New Review! A Good Girl by Jenny Siegel, 3 Cranky Stars

A Good Girl by Jenny Siegel
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

*** 3 Cranky Stars ***


Eighteen year old Charlie promised her grandfather she would change her ways. She’s that girl, the one they all talk about because she likes to have a good time.



After her latest wicked hangover and no memory of what she did the night before, Charlie leaves for college and reinvents herself as Charlotte, the good girl. She vows: no more wild parties, no more one-night stands, and no more drinking.



Things go according to plan. She has a great roommate who quickly becomes her BFF, gets a job at the school library, and then catches the eye of the bad boy lead guitarist of the hottest band on campus, Dominic Hudson.



Charlotte tries to resist. She’s the good girl now; she’s no longer Charlie. But Dominic makes it difficult and Charlie lurks just underneath Charlotte’s surface.



I really liked the concept of this story and the interactions between Dominic and Charlotte. There was more to him than his reputation, just as there was more to her and her past.



For a debut novel, the author did a good job. It was a quick and easy read with a couple of surprises. I really enjoyed the interaction between Charlotte and her roommate, Iris, even though, at times, I wasn’t sure if I were reading a story about Charlotte or Iris.



I did feel the interaction with the band was missing. Dominic is the lead guitarist of a popular band, but we don’t know much about his band mates. I would have liked to seen this further developed.



Dominic was a lot more open than Charlotte was, which made a nice change from the usual taciturn male lead characters.



My main issue with this story and the reason this work does not rate higher is:



1) There were a few parts that were confusing because of the timeline. I had to go back and re-read some parts just to be clear on what was happening.
2) At times, the author repeated herself. I would have liked to see this space utilized to advance and progress the story, rather than returning to ground that had already been covered.
3) There were some plot holes and consistency issues, which didn’t get cleared up or addressed a lot later on in the story.
4) I struggled with some of the factual accuracies around location in this work. I know the area where this story is situated well. Some of the descriptions are inaccurate.



I’d like to finish off by saying, however, that this book has a lot of potential and if some of the above were altered, my rating would have been higher. It doesn’t end in a cliffhanger, but there is more to their story, which will be further explored in another soon to be released book.




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