About a Girl by Lindsey Kelk

About a Girl (2013) (Harper)
Lindsey Kelk
Grade: A
Genre: chicklit
Sex scenes: kisses
Source: own
About a Girl: (1) About a Girl, (2) What a Girl Wants

Tess Brookes needs a new Life Plan. All her life, she’s been the good girl with a City job, constantly working overtime to get that promotion she deserves. When she’s fired out of the blue, no one’s more shocked.

After a week moping about her flat, receiving rejection after rejection, she answers a phonecall meant for her flatmate-from-hell, Vanessa. It’s Vanessa’s agent, Veronica, who has a photoshoot lined up for her in Hawaii. In the first moment of spontaneity her whole life, Tess accepts and finds herself in Paradise, pretending to be the world class bitch, Vanessa.

There’s food and sunshine galore as Tess relaxes in her own cottage on Bertie Bennett’s estate, but things aren’t going quite to plan. She’s an amateur photographer at best, and so it’s lucky that Vanessa isn’t known for her fantastic photography skills. Bertie, the subject of the shoot and interview is nowhere to be found and the party are fobbed off with his uncharismatic son who is full of nothing but excuses. Then, there’s Nick Miller, the journalist writing the article who wants to get into Tess’s pants – and she’s very tempted to let him. Will she be able to keep her secret, or will her secret reveal her?

This was a fantastic book. I don’t usually read chicklit unless it’s Meg Cabot, but I was writing a submission for this when I was interning at HarperCollins and really loved the sound of the plot. Plus, it didn’t hurt that Lindsey Kelk and her ‘I Heart’ series is huge for them, and so I thought I would see what it was about.

This is a great ‘holiday read’. I don’t usually give books such labels, but that’s the perfect word for it. A holiday in Hawaii in my own cottage with everything I could ask for to hand, sounds like a dream right now, as British weather alternates between rain and shine. It’s also the perfect place for Tess to have herself a summer fling to forget about her woes, and the character of Kekipi who is sort-of the butler of the house, is a fabulous holiday companion.

I love Tess: both the old Tess and the new Tess and everything inbetween. This book is so much more than what the blurb and my summary gives away, and I had great fun reading and unpicking it all. Lindsey Kelk has definitely shot up my priority-to-read list. I have another of her standalones from the library, as well as two of her ‘I Heart’ series books, and can’t wait to read them.

About a Girl would have worked fine as a standalone for me, and I had assumed it was such right through to the last page. However, there will apparently be a book two featuring the terrific Tess and this tumultuous time in her life, where she's got the motherload of decisions to make. I'm intrigued as to which career path (and man!) Tess will choose, and I have a feeling that it's going to be the option that I don't want. Regardless, bring it on!

Image courtesy of Fantastic Fiction.