Review: These Girls

These Girls by Sarah Pekkanen

Format: Trade Paperback
Pages: 322
Published: April 10, 2012
Publisher: Washington Square Press
Genre: Fiction

My Rating: 4/5

Summary (from chapters.ca):

Cate, Renee, and Abby have come to New York for very different reasons, and in a bustling city of millions, they are linked together through circumstance and chance.

Cate has just been named the features editor of Gloss, a high-end lifestyle magazine. It's a professional coup, but her new job comes with more complications than Cate ever anticipated.

Cate's roommate Renee will do anything to nab the plum job of beauty editor at Gloss. But snide comments about Renee's weight send her into an emotional tailspin. Soon she is taking black market diet pills-despite the racing heartbeat and trembling hands that signal she''s heading for real danger.

Then there's Abby, whom they take in as a third roommate. Once a joyful graduate student working as a nanny part time, she abruptly fled a seemingly happy life in the D.C. suburbs. No one knows what shattered Abby-or why she left everything she once loved behind.

Trailer:

Review:

You would think that living in a city as big as New York, your only problem would be finding your way to the nearest coffee shop but when you have a secret as big the Empire State Building, sometimes baring your soul is the only way to succeed.

These Girls is a wonderful story about three women who have very different backgrounds and yet through Sarah Pekkanen's wonderful ability to tell a story, they come together in an attempt to make eachother a better person. 

The characters were wonderful and I found that I was able to relate to each one for a different reason.  My favourite would have to be Renee because even though we watch as she struggles through her weight issues, she is a strong and loyal person who is accepting of everyone, even with secrets and mistakes.  I enjoyed that Sarah Pekkanen didn't dance around the issues of a 'bigger' girl and made it very relateable.  Being overweight myself, I enjoyed the way Sarah portrayed Renee is such a positive light and even added in how her friends found her better looking before losing weight.  It added such a wonderful feel to something so many people, espeically women, struggle with.  Thank you, Sarah!

I really enjoyed the format of the story as well.  Jumping from character to character was something that I hadn't enjoyed in the past but being able to see the background stories of each of the characters made it the perfect choice.  Also choosing to start at the beginning of the story, rather than the end and working back, was a welcome change and it left me wanting to keep reading as I needed to know each of the characters secrets.

Overall, my debut novel of Sarak Pekkanen's was bang-on what I was hoping it would be and I cannot wait for the next one!