A Girl Like You-Cari Scribner Review

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*This book was graciously sent to me by the author, Cari Scribner, in exchange for a honest review. *
I usually have some idea about the book before I start reading it, as I usually know what kind of books I will enjoy. However, this book was sent to me by the author and I decided to go into it pretty blind, so I could get a more unbiased opinion about it. Given that the author is from the USA and I live in the UK, we agreed on the audiobook, a format I am not used to but was excited to try out. At the end, I though that 'A Girl Like You' was a fun story about starting over and very anti-agism and I did enjoy it for that.

The main character of the novel is Jessica Gabriel, 50 something year old woman. At the start of the novel, the readers are introduced to her on a bad bowling date and then we are introduced to her family and understanding her character. Jessica's second marriage is slowly falling apart, despite the fact that she and her husband still love and care for each other. We are also introduced to her two children, Maddison and Ian who are an integral part of Jessica's life. What follows are Jessica's attempts to bring her life back in order through online dating and overall restart of her life, including a new haircut, going to the gym and online dating.


I think that the best part of the book were the characters as they were quite life-life and interesting. It was refreshing to read about a woman over twenty years older than me putting herself out there and unashamedly looking for love and pleasure. I also really enjoyed her relationship with her children, who have cultivated an open and honest communication and honesty. Jessica's co-workers in her job who are loud, obnoxious men who do not do any work did read like caricatures at times, but this is a book from Jessica's perspective and that is how she sees them, so I did not mind it as much. One thing I will say is that I wanted Jessica to have more female friends. Her best friend, Eddie, was a great supporting character, but I wish that there were also more female friendships in the novel.

Jessica goes into detail on her dates and relationships, most of which end with either annoyance or serious heartbreak and I mostly found them really funny and endearing, especially the way she told her children and friend about it. I understand that some are placed there for comedic effect and they did make me cringe or laugh at times. One date I did not appreciate was the guy from Croatia who spoke with broken English and was overall quite rude and ignorant. I will admit that being from Eastern Europe, I am not too crazy about such negative depictions in the book and I cringed my way through that. But, overall, I did enjoy reading and laughing about these failed dates quite a lot.

Because I have not really read much about the book before reading it, I also did not realize that it will have elements of erotica in it and I must admit that the first detailed sex scenes caught me a bit off guard. However, I do think that they are really written, honest and realistic. I also absolutely support the idea of a somewhat older main characters enjoying sex and not feeling ashamed about it. This is especially when Jessica looks for toys she can use by herself when she is alone. That was quite refreshing to see, but if you listening to the audiobook, keep in mind that these scenes get explicit.

At the end, after a tragic event, Jessica turns inwards and starts healing more. I really liked the ending in which she places focus on herself and works on healing, rather than trying to find the one. The ending is somewhat open as another man does come into her life and she welcomes him, but the way it was written (at least for me) and the point of her life this happens in, implies this might be different.

Overall, I scored this book 4/5 as I did enjoy more than I thought it would. I think this is a fun book with some very interesting messages about starting over after a heartbreak and being brave enough to put yourself out there. Jessica, the main character is quite sympathetic and I enjoyed reading about her.


Thank you, Cari Scribner, for sending me the book and good luck with your further writing! :)

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