The Wing Girl

by Nic Tatano

[Leah]

If I have only one problem with my Kindle – my beautiful, wonderful, couldn’t-live-without-it Kindle, it would be that when it comes to choosing a book to read, it’s hard. Whereas with my physical books I can look at the cover and read the blurb, get a gander at the first page, it’s all a bit more difficult with a Kindle. It takes ages to load the first page, just for a tester, you can’t see the cover or synopsis so if you have loads to review (as I do), you basically have to try and remember what a book is about and how pretty the cover is. But as soon as I had downloaded Wing Girl to my Kindle, I knew I had to read it. First up, the absolutely awesome title – we hear so much about wing men that it’s refreshing to have a book about a wing girl. The cover is also stunning, so as soon as it landed and I finished up my most recent ebook, I knew this was my next read.

I’m really loving how publishers are pushing the boundaries with books, both Harlequin and Harper Collins have set up digital-only imprints that have so far brought me some brilliant reads. Wing Girl is one such read from the Harper Impulse imprint and it was an awesome read. Really, really good. It seems as if the Harper Impulse novels are the modern Little Black Dress books, and I am so excited to read more books from them. Wing Girl pretty much caught my attention from the first page, and what surprised me most of all about the novel is it’s written by a man, something I would never have guessed in a billion years. Although, thinking about it, women (with the exception of the wonderfully talented Gemma Burgess) just don’t write females that are kick-ass, or that shoot from the hip. Belinda Carson is a brutally-honest news reporter and I flipping loved her! Not only her, but her friends as well, particularly the feisty Roxanne!

I was so pleasantly surprised to find myself loving this book so much. I loved reading about Belinda’s job, how her feisty Brass Cupcake appearance scares men away, and how her make-over does the opposite job and brings them flocking to her, in the shape of Scott, a helper at the same animal shelter as Belinda, and Vincent, Roxanne’s tough-talking, honest cousin. It just goes to show that you CAN look good, and you can be a babe and still kick ass. You can still be a tough news reporter, and look pretty in the process. Belinda will easily go down as one of my favourite heroines of this year – she’s unfurgettahbul (New York, Roxanne-twang-implied). Her rapport with Vincent was amazing, I loved their love-hate (mostly hate) relationship and how he was always there just when she needed him, even if she didn’t want him to be there. It’s been a while since I’ve read a relationship like that, and they’re my favourite kind because the sparks, they do fly!

There is a more serious tone to the novel, on a story Belinda works on and I’ll be honest I guessed the culprit way before it was revealed, way before it was even mentioned as a story, but it didn’t bother me at all. It was ace to get a look at a story in action like that, to see how Belinda worked and unfolded news stories on a daily basis and it came to a very satisfying conclusion. I truly adored this novel, I think Nic Tatano has written such a fabulous rom-com, with some truly unforgettable characters, all who had fantastic relationships. I just wish I had friends like Belinda’s to give me a make-over to make me look as fabulous as her! You just have to read this novel, it’s amazing and it’s so well written. I look forward to reading many more novels by Nic Tatano because Wing Girl was amazing. One of my favourite books this year, for sure.