The Intern Book Review

Madison Rivera is an ambitious Harvard Law student who had to work really hard to get into the prestigious law school. She has such a strong bond with her family that when her younger brother, Danny, was arrested for being in possession of drugs, she dropped everything to visit him in prison with her mom. After Danny accuses the presiding judge of his case of being corrupt, Madison’s mom practically forced Madison to uncover the truth and get Danny out of prison. To be honest, this annoyed me. The fact that a mother would ask her daughter to sacrifice her career before it even has the chance to start is appalling. That Madison obliges is even more annoying. Admittedly, I struggle with female characters who are meek, docile, and don’t stand up for themselves. I also feel like these are pretty bad traits for a lawyer to have.

Madison was shocked to discover that the judge Danny accused of being corrupt was her favorite professor, Kathryn Conroy (who just so happened to offer Madison the opportunity to interview to be her intern). While Madison had already accepted the opportunity to interview, she was conflicted about proceeding because of Danny’s case. She went through a lot of back and forth with deciding whether or not to be forthcoming about the conflict of interest and landed on revealing the truth. Except in the middle of the interview, she lied and claimed she’s an only child. This felt unnecessary, but raised the stakes for Madison.

“She looked at him in surprise, remembering that Danny claimed Judge Conroy was in in fixing his case. She didn’t believe that for a minute. Then again, it had been burned into her mind from way back that Danny was unreliable, and Kathryn Conroy walked in water. Conroy was one of the most noted alums of Madison’s prestigious Catholic high school. Years after she left, the nuns sang her praises. Conroy was why Madison first got interested in becoming a lawyer. She couldn’t be corrupt. No way.”

After Madison landed the internship, there was a lot of suspense around whether Madison would get caught and how the judge would react once she learned the connection between Madison and Danny. Getting answers wasn’t easy for Madison as the judge’s secretary was overprotective of the judge’s chambers and those who worked in it. However, Madison was presented with an opportunity to enter the judge’s personal life. The suspense only increases from here as we begin to learn more about Kathryn Conroy and the people in her life.

The point of view switches from Madison to Kathryn and we get background into Kathryn’s life that puts revealing pieces together. Once these layers of the judge’s early life were revealed, it was really easy to guess who was bad and who was good. I didn’t feel like there were any huge twists, but there was a tiny surprise that shed some light around why Judge Conroy couldn’t get out of the mess that plagued her life and career. Once this was disclosed, it was clear that the stakes were extremely high for Kathryn.

The first half of the book contained some action, but it really picked up when the two women stopped circling each other and confronted one another head on. While I felt like the pace was quick from the beginning, it really picked up once the confrontation happened and the veil between the two women lifted. Kathryn knew enough about Madison and Madison knew enough about Kathryn to work together rather than against each other.

The ending was a mess of deceit and triumph followed by a reset of sorts for Madison. The very end was wholly unsatisfying. We’re taken through a journey of discovering whether or not judge Kathryn Conroy was corrupt only to have the ending take us full circle to Madison at Harvard Law as if nothing extreme recently happened in her life.

Despite the disappointing ending, this book was pretty good. I think the book could have been better if different choices were made to create twists and prolong answering whether or not the judge was corrupt. However, I feel like the premise, fast pace, action, and amount of suspense redeemed the book.