Review: Brooklyn Girls; Angie - Gemma Burgess

Brooklyn Girls: Angie by Gemma Burgess, published by Quercus on 6th March 2014

Goodreads synopsis:
Angie James is lost.

A regular poster girl for Generation Screwed, being 22 isn’t what she expected.

What happens when having fun isn’t, you know, fun?

In the Brooklyn townhouse she shares with her best friends, Angie wants to figure out what to do with her life. But wild parties, bad dates, dead-end jobs, demanding fashionistas and even true love just keep getting in the way…

Who knew adulthood would be so damn grown-up?

Review:
This is the second book in the series about friends living in Brooklyn, New York,  trying to have fun and find romance, while at the same time attempting to find their own individual future paths.  This story centres around Pia's best friend Angie, who is about to turn 23 and realises that her life is a mess.  She's single and unemployed, her parents are getting a divorce and she can't seem to leave her wild child days behind her, even though for the most part she's unhappy and spiralling out of control.

I really liked Pia in the last book and I knew that I was always going to struggle with Angie because her personality is so different.  She gets herself into some extremely bad situations and although she does try hard to turn her life around, I thought that she was very lucky to have some things just fall into her lap at the right time.  Underneath her tough outer exterior, which is all swearing and sex, she does want to have a purpose in life and she does want to make a success of herself, but it takes her a long time to get to that point. 

A positive influence in her life is Sam, the mysterious boat boy who she just seems to click with.  The romance between them is a bit of a slow burner which I liked but I couldn't help but wonder why she took such a long time to open her eyes and wake up to her true feelings for him.  The thing I love about this series is that although there's romance, this takes a backseat to the friendship between all the girls at Rookhaven.  As much as I liked seeing Angie and Sam together, I also enjoyed seeing a new friendship blossom between Angie and Julia, who realise that they actually get on really well. 

The setting for this series is brilliant and I like following the girls as they try to carve out careers for themselves, against the backdrop of New York.  A quick and fun read, although Angie wasn't my favourite of characters, I am looking forward to the next instalment in the series which focuses on Coco, who I've always liked.       

Review: Brooklyn Girls - Gemma Burgess

Brooklyn Girls by Gemma Burgess, published by Quercus on 4th July 2013

Goodreads synopsis:
Pia is living the dream: fresh out of college and sharing a house in Brooklyn with her best friends. So why is everything so complicated?

A drunken indiscretion has led to the loss of her boring office job, while her love life is a dizzy mess of accidental hook-ups and heartbreak...

Her parents don't trust her and, if she doesn't sort her life out soon, they're going to make her move back in with them...

But all that's nothing compared to the kind of trouble she's about to face.

 
Review:
This is the first book in a new series by Gemma Burgess about a group of girlfriends in their twenties living together in New York and trying to adjust to adulthood.  Each of them are trying to carve out their own path while also figuring out who they are and what they really want out of life.  There's unemployed Pia who is attempting to stretch her wings away from her parents and get over a broken heart, as well as bookworm Coco (who was my favourite), crazy Angie, uptight Madeleine and in-control and ambitious Julia.

The opening story in the series is told from the point of view of Pia who can't seem to hold down a job and keeps getting herself into trouble by partying too hard.  It took me a little while to actually warm to her as she makes quite a lot of questionable decisions but I liked the way that she always looks out for her friends and she is always there for them, as they are there for her in times of need.  I admired the way she tries to turn her life around and her determination not to give into her parents, even when that may have been the easiest route to take.

There actually isn't a huge amount of romance throughout the book as it focuses mainly on the relationship and friendships between all of the girls.  That's good though because it makes such a refreshing change.  Each of the girls is so different and they have really unique personalities that it was fun getting to know them all along the way.

This is a New Adult book but to me, it seems to fit in nicely to the niche which exists between NA and YA.  It's definitely not for much younger readers though as there's a lot of adult themes and content.    

Fresh and hip, this series is like Sex and the City but with younger characters.  The next book in the series is set to be about Angie and will be published in 2014.  I'm looking forward to finding out what they'll all get up to next.