.

At thirty-nine, Nicole Mueller’s life is on the rocks. Her once brilliant law career is falling apart. She and her husband, Dan, are soon to be forced out of the apartment they love. After receiving a warning about her work from her firm’s senior partners, she gets an invitation to an exclusive women’s networking group, Panthera Leo. Membership is anonymous, but every member is a successful professional. It sounds like the perfect solution to help Nicole revive her career. So, although Dan has reservations, Nicole signs up for their retreat in Colorado.

Once there, she meets the other women who will make up her Pride: a CEO, an actress, a finance whiz, and a congresswoman. Nicole can’t believe her luck. And she agrees with the mysterious founder’s core philosophy: they’re a girl’s club in a boy’s club world. 

Nicole is all in. And when she gets home, she soon sees dividends. Her new network quickly provides her with clients who help her relaunch her career, and she finds a great new apartment too. The favors she has to provide in return seem benign. Then late one night, she’s called to the congresswoman’s apartment where she’s pressed into helping her cover up a crime. And suddenly, Dan’s concerns that something more sinister is at play seem all too relevant. Is Panthera Leo full of predators? And is Nicole the prey?

Why I chose to read this book
Please Join Us. Such a great title! I love everything that it implies; eeriness, secrets, conspiracies. I couldn’t wait to read what Panthera Leo was all about.

Thoughts & Opinions

This book had lots of potential. I found the main character, Nicole, who’s in her late 30s, relatable. A ridiculous points system at her job has undermined everything she has worked for. A brilliant career suddenly threatened by something so trivial. So a mysterious invitation to a secret exclusive women’s networking group, Panthera Leo, came at exactly the right time. When Nicole met the other members and gathered they were all high-profile women, she should have started questioning her invitation even more than she already was. It was a bit hard to believe that someone like her could get roped into a cult-like group. She was arguably blinded by all the perks and advantages Panthera Leo was providing her. The red flags were flying aggressively high, but she chose to ignore them until it was too late. 

The positives: 

• Most of the chapters ended with an ominous foreboding sentence which I thought was funny (although not sure if that was the author’s intention).
• This might speak to how influenceable I am but when Nicole started working out and started feeling better in her skin, it actually motivated me to start working out too. And I did! For about 4 days.  
• Nicole brings up a predicament many women face at a certain point in life; career or kids? She has honest conversations with her partner and I thought the way this subject was approached was commendable.
• The idea of Panthera Leo is admirable; women helping each other to be the best version of themselves. In male-dominated industries, women need to stick together.  
• It opens up your eyes to the reality that this type of insider’s club absolutely exists for men.