Brooklyn Girls

Cover image and synopsis from Goodreads:

Fantastically funny, fresh and utterly relatable, Brooklyn Girls by Gemma Burgess is the first novel in her brand new series about five twenty-something friends—Pia, Angie, Julia, Coco and Madeleine—sharing a brownstone in hip, downtown Brooklyn, and discovering the ups and downs and ins and outs of their “semi-adult” lives. The first story belongs to sophisticated, spoiled, and stylish Pia, who finds herself completely unemployed, unemployable, and broke. So what is a recent grad with an art history degree and an unfortunate history of Facebook topless photos to do? Start a food truck business of course! Pia takes on the surprisingly cutthroat Brooklyn world of hybrid lettuce growers, artisanal yogurt makers and homemade butter producers to start SkinnyWheels—all while dealing with hipster bees, one-night-stands, heartbreak, parental fury, wild parties, revenge, jail, loan sharks, playboys, karaoke, true love, and one adorable pink food truck. And that's without counting her roommates' problems, too. Gemma Burgess has captured the confusion, hilarity and excitement of the post-graduate years against a backdrop of the pressures and chaos of New York City life, with heartfelt empathy, fast humor and sharp honesty.

I read this for one of my book clubs, and it’s the first book in a series about a group of twenty-something girls trying to make their way in life, figuring out their love lives and careers.

At times, I got a bit of a ‘Sex and the City’ vibe, based on the friendship and dynamics between the five girls, but for all of the talk about relationships and hook ups, there actually wasn’t much in the way of romance or anything in the book. And given main character Pia’s subplot involving a handsome British guy she couldn’t get off her mind, I was really surprised that there wasn’t even a kiss on the page (I think. If there was, I can’t remember!).

I found myself getting really frustrated with the actions of several of the characters throughout the book, and at times I thought the story veered between trying to be really fluffy, and then trying to be very serious and dramatic.

This was a quick read, and it was kind of fun at times, but it was also uneven and made me really frustrated. I’ve seen some really great reviews for this though, so it might just be a case of me not being the target reader for this book.