Review: Brooklyn Girls by Gemma Burgess

SUMMARY FROM NETGALLEY.COM:

Fantastically funny, fresh and utterly relatable, Brooklyn Girls is a charming debut by Gemma Burgess & the first novel in her brand new series about five twenty-something friends discovering the ups and downs and ins and outs of  their “semi-adult” lives.
Pia, Angie, Julia, Coco and Madeleine share a brownstone in hip, downtown Brooklyn and this first novel in the series focuses on sophisticated, spoiled, and stylish Pia, who finds herself completely unemployed, unemployable, and broke. So what is a recent grad with an art history degree and an unfortunate history of Facebook topless photos to do? Start a food truck business of course! Pia takes on the surprisingly cutthroat Brooklyn world of hybrid lettuce growers, artisanal yogurt makers and homemade butter producers to start SkinnyWheels—all while dealing with hipster bees, one-night-stands, heartbreak, parental fury, wild parties, revenge, jail, loan sharks, playboys, karaoke, true love, and one adorable pink food truck. And that's without counting her roommates' problems, too. Gemma Burgess has captured the confusion, hilarity and excitement of the post-graduate years against a backdrop of the pressures and chaos of New York City life, with heartfelt empathy, fast humor and sharp honesty.

MY TAKE:
This book sounded like it had a lot of the elements I look for in  a chicklit and young adult book.

In Brooklyn Girls, we meet five girls who are navigating adult life in New York. This book focuses on Pia who loses her PR job and must now come up with a way to make some money or her parents will force her to leave her beloved New York.

While the plot isn't exactly unexpected, I did enjoy the book anyway. The girls are fun, interesting and, for the most part, relate-able. The relationships between the girls is more sisterly than my experience with my roommates in college, but then again, perhaps their relationships are better matched than ours were.

There were times when I was angry at Pia because she was immature, selfish and naive. However, oddly enough, I still cheered her on when she achieved success. Her success isn't exactly realistic, of course, but there have been lots of people who have achieved a lot of success from a simple idea.

I wasn't really into Pia's love interest, though. I felt like he was the most cliche character in the book and I didn't feel any sort of interest or connection with his character. I liked the other girls, though. There was something about each of the other girls that I could relate to. I think I'm most like Julia, but I thought Coco was very cute and I would like to learn more about her. It's a good thing this is a series. I really would like to learn more about the other girls of Rookhaven.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Griffin for the e-ARC. Publication date of Brooklyn Girls is on July 2, 2013.

THE GOOD:

1. The girls are fun and interesting.
2. You really feel like you're in New York City with the girls.
3. There's a lot of potential in the series.

THE BAD:

1. The main love interest feels a little bit cliche and out of place with the rest of the book.

FAVORITE QUOTE/S:

We sit at a tiny table in the corner, and little taster plates start arriving: courgette fries, eggplant rollatini, garlic knots, buffalo mozzarella salad, chicken romano, spaghetti carbonara, baked ziti, linguine in white clam sauce, tiny pizzas of every variety.

READ IT IF:

1. You like reading books set in New York City.
2. You like Sex and the City.
3. You like books about groups of girls.

RATING:


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