Review : Just one of the Guys

Posted by kay on March 4, 2010 1:05 am in 4 stars reads | 4 comments

Just One of the Guys by Kristan Higgins
Pages : 376
Genre : Chick lit, romance
Stand Alone
My Rating :

From the Back of the Book :

When journalist Chastity O’Neill returns to her hometown, she decides it’s time to start working on some of those feminine wiles. Two tiny problems: #1—she’s five feet eleven inches of rock-solid girl power, and #2—she’s cursed with four alpha male older brothers.

While doing a story on local heroes, she meets a hunky doctor and things start to look up. Now there’s only one problem: Trevor Meade, her first love and the one man she’s never quite gotten over—although he seems to have gotten over her just fine.  Yet the more time she spends with Dr. Perfect, the better Trevor looks. But even with the in-your-face competition, the irresistible Trevor just can’t seem to see Chastity as anything more than just one of the guys….

This book confirmed my love for Higgins writing. I loved the story, I loved the characters, I loved the humor, pretty much every aspect of it!

I want to start with Chastity : she did feel different than usual characters we meet in the “chick lit” genre. Many of my friends associate “chick lit” with “whiny females collecting shoes”, and while I don’t exactly agree, I can see where that feeling comes from! Chastity is different though : not only is she taller with strong shoulders, she also has a passion for sports (running and rowing), a cute obsession with LOTR (very refreshing from the usual Jane Austen obsession, which becomes quite redundant even though I do agree with it!), and a very nice attitude in general. Chastity isn’t defined by her romantic life – or lack of. She has hobbies, a career, friends, and a huge family around her.

Like in Too Good to be True, Higgins chose not to write only about Chastity’s love interests, but also about her everyday life. Her family is an important part of that, and I enjoyed how realistic their relationships were. Sometimes a bit dysfunctional, sometimes just very normal together, they were believable. Since three of her four siblings were married with children, there were a lot of characters, but Higgins did a great job of describing them so it wouldn’t get too confusing.

As for Trevor and Dr. Perfect, they were both great guys, but it was obvious the chemistry was more present between Chastity and Trevor. I liked that Dr. Perfect wasn’t a total jerk though : the fact that he wasn’t perfect for Chastity, but still a nice guy, was true to life. I also found interesting that Chastity’s mom had a similar situation towards the end, but went a different way about it.

I had only one big issue with the book, which I don’t want to talk about too much since I don’t want to spoil it. Close to the end, Chastity poses some actions I couldn’t agree with, and she didn’t seem to think much of it. I would have love to see her reflect more on that, maybe.

As you can see though, I really enjoyed this one, and I recommend it to romance readers but also to those of you who, like me, are not necessarily romance readers but enjoy the chick lit genre (if we can call it that). Especially if you like it with a good dose of humor!