The Naughty Girls Book Club

by Sophie Hart

[Leah]

When I was offered Sophie Hart’s debut novel The Naughty Girl’s Book Club to review, I was thrilled. I love books about book clubs. They’re great! They’re ingenius! So it was a no-brainer that I wanted to read this novel, even if it was taking advantage of the recent rise of the erotica genre, I genre I loathe and a genre you cannot pay me to read, believe me. But, thankfully, the novel only focuses on the characters reading the books, and despite it’s black cover and it’s look of an erotic novel, it is actually a Chick Lit book through and through, and it’s a fabulous one at that!

The Naughty Girl’s Book Club (a misnomer of a title, due to the fact that Reggie, a member of the book group, is very much a male!) tells the tale of five people, who are all part of the Cafe Crumb Book Club. There’s Estelle, who started the book group as a way to bring a bit more income into her cafe; Rebecca, a frustrated wife who’s starting to think marriage isn’t all it’s cracked up to be; Sue, a recently retiree who thinks life begins at 62, not ends; Gracie who has firm feminist beliefs that will not be shaken; and Reggie, who’s writing a thesis and needs a book club to help form his opinions for his thesis. As friendships form and the books become racier, the members find their own love lives hotting up, but will they get everything they’ve always wanted?

What I really liked about The Naughty Girl’s Book Club is that the novel focuses on all 5 characters equally. It skips from character to character, chapter to chapter, and it was brilliant getting to see the characters in their normal lives as well as during their book club meetings. I loved all of the characters, I loved how the book group changed their opinions in life and in love, how they all became firm friends and confidantes rather than just people who are in a book group. I wasn’t at all tempted by the books they read, mind, and it’d be brilliant if anyone ever decided to write a novel about a Chick Lit book club. That’d just blow my mind, I think. Nevertheless, the book group meetings were always interesting and I thought they were fab.

I loved the book. It took me a week and a half to finish due to work commitments (the sooner I win the lottery, the better!), but I never forgot a character and Gracie and Reggie were by far my favourite characters. I loved how Gracie wasn’t afraid to air her opinions, and I loved Reggie’s shyness. I was also quite taken with Sue, and I felt so sad that her husband George wasn’t more willing to do things with her – an entire 180 from the lovely Rebecca’s husband Andy, who was more than willing to go that extra mile to keep his wife happy! I was rather entranced with Estelle’s life, especially hunky fireman Tony. Sophie Hart’s a fabulously talented author (I think it’s a pseudonym for another Chick Lit author, but I’m not 100% certain and if it is, I’d love for her to reveal her true identity, I hate secrecy and if she’s an author I’ve never read I’d love to read her as this was really well written), she certainly knows how to write and I’m looking forward to her next novel as this was magnificent. A brilliant read, do pick it up!