Not That Kind of Girl by Siobhan Vivian

Release Date: September 1, 2010
Publisher: Push (imprint of Scholastic)
Pages: 336
Review Source: Library

Synopsis: (from Goodreads)
Natalie Sterling wants to be in control. She wants her friends to be loyal. She wants her classmates to elect her student council president. She wants to find the right guy, not the usual jerk her school has to offer. She wants a good reputation, because she believes that will lead to good things.

But life is messy, and it's very hard to be in control of it. Not when there are freshman girls running around in a pack, trying to get senior guys to sleep with them. Not when your friends have secrets they're no longer comfortable sharing. Not when the boy you once dismissed ends up being the boy you want to sleep with yourself - but only in secret, with nobody ever finding out.

Slut or saint? Winner or loser? Natalie is getting tired of these forced choices - and is now going to find a way to live life in the sometimes messy, sometimes wonderful in-between.

My Thoughts:
This was an interesting book because I really liked it even though the main character, Natalie, drove me crazy. She drove me crazy, yet I really wanted to see her succeed - to see her reach the point where she realized that she needed to change, and that being so uptight and hidden away is not the answer. Siobhan Vivian has written a really great story which teaches readers to embrace all the different aspects of themselves. Natalie is very ambitious, but she is also judgmental. She is someone who has always been smart, perfect, and on the “right” track, so when Connor comes into her life, she shuts her feelings for him away in a hidden spot.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I practically read it in one sitting, I was so drawn into the characters and the writing style. I would have liked to see a little bit more development in Connor’s character. I really liked him - he was a sweet guy, and I applaud him for putting up with Natalie and her uptight nature, but I felt like his past was hinted at but not really explained. All the “bad” things that he had done, they didn’t really seem to mesh with the Connor we got to know. Nevertheless, this was a really great novel, with fun and interesting characters, and a good message that presents itself without hitting the reader over the head.

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