Just One of the Guys by Kristan Higgins

I’m always surprised whenever I come across a female lead who is more sarcastic than I am. I guess I just never thought that was possible. It’s kind of terrifying.

What’s it About? 

Being one of the guys isn’t all it’s cracked up to be…So when journalist Chastity O’Neill returns to her hometown, she decides it’s time to start working on some of those feminine wiles. Two tiny problems: #1—she’s five feet eleven inches of rock-solid girl power, and #2—she’s cursed with four alpha-male older brothers.

While doing a story on local heroes, she meets a hunky doctor and things start to look up. Now there’s only one problem: Trevor Meade, her first love and the one man she’s never quite gotten over—although he seems to have gotten over her just fine. Yet the more time she spends with Dr. Perfect, the better Trevor looks. But even with the in-your-face competition, the irresistible Trevor just can’t seem to see Chastity as anything more than just one of the guys…

First Impressions

So my absolute first impression on finishing this novel was that it was just too long! But I’ll get into the details of that later on. When it first started I was actually extremely entertained by Chastity’s sass and personality. I think if I had read it on my Kindle I would have been annoyed earlier on with so much sarcasm, but the audiobook narrator did a good job with her inflection to bring forth a decent amount of humor. However, it was difficult at times to distinguish when Chastity was just thinking a snarky or sarcastic comment, and when she actually said it out loud. I guess that’s the give and take of an audiobook!

Settling

As the story progressed, I did unfortunately become increasingly frustrated with Chastity, which probably wasn’t entirely fair. However, she gave in to one of my biggest pet peeves and fears when it comes to relationships: settling. Chastity has loved Trevor since the age of 10. They were together for about 72 hours in college, but the timing never really worked out, and neither shared their true feelings with each other. Trevor feared what would happen if things didn’t work out between them, but whereas Chastity thought his fear stemmed from possibly losing touch with her family, it actually had to do with his fear of losing her as a friend.

Chastity desperately wants to get her mind off of Trevor by moving on with someone else, and is so seemingly obsessed with marriage and babies that she starts dating Ryan. He’s a man who is ostensibly perfect on paper: surgeon, good looks, but they have so unbelievably little in common. The sex is just ok, he doesn’t really like her dog, his parents are kind of out there, and there are a few too many implications that he’s a dick to work with. And yet, Chastity is so determined to get married that she continues having a relationship with him to the point where she accepts his marriage proposal, even though her heart isn’t in it. Personally, I feel like sometimes it’s better to be single than to settle with someone you can’t really connect with. I mean, she still has a big loving family for support, so she isn’t totally alone!

Title Play

Something I really did enjoy about this book, other than the fact that Trevor was a sexy ass fireman, was a play on the title. Throughout the novel, we see multiple examples of how Chastity is “just one of the guys”. She loves baseball, shooting pool, and hanging out with her dad, four brothers, and Trevor. Yet, towards the end of the novel, as Chastity is once again lamenting over the fact that she isn’t with Trevor and he’s with someone else, she admits that for years she’s  been forcing herself to just view Trevor as “one of the guys”. It helped to make the pain over the fact that they weren’t a couple a bit less daunting. Haha, see what they did there? They were both “just one of the guys”! Clever.

*A copy of this audiobook was provided by Recorded Books for an honest review*

Series: No

Should you read it? There’s a decent amount of humor, although after a while it was almost a tad forced. I think if the book had been 100 pages shorter it would have been vastly improved. As it stands, her longing for Trevor whilst dating Ryan just seemed to drag on for way too long.

Smut Level: At one point, Trevor and Chastity hook up while they are both dating other people, and they proceed to go back to their significant others after their love-making. Looks like their respective moral compasses weren’t always pointing north. Overall, sex scenes weren’t graphic at all.

Get it on Amazon: Click Here. $4.99 Kindle Price. Harlequin. 383 Pages.