Not That Kind of Girl

Not That Kind of Girl - Siobhan Vivian It was hard for me to grade this book. While I found it immensely readable and compelling - I started it one evening and stayed up to the wee hours to finish it - the story's heroine was a little too hard to like for my tastes. Natalie Sterling is judgmental with a capital J. Even her best friend, Autumn, is subject to Natalie's high standards and repressed sense of acceptable behaviour. Natalie's only saving grace is that she expects a lot of herself as well, and by the end of the book, she's realized that she's a hypocrite of the worst kind - one who judges everyone else but then can't handle being judged herself.

Also, I didn't much like the way Natalie treated Connor. For much of the book, she outright used him and treated him very meanly in public. I was a bit surprised that he put up with it. In fact, other than the physical relationship, I was never quite sure what Connor got out of sticking with Natalie. We never got to see them interact in any way other than Natalie being mean to him, so I'm not sure why he liked her in the first place.

Too, I found Natalie's school mentor - Ms. Bee - to be a poor example for Natalie to look up to. Ms. Bee's standards for all of the students at Ross Prep were far too extreme and unrealistic. High school kids are high school kids, and to expect them to act like mini adults is just asking to be disappointed. Rather than dig deep to find out why Natalie began to act so differently than she ever had before, Ms. Bee just passed judgment and expressed deep disappointment. What a great role model.

To the very end of the book, I waited for Mike whatshisface to demonstrate some redeeming qualities. Still waiting.

Truth be told, the character in the book I found most realistic and, in a way, most mature was Spencer. Natalie simply had too many issues.