Gwen’s review of 
The Average Girl’s Guide to Getting Laid by Annie Dean
Contemporary romance published 1 May 07 by Loose ID
I was fully prepared to be disappointed by this book. I mean, kitschy title, rather trite premise. I started reading it with every intention to not like it. I don’t know why – perhaps it’s just my contrary nature. However, I’m happy to announce that Annie surprised me. This book surprised me.
Here’s the book blurb:
Ellie Campbell’s sex life is vanilla at the best of times, vanilla with a side of boring. She’s come to accept that she’ll probably never have an orgasm outside of masturbation. But all that changes when a drunken dare results in a risqué proposal, something nobody believes Ellie can pull off: writing a guide to teach the average woman how to seek pleasure like men do.
Enter tall, dark and delicious.
Marius Asher used to be a player, but after a rough breakup, he’s tired of the game. Now Ash just wants to kick back and take some time off from women. But when he spots Ellie in the corner deli, he decides he might just put in a little overtime.
Orgasm-challenged and trying to write a book on how to get laid, she could use some no-strings mattress time with the right man. Since she’s not looking for Mr. Right, she just wants to win a bet, and she’s abandoning all her inhibitions in the name of research, Ash figures he’s just that man. After all, 30 days, red-hot chemistry, sex for sex’s sake…what could possibly go wrong?
Read an excerpt.
The book’s premise is a very single gal travels to the Big Apple with the intention of “researching” a concept guide on how an average girl can help herself get laid. This stems out of the gal’s long dry spell in the “men” department, after a bad relationship with a loser ex. Along the way, single gal meets very hunky single boy and drama ensues: lust, then misunderstanding, lust, then crisis, lust, then misunderstanding part two, lust, then complicated family dynamics, lust, then job pressures and misunderstanding part three… You get the picture.Â
I know, I know. Lots of “same song, second verse” here, but bear with me for a bit. All this rather well-trodden ground got much more complex and infinitely more interesting as the book went along. For example, the mixed race relationship dynamic – Annie captures it beautifully. The “ethnicity thing” never occurs to the couple until someone outside the relationship brings it up long after they’ve grown to really care for each other, and that is inevitably an older family member. Annie captures this and the couple’s initial confusion on the issue perfectly.
The last few chapters bought tears to my eyes almost non-stop – it’s tough to blow your nose and turn pages at the same time. Their break-up was heart-wrenching. Annie captures the male lead’s emotions particularly well – my heart was hurting right alongside his – and I find that a rarity in romanceland.
This was a surprisingly good little book. It wasn’t perfect – I could have wished the female lead was a little less doormat and a little more confident – but it was a real romance novel with some real romance in it. I really enjoyed reading it.
Grade: B+
Wow, thanks, Gwen. I’m glad you were pleasantly surprised. I’ve had that happen a time or two with books I didn’t think I’d enjoy.
My pleasure, Annie. What was nice about your book was how it kept unfolding and unfolding and unfolding. What I thought was going to be a cute little book, turned into a rather serious romance.
Also, having had an inter-racial relationship myself, all of the family and friend conflict rang totally true. He and I didn’t notice the difference between ourselves until other people pointed it out. Then, it surprised both of us that it was an issue for anyone, since it wasn’t for us.
I have this one and plan to read it soon, too. I really liked the excerpt that I read. thanks for the review.
Just as a general comment on multicultural romances — in my experience, the authors tend to overplay the conflict. Like I read in this one book (and I’m not calling anyone out), the author wrote something like:
She’s ripe for some hot Latino loving, he thought, but could a respectable white woman ever care for a guy from the barrio like him?
Um. I’m married to a man named Andres. We live in Mexico. When I shared that part of the book with him, he cocked a brow at me and asked if I was serious, somebody really wrote that? Sadly, I was.
Oh Annie, I totally know what you mean. Whenever I read a line like that in a novel, I just put the thing down and step away. It’s just too stupid for words. Especially words they’re trying to get me to read.
Good review. I posted my review/commentary for it yesterday. And it was a pleasant surprise for me too. Love when that happens–LOL.
I didn’t mention in my post how much I liked her alternating POVs changing from chapter to chapter and I thought she did a great job writing from his POV in particular.
Thanks for your review too, Tara.
That’s pretty much my style — the alternating POV. I get in the heroine’s head and then the hero’s (unless I’m writing in first person). I don’t do the POV of secondary characters or bad guys. That’s one of my peeves. I don’t write scenes with the villain boinking his evil mistress, thinking of how he’ll make the hero RUE THE DAY.