Book Review : What a Girl Wants by Lindsey Kelk

Title : What a Girl Wants

Author : Lindsey Kelk

Publication Date : 17 July 2014

Publisher : Harper

Source : Sent by the publisher (Thanks!)

Overall : 5/5

Tess Brookes was the girl with a plan.

Now she’s the girl with a choice.

Should she stay in London and start her own advertising agency with her best friend and potential boyfriend Charlie? Or should she head to exciting Milan to pursue both a new career as a photographer and a new man, the enigmatic and elusive (and highly irritating) Nick?

For the first time, Tess has to choose between the life she always dreamed of and a future she never imagined possible. With her heart and her head pulling her in different directions, Tess has to make a life-changing decision about What a Girl Wants.

This is an honest review from Lindsey Kelk’s massive fan, Eve. I am a proud owner of Lindsey’s masterpieces and I started reading her books since I Heart Paris. Maybe that’s why I survived high school. My love for I Heart series is a whole blooming lot and when she wrote the first book of her new series, About a Girl, I couldn’t be happier. I didn’t cheat on Angela, for your information. New characters, new covers. What’s not to love? It's been almost a year or so since About a Girl and the wait was finally over when a review copy landed in Malaysia. A huge thank you to the awesome people at HC. Grazie!

What a Girl Wants follows the story of Tess, a great photographer. She is fabulous at being a photographer but she is also horribly good at advertising. But she can’t have it all, right? Two jobs to choose from, two different paths, two very different men. Like a ship in the middle of nowhere, her indecisiveness is definitely another horrible ingredient to add to the mix. When current pulls her in two different directions, she has to choose either to travel the road less taken or the other option. The choice is all up to her and she just can’t run away this time like she did in About a Girl. So, a life changing decision about what she wants.

Tess, like in the first book, charmed me greatly with her epic craziness. Her sparkles will never fade, I am sure. With the touch of Lindsey’s magic, Tess became real and we totally could be best friends even in a fictional world. Tess is a lot like me. I am indecisive, I have been through the ‘should I follow my heart or listen to my parents?’ phase and the ‘I said I would give you my heart but you don’t even want me to’ shit but less not go there, yeah? Tess couldn’t make a choice for herself and she thought she would have one week in Milan to sort herself out and to do Al a favour. I liked Tess a lot in this book, even more than I did before. She’s creative, sarcastic and sometimes crazy. I want her life, that’s all.

I adored her bits with Nick, the annoyingly handsome journalist. Question : Why are handsome guys annoying? I am #TeamNick and I know very well he’s trouble but I am in love with him. There’s always more adventure when you’re in love with a bad boy. Emotional and sweet at the same time, bloody irresistible. You don’t know what’s crossing their mind and sometimes, you just don’t know how to handle them. I imagined Andy Brown as Nick. Swoon. I am irrevocably in love with him. I adored Amy and the GBF, Kekipi! We would wear matching pink crop tops, go mad and be the best trio ever! There's also Paige, the fashionable friend! I imagined Chiara Ferragni as her. Ooh so gorgeous.

To me, reading this book was like attending a school reunion. I could not put it down because it’s truly enjoyable. It’s also set in one of the most beautiful cities, Milan! I want to visit Duomo one day. Everyone is telling me that the place is heaven on earth, I need to travel more. I had the chance to meet and read about the lives of my fave characters and how they developed. Lindsey has described her characters in sharp, fine details like a DSLR camera. One of Lindsey’s greatest strengths is her ability to give life to her characters. This story is not written with just the imagination and creativity of an author but also with a heart that wants her readers to be happy. Her style of writing is extremely bubbly and utterly impeccable. What a Girl Wants is by far her best book to date!

What a Girl Wants is a book that you must read this summer! For a few days, I was having fun in Milano through Lindsey’s words and now, I want the next book! This time, instead of Hawaii, romantic sunsets and all those pineapple cocktails, let’s get prepared to be whisked away to Milan. I am hoping to bump into Chiara Ferragni. If a Chanel bag is a lust-have, this is a lust-read! Ciao!