Book Review: Brooklyn Girls by Gemma Burgess.

Product details:
Publisher: Quercus.
Paperback, 352 pages.
Release date: July 4th 2013.
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Ages: 15+
Source:Received from publisher for review.

Pia is living the dream: fresh out of college and sharing a house in Brooklyn with her best friends. So why is everything so complicated?

A drunken indiscretion has led to the loss of her boring office job, while her love life is a dizzy mess of accidental hook-ups and heartbreak...

Her parents don't trust her and, if she doesn't sort her life out soon, they're going to make her move back in with them...

But all that's nothing compared to the kind of trouble she's about to face.

At least she can rely on her friends - Coco, Angie, Julia and Madeleine. But how much can she really expect them to put up with?

Meet Pia. Pia’s life is a whole lot of fun - at least while the party is rocking and the booze is flowing. Of course it’s a good idea to hook up with her housemate’s brother. Of course it is. Also, topless-dancing-on-tables. So. Much. Fun. Until the next morning when her hook up turns clingy and photos of her ‘just a bit of fun’ topless dancing make their way to Facebook.  Cue unemployment and a severe telling off from her overbearing parents, who inform Pia that she’d better shape up, or they’ll be shipping her out of New York – and fast.

Welcome to the world of Brooklyn Girls, otherwise known as Pia, Angie, Julia, Coco, and Madeline, the fabulous protagonists of a fantastically fun new series from Gemma Burgess. Think Sex and the City (for the fashion and the friendship) meets Girls(thankfully Hannah Horvath is nowhere to be seen!) set in a fabulous Brooklyn brownstone and you’ve got Brooklyn Girls. This one is categorised as New Adult, but is very different than anything you’ve read before in the New Adult genre, which, by the way, is a very good thing, in my opinion.  In the days before the ‘NA’ tag, you’d have known and loved this book as straight-up chick-lit.

All the girls – Pia (the dramatic one), Angie (the gorgeous fashionista), Julia (little miss sensible), Madeline (could she be more uptight?) and Coco (sweet little sister) are recent graduates in their early twenties, save for Coco, the baby of the group, who is still at school.  Brooklyn Girls explores the trials and tribulations that come with starting out in a new city at a time in life when your friends are your family and there is nothing more important than a killer outfit and a good night out with the girls.  

Pia is our narrator here, and as you'll soon find out if you read this book, wherever Pia goes, drama soon follows. There’s never a dull moment with this girl around, that’s for sure.  Determined to prove to her parents (who seem to think Pia incapable of even tying her own shoelaces) that she can fend for herself, Pia, on a whim (and having being subsequently fired from yet another job in a restaurant – short stint – long story), decides to go and buy a beat up pink food truck called Toto, enlisting the help of a loan shark in the process. Ooops! Pia isn’t worried about paying back her loan, though. After all, it’s New York City. It’s food. And people need to eat, right? She’ll make the money back in no time. Oh, Pia, Pia, Pia.

As a character, Pia isn’t my favourite of the girls (I’m intrigued by Angie and her very messed up self), but I have to say that Pia grew on me over time with her enterprising spirit, her determination, and her caring side. Say what you will about these girls, but they are really there for each other through thick and thin.  Pia shines, especially in her dealings with her best friend Angie and Julia’s little sister, Coco.  There is also romance for Pia, in the form of Aidan, but romance doesn’t take center stage here, which was refreshing but also kind of a pity, because I like a little romance and Aidan was definitely hot. But it’s a tiny quibble, as is my small gripe with how the girls refer to each other as ‘ladybitches.' Maybe that's a Brooklyn thing - I wouldn't know.

Overall, I pretty much loved my first foray into the world of Brooklyn Girls and I’m really looking forward to reading Angie’s story in Love and Chaos, the next book in the Brooklyn Girls series, which releases in 2014. 

US Cover