Review: 'Being Friends with Boys' by Terra Elan McVoy The Litaku

Being Friends with Boys

Terra Elan McVoy

Charlotte and Oliver have been friends forever. She knows that he, Abe, and Trip consider her to be one of the guys, and she likes it that way. She likes being the friend who keeps them all together. Likes offering a girl's perspective on their love lives. Likes being the behind-the-scenes wordsmith who writes all the lyrics for the boys' band. Char has a house full of stepsisters and a past full of backstabbing (female) ex-best friends, so for her, being friends with boys is refreshingly drama-free...until it isn't any more. When a new boy enters the scene and makes Char feel like, well, a total girl...and two of her other friends have a falling out that may or may not be related to one of them deciding he possibly wants to be more than friends with Char...being friends with all these boys suddenly becomes a lot more complicated.

I got this book off Pulse It. Arigato, Pulse It!

Note: Throughout this review, I mention shoujo mangas. Shoujo mangas are the light and fluffy mangas. They're the 'girl' mangas. (But anyone can read them.) They're mostly contemporaries with lots of romance and cute boys!

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The Big Picture:

I first thought I'd like this book. After all, a lot of my close friends are perverted males. I thought, 'Oh cool! Maybe I'll be able to connect to the MC better.' Wrong. I didn't feel any connection to the MC Charlotte. She writes songs and sings and has so many problems with her guy friends. I didn't feel any connection to her.
I felt oddly disappointed by this book. The book wasn't what I expected at all. It was a girl who was completely confused by her feelings for multiple guys. I swear, this was some messed-up shoujo manga with a reverse harem! (That means a lot of guys.)
The main character wasn't the best. I thought she was interesting, but she wasn't someone I would befriend. The romance threw me off. She was extremely indecisive. She had, in total, three crushes throughout the entire book. That doesn't make sense. And it's not like any of those crushes really went anywhere. The plot was slow and dull. It was a lot of teenage drama. And while I like some drama, this was too much for me.
I'm happy this was a quick read. I got over with it quickly.

The Dirty Details:

This girl was interesting. She was a pretty creative girl. I liked her random song making. Her lyrics were pretty good. ('Hansel and Gretel Crumbs'? Amazing.)
She was adamantly one of the guys. She wanted to be one of the guys. Then, she wasn't. Then, she was. It was utterly confusing. I felt like she kept flipping back and forth between extremely girly and one of the guys.
And...she has so many crushes. I swear... It was crazy. She was liking guys left and right. Your father is understandably worried. He meets so many guys, and he doesn't know who you are dating!

The book was entirely about romance. That was a given because the premise states that there will be romance. Romance can be written well. This was...okay. There were so many crushes, though. Too many boys. Too many. Just choose one! I was overwhelmed by the boys and all the crushes or assumed crushes. One guy is okay. Two is pushing it. The three or so in this book was killing me. (Metaphorically.)
I guessed who she would end up with. The author left little hints all throughout the book. Little bread crumbs. (Get it? Get it?) It was kinda obvious.

The plot was extremely dull. It was slow. It didn't have much happening. There was no action at all. There was a lot of boy drama, but that wasn't interesting at all. I wanted more drama. Maybe her dad and stepmother break up. Or maybe Oliver secretly loves her. Bring on the shoujo manga plot twists!

The book was a quick read. I didn't need to think about what was happening. It was like a short read. It was light and fluffy. I wasted a few hours reading this, but it was a lighthearted book to interrupt all the action books I typically read.