Just One of the Guys

Just One of the Guys
Kristan Higgins
Published by Harlequin Mira
384 pages
Available on Amazon.com
I bought this book my own darn self, thank you
4.5 / 5 cupcakes


In honor of the Sharing My Favorite Blog Giveaway, I read a Kristan Higgins book this week. I've read a lot of her books - I love her beyond words - and I find myself parsing them out, making sure I don't read all of them all at once, because then I have to wait for the next one to get written.

Just One of the Guys is pretty standard Higgins fare. It's set in the northeast (in this case, northern New York, as opposed to her more typical locales in New England, and features a young woman trying to find love while dealing with a colorful family.

Chastity Virginia O'Neill is the youngest of five kids, the other four being older brothers. Longtime family friend, Trevor Meade, is sort of an honorary brother, as much a part of the family as if DNA claimed him. When Chastity returns to Eaton Falls, her small hometown in upstate New York, after college, grad school, and establishing her journalism career, she also returns to the specter of Trevor. She has loved him since she was ten-years-old, a love that is largely unreciprocated. In search of romance, she meets Dr. Darling (seriously - that's his name), and tries to see if she can love someone like she loves Trevor.

As with Higgins' books, you know how this will end, but she gets you there in cute, humorous, sometimes heartbreaking ways. I did cry about four times while reading this. Chastity's complete, consuming love for Trevor can only end in one of two ways, and because she misinterprets everything, she comes awfully close to having to settle for a life she doesn't really want. What she wants is Trevor, and having had a brief taste of him when she was in college, she wants more.

He swallowed and gazed at me, serious and quiet. I could see him weighing the intelligence of what we were about to do, what we had already done, could see his hesitation. Because I'd loved him for so long, been crushed by my yearning for Trevor for so damn long, I slid my hands under his shirt and pulled it over his head. "Please stay," I said, kissing his beautiful neck.

The only complaint I have about this book is that we don't get to see the happy couple together romantically for more than a few pages. That's the case with most of Higgins' books, which may be why my favorite is My One and Only, in which our hero and heroine are trapped in a car together for chapters on end.

Kristan Higgins peppers her books with a lively cast of supporting characters, never more so than with this one. What with four brothers, some sisters-in-law, a passel of nieces and nephews, co-workers and firefighters, there are a LOT of people. You get to know most of them, but the danger is not getting to know Trevor as much as you want. A similar problem existed with Malone in Catch of the Day. It's a compliment to Higgins that we want more of her heroes.