Book Review: About a Girl

By Melissa Amster

As you may already know, Hawaii is on my bucket list of places to travel. It looks so beautiful there and I would love to spend a week both exploring and relaxing on the beach. In the meantime, I have Lindsey Kelk to thank for the virtual trip there courtesy of her latest novel, About a Girl.

Tess Brookes had a plan and in a split second, it all fell apart. Jobless and humiliated by the object of her affection, what else is she to do when she picks up a call intended for her flat mate, Vanessa, to do a photo shoot in Hawaii? Soon she is in a tropical paradise, pretending to be Vanessa and psyching herself up for a photo shoot where everything is going wrong. It doesn’t help that the attractive and egotistical journalist is paying special attention to her….or does it? Soon, Tess wonders if it is worth pretending to be someone she is not or if she should just go with the flow and live her life the way Vanessa would.

At first, I thought the story was going to be another version of Original Cyn by Sue Margolis. That story is also about a woman taking on someone else’s identity (of someone she dislikes) for career purposes. Both stories also have feisty girlfriends, gay male friends and attractive potential love interests. However, the similarities end there as About a Girl involves traveling and there are other mishaps involved, including Tess’ lack of self-confidence due to the way her family treats her. You can’t help but want to hug her throughout the story, as she is so vulnerable…even when she’s not trying to be.

If you’re looking for an intense, drama-filled tearjerker, this is not the novel for you. It is an escapist beach read with lots of amazing descriptions, colorful characters and some laugh-out-loud moments. It is entertaining throughout, with some surprises I didn’t see coming at all. (Three cheers for lack of predictability!) While there are some scenes that didn’t really need to be there as they were more “filler” than anything else, the story still flows nicely for the most part. And best of all, it doesn’t tie up neatly in the end, leaving room for a sequel that I suspect will be just as enjoyable!

Naturally, I was casting this movie in my head. Even though most of the characters are supposed to be British, given that Hollywood changes everything to the US (such as Confessions of a Shopaholic and P.S. I Love You), I took some liberties of my own.

Tess: Zooey Deschanel
Vanessa (Tess’ skanky flat mate): Krysten Ritter
Amy (Tess’ best friend): Kate Micucci
Nick (the hot journalist): Josh Lucas or Paul Walker
Paige (the artistic director): Rachel McAdams
Charlie (The object of Tess’ affections): Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Kekipi (Tess’ gay male friend in Hawaii): Alec Mapa

Thanks to HarperCollins UK for the book in exchange for an honest review. They're giving away a copy along with Lindsey's interview.

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