Customer Reviews

What a Girl Wants (Ashley Stockingdale Series #1)

5 star:		(46)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I couldn't believe how hilariously funny this Christian romance novel was! AND! It is truly Chick-Lit at its best! A funny tearfully tale Christian and nonChristian readers will cry with Ms. Billerbeck's novel of Ashley's search for her Truth in life! I REALLY recommend this book for everyone who likes to enjoy their reading as well as get something out of it! Pick it up immediately and you will agree.... It is a MUST! (And? I am not joking - pardon the pun! :)

What a Girl Wants is a great read for women of all ages. It provides a good laugh and a couple of teary moments. The main character, Ashley Stockingdale, is funny and vulnerable. The dialogue is witty and believable. Along with Ashley, Kristin Billerbeck creates a wonderful supporting cast of characters that are well fleshed out. I'm not a fan of chick-lit, but I found myself looking forward to a quiet house. When everyone was asleep, I curled up on the sofa. The author isn't afraid to let loose and explore life from a single women's point of view--no holds barred. I devoured this book right on down to the last two sentences where the author hits the nail on the head. What a girl wants is God's will for her life. Nothing else compares.

J. B. Williams

Author, Chase Your Dreams

Eventhough Ashley Stockingdale is a successful patent attorney, and I am a preschool teacher, I found myself identifying with her character with every turn of the page. She is spirited, witty, all the things I am not, but she gets straight to the point of the message that we older single woman are not "bus-bait" and that God does have something very special planned for each of us. After reading "What a Girl Wants" I quickly ordered the next two books in the series: "She's Out of Control" and "With This Ring I'm Confused." I absolutely LOVE this series, and recommend it to anyone who wants a good chick lit read.

Hey,
They put these books in the wrong order!
1: What a girl wants
2:She's out of control
3: With this ring, I'm confused

Anyway, It's a wonderful book, none the less!

"What a Girl Wants" really is laugh-out-loud funny. I haven't been this entertained in a long while. Racy, edgy and romantic WITHOUT a gratuitous sex scene every other chapter. The heroine Ashley is a real character, NOT a generic super-Christian woman with a sweet smile and a heart of gold who the hero instantly falls in love with (but not in lust) and wants to marry. No, Ashley is like any girl I'll meet at Valley Fair or Stanford Shopping Center.

As a post-modern Christian, I can entirely relate to Ashley. Her sassy, sarcastic attitude and neuroses are WAY too familiar. Her faith is entirely central to her life, as indicated by her thoughts and decisions, but the way she talks about it is in language that is different from our parents' generation of Christians. The language can come across as flippant and slightly irreverent, but it's the way she makes God more real, more personal and more intimate in her life. For Ashley, God is her friend (albeit a pretty powerful and absolutely holy Friend) rather than Thou-Almighty-God-Maker-of-Heaven-and-Earth.

The book is great at showing Ashley's spiritual journey from a more distant relationship with God to a fully submissive and joyful interaction with her Creator. It doesn't preach. It shows the actions of a woman of God who makes mistakes and needs constant guidance and direction from her Lord, which is how He wants us to be anyway. It is culturally hip and trendy, so that a world inundated by reality TV, web-access pocket PCs, and other forms of ultra-stimulation can relate and laugh and maybe even question the material things they value.

The book perfectly captures the essence of northern California--the attitudes, the environment, the ENGINEERS (I can say that since I married one). The social culture is brought to life and drawn with both love and tongue in cheek. The author brilliantly colors the ethnic melting pot that is the San Francisco Bay Area.

As a hopeless romantic, I'm sometimes left flat by many women's fiction novels, but this book has enough sparks to light the San Francisco Airport runway. I highly recommend this to any romance reader.

This is terrific entertainment, and a message suitable for those of us post-moderns who struggle with what the world says and what God wants. In Ashley, I see the other Christians of my generation who don't want to be influenced by the morals of the world we live in, but at the same time don't want to be total hermit-recluse-bananas in our own exclusive Christian circle. Ashley's discovery of how to be herself, be content, and be God's child is a worthwhile spiritual take-away.

Ashley Stockingdale is in a rut. . .same family issues, same restaurants, same video rentals with friends, and work-work-work. On top of it, she just turned 31, is single, being kicked out of her apartment - all this while she's supposed to be in Taiwan on business. She wonders why she can't be petite, confident, and fun like Arin who's landed herself a gorgeous doctor without even trying, or have the loving relationship her best friend Brea has with her husband. But Ashley needs to learn to have faith in herself, before she can find a love of her own.

Ashley is a blast. She's a hard-worker, has great friends, and a killer eye for designer wear. Her child-like sibling relationship with her brother is hilarious, as is the fact that her father won't pull himself away from the t.v. long enough to eat the birthday dinner that her mother made to celebrate Ashley's 31st. Watching Ashley gain security in who she is was delightful, funny, and positively heartwarming.

Kristin Billerbeck has a special way of creating real characters, with real problems, and a touch of humor sprinkled throughout. Can't wait to read Billerbeck's second novel about Ashley called SHE'S OUT OF CONTROL.

I have the whole series! I really enjoy them and so do my friends.

Being something of a cynic anyway, I'm leery of Christian-themed "chick lit," mainly because much of what I've tried to read in the genre has been unintelligent tripe. I picked this book up from a friend's coffee table and hadn't read two pages before I knew I had to have it. Billerbeck's novel sincerely and practically hashes out real emotional issues in the lives of young women, using a Christian context that is discernible but not overbearing. And she does it all with outrageous humor! I found myself more than once slapping my knee.

Women born in the 70's and maybe early 80's will appreciate the contemporary references (e.g., Ricki Lake, Dance Fever, Super Mario). If you are a woman (esp. Christian) who no longer passes for a "young adult" and is frustrated with the single life, this book will make you laugh, lift your spirits, even prick at some important issues of the heart -- but ultimately, it will encourage you. Reading a book won't necessarily change your life, but this book might help you appreciate it a little more.

Wonderful book! It is a wonderful read for the light-hearted reader whose not into the profanity and explicit sexual content. It was clean, witty humor and I loved it!

This book made me a chick lit fan. I absolutely couldn't put it down. Ashley lives a real life that isn't all sugary sweet and perfect. She gets confused. She questions God. She thinks she hears Him and then realizes she didn't. Wow, just like all of us! Loved it..loved it...loved it!