One of the Guys

Author: Lisa Aldin

Series: Stand Alone

Genre: Contemporary, Romance

Release Date: February 10, 2015

Summary: Tomboy to the core, Toni Valentine understands guys. She'll take horror movies, monster hunts and burping contests over manicures. So Toni is horrified when she's sent to the Winston Academy for Girls, where she has to wear a skirt and learn to be a lady while the guys move on without her. Then Toni meets Emma Elizabeth, a girl at school with boy troubles, and she volunteers one of her friends as a pretend date. Word spreads of Toni’s connections with boys, and she discovers that her new wealthy female classmates will pay big money for fake dates. Looking for a way to connect her old best friends with her new life at school, Toni and Emma start up Toni Valentine’s Rent-A-Gent Service. But the business meets a scandal when Toni falls for one of her friends--the same guy who happens to be the most sought-after date. With everything she's built on the line, Toni has to decide if she wants to save the business and her old life, or let go of being one of the guys for a chance at love.

Review:

WARNING!! This review contains spoilers! Keep reading at your own risk!

DISCLAIMER: Although throughout the entire review I may refer multiple times to Miss Congeniality (especially through gifs), this novel is still unique and amazing in it's own way.

This debut-novel was incredible! Kasie West (one of my favorite authors) states my feelings perfectly when she said, "Fast-paced, funny, and adorably romantic. I want to hang out with this book." I found this book because it came up it the 'recommend you buy' section on Amazon. After reading the summary, I placed my order. When it came, I was surprised with how small it was. (approximately 275 pages). Although, I was not let down.

If someone were to ask me to describe this book, I'd say it's basically like Miss Congeniality (yes, the movie with Sandra Bullock in it) set in high school. You want to read it now, don't you?

Tonya (aka Toni) is really, one of the guys. She hates anything girlie  and can burp louder than anyone. I like to think she looks sometime similar to this (accept it's Mountain Dew she's chugging):

After pulling off an incredible prank the summer before her senior year, she gets put into the Winston Academy for Girls (thanks to her new step-dad, Brian). No longer able to have the easy senior year she had always planned, she's thrust into this brand new world of hairspray, nail-polish, and all things girlie. 

She then meets, Emma Elizabeth Swanson (EES) (woah, that's a mouthful),

and begins to rent out her platonic guy friends so that they can all make some extra cash on the side. Also, thanks to EES, Toni begins to slightly embrace her feminine side. At one point, EES also ends up turning Toni's totally horrid cow costume into a sexy cow costume for Ollie's Halloween party. In my mind, it went something like this:

I loved reading about Toni and her beginning to connect with her fellow Winston Girls as well as her inner femininity. The relationship between her and EES was totally spot on. It was way cool of EES to ask Toni if she could date Loch, even it nothing ended up happening with that.

I adored the relationship between Toni and Loch. It was especially awesome because he has seen her at her best, and her worst. And he was there for her when her dad died. I enjoyed that they had been friends for such a long time; such a complete 180 from most of the contemporary YA novels lately. Seeing her also realize she has feelings for him created the cutest romance ever. And when they went up to the ski lodge, and her and Loch were skiing down the slope and she looks over and he is completely terrified . . . that made me totally lol!

And finally, after much anticipation, the ending went a little something like this:

*sigh*



This was such an adorable book that didn't take me long to read at all. If you're in a reading slump (like I was) or simply looking for a sweet, clean romantic comedy, I suggest you give One of the Guys a try.