ARC Review ~ The Worst Girlfriend in the World by Sarra Manning

Paperback received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: May 1st 2014

Publisher: Atom

Description:
My best friend was now my deadliest enemy, the one person I'd hate beyond all measure for the rest of my life . . .

Franny Barker's best friend, Alice, is the worst girlfriend in the world according to the many boys of Merrycliffe-on-Sea. She toys with them, then dumps them. But she'll never dump fashion-obsessed Franny. Nothing and no one can come between them. 

Not even tousle-haired rock god, Louis Allen, who Franny's been crushing on hard. Until Alice, bored with immature boys and jealous of Franny's new college friends, sets her sights on Louis. Suddenly, best friends are bitter rivals.

Is winning Louis's heart worth more than their friendship? There's only one way for Franny to find out.

My Opinion

The Worst Girlfriend in the World sounded like a quick, easy read that would be entertaining for a few hours. I had never read anything by this author before so I wasn't sure what I was getting myself in for, but I finished this book with a smile on my face--something which was surprising as I did have moments where I wasn't sure whether I was going to enjoy the story as it continued to progress.

This book started off well. It built intrigue into all the things wrongs with Franny's life and I wanted to know what was wrong with her mum. I had an idea but I couldn't be sure what had set her off. I also liked the passion Franny had for her dreams and how she was following them. It was nice to read about a character in college who knew what they wanted. Normally books don't focus on this aspect, but rather boys, and I liked that you got to know Franny on a deeper level than just her latest crush.

As well as this, the overall pacing of the book was good. I didn't think I would get into it as much as I did, but it had me up until the early hours of the morning at one point. The best sections where definitely the more action-packed parts where Franny takes matters into her own hands as there was more to grip you and make you want to read on. They also contrasted with the other sections that hadn't held my attention so much, making them even better when they appeared.

There were only two problems I had with this book. The first was the characters' speech. I know people speak like it and that the media portray it a lot, but it really winds me up when reading a book. I can handle a little but when there are as many as are in The Worst Girlfriend in the World, I did end up sighing a lot. Words like "totes" for "totally" or adding extra likes such as "Like you know..."for me, just don't come across as well as the do in real life in books. I feel they make the book cheesy and in most cases I've seen, it's what authors think we speak like and end up going over the top with it rather than use it in moderation.

The second problem I had is that this book says it is aimed at young-adults however for me there seemed to be a genre conflict going on. Parts of the book seemed a lot more juvenile than others which made me think it was for a younger audience but then the author would drop in words like the f-bomb and other curse words. Those of you who know me, and read my review, will know that swearing doesn't bother me--it's natural for the age of the characters. However, I didn't expect to read it in this book when the characters did seem less mature and the writing style was a bit more juvenile. For me, the two didn't meld well in this book and I didn't feel they added anything to the writing. All it did was make me confused as to who the intended audience was; on one hand you had characters the same age as me but acting younger so didn't really suit my age group, and on the other they're swearing so wouldn't fit the younger audience.

Overall, The Worst Girlfriend in the World was a good read and I did enjoy it. I had a few problems with the language, speech and characterisation plus not every section of the book engaged me. However, for the most part I was intrigued and interested to see how the story developed.