About a Girl (Tess Brookes, #1)

by Lindsey Kelk

[Leah]

It’s fair to say that when it comes to Lindsey Kelk’s novels, I’m a bit torn. I was not a fan of the I Heart series at all, but I really loved her stand-alone novel The Single Girl’s To Do List, so when I heard about About A Girl, and knew there was no Angela in sight, I was thrilled! It’s the start of a brand new series, and it’s a series I’m really glad I’ve started reading, because it was such an enjoyable novel, very much in the The Single Girl’s to Do List vein, which makes me a very happy reader indeed.

About A Girl has a really simple concept; Tess Brookes, after losing her job and being rejected by the man she loves, Charlie, answers the phone at her flat one night and decides to suddenly become her flat-mate Vanessa, and head out to Hawaii to shoot some photos for a magazine. Easy peasy. And it is… until complications arise in the shape of hot, but arrogant, Nick Miller, and she can’t decide whether to kiss him or slap him, but finds that he is a very delicious distraction from thinking about her life back in England, either way. She manages to make some new friends, but how long can Tess keep up her secret double life and just what will she do when the truth inevitably comes out?

Now, I will admit, when I first read the synopsis for About A Girl I may have said “Uh-oh” because it sounds quite far-fetched. I will happily admit that it does, but it actually works. Firstly, because Tess’s flat-mate is the Worst Person In The World Ever. Worse than Kanye West, or y’know Osama Bin Laden. Evil with a capital E. So you don’t really feel bad about Tess stealing her identity and running off to Hawaii ‘cos she kinda deserves it big-time. If I was the type of person to applaud a book, I would totally have applauded as Tess stuck it to Vanessa big-time. I loved the fact the novel was set in Hawaii, I would so LOVE to go to Hawaii and I devour Hawaii 5-0 when it’s on the telly, so the setting was just sooooo perfect, I felt. I also actually really loved Tess, I loved Paige, the art director on the shoot, I loved Kekipi, a sort of butler person, who works where Tess is staying for the shoot. There were some pretty awesome characters in the novel, especially Tess’s best friend Amy (I smell potential for Amy to have her own book… And Paige, for that matter).

My absolute favourite character, though, was Nick Miller. I was all primed to hate him; he doesn’t come across to well in the Prologue, he acts like an idiot when we first meet him and I felt SURE I’d be rooting for the hapless Charlie, but no. I am firmly on Team Nick. I kinda sorta feel that Charlie had his chance. He had a DECADE worth of chances, and if he hadn’t realised it by now, well, it was never going to come. But, Nick. Nick was fresh, exciting blood. He had wit, he had a bit of a temper, he’s enigmatic… And did I mention hot? Of course, that means the second book, What A Girl Wants, all hinges on Tess’s decision. I am absolutely firm on who I want her to be with and I am Team Nick ALL THE WAY. I just hope that this love triangle doesn’t become the central theme of the ‘Girl’ novels. I want Tess to choose at the beginning of the next novel and have it done with, and y’know, have her choose who I want her to choose. NICK NICK NICK NICK NICK. Not that I have a preference….