Girl 99 by Andy Jones

Girl 99

by Andy Jones

Before Tom finds The One, he needs to find himself.

When Tom’s girlfriend walks out on him the day before Christmas, he feels humiliated but not necessarily heartbroken. Sadie wasn’t, after all, The One. If we’re being precise, she was number eighty-five.

Tom’s first mistake is sharing this information with his best friend El. His next mistake is listening when El suggests that he bring his eighty-five up to a nice, neat one hundred.

It was never going to be a good idea, not least because everything else in Tom’s life is in complete chaos. His best friend is dying of a slow and cruel disease, his teenage sister is at war with his well-meaning but dogmatic father, his elderly neighbour is having romantic problems (and makes a dreadful cup of tea), and he has to shoot four commercials with four children and a bad-tempered producer.

And then Tom meets Verity. Whether she’s The One remains to be seen, but she’s certainly more than just another number.

Revised edition: This edition of Girl 99 includes editorial revisions.

Reviewed by Emma (SCR) on

4 of 5 stars

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This review was originally posted on Star Crossed Reviews I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.Thank you to Andy for sending me  a copy of this book via Netgalley. I've previously read The Two of Us and when Andy asked if I wanted to read Girl 99 I jumped at the chance. As a side note this story is set before The Two of Us.

Tom stupidly cheats on his girlfriend Sadie at the Christmas work party, when he decides that honesty is the best policy she doesn't exactly thank him.

When Tom's friend El (yes the same El from The Two of Us) hears of this latest development he makes a bet with Tom. To reach 100 sexual partners. With some coaxing from El, Tom reluctantly agrees to the bet.

When I was reading this book I felt like I had read parts of this story before. I'm not sure if this was because I knew El's story or because Tom's job was in the same field as Fishers, in The Two of Us and seemed to have some similar themes regarding the work aspect. Nevertheless I really enjoyed the story.

The story is mainly about Tom but I really liked Tom's sister Bianca. She's feisty and funny.

Tom manages to get himself into such ridiculous situations you can't help but laugh. This book will have you going from laughing to covering your eyes in embarrassment at the situations that Tom gets himself into.

I guessed how this story was going to end before we quite got there but I didn't quite guess the journey to get there. Verity is a little bit different. She's not afraid to be who she really is and there's something about her that makes Tom want to know more.

The thing I really like about Andy's books is seeing the story from the male perspective and I look forward to reading more from him in the future.

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  • Started reading
  • 2 February, 2017: Finished reading
  • 2 February, 2017: Reviewed