Title: My Girl
Author: Stormy Glenn
Publisher: Silver Publishing
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Length: Novel (166 PDF pages)
Rating: 2.5 stars out of 5
A Guest Review by Aunt Lynn
One Sentence Review: File this disappointing, forgettable read under lost potential.
***This review contains what could be considered spoilers***
THE BLURB
Nail polish, makeup, hair extensions, cute little skirts, a new life in a new city…what else is a guy to do when someone is trying to kill him?
Nicholas Rylander watched his best friend get murdered and now he’s in hiding…as a woman. He’s had hair extensions put in, acrylic nails applied, and a custom bra fitted to give him breasts. He’s even moved across the country and found an apartment as Nicky, a hot girl in a short skirt.
Nicky’s only problem? He’s met the man of his dreams and Seth thinks he’s a girl. Telling Seth the truth could get them both killed but if he doesn’t Nicky could lose the best thing that ever happened to him.
THE REVIEW
Exotic dancer Nicholas is the only witness to a Baddie killing his friend, and is in hiding across the country until the trial. Witness protection failed him, so he has decided that the key to staying alive is masquerading as a woman. Fake nails, fake boobs, underwear to hide the goods, hair extensions and girlie clothes, and Nicholas has become Nicky. Moving into a new apartment has him meeting Seth, his hot neighbor down the hall. Seth is immediately and inexplicably attracted to gorgeous Nicky and he can’t understand why since he’s gay. When the truth comes out, Seth is furious, but overcomes his anger when he hears the reason for the deception. Unfortunately, Baddie finds Nicky and they face the danger head on.
My Girl is the first book by this author that I’ve read and I’m not sure I’d read her again if this is what I would experience. I picked it up based on the blurb alone and I really wanted to like it. Though the story had tons of potential and a great premise, I felt it fell quite short of that for a number of reasons and turned out to be a disappointment.
What worked for me:
I liked that while it seems that Seth was bitten by the Insta-Love bug, Nicky was the voice of reason, trying to knock holes into every one of Seth’s proclamations and offering what he sees as downsides of Seth being with him. I liked that he was trying to figure out what his feelings were for Seth before jumping into a relationship. I liked Seth’s mother, Pamela, who was very concerned that her gay son brought home a woman and tries to talk him out of it (quite a humorous change from the mother who doesn’t want her son to be gay).
What didn’t:
I felt neither protag was fully fleshed, and I thought that a lot of the time Nicky fretted about being seen as a woman could have been spent developing his character. Additionally, we never really learn a whole lot about Seth at all other than he adores Nicky and thinks he/she is totally hot. Plus, much of the “getting to know you” phase of the story is done off-screen and as such, Seth went from being attracted to Nicky, then furious at him to professing love. We don’t get to see the in-between stages and that bothered me. Because Seth felt under-developed as a character, I felt like I didn’t know why he was in love with Nicky.
The situation itself felt unbelievable to me, though to go into detail would include spoilers. Was the entire system so inept? Everyone from the US Marshall Service down to the Boston PD seemed unable to do their jobs. And I guess I didn’t understand; it felt unclear to me exactly what the deal with Morales, the Baddie, was. I didn’t know if he was hiding to escape arrest, if there wasn’t enough for a case, if he was out on bail awaiting trial. And the second almost half of the book felt contrived to me, from Nicky heading back to Boston to them taking things into their own hands to the scene at the strip club.
OVERALL
From under-developed characters to plot situations I found unbelievable, this story wasn’t for me. Fans of the author may feel otherwise.
Thanks for the review! The blurb really does give great premise to a promising story. Too bad it doesnt follow thru. I dont have a lost potential file, lol. I may have to create one.
A well-written review, Lynn. It’s not easy critiquing a book with plot-wide structural problems without getting into plot spoilers, but you did a good job here. I had similar problems plus many grammar and punctuation errors in the one book by this author that I’ve read.
Thanks for this timely review, Lynn. I thought it sounded like such a great story, and added it to my to-buy list last night. I had previously stayed away from this author, just because, unless I know the author and trust them, I tend not to put too much stock into authors that seem overly-prolific, pumping out books all the time. This may not be the case with Stormy Glenn, but it always seemed like it to me. So thanks for saving me from a money-dump! I really doubt I would have enjoyed this with all of the major structural and plot problems that you outlined.
Great review. Stormy Glenn is a fairly formulaic writer, even to the point of reusing the name Nicky for a main protagonist. The Nicky in Picture Me Perfect probably would have behaved much the same way as the Nicky in My Girl. There was a good story lurking here, but it wasn’t fully realised, which is unfortunate.
Hi Lynn! Thanks for reading this, so I won’t have to! Ms. Glenn has a great imagination and a dedicated fan base. I wish them well, it’s not for me either.
Thanks again for your thoughtful review.
I’ve very much enjoyed some of Stormy Glenn’s previous works, but this one sounds like something I’m going to pass on (for the moment, at least).
The premise does sound interesting, so I may give it a shot at some point in the future, but definitely not right now.
Thanks for the review; you mentioned several things that I’m not in the appropriate mood for at the moment. LOL
~Tis
It has been hit and miss for me with Stormy Glenn’s books. However this was also on my To Buy List as the blurb looked interesting, but will scratch it off. Thanks for the detailed review.
I take it this one does not have seven footed werewolves and tiny human with a long hair? I have read two stories by this writer and werewolves (do not get me wrong, I can love werewolves just not this particular variety)in the last one affected me so much and not in a good way, that I am staying away from her works and based on your review it looks like I can safely continue to do so. Thanks for the great review.
Good review Lynn, I started this book but never finished it. You mentioned that the “getting to know you” phase took place off screen and because of this I sorta thought that Seth and Nicky were still just acquaintances when the truth came out. So Seth’s anger seemed way over the top for me and I lost interest quickly.
LOL when i first saw the cover I went “huh? What is this doing here?”
Stormy Glenn is an author who, for me, always falls in the easy reads category. That said, she has some really awesome books. Some books you’ll like (like Fire Demon) and other books (like My Girl) will come up lacking. Though she does manages to write interesting stories, it’s just not always a story that has depth.
Hmm, that’s too bad. I’ve had this sitting in my to-read pile for quite a while now, but have yet to get to it. I suspect I’ll still give it a read, but my expectations may have changed (which is not always a bad thing).
This author really is a hit-n-miss read. If you’ve read one story of the series, you’ve pretty much read all from the series. EXCEPT when one of them is a stand out.
This story didn’t even tempt me as it seemed too far fetched even for her. And she does seem to crank them out at great speed so wasn’t going to risk it.
Excellent review.
Lynn
My Girl seems to be like the rest of Stormy Glenn’s books.
Most of us have now reviewed books by this author and she got one passing grade. I reviewed Pleasing Michael which I rated as 2 stars. This is how I summarised the story:
>>This short BDSM story missed the boat on many levels. Neither Jack nor Michael passed the “three dimensional” test and were eminently forgettable<< However, she seems to have a lot of fans.
Aunt Lynn- great review !
I have looked at this book many times drawn in by the blurb. it has great possibilities.. But would probably pass now.. I have enjoyed other books by this author in the past, like others have mentioned already- they do tend to be formulaic, but hey sometimes that works for me 🙂 Larissa- thanks for the mention of Fire Demon- have looked at it many times ~ maybe will try it…Recently seems like quantity has taken over quality in recent stories and Many of the protags have similar qualities, sadly this seems to be the case a few other writers that have frequented my ” to be read list”.