Customer Reviews

What A Girl Wants

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Haley Jane Smith is in a serious rut. She finds that her boss at work died (smells pretty bad) and she is the only one to notice. When the detective comes to check it out she has a quick session where she goes to 3rd base... She wants to have a real job where she is appreciated and a boyfriend.

The bulk of the story follows her as her 3 best friends set out to help her. In fact Andrea is assigned to help her get the raise she was promised 6 moths ago. Suz is assigned to help her get that boyfriend. But, sometimes you should think for alone and not just follow advice. Her request for a raise ends up getting her fired. Her date with the police officer, who she likes, ends up being the only time she hears from him, even though she gets knocked unconscious at a baseball game.

The friends mean well and she keeps following the advice until she decides it is not getting her anywhere. She still doesn't have a job she likes and the guy she really liked never calls her back, so she takes things in her own hands and sets out to get what she wants.

LM makes this story fun to follow. I love it when Haley is knocked out and when she uses the inflatable bra...

This book is amazing! With sex and the city having ended, I was looking for something to fill the gap and alas, this book. Written with the token four distinct females, each friend adds an interesting component to the group. You have the brain, the sexpot, the corporate climber, and the one you can relate to. A perfect combination!

It is also important to not that I only can usually find books of this caliber by british authors such as Jane Green. I would put this book on the same level as an great female british chick lit author. Overall, a great and entertaining book.

Heroines: varied

Work stinks. Literally. Or at least it does for Haley Jane Smith, who is surrounded by some very unhygienic coworkers. She didn't even notice the funky odor wafting over from the adjacent cubicle, where fellow copywriter Fred Leary had died unnoticed--until Haley made a fateful visit to his side of the dividing wall.

And things can only go downhill from there, as a shocked Haley Jane bumbles her way from one bad decision to the next: feeling up the investigating police officer; asking for a raise but getting fired; and asking for support from her Girlie Brunch bunch, which lands her an appointment with an unusual new age guidance guru, as well as the starring role in her best friend's thesis on human sexuality. If only Haley Jane's well-meaning friends could actually make good on their intentions to coach her through her man hunt and job search, maybe she could wind up with both the hunky cop and the career of her dreams!

Then again, knowing those girls, maybe not.

What worked for me:

There was plenty of humor in this story, along with some terrific (and sometimes hot) twists in the plot. I'm not sure if the author has plans to do so, but the door was left open to revisit this fun group of gals at a later date.

Size-wise the girls were varied. The main character, petite Haley Jane, didn't have size issues per se, but she did entertain fantasies of being a stacked, blonde, sharp shooting Amazonian member of Mensa. Perhaps it had to do with the Bavarian bar maid's outfit she wore in one scene, but Haley Jane took on a decided Sandra Bullock-like appearance in my imagination. (Think "Miss Congeniality here.)

What didn't work for me:

There were a couple of scenes I could have lived without, and the writing could have been more polished. Also I felt I didn't get to know the characters as deeply as I could have.

Overall:
             "What a Girl Wants" is a sassy and sometimes silly read. Grab a café latte and start up that bubble bath!

Warning: there are some coarse words and sexual scenarios in this book.

If you liked "What a Girl Wants" you might also enjoy "Coffee and Kung Fu", "Separation Anxiety", "Inappropriate Men", "Bet Me, "Blushing Pink", "The Way It Is", "Last Chance Saloon", "Sisterhood Situation", "Bridget Jones's Diary", or "Good in Bed".

I thoroughly enjoyed this read; plowed through it in two days like a box of chocolates.

While there's just the right amount of over-the top silliness (the german beer maid chapter was a riot), I think Ms. Maverick has a real talent for getting to the heart of the most important ideas in the book. The author's voice throughout is engagingly funny in a smart, cynical way that keeps the book from ever getting girlie-sweet or slow.

Her take on the dot-com world is right on (been there!). Harley's inner dialogue on her first date and the love the four women have for one another (in spite of vastly different approaches to life) were charming in their honesty. My husband read the chapter about the first date and was shocked, "Do women really worry like that on first dates?" I thought Ms. Maverick was right on--in fact I felt like I was reading about myself. I was just shocked that he was shocked! What does he think we think about?

She doesn't shy away from real issues women need to balance: their own dreams and whether it is realistic to pursue them, the importance of supporting themselves, the desire to develop a career and be taken seriously, dealing with and making decisions about sexuality while maintaining their own strength as independent women who can take care of themselves in a (post?) feminist age, developing and maintaining strong friendships with other women...

I look forward to Ms. Maverick's next book eagerly, and would highly recommend it; a great summer read. (And try that date chapter out on your boys -- it sparked quite a conversation.)

The cover was cute, the description on the back looked good, and the beginning of the book was promising when I read it. So, needless to say, I was expecting a good read. Sadly, I was disappointed.

The plot of this book was this - Hayley loses her job and wants a guy so her friends try to give her advice on how to get what she wants - but a thin plot is fine if it's written properly. THis book, however, was not. It was definitely predictable and not that entertaining, although I did find one or two parts funny. Her friends aren't that interesting and you kinda wonder why she's friends with them at all since they don't seem to have much in common. Moreover, the writing style is good but not great, and it seemed like a lot of the book as just comprised of "filler material," even though the book is pretty short to begin with. The worst part of it was that the ending was beyond lame. You don't find out what's going to happen, and it's almost like the author just didn't know how else to end it and wanted to get it published asap. There are plenty of better books out there to read and I wish I hadn't bothered with this one.

I would not recommend this book to anyone (although I'd love someone to buy my copy of me, haha) and instead would recommend that if you want a good chick lit book tor ead about a girl losing her job and looking for romance, instead buy "Pink Slip Party" by Cara Lockwood.

This book is just that - dreadful! The worst book I've read in years. I can find nothing complimentary to say about it. The characters are one dimensional and self-absorbed. The writing is sophomoric. The story line is formulaic and quite frankly boring. I didn't care one bit about anyone in this story. What a waste of my money. Who ever edited this one should be fired. Bookstores are full of entertaining chick-lit. If that's your prefered genre look else where.

The theme of overcoming modern inertia is mixed in with some wickedly absurdist black comedy... from porn epiphanies to origami funerals, this is not your average chick lit. Think Daria goes Dot-com (and gets some fashion sense.) Snarky good fun!

A predictable storyline with characters that seem dumb and ditzy...and a gaggle of friends (tries to copy the Sex and the city foursoume) that are have no depth! This is a book a girl does not want.

In San Francisco, no one in the office noticed for twenty-four hours or more that senior coy editor Fred Leary died in his cubicle. His work neighbor twenty something Hayley Jane Smith though Fred was impolite when he failed to respond to email and her calling his name before finally confronting him only to find a corpse. SFPD Lt. Grant Hutchinson has a hard time accepting no one noticed the odor or that Fred failed to respond to any form of communication. When he interviews Hayley four feet from where the corpse resided, she jumps him and they start making love before the word maggots from the next cubicle bring them back to earth.

On the advice of her Girlie Brunch pals, Hayley asks for the raise due her, but instead her boss fires her. Also heeding one of her pals, Hayley goes to a bar where she has a revelation about men. Now with the help of her friends she seeks employment and quality time spent with the "Big Dick".

Though the fearsome foursome felines seem a bit ditzy, they are a fun group. Hayley is an interesting individual as she struggles with death, unemployment, and the hots. Her three mates add understanding of her and her desires so that the audience receives a fun chick lit tale that never takes anything even death seriously. Readers wanting an offbeat amusing contemporary will enjoy this maverick of a tale and look forward to what appears to be the story of another brunch member, sexy Suz.

Harriet Klausner

I found the main character, Hayley so self-absorbed despite having 3 somewhat loyal girlfriends. The first half of the book deals with her getting fired and looking for another job at a .com. The second half deals with her having a one night stand & the guy not calling her back. Hayley views her life aas being "endless & murky" and that is exactly how I would describe this book.

I must remember the next time I have a couple cocktails with dinner to stay OUT of the bookstore.