What a Girl Wants (A Girl #2)
Author: Lindsey Kelk
Published: 2014
On Goodreads
My Rating: 
19/25
Being arrested in your own bedroom is never a good start to the day. Tess Brookes really needs to sort out her back-stabbing roommate—and her life.
Tess Brookes gets the opportunity of a lifetime. Actually, she gets a few. Her life feels like it’s spinning out of control. With choosing between her dream job and a life she never thought would be possible, she’s struggling.
Then suddenly, her long-time crush, the man she’s sworn time and time again she’d spend the rest of her life with, Charlie, finally confesses his feelings to her. But then, there’s the enigmatic Nick. Her heart is being stretched in so many directions that she can barely breathe. All she knows is that she’ll have to decide carefully. This is the part where her life changes forever.
This book marks 19 out of 25 authors, from my New Year’s resolution, that I’ve never read from before. I plucked this one as a way to introduce new authors to myself while also looking for fun summer reads.
This book…I didn’t enjoy this book. Nope. Not at all.
The writing was superb and fun. The writing was light and easily relatable. Definitely a smooth flow. The story contained some seriously beautiful imagery. I loved the setting: Milan, Italy. Just gorgeous. The description was fantastic. Sadly, that was about all that appealed to me.
The characters? Not so much. Tess came off majorly whiney about her life—unsure of whether she wanted a fantastic job in Italy doing photography or starting a venture in advertising with her forever love, Charlie. She must also choose between Charlie, the man she’s known for as long as she can remember, and Nick, the beau she met while in Hawaii on vacation. All of this would be epic for drama, but there wasn’t very much drama. It was more anxiety driven in my opinion. Tess was stressed about making choices and that’s not enjoyable to live and certainly not that fun to read for an entire book.
I was also not a fan of the men she was into. Personally, Charlie is the man I would get super pissed at and never ever date. Tess pined for him for years. YEARS! She grinned and bared it as he dated every other girl and had her pick out gift for them because she’s the best friend and a girl. I was a seething mess. He came to her with those rosy colored eyes and Tess was all for it. Maybe I’m just cold or don’t know as much in some of people’s opinions, but I would never take up with the man I’ve been falling for, for years when he suddenly realizes he’s in love me. If I did, he’d really need to prove it because otherwise it’s like feeling like a second fiddle, or in Tess’s case, the umpteenth fiddle. And Nick. That man came across as entitled and a string-along. He strung Tess along and I find that heartless, especially in the light of her trying to figure out her feelings for him. Booth of these men weren’t intoxicating. They were just of jerky quality.
While this book capitalized on the issue of indecision with major life choices, it didn’t come off as anything more than irritating. I know this was more of a pure enjoyment type of read versus the deep, emotional page-turner that moves your heart and makes you think about your own life. I enjoy a great, breezy book, but this one just wasn’t doing it for me. It just dragged, with Tess’s best friend being annoying and disrespectful. She paid no regard to Tess and what she wanted most of the time.
The story just dragged. Sometimes I couldn’t get a feel for which direction it was going in. It
Overall
This book just wasn’t for. All the drama and intensity it was trying to achieve came out a mess and was straining. Now, like every time I review a book I didn’t enjoy, I always say that there are those who did enjoy it. And I say that with this one, too. It could be just me, but I couldn’t get into this book at all.
More to come soon…
-K.
P.S. Song today? Everyday is a Winding Road.
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The Scarlet Reader 
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