Blurb: 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.
Two words: Love it. Prepare to enter a wilder roller-coaster ride of emotions with Tess. This is the story of a girl with more than one passion in life, and she’s standing at the crossroads of more opportunities than she can take. She must decide, because you know, you can’t have it all. She was that girl who always had a plan, and when plans changed, she’s presented with these choices: London or Milan? Photography or advertising? Nick or Charlie? After 10 years of getting friendzoned, the tall, dark, and handsome Charlie finally confessed his love to her and offered to start their own advertising agency together in London. On the other hand, there’s the proud, arrogant, self-absorbed Nick she met in Hawaii and the photography gig of a lifetime waiting for her in Milan. Who can blame her indecisiveness?
There are very few of us who know what we want before we become a full-grown adult (and eventually made the proverbial “it” earlier than everyone else), and there are even more of us who do know, but never had the courage to go for it (Thoreau was right when he said most of us lead lives of quiet desperation, wasn’t he?). That may be you right now, but that’s also Old Tess (See AAG a.k.a. Book #1). She will never be the same again after all that’s happened in Hawaii, and this is the book that follows Tess entering the transitional stage of her life. It’s the crux of her story that might just as well forces you, the reader, to reflect upon your own midlife/quarter-life crisis as you ponder on switching careers and/or consider doing something out of your way with your love life, fitted into 398 pages.
I gotta say, I haven’t read that many book series throughout my reading life (think Sweet Valley, Gossip Girl, Harry Potter, and Malory Towers – that’s about it), but God knows when was the last time I’m this hung up about a closing, because it dragged me down to yet another long anticipation of a sequel, at least, I’m assuming there’s an installment to follow what happened at the end of What A Girl Wants (WAGW a.k.a. Book #2). Tess is happy – she grew to become more herself than ever, but given the circumstances, she can be happier. I love her from the beginning because she’s blunt, funny, smart, kind of sloppy, very much flawed, and so, so real – the latter makes for a rare combo among chick-lits. Just like in About A Girl (AAG a.k.a. Book #1), I’ve got so many highlighted paragraphs in WAGW, and there were many pop culture references that are relevant today studded among all of Kelk’s unique, variegated, and likeable characters as well (even the strangers are fun). You can’t help but conjure up the entire book into reality, and there’s no denying how much thought Kelk’s put behind her craft.
Tess got herself into more trouble this time in urbane Milan – a huge departure from breezy Hawaii – and drama. Major drama. There’s going into prison (twice!), fancy operas, free flow wine, lavish parties, tulle and frills galore, and McMansions that make the Buckingham look like a den. There were countless OMG moments where I either gasped or found myself leaving my mouth open in disbelief. Even more moments where I cringed as Tess’s story unfolds, page by page, not knowing what she’s going to do next yet she keeps entrusting her rawest, her scariest, and even the most mundane thoughts to the reader, often thoughts that made me grin in agreement until I realized I’ve been under my blankets for 100 pages.
Just a few of my favorite monologues:
- Al was so wise. I attributed it all to his beard.
- The “he must have died or he would have called” rationale. Keeping single women delusional since the invention of the telephone.
- When I was a kid, Amy and I were obsessed with Disney movies and I had always been cynical of how quickly the princesses fell head over heels in love. Yes, Prince Eric was a hot piece but really, Ariel, you’re going to give up your entire life and the ability to breathe underwater to shack up with some bloke you barely know at sixteen?
Amy skipped in front of me, clutching her hands to her chest. “Charlie is the moon and Nick is the sun? Charlie is a daisy and Nick is a luscious red rose? Charlie is Liam Hemsworth and Nick is Chris Hemsworth?”
“Is Chris hotter than Liam?” I asked.
“Eh.” She waved her hand from side to side. “It’s pretty fifty-fifty looks-wise but Liam loses points for the Miley Cyrus engagement thing.”
It’s amazing how Kelk’s managed to stay at a leisurely pace with such a chaotic plot in her hands, but it’s a relatively progressive climax. To be honest, I didn’t enjoy the first half of the book as much as I enjoyed the second half, just because I’m pissed that Nick has gone AWOL more times than you can count and that you can’t seem to understand the character … until you find out that actually, he didn’t want to be understood and later on, can’t help but empathize with his backstory. Trust me, you’ll be on #TeamNick by the end of it all (Sorry #TeamCharlie).
Like I said, all minor and supporting characters contributed to Tess’s advancements in their own ways. It’s just like in AAG, only better: Amy is the bubbly BFF you can’t live without, Paige is the Serena van der Woodsen you secretly have a girl crush on, Kekipi is Tess’s fairy gayfather as Sanford is to Carrie, Al is the wise old man and quite possibly the father figure you never had, Charlie is the guy who wants to have you when he can’t have you, and finally, Nick is the guy who needs you in his life in order to love again. They’re all as solidly developed as Tess, and I especially loved that ALL characters have gone through changes by the end of the book. It’s clearly a character-driven story than it is all about plot.
One big reason why I relate so much with Tess since I first picked up AAG was her passive ways in dealing with the life decisions she needs to make for herself. When you first met her, she was just working her ass off stupidly and waiting for things to happen to her. It’s the same with men, especially the part where she gets friendzoned for a decade (and on a not-so-important note, I have a fantasy to say this to the wishy-washy guy in my past: I don’t give two sh*ts about what you’d rather do. I waited for someone to make his mind up for ten years, Nick. Ten years. And now I’m supposed to sit there like some twat and wait for you to decide what you want? No way. Forget that. You told me how you felt and I listened and I’ve gone along with your hot-and-cold headf*ck of an attitude until now but enough is enough! I like you. I more than like you. Actually, I think I probably might that other word you, but I can’t say it here and I’m not going to say it because you’re awful and you can’t make your mind up and you’re just messing with me and my foot hurts.) In this book, it’s obvious that she’s changed, ‘cuz Nick’s a different breed. Nick writes for a living, and writers aren’t exactly the easiest people to understand in the world. So she took all chances to initiate, and they’re less about her being desperate than they were about her taking actions for her own sake. For once, she has to actively confront the important things and not chicken out behind her cubicle and slog all day on Thanksgivings and Christmases.
If there’s one lesson (out of the many!) I learned from WAGW, is that you don’t want to be with someone who sees you as a potential/backup/second-choice/convenience. You want someone who needs you, to whom you can trust and give all your heart, someone who actually sees you as his #1, and that his life with you and his life without you makes a heaven-and-earth difference. This isn’t restricted to romantic relationships, but extends to friendships and family ties as well. I’ve yet to see major developments in Tess’s family life in WAGW, but she’s making progress in getting past old resentments, even when her mother’s still as sh*tty as ever.
I can still go on with my raving this book at this point, but not without giving too much away (I already think I did). All I can say now is that it’s an immersive, refreshing, and hilarious summer/beach/airport companion packed in one easy read. It’s like you’re having brunch with your girlfriends – Tess is that relatable and Kelk’s writing style is the perfect marriage to the character’s palpability that once you get into the prologue, you can’t stop. If you haven’t, I highly suggest reading AAG first. Only then you’ll see how much Tess has developed by the end of WAGW.
Love, Stace
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