Reviews

Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend by Jenny Colgan

poling99reads's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

a_picara's review against another edition

emotional funny inspiring lighthearted reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

A silly little book. Very of its time, and of that sort of moralizing meant to make the reader feel good about themselves. The narrator is bitchy, but never sticks to her guns for anything. The guy she ends up with is a well done character except for the part where he doesn't tell her he's into her-- he's usually straightforward, so the lack of communication feels forced to have more plot.

corinnab's review against another edition

4.0

Adorably consumable.

rebroxannape's review against another edition

3.0

I wasn’t trailing in the gutter. Yet somehow that was worse. When everything is as bad as it can possibly be at least you stand out for being a complete disaster. You’re still special, just special for being such an unbelievable fuckup. People speak about you in vaguely hushed tones all the time. Whereas when everything is patently going to be average and you’re just going to have to get through it—that, in a funny way, is much harder. I couldn’t throw my hands up in the air and go to bed for a week. I had to soldier on.

This was a cute book along the light lines of Meg Cabot and Sophie Kinsella. The plot intrigued me: Rich spoiled girl forced to make it on her own. I have seen movies with this trope, but can't remember reading any other books with that plot line. I will probably try some more by this author because I did like her voice. A couple of things prevented me from loving it. I didn't like the love interest. No matter how much he was redeemed in the end I didn't like how he used women through most of the book. And, if he was so attracted to Sophie, why did he not try harder to repair the misunderstanding? I'm going to have to put a spoiler alert on this because part of the plot of this was who she was going to end up with. I liked Eck because he was the underdog, and didn't like how the author besmirched his nice guy character in the end. Don't like Bad Boys and don't like when they end up with the girl usually. Also, the filth that her 4 male roommates lived in before she came was just disgusting. How could any guy that has any character at all live like that? Just didn't understand it.
But I did like Sophie's journey a lot. This was my second chance Jenny Colgan as I was not overwhelmed by the first book I read by her. I will proceed with caution.

https://rebekahsreadingsandwatchings.com/

tctctcme's review

funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

Enjoyed it until the end! 

rae_lynn08's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny inspiring lighthearted relaxing sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

machadofam8's review against another edition

2.0

Cutesy rom-com.

marbooks88's review against another edition

4.0

When Sophie's father dies her life of privilege ends. She has to learn how to survive and ends up learning about life and friendships and how to make a life that makes her happy.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC for my honest review.

tobyyy's review against another edition

1.0

Okay, first things first — I’ve read other books by Jenny Colgan and have loved them. And I will read other books by Colgan in the future and will probably love them too.

But this one just plain sucked.

The romance — which was fairly key to the entire story — was horrible. Sophie’s initial love interest is a man who has a rep for never sleeping with the same girl twice. He’s slimy, mean, misogynistic, and coarse. He called Sophie a “lezzer” for wearing sweatpants, he asked to hang out with Sophie’s friends because they were “fit,” and he’s only interested in women’s bodies and nothing else.

Basically, a smarmy example of the fucking patriarchy in action.

And Sophie falls for him...??!! WHAT.

There was also a really awkward bit about Sophie selling herself for money (not prostitution but for porn), and while this definitely made it clear how desperate she was, it was just... awkward and felt very forced.

The love triangle was horrible and awkward because I was always rooting for the one that Sophie ended up rejecting. He was kind, and gentle, reliable, and sweet. But of course she has to reject him and opt for the “bad boy” stereotype over there in the corner.

The ending was trite and frankly, unbelievable, even though I felt like Colgan (or her publisher) was patting herself on the back for wrapping everything up so neatly.

knitwgrace's review against another edition

3.0

Audiobook.