Who's That Girl?

by Alexandra Potter

If only you knew then what you know now...Imagine if you could meet your 21-year-old self - would you recognise her? And what advice would you give? Wear sunscreen! Back away from those PVC trousers? DON'T give that idiot your phone number? Lemon juice won't bleach your hair - it just attracts wasps...For Charlotte Merryweather, there's no need to imagine. She's about to find out for real. With surprising consequences. Alexandra Potter's deliciously funny and enchanting tale looks at life, love and what might happen if you could turn back time.

• ISBN10: 0753183919
• ISBN13: 9780753183915
• Publish Date: 1 March 2010 (first published 8 January 2009)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 16 March 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: ISIS Publishing
• Imprint: ISIS Large Print Books
• Edition: Large type / large print edition
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 480
• Language: English

Reviews

[Leah]

My first Alexandra Potter book was Going La La and after that I read Be Careful What You Wish For. I’ve also read Me & Mr Darcy but can’t really remember it. Who’s That Girl? is more in the Me & Mr Darcy vein that the other two as both main characters see – apparently – someone from long ago – Mr Darcy in Me & Mr Darcy and Charlotte see’s her twenty-one-year-old self Lottie.

I enjoyed the book in as much as it was an easy, told-in-first-person read and didn’t seem the 363 pages it actually was. The ending was confusing – and I hate unclear endings – was it all a dream or did she actually see her 10-year-younger self? To be honest I have no idea.

I found Charlotte annoying until near the end of the book when she let go of all her problems and “allergies” and became a bit more normal and less controlling. I liked Lottie (Charlotte’s-21-year-old-self) so much more than I liked Charlotte although we do find out why Charlotte is the way she is near to the conclusion of the book.

Beatrice was by far my favourite character, she was hilarious. I don’t think we saw/heard enough of Miles. He wasn’t really in the book, he was more on the sidelines for the entire book. Vanessa and Julian’s relationship was strange. It seems Alexandra Potter had made up her mind to have him cheating and then changed her mind and changed the storyline completely. It just seemed very fishy. I really liked Oliver’s character and would have preferred to have him present through-out the book instead of when it was convenient to the story – back in 1997 or when Charlotte was in his restaurant. There were a few more minor characters; Oliver’s grandad, Larry Goldstein and his wife… they were only minor but I liked the scene with Oliver’s grandad in. I saw through Goldstein, though, and couldn’t believe Charlotte didn’t.

I think it was a great idea in theory but I don’t think it was written brilliantly. The alleged (I say this because I still don’t truly understand the ending of the book – did she or didn’t she?) time-travelling seemed wasted – it would have been good if Charlotte’s meddling actually effected things in the future and the list Charlotte made for Lottie was pointless filler, it had no real effect on the outcome of the book particularly since Lottie didn’t even listen anyway…

I also think it was a shame the ending was wrapped up so quickly – after the way things were with Oliver and Charlotte they resolved it pretty quickly, I’m sure there could have been a few more pages dedicated to Charlotte and Oliver explaining things out to each other.

I read the book quite quickly and did find myself wanting to read more to see if anything came of the Charlotte/Lottie time-travel thing but ultimately I found it disappointing.

Rating: 3/5