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Just One Of The Guys Kristan Higgins 9780373772995 Books

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Just One Of The Guys Kristan Higgins 9780373772995 Books

I haven’t been a reader of Harlequin romances since I was a budding copy editor having to edit them, more decades ago than I care to admit. Boy, have they ever changed! They used to be cloying affairs full of euphemism (anybody remember tumescences? I devoutly hope not) and 1950s values—strong, withholding men; yielding, obedient women. So when I took up Kristan Higgins’s *Just One of the Guys* on a whim, I was hardly prepared for what I found.

Chastity, the inaptly named heroine, stands a skosh under six feet tall and is a tight block of hard-rowing, hard-running muscle. She is the only girl in a family of firefighters and emergency responders, and drinks and swears and plays pool with the best of them. Nevertheless, at thirty-one she is starting to hear the tick of her biological clock. So she has come back to her hometown to settle down and see if she can find romance, children, the whole shebang.

There’s an old flame—Trevor, almost a member of the family, and described in luscious terms. And because there can’t be a single love interest for any heroine, there’s also Ryan, a godlike surgeon. Trevor seems to want only to be a pal and surrogate brother; Ryan seems to have decided to settle down, and has fixed on Chastity.

Here’s the thing, though: this isn’t simply a tale of a girl and her romantic conflicts. Chastity is part of a large, messy, loving family, many of whose members are fully fleshed out characters, and all of whom provide texture and richness to the story. Chastity also has friends and other kinds of conflicts to work out in her life. There’s enough of the flutter of attraction to please the average reader of romantic fiction, but there’s also considerable emotional depth and space for characters to learn and grow. The writing is sharp and witty, even when (as happens often) the author goes wayyy over the top. And there’s even an irresistible dog (not at all like the dog on the cover).

For those who care, there are lots of references to having sex but no explicit descriptions—for which I was grateful (cf. the hated tumescences). It would not be credible for a contemporary heroine such as this *not* to have sex, but I don’t need to be there for it.

This is not romance written to formula. It’s escapist, sure, but it’s escapist fiction that doesn’t make you feel like hiding it in a brown paper wrapper. I’m proud and happy to declare myself a new fan of Kristan Higgins.


Tags : Just One Of The Guys [Kristan Higgins] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <strong>From </strong><strong><em>New York Times</em></strong><strong> bestselling author Kristan Higgins comes a beloved tales about fresh starts!</strong><Br><Br>Journalist Chastity O’Neill is tired of being just one of the guys. When returns to her hometown,Kristan Higgins,Just One Of The Guys,HQN,0373772998,10008763,115026X,20080801,707220,AMERICAN LIGHT ROMANTIC FICTION,FICTION Romance Contemporary,FICTION Romance General,Fiction,Fiction - Romance,General Adult,MASS MARKET,Romance - Contemporary,RomanceModern,Romance: Modern,Romance;Romantic Comedy;Contemporary,United States

Just One Of The Guys Kristan Higgins 9780373772995 Books Reviews

I first have to say that I have newly discovered this author and have subsequently read five of her books in the past week, and I love her ability to write laugh out loud humor and tear jerking emotional scenes all in the same novel. She obviously has a formula that she sticks pretty close to, but nonetheless I still finished each book with a warm sigh and a desire to immediately begin her next book on my list....

But after this book all I was left with was irrational anger over a fictional couple who had a stupid-wishy washy-push then pull-hide my feelings but silently admit you're the love of my life-frustratingly annoying-relationship. Chastity and Trevor have know each other since they were kids, and he's basically an adopted member of her big boisterous heroic family (whose stories were realistically the only reason why I even finished this book). He's a firefighter (hotttt) just like 3 of the other men in her family and she's a newspaper editor, but is taking EMT classes to overcome her immobilizing fear of blood and gore. She has apparently been in love with Trevor forever, but in 12 years they have only slept with each other a few times over a 72 hour period in college and neither has actually spoken any words about love or a relationship. I mean come on!!! 12 freaking years, thats three presidential terms and nobody can say hey, I love you, lets give this a try?!?! But apparently as this is their love story, how they choose to court one another is to keep mum about their true feelings, sleep with and get engaged to other people, and basically give great advice to those in the family with faltering relationships and divorces and then be completely dumb about their own!

Needless to say though, this still is a romance novel so it's going to have a guaranteed happy ever after. But not before dragging you through 350+ pages of "blah, blah, bleeping blah" that make you want to pull you hair out and fantasize about holding them by their shirts, banging their heads together, and then shaking them until they understand that this is a romance and its supposed to be enjoyable, and obviously they love each other so grow the heck up and have a relationship already!!!!! So after the muttering and the eye rolling, the reader finally gets to see Chasitiy and Trevor declare their undying love, marriage and babies in 1,000 words or less (okay this may be an exaggeration, but it was literally the last five pages on my iPad) and then that's it...the end... and then again...irrational anger.

So, to save yourself time, money, and stressful anger (because nobody needs that) take a pass on this book by this author and instead read her books 'The Best Man' or 'All I Ever Wanted' both of which I would gladly pay 10x as much for is they would remove the memory of this book from my mind.
I usually love this author. I love when she writes with humor, about family love, about animals. I laughed out loud a couple of times with this book. But i was left annoyed/irritated after this book. When i woke up today, my mind went back to the book and i forgot about the things I liked and only remembered what i hated.
SPOILERS ahead I hated their lack of communication. I HATED she slept with another man and he slept with another women (after they both came back to town and both knew they loved each other). And she liked sleeping with Ryan, it just wasn't as good as with Trevor. I hated that she and her brother f[physically ought and he cussed at her. I hated the story of the mom and dad, who love each other, and go their separate ways. This subplot was beyond tidy - dad was smiling during mom's wedding. Ryan and Lu - that was a joke. The overdone height thing. The overdone apartness of Trevor and whatever her name is (I totally forget right now -- probably because i am too annoyed). The ending was abrupt. I read the whole book and needed them together and i get a page of too of them finally being together. however it was rude that her mom's wedding was interrupted for heroines big scene with the love of her life! It could have been good. I LOVED author's book The Best Man. Book 2 in that series was good, but then the next 2 were not good. Chastity -- that's her name. just remembered.
I haven’t been a reader of Harlequin romances since I was a budding copy editor having to edit them, more decades ago than I care to admit. Boy, have they ever changed! They used to be cloying affairs full of euphemism (anybody remember tumescences? I devoutly hope not) and 1950s values—strong, withholding men; yielding, obedient women. So when I took up Kristan Higgins’s *Just One of the Guys* on a whim, I was hardly prepared for what I found.

Chastity, the inaptly named heroine, stands a skosh under six feet tall and is a tight block of hard-rowing, hard-running muscle. She is the only girl in a family of firefighters and emergency responders, and drinks and swears and plays pool with the best of them. Nevertheless, at thirty-one she is starting to hear the tick of her biological clock. So she has come back to her hometown to settle down and see if she can find romance, children, the whole shebang.

There’s an old flame—Trevor, almost a member of the family, and described in luscious terms. And because there can’t be a single love interest for any heroine, there’s also Ryan, a godlike surgeon. Trevor seems to want only to be a pal and surrogate brother; Ryan seems to have decided to settle down, and has fixed on Chastity.

Here’s the thing, though this isn’t simply a tale of a girl and her romantic conflicts. Chastity is part of a large, messy, loving family, many of whose members are fully fleshed out characters, and all of whom provide texture and richness to the story. Chastity also has friends and other kinds of conflicts to work out in her life. There’s enough of the flutter of attraction to please the average reader of romantic fiction, but there’s also considerable emotional depth and space for characters to learn and grow. The writing is sharp and witty, even when (as happens often) the author goes wayyy over the top. And there’s even an irresistible dog (not at all like the dog on the cover).

For those who care, there are lots of references to having sex but no explicit descriptions—for which I was grateful (cf. the hated tumescences). It would not be credible for a contemporary heroine such as this *not* to have sex, but I don’t need to be there for it.

This is not romance written to formula. It’s escapist, sure, but it’s escapist fiction that doesn’t make you feel like hiding it in a brown paper wrapper. I’m proud and happy to declare myself a new fan of Kristan Higgins.