Book Review & Giveaway: Essex Girls

By Becky Gulc

Although I love reality TV programmes for some reason I’ve never watched any of the programmes falling under what seems to be a new label of ‘structured reality’ TV (TOWIE -The Only Way is Essex; Made in Chelsea; Geordie Shore; Jersey Shore, maybe more?!). There hasn’t been any particular reason for this, I’m not against these types of programmes and I haven’t escaped becoming familiar with some of the characters and the sayings from these programmes, particularly TOWIE, when my nephew went through a phase of dressing and doing his hair like Joey Essex and one Christmas when I went in search of a particular ‘REEM’ T-shirt he wanted. Modern day idols, eh?!

When I received Essex Girls for review with its sparkly cover, inclusive of a character with a Chihuahua in her handbag, it was obviously trying to appeal to fans of programmes such as TOWIE. Indeed the author was offered a part in TOWIE. So I’ll be honest, I didn’t think this would be a book for me at all, particularly as I’m in my 30s and knowing I’m probably not the target audience this is not a criticism, just how I felt. I thought it would be fluffy and the characters potentially annoying and that I wouldn’t relate to them at all.

Essex Girls is essentially about three friends in their early 20s and their summer spent in Marbella. Jade is a key character, someone who left Essex to go to university in Bath, settling down with her boyfriend Tom and toning down her fake tan and ‘Essex ways’ in the process. When Tom is caught cheating though, Jade is straight back to Essex in search of the comfort of her best friends. Kelly is a seemingly happily single stereotypical Essex girl. Lisa is in a long-term relationship on the brink of settling down for good it seems, but is she really ready? Jade and Kelly are in need of a change of scenery and they get bar jobs in Marbella for the summer and it’s here that the adventures begin!

To my surprise I actually really enjoyed this book once I got into it and it was pure escapism, a lot of fun and very funny in places. I had a great girly holiday when I was twenty and it was a lot of fun to be reminded of happy times through this story. I liked the characters and thought there were some interesting twists and turns in the love lives of the characters, it’s also a great story about friendship. Yes it’s still a bit fluffy with lots of Essex slang thrown in but this didn’t detract from my enjoyment, it didn’t annoy me like I thought it maybe could so there was a good balance. I enjoyed the fact that the reader is presented with the viewpoints of various characters when useful to the story not just the three main characters but not unnecessarily so to the point of being confusing. My only slight niggle was the amount of times as readers we were made aware of Kelly being a bit ditzy, for me it got a bit repetitive at times in the first half of the book.

It’s not often I end up reading any opening chapters of upcoming books featured at the end of a novel, but in this case I did, as Laura’s next novel (Made in Essex, coming in January) features the same characters. I was keen to see what they were up to next as I love it when we meet the same characters again.

Overall I’d say this book was a surprisingly refreshing read and I think plenty of people could enjoy reading this on their summer holidays or on their sofas (daydreaming of holidays). It’s a great light book that’s packed full of fun!

Thanks to HarperCollins UK for the book in exchange for an honest review. They have THREE copies for some lucky readers anywhere in the world!

How to win:
Tell us about a favorite experience from when you were in your early 20s. (If you're in your early 20s now, you can still talk about something fun you did recently.)

One entry per person.

Please include your e-mail address or a way to reach you if you win. Entries without contact information will NOT be counted.

Worldwide. Giveaway ends August 20th at midnight EST.

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