Review: Not That Kind of Girl by Siobhan Vivian

Title: Not That Kind of Girl
Author: Siobhan Vivian
Publisher: Scholastic
Release date: September 1st 2010
Pages: 322
Genre: Contemporary YA; romance
Source: Bought
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Natalie Sterling wants to be in control. She wants her friends to be loyal. She wants her classmates to elect her student council president. She wants to find the right guy, not the usual jerk her school has to offer. She wants a good reputation, because she believes that will lead to good things.
But life is messy, and it's very hard to be in control of it. Not when there are freshman girls running around in a pack, trying to get senior guys to sleep with them. Not when your friends have secrets they're no longer comfortable sharing. Not when the boy you once dismissed ends up being the boy you want to sleep with yourself - but only in secret, with nobody ever finding out.
Slut or saint? Winner or loser? Natalie is getting tired of these forced choices - and is now going to find a way to live life in the sometimes messy, sometimes wonderful in-between.

My rating: 4 out of 5 stars


You know those books that you just love getting lost in? Where you can't put your finger on what makes the book so amazing, but you know for sure it's good? Yeah. That's what Not That Kind of Girl was like for me. There's no one thing about this book that's incredible, but it all just works so well. The story sucked me in from the first page on, and I just loved reading this book.


Siobhan Vivian's writing flows so nicely. It's not the most beautiful or expressive style I've ever read, but it's easy, the kind of writing that makes you get lost in the book. I didn't even notice the time passing while reading Not That Kind of Girl - I wanted to read a chapter or two, and when I looked up again, I'd read a hundred pages.


Natalie is a great character. I didn't like her for most of the book - some of her actions and the way she thinks made me so mad! I didn't love her as a person, but I loved reading from her POV. There's just something about her character that's so compelling. I loved reading about how she develops over the course of the story. That goes for Natalie's friends, Autumn and Spencer, too! I didn't love either of them as people, but I liked reading about them and seeing how they grew from beginning to end.


And then there's Connor. I loveloveloved Connor. Now that I think about it, I'm not even sure why - he's not the most complex or interesting love interest. But, much like with this whole book, there's just something about him that made me love him so, so much. I always found myself looking forward to their secret meet-ups in the barn - those scenes are seriously hot. I love how subtlely (is that a word?) hot the romance is in Not That Kind of Girl. It's not overly descriptive, but the amazing chemistry between Natalie and Connor made their scenes hot and swoonworthy, even when they weren't doing anything. I loved these two together!


I shouldn't have waited so long to read this book! What kept me from reading Not That Kind of Girl is the cover. But after reading the book... I don't hate it anymore! I still don't love it, since I'm just not a fan of covers with people kissing (or close-ups of faces in general), but I don't mind as much. It works well with the story, and that's really what's most important about book covers!


The ending is the only thing I didn't love about this book - it's a little too abrupt, in my opinion. It seems like all the issues wrap up a little too nicely in the end, and I would have liked some more time for that to happen naturally. The way it is, the ending seems a little forced. But maybe I just wanted the book to keep going!


Really, that's all there is to it. There's no one thing that makes this book incredible, but it's just so good. It's an addictive read with a style that's easy to get lost in. It's pure fun - perfect feel-good reading!