Review: 'What a Girl Wants' by Lindsey Kelk (2014)

Tess Brookes was the girl with a plan. Now she's the girl with a choice. 
Should she stay in London and start her own advertising agency with her best friend and potential boyfriend Charlie? Or should she head to exciting Milan to pursue both a new career as a photographer and a new man, the enigmatic and elusive (and highly irritating) Nick? 
For the first time, Tess has to choose between the life she always dreamed of and a future she never imagined possible. With her heart and her head pulling her in different directions, Tess has to make a life-changing decision about What a Girl Wants.
In July 2014 Lindsey Kelk’s latest novel ‘What a Girl Wants’ was released by Harper Collins and don’t ask me why, but somehow I didn’t manage to pick up the book earlier than last Christmas (horrible, I know!). I love Lindsey’s work, and I thoroughly enjoyed the first part of this new series, ‘About a Girl’, which was released in 2013. ‘What a Girl Wants’ is the highly anticipated sequel and I looked forward to seeing what would happen to main character Tess and her friends. While the first part was set in Hawaii, this book is set in Italy (Milan to be exact), and promised to be a great summer read to get me through the last few cold and wintery December days!  
After her crazy adventures in Hawaii (which included impersonating her roommate Vanessa and pretending to be a photographer), Tess Brookes is back in London and she has an important decision to make that will affect her future in a big way. On the one hand, she has the chance to finally get together with her best friend Charlie, whom she has had a big crush on for years, and to start their own advertising agency together. However, on the other hand, she is also offered the chance to go to Milan to work as a photographer, which has always been her secret passion, where she will be closer to Nick, the handsome but annoying journalist she met during her stay in Hawaii. It is one of the most difficult and impossible decisions Tess has ever had to make; one that will require her to choose between following her heart and doing the sensible thing… 
After finally finding time to read this book, I instantly regretted not picking it up any sooner. Any book with the name ‘Lindsey Kelk’ on the front ends up being a thoroughly entertaining and funny read, and ‘What a Girl Wants’ isn’t any different. Lindsey Kelk’s writing is amazing, as always; she really has an incredibly funny and individual voice which I personally can’t get enough of. This new series has a great heroine at its core in the form of Tess, who is relatable, funny, and inspiring. There is also a simply fabulous group of secondary characters which I honestly couldn’t get enough of, from Tess’ hilarious and crazy best friend Amy to the wonderfully loud and unique Kekipi who managed to steal every single scene he is mentioned in. Then there are the two male characters, of course: Charlie and Nick. If I’m completely honest, I’m on neither team at the moment. As the novel progressed, I warmed to Nick a bit more, but I remain partial for now, hoping I will be swayed to one of the teams in the third part of the series!
In order to really understand the story and everything that has already happened, I do advise reading ‘About a Girl’ before picking up this novel. The storyline is completely based on everything that has happened before, so reading it as a sequel instead of a stand-alone will make the reading experience more enjoyable, I think. The setting of the novel (Milan) is once again stunning and it immediately made me long for lovely long summer days. The ending didn’t really feel like an ending to me; the story just suddenly stopped and at first I thought I was perhaps missing a few chapters. However, this certainly has to mean we can expect another part of the series, which hopefully will be released as soon as possible because I can’t wait to find out how everything will end with Tess. Fingers crossed! While I didn’t love ‘What a Girl Wants’ as much as I loved ‘About a Girl’, it’s still an incredibly funny, summery, entertaining chick lit read; another great Lindsey Kelk read!

Rating:9/10

  For more information about this book: Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com / Goodreads