Smart Girl (The Girls, #3) by Rachel Hollis

Smart Girl by Rachel Hollis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Goodreads Synopsis:

Brilliant designer Miko Jin is a hopeless romantic. She’s spent most of her life falling in love over and over again…with the men she finds in the pages of her favorite novels.

When Miko meets Liam Ashton, it’s love at first sight. At least, for her. Sure, the two of them are polar opposites, and yes, he seems to be dating someone new each week. But Miko knows what true love is and that you can’t rush it—after all, what she lacks in real-world experience, she makes up for in book smarts. With novels as her guide, and her best friends by her side, she knows she can get Liam to love her back. But just like any good romance novel, fate has a few plot twists in store. Will Miko get her own happy ending? Will she find the strength to stand up for what she deserves even if it means breaking her own heart?

My Review:

I received a free copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

First off, I'd have to admit that I have not read Party Girl or Sweet Girl, the first two books in this series. I think the only issue with not reading those beforehand, was that there were a lot of characters to keep track of, without much introduction. I'm not going to hold that against Rachel Hollis as she did introduce new characters in this book flawlessly. Her style is easy to read, flows well, and the dialog wasn't completely unbelievable.

This was a fun book, and I loved all the books names/quotes/character mentions. The layout of this story was your classic rom-com, but I have to admit I was hoping for something a little different in the end. Although my hopes were dashed, I feel this story, and the others included, seemed to wrap up beautifully - a little mushy, but happily ever after all the same.

As far as the characters go, I really liked Miko until she began to lose herself. She was funny, eccentric, sweet, and confident. She did have a little identity crisis, but she got threw it, used it as a learning lesson, and became a stronger and better person for it.

Liam, what can I say about Liam? I know he was meant to represent a beautiful (i.e. hunky) but tormented soul - the kind you lust after, and want to save. I didn't feel that way. I never really liked him or the way he treated women as a whole. I'm glad his character was able to evolve, but he never did it for me.

The supporting characters (and there were many) were a great structure to the storyline. I admit, I might want to know a little more about them, if I didn't already know the ending. I wouldn't mind a small novella about Tosh, Miko's brother. He was my favorite guy.

I would definitely recommend this book if you like rom-com's, are somewhat of a geek at heart, and enjoy a cast of strong and successful women.

Favorite Quotes:

“Maturity isn’t something you wrap around you like a coat. Maturity is like the T-shirt you get for walking in a 5K: you can only put it on if you go through the experience first.”

“This is the worst! Worse than that time I finished all the books that had been published so far in a series a full year before the final book came out.”

Read from February 02 to 25, 2016

Top 5 Genres*: Romance, Women's Fiction/Chick Lit, Romance/Contemporary Romance, New Adult, Contemporary
*According to Goodreads
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★★★★★ - I absolutely loved it
★★★★ - Good book and would recommend
★★★ - Decent book, but wasn't spectacular
★★ - Not good, but was able to finish it
★ - Did not finish (DNF) and I don't usually rate a book I haven't finished (just to be fair to the author)

View all my reviews