Workhorse by Caroline Palmer is one of my favourite reads of 2026
Every so often, you come across a book that completely stops you in your tracks and takes you away to another era. One era I’ve always dreamed of being part of was New York in the 2000s at the peak of the magazine industry.
We grew up watching movies that glamourised the journalism industry, like 13 Going on 30, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, and The Devil Wears Prada. These movies made many of us, myself included, daydream about working for a magazine like Andie Anderson, but the golden days of women’s media didn’t stick around for long enough. Magazine after magazine closed down as the digital world took over, leaving many of us heartbroken over never experiencing the life Jenna Rink and Carrie Bradshaw sold us.
However, that’s where the joy of books comes in, and one recent release has whisked me away to the golden days of magazines in New York. Caroline Palmer’s Workhorse is a must-read if you’re looking for something that is both glamorous and dark, but also so gripping that you completely forget about your own world.
The book follows editorial assistant Clodagh, who wants to fit in with her peers. She wants to walk into a room and feel important, needed and recognised, and she’ll do anything to get there. This is a story of just how far your ambition will take you, and knowing if it is worth taking the risk.
Workhorse is one of my favourite reads of the year. It’s electric, fascinating and full of nostalgia for a time many of us dreamed of experiencing. It’s like the anti-Devil Wears Prada because this is a story all about the danger of ambition, and how it can change someone for the worse.
Buy Workhorse by Caroline Palmer here.
Buy the Kindle version here.
What is Workhorse about?
New York City, 2001. Editorial Assistant Clodagh “Clo” Harmon wants nothing more than to rise through the ranks at the world’s most prestigious fashion magazine. But there’s just one problem: she doesn’t have the right pedigree. Clo is a ‘workhorse’ in a world of beautiful, wealthy, impossibly well-connected ‘show horses’ and it seems that her fortunes will never change. That is until Clo meets Harry Wood, a reporter with visions of his own media empire and the person who might be Clo’s ally in gaming the system…or is he the only thing standing between Clo and her rightful place at the top?
Clo begins to wade across boundaries, taking ever greater and more dangerous risks to become the Important Person she wants to be. But who is Clo under all the borrowed designer clothes and studied manners? And who are we if we share her desires?
