Customer Reviews

Just One Of The Guys

5 star:		(47)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Journalist Chastity O'Neill has returned to her hometown and taken a job at a local paper. The youngest of five children and only daughter has a family full of heroes, yet she faints at the sight of blood and gore. Her heart still belongs to Trevor, a firefighter and the only guy she's truly loved. He also happens to be her brother's best friend and an honorary son to her parents, who recently divorced when dad refused to retire and put mom first for a change. As she and her mom enter the dating pool (and mom is much more successful), they take a defense class taught by a local surgeon, and she captures his attention and being the oafish nearly six foot Amazon that she is, manages to hurt him in a demonstration. As she and Ryan start a new relationship, she can't seem to forget Trevor. But will she take the advice of her mother and let another one into her heart?

Higgins' third novel retains the charm, humor and excellent storytelling as her other novels. She creates rich characters - people you want to call your friends, and gives them the flaws that make them endearing and real. This book is loaded with secondary characters and subplots, but all the characters are fully developed - particularly her family - who each have a distinctive personality and voice. The family bantering is great - I loved the nicknames and teasing - it made them even more realistic. And as always, she has a canine in the story that steals many scenes, in this case, a 120 pound mongrel hound named Buttercup. While I was a little lost on all the "Lord of the Rings" references (Chas embraces her inner geek big time), Higgins has proven that she just can't write a bad novel.

"Just One of the Guys" is the story of Chastity O'Neill, six feet of girl power who just can't seem to find the right guy. She's been secretly in love with Trevor Meade, a friend of her large, meddling family's, since she was very young. Trevor doesn't seem to return her affection. In the meantime, another guy enters the picture, and it's Chastity's big chance to show Trevor that she's a little more than one of the guys.

Will he realize this before it's too late?

Kristan's books keep getting better and better. To read them is to wish that you lived in the towns she writes about, knew the characters whose stories she's telling, and remember what it's like to fall in love with the everyday guy that won your heart. This book is no exception.

Congratulations, Kristan!

I enjoyed Higgins humorous writing. If it wasn't for that, I'd have stopped reading. Here's my problem with the book: 80% of it was spent on heroine's family members' various relationships & heroine's relationship with another guy. Higgins did well in making me care about the heroine & Hero's relationship but the reason for Hero's not pursuing a r/s with heroine was very unconvincing. His declaration of love towards the VERY, VERY END was also abrupt & super short. Suffice it to say, their reconciliation was abrupt, very brief (last 4 pages including the epilogue), & unsatisfactory. I mean there were more details about heroine's sex life with her ex-fiance than with the hero!...something I'd expect more in a chick lit than romance novel.

Warning: may be a frustrating wait for Hero & heroine's coming together.ether.

After waiting anxiously for Kristan to finish her third book, I found that it was worth the wait! Kristan Higgins keeps getting better and better! There's only one problem: The books don't come out fast enough!

Just One of the Guys is definitely a fabulous story. After reading Fools Rush In and Catch of the Day I was expecting Just One of the Guys to be equally fascinating. I was right.

Chastity is one of most fun female characters I've read about. Trevor is by far the most fascinating of the male characters.

This love story is not a perfect romance like other novels. It has its twists and turns that keep you glued to its chapters. The ending is fantastic.

One of Higgins' greatest writing assets is that she makes her characters so down to earth and so loveable that you wish her characters were real.

This book is a definite read. This type of author doesn't come by too often.

The book was well written, and I liked most of the characters. The characters were fleshed out well, the story moved along at a good, if predictable, pace. We get good insight into Chas and her motivations, and along the way, get to know her family, friends and coworkers. Liked the brothers, LOVED the dog, MELTED over Trevor, our misguided hero. Trevor really struck a cord with me. He was ever there for Chas, occasionally (twice) crossing the line from brotherly love to lover. We spend very minute amounts of time with Trevor, who I really wanted to get to know better. I was sitting there talking to the book, saying "C'mon, c'mon, give us more Trevor time, for the love of GOD!" This is not a good sign. We get just enough of Trevor to figure out that while he loves Chas, he is so afraid of losing her and her family that he cannot be what she needs him to be. Chas decides to quit wasting her time waiting for Trevor, and starts dating Dr. Perfect. We spend lots of meaningless time with this disaster of a relationship that I could not possibly have cared less about. While I understand Chas' unwillingness to wait, and even admire her decision to move on, I just felt a whole lot of ickiness reading about her and Dr. Psycho. The last 2 chapters were somewhat redemptive, and I will admit to sobbing at a couple of crucial resolutions, but it was not enough to mitigate the rest of the book.

I have tried to figure out why Ms. Higgins' books annoy the snot out of me, and I have come to the conclusion that it is a marketing issue. When I read a romance, I want to read a ROMANCE. Ms. Higgins' books, with the exception of Too Good to be True, do not read as romance. In my opinion, they are more coming of age, standard fiction. Which is absolutely fine if that is what you want to read. Ms. Higgins does tend to repeat themes(dating anyone other than the hero, parental marital issues, family intervention) but the writing is good, if somewhat limited by the first person POV. If I am ever in the mood to read straight fiction about a woman finding herself, I will be sure to revisit this author. But when I am in the mood to read a romance, I will look elsewhere.

"Chas" O'Neill has just returned to her hometown in upstate New York and taken a job at the local paper. At just under six feet tall and with four older brothers Chas can hold her own in pretty much any situation...but even Chas flounders when it comes to small town dating. When the "perfect man" (aka Dr. Ryan Darling) shows more than just a passing interest in Chas she's flattered but the truth is that although he may be perfect he's not The One. That distinction belongs to Trevor Meade, a man Chas has loved since she was a girl. But other than one brief interlude when they were both in college Trevor has never shown anything other than a platonic interest in Chas. Is it time to let go of her girlhood crush on Trev and move forward with her life?

Chas is a great heroine. She is not riddled with insecurities; she's proud to be a strong and athletic woman even if that intimidates some men. As for Trevor...well, the male mind works in mysterious ways and with a first-person narrative from the female pov the reader is never privy to what he's thinking or feeling. The author really nails the dynamics of siblings in a big family...the arguments, the teasing, it all felt authentic. The humor is first rate - I was laughing during the first chapter and some very funny scenes are sprinkled throughout the book to keep it from feeling too 'heavy'. There are some serious issues explored: one brother's marriage is crumbling in the wake of his infidelity and Chas's mother seems ready to sign off on four decades of marriage. I really enjoyed the book and would recommend it to any reader who likes humor and a romance that is part of the overall story rather than the sole focus of the story. Also, there are no explicit sex scenes and the language is fairly mild.

This is one of those books you don't want to end. The warm family life, the heroine's witty attitude, the hero, the situation - it's all great. I laughed, read bits out loud to my partner, cried, got an ache in my chest because I was worried things wouldn't work out... A great read, can't wait to forget enough of it to read it all over again. In the meantime, I am hanging out for Ms Higgins next release in Feb 09. Bring it on.

With smash hits FOOLS RUSH IN and CATCH OF THE DAY already occupying a perma-spot on my keeper shelf, I couldn't wait for JUST ONE OF THE GUYS to finally be available. If it had half the wit, charm, laughs and wacky situations the earlier books had, I knew I'd enjoy it.

I was NOT disappointed.

In her very distinctive voice, Ms. Higgins tells the story of searching for love when it's right in front of you, but being afraid to grab it. She tells about getting fed up with love that's gone stagnant and demanding more. She tells of taking the next step into a new phase of life, where it's ok to demand to be put first. She tells what happens when you realize that The Love of Your Life may not be the only person you love in your life. And she tells it in a way that makes the reader feel so involved in the action that I almost thought I was 6 feet tall.

Like the heroine's not-so-secret crush- Derek Jeter - does on a regular basis, Kristan Higgins knocked this one right out of the park!

I did not like the heroine in this book. The hero seems like a really sweet guy even though we don't get to hear his thoughts. What bothered me the most about the heroine in the book was that she slept with both men. Wasn't anyone else annoyed with the fact that she was engaged to the doctor and she cheated on him and slept with the hero. If that wasn't bad enough, after sleeping with the hero she went back to sleep with her fiance and then dumped him after. It would have been bad enough that she just cheated on her fiance with the hero and then decide to end it with the fiance but no she went back and slept with him and acted like everything was ok. Both men seemed like nice guys. In my opinion they both could do better without the heroine. I didn't buy the heroines love for the hero. The epilogue made me wonder if the babies belong to the hero since she was back and forth with her men but I suppose the timeline would indicate it is his. Disappointing book.

Romantic comedy is tough to pull off. The tension created among the characters, the situation, the setting and then the final relief that all actually comes out as we hope is amazingly difficult to do well. Kristan Higgins has not only figured it out, she executes it with style, grace, and with many moments when the reader catches the attention from others in the room as the laughter bursts forth.

Higgins is able to paint imagery that could (and should) be translated to the movie screen. You can see the characters, feel the pain and embarrassment, enjoy the moments of success and, finally, cheer for the outcome.

This is not by any means her first novel. I truly hope there will be many more. But, each one is better and better. I can think of many "big" names out there who will be watching behind as she quickly begins to pass them on the charts, in the theater, and on bookshelves around the world.

I am waiting for the next one, and the next one, and the next one.