Book Review – A Girl Like You by Gemma Burgess

“I’ve discovered the secret to successful singledom. I’m acting like a man. And it’s working.”

After breaking up with her boyfriend of, well, forever, Abigail Wood must learn how to be single from scratch. Her dating skills are abysmal, and she ricochets from disaster to disaster – until Robert, one of London’s most notorious lotharios, agrees to coach her.

With his advice, she learns to navigate the bastard-infested waters of the bar scene and practices the art of being bulletproof. The new Abigail is cocky, calm, composed…but what happens when she meets her match?

A Girl Like You is the second novel from Gemma Burgess and the first book by her that I’ve read. It’s is a witty, sharp and very funny jaunt through the shark infested dating waters of London.

The book starts with high drama as main character Abigail Wood has a very tearful meltdown in the shower of her hotel suite at the Mandarin Oriental in Hong Kong. Further drama ensues as a nameless male character swoops to the rescue. It soon becomes clear that said male is not the man Abigail wants to have come running in her hour of need, but before we can find out more the prologue ends and chapter one whisks us back six months to a slightly more controlled Abigail preparing to go on her first date.

Just as Gemma no doubt intended, I was left wondering firstly, what (or who) on earth had happened to Abigail to put her in such a state and secondly, who was this mysterious man who has travelled half way round the World to find her even if she didn’t want to see him. He seemed nice enough to me. Being the nosy person that I am I had to know, so I found myself racing through the pages thoroughly caught up in Abigail’s life.

Abigail is nice and likeable. She’s 27 and as she confesses in the first chapter, has spent all of her ‘dating’ life so far in a relationship with a man she met at university. Having shuffled along in a comfortable but ultimately not very exciting relationship for seven years, she finally called it quits and finds herself single and facing her first proper date, slightly later in life than she’d anticipated.

Her first date isn’t great; she talks too much, asks too many questions and drinks too much to clam her nerves. There is a lot in Abigail’s situation that readers will identify with and the story is told entirely from Abigail’s point of view which gives the reader access to all of her thoughts, feelings, observations and self analysis as she keeps up a ‘sex and the city’ style running commentary on her dating adventures.

As Abigail analyses that first disastrous date with flatmate Robert, she realises that she has a dating guru right in front of her. Robert is handsome (of course) and of the ‘leave them before they leave you’ school of dating, firmly attached to his bachelorhood and more than happy with his string of casual relationships. Abigail adopts Robert as her dating mentor and before we know it our protagonist is ‘dating like a man’ and thoroughly enjoying herself as she bar hops her way around London with newfound confidence and Robert as her guide.

Then Abigail meets Dave. Dave is the male equivalent of the new Abigail. It is excruciating to watch Abigail trying to maintain her cool detachment as she falls head over heels for Dave.  With a well written cast of supporting friends and family, Abigail tries her best to follow the rules that she has created for herself but this is chick lit with a kick and Burgess tells it like it is, which is how we find poor Abigail having her shower-based meltdown. Her writing style reminds me of American chick lit authors Candace Bushnell and Lauren Weisberger but with more humour and I think Burgess is a refreshing addition to the British chick lit scene.

Gemma’s take on chick lit is edgy, modern and laugh out loud funny and I’ll definitely be looking to read her first novel, The Dating Detox soon. A Girl Like You has a surprisingly romantic ending with a well illustrated message about how to get by as a single girl or guy in 2011. A a good read to perk up these dark January nights.

4/5

You can find out more about Gemma Burgess and her books at: http://www.gemmaburgess.com/

A version of this review also appears at: http://libripopulus.co.uk/