Girlfriend Material by Melissa Kantor

Publiher: Disney Hyperion
Pub. Date: May 5th 2009
Age Range: Young Adult
Pages: 272
Format: hardcover
Source Of Copy: from the publisher - Hyperion

If Kate were Lady Brett Ashley, the devastating heroine of Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises, she'd spend her summers careering around the Riviera in her coupe, breaking hearts by the dozen--because why not? In reality, Kate's never even had a boyfriend, and she'll be spending the summer abetting her mom's lame ploy to make her dad jealous: running off to Cape Cod and crashing at the seaside home of her wealthy friends, the Cooper-Melnicks. To add to the shame, the Cooper-Melnicks' gorgeous daughter Sarah is a bit like Lady Brett, and she seems less than thrilled to hang out with her new houseguest. Any dreams Kate once had of a perfect summer are ruined.

That is, until Sarah's cute, witty friend Adam starts drawing Kate into the fold--and seems intrigued. With Adam around, Kate feels like she just might have a bit of heartbreaker potential after all. But when a breezy summer romance quickly grows more complicated can Kate keep pretending her relationship with Adam is just a carefree fling? Or will she take the risk and tell him her real feelings? Suddenly Kate is asking herself a question she never thought she'd stoop to: Is she girlfriend material?



If you want a lovely, quick read, do consider picking up Girlfriend Material. It's a story of a girl with a ruined summer who later finds out how to fix the relationship with her mom and gains herself a real boyfriend.

The mood of the book is really light and fun so if you're tired from all the stories on big and heavy issue, this should be the one for you. The plot is pretty typical but with the nice flowing writing, especially descriptions of the beautiful scenes in the bay, it's still a very pleasant read. Its appeal, to me, is the way things go very naturally and in decent pace.

The characters are quite lovely to me. Though some appear very unfriendly at first or some might look like a bad one at some point, everyone turns out to be nice and cool. Kate seems selfish during the first half of the book and very self conscious as well but gradually becomes sweet and understanding. My favorite character besides the main couple is Sarah and Natasha, who both look harsh but cool at heart.

My only problem with the book is that things are solved too neatly at the end. Like BAM, every knot is untied and things fall into the right place at once. It seems forced, making the book end in a weak way.

Anyway, this is a cute and light book. As I said, suitable for a quick and relaxing read.

Rating: 3/5