Let me start off by saying that there were some things that I did really enjoy about this book, but there were also some things that made me cringe.
However, before we get to what you really want to know (the good, the bad and the ugly…), I want to first tell you the backstory of Before Girl by Kate Canterbary.
Before Girl is written about a middle aged women named Stella who works in public relations with difficult professional athletes. She is a very independent feminist who had an admirer from afar named Cal. Cal was a former Army ranger turned Cardiothoracic surgeon who had noticed Stella one day while on his run. It took him months to work up the courage to talk to Stella. And to be honest, the only reason he talked to her was because he accidentally ran her over.
The “Good” about Before Girl by Kate Canterbary
Some of the things I enjoyed about Before Girl by Kate Canterbary were the different take it took compared to normal romantic comedies.
What I mean by this is that Stella was a curvy sized 14 women, not your typical size 6 and under heroine. She was also very independent and had much more confidence than Cal (at least in the beginning). Stella was also the the character that had men on a weekly calendar and was afraid of committing to just one relationship. She claimed that simply wasn’t her way.
Both of these things made for a breath of fresh air. Not all girls are skinny, not all girls want a commitment and white picket fence.
To top it off, Cal was very shy and quite awkward to begin with. He wanted the marriage and family and commitment. This is also very atypical from your average romantic comedy.
In a world were feminism is on the rise, I feel that Before Girl is very much helping change the feminist vision in romantic comedies.
The “Bad” about Before Girl by Kate Canterbary
Some of the things I did not enjoy about this book were the fact that Stella was not explained very well. The character unraveled throughout the book however, I feel there are some things that need to be mentioned early on to better help us understand the character.
By telling us early on, we can form an emotion with the character and get more involved emotionally (and we all know that is what makes a book great).
For instance, it wasn’t until at least half way through the book that we found out the real reason why Stella wasn’t a huge fan of relationships. However, throughout the beginning we were told that she simply wasn’t into relationships. We were told that Stella didn’t have any bad history that made her this way.
Of course, half way through we find out the truth.
Maybe this is just me being picky but sometimes it’s the little things that make me dislike a book.
Finally, something else that made me not like this book was how weak Cal was.
Yes, I know, I know, a good change of the average romantic comedy, blah blah blah. But there is something about strong characters that gets to me every time.
And having a weak heroine or hero bothers me, it is not simply having a weak male character (for the feminists out there!) that urks me.
What especially bothered me about this was Cal’s history as an Army Ranger and his career choice as a surgeon.
Almost every surgeon out there has confidence and an ego (no, I’m not being mean, you simply need to have these two things to not get destroyed every time you hold someones life in your hands. Literally.) So when he lacked confidence it really bothered me.
To the authors credit- Cal DID gain some confidence as the book went on but I still say he was a little weak.
Overall Thoughts on Before Girl by Kate Canterbary
My overall thoughts on this book were that is was good, could’ve been shorter and I wish the characters were developed a little more in the beginning.
This is the first time I have read anything by this author, however I would try another book from her if the storyline was something I was interested in.
Like I mentioned before, Before Girl by Kate Canterbary did have a lot of things I did enjoy about the book. I enjoyed the way she switched up the normal romantic comedy storyline and characters and there was some light humor through the book.
Unfortunately, it seemed that some of the bad outweighed the good for me.
Let me know what you all think about this book! I really enjoy hearing everyones comments and feedback. Often times other people see something differently than I do and I enjoy hearing those opinions.
To purchase Before Girl by Kate Canterbary you can go HERE.
To get an Amazon Kindle (for your true book nerds) then you can head HERE and your life will be forever changed (trust me).
Happy Reading!
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