Boys for Beginners by Lil Chase

Boys for Beginners by Lil Chase

Release Date: August 1, 2011
Publisher: Quercus
Rated: YA 13+
Format: ARC
Source: Pansing
Buy: Amazon ● The Book Depository
Goodreads ● Website

Why are boys so stupid?!

I mean it’s great playing football and having a laugh but as soon as they fancy a girl they act like idiots.

And girls are even worse! Jenny Greyson spends ages doing her make-up and talking about boys, wondering what’s going on in their heads. When is she going to learn? There’s nothing going on in boy’s heads!

Well, that’s what I thought until Charlie started at my school. He is the hottest thing to hit Year 10 and now the game has changed. I’m going to ditch the T-shirts and football boots and make him fall for me.

I just need a little help from some girlie girls.
No problem.
Right?

Another British book! I received Boys for Beginners along with My Family and Other Freaks Carol Midgley and totally ended up loving both of them. I read this one right after My Family and Other Freaks, and it might just be the format, same publisher, etc., but they were actually pretty similar in some aspects, but otherwise I feel that this one was a bit different from of the other British preteen and teen books I’ve read in the past. On another note, isn’t that cover absolutely adorable? It totally reminds me of the books I read when I was in middle school!

For once, the main character is actually more of a tomboy than a “girlie girl,” as she puts it. She’s a lot more different than Danielle from My Family and Other Freaks and Georgia Nicolson from Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging. However, she tries to be more girly when Charlie Notts joins school. At first, while I was reading this book, I was kind of disappointed in Gwynnie, but then I remembered how I was in middle school and then BAM! I totally got her. I was absolutely content to just chill and be as I was back then...until the mentality of having crushes and liking cute guys started with all my friends and got to me. And I mean I don’t blame her–to be honest when I was reading about Charlie Notts I fell head over heals for him as well! And unlike most mean girls, I actually liked Jenny–and not just at the end of the book. She’s the kind of character I would typically roll my eyes at, but somewhere around the middle of the book, despite some of the mean things she does, I found that she wasn’t all that bad.

With a somewhat predictable, but still totally adorable and lovable, plot, Boys for Beginners was a fun book to read. Another perfect read for preteens that even older readers will love.

▪ ▪ ▪ Thank you so much to Sasha at Pansing for sending me a copy for review! ▪ ▪ ▪

If you like this, try...

• My Family and Other Freaks by Carol Midgley ● Goodreads
• How to Be Popular by Meg Cabot ● Goodreads