Blog Tour Book Review: One of the Guys by Lisa Aldin

I am excited to be a part of this tour because this truly was such a fun and sweet read and one I am so glad I took the time to read. 

Series: Stand Alone

Release Date: February 10, 2015

Published By: Spencer Hill Press

Book Description:

Tomboy to the core, Toni Valentine understands guys. She'll take horror movies, monster hunts and burping contests over manicures. So Toni is horrified when she's sent to the Winston Academy for Girls, where she has to wear a skirt and learn to be a lady while the guys move on without her.

Then Toni meets Emma Elizabeth, a girl at school with boy troubles, and she volunteers one of her friends as a pretend date. Word spreads of Toni’s connections with boys, and she discovers that her new wealthy female classmates will pay big money for fake dates. Looking for a way to connect her old best friends with her new life at school, Toni and Emma start up Toni Valentine’s Rent-A-Gent Service. 

But the business meets a scandal when Toni falls for one of her friends--the same guy who happens to be the most sought-after date. With everything she's built on the line, Toni has to decide if she wants to save the business and her old life, or let go of being one of the guys for a chance at love. 

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About the Author:

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Lisa Aldin graduated from Purdue University with a B.A. in English Literature. She now lives in Indianapolis, Indiana with her husband and daughter. ONE OF THE GUYS is her debut novel.

The excerpt is from Chapter 3:

One month later, I’m sitting in a brightly lit classroom at the Winston Academy for Girls. My dad used to joke that the day I wore a skirt would be the day the zombie apocalypse rolled into town. Two hours in and I have yet to see a zombie, but I do feel like the living dead. Someone bathed in raspberry perfume this morning, causing a war to rage inside my nostrils. I might fall to the floor and convulse, the smell’s that thick.

Maybe it’s not the perfume. Maybe I’m allergic to all this estrogen.

“You okay?” the girl next to me whispers.

I respond by covering my mouth and sneezing so hard that a giant wad of snot lands in the palm of my hand. Carefully, I move my hand under the desk and smile.

“Fine,” I reply. “Just tired.”

The girl chews on a strand of her honey-colored hair as she attempts to write down every word of the lecture. A leather day planner rests at the edge of her desk, a name embroidered in pink curly letters at the bottom: Emma Elizabeth Swanson.

I’m definitely not in public school anymore.

Our Business Mathematics teacher pity-smiles at me from behind her glasses and dives into a discussion about supply and demand. I continue to wonder what I should do with the snot on my palm. If I were sitting beside one of the guys at Burlington High, like I should be this year, the snot wouldn’t be an issue. I would wipe it on Cowboy, the least likely of the group to retaliate, and laugh.

But what would a “lady” do?

Here at Winston, boys feel as mythical and mysterious as unicorns. There’s no sign of them anywhere. No obnoxious belches. No stupid high- fives. No talk of monster hunting. It’s unsettling, like I’m walking among a race of polite aliens wearing plaid jumpers and lip gloss.

How am I supposed to survive a year on another planet? 

I live for these sweet contemporary coming of age stories. There is just something so sweet about them. So heartwarming, that I can't help but pick them up every time they cross my path and I am so glad that this is one that I picked up and tried.

Toni and the boys were just fabulous.  I love reading about tomboys even though I was never one myself. There is just something endearing about watching them grow up surrounded by boys. And lets talk about those boys! Cowboy, Loch, Ollie, I loved them! I loved how this rag tag group of boys, and Toni (McRib) all came together over the search of a sea monster and how that search brought them a friendship they would never forget.

You could see their bond, their past, and their closeness and as well as all the changes that you just knew were going to come. It was sometimes hectic and messy and everything that growing up truly is and should be. Lots of mistakes, lots of learning, and lots of fun and even heartbreak along the way.

This was a seriously cute read that was perfect for some lighthearted fun that we all need once in a while.