*I received a copy of this book in eBook format via NetGalley in return for this review. All reviews published on Yours, Chloe are completely honest and my own, and are in now way influenced by the gifting opportunity.
Title: Girl Abroad
Author: Elle Kennedy
Genre: Romance
Rating: ★★★
Spice Level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️
When
nineteen-year-old Abbey Bly gets the opportunity to study abroad for a year in
London, it's the perfect chance to finally slip out from under the thumb of her
beloved but overbearing retired rock star father. She's ready to be free, to
discover herself - but first off, to meet the girls she's rooming with. That
is, until she arrives at her gorgeous new flat to discover those roommates are
actually all boys. Charming, funny, insufferably attractive boys. And
off-limits, with a rule against fraternizing between housemates after unwanted
drama with the previous girl.
Abbey has never considered herself a rulebreaker. But soon,
she's lying to her father about her living situation and falling for not one,
but two men she can't have: her rugby-player roommate and a broody musician
with a girlfriend. Not to mention, her research for school has gotten her
tangled in a deeply hidden scandal of a high nobility family, surrounding her
in secrets on all sides.
If there's any hope of Abbey finding love, answers, or a
future in London, she'll have to decide which rules - and hearts - might be
worth breaking . . .
-
Girl Abroad is
the latest romance novel from New York Times bestselling author
Elle Kennedy. Our protagonist Abbey moves to London from Nashville for a year
studying abroad, moving into the shared house she thinks she’s sharing with four
female roommates who turn out to actually all be attractive guys. Abbey then
finds herself in a love triangle with one housemate – despite a strict no flatcest
rule – and one of their friends – despite him having a girlfriend.
This was my first
time reading anything from the author but based on other reviews it appears
this isn’t her usual style. The book largely read as a mature YA story with a
few spicy scenes thrown in.
I tend to not actually
go for the love-triangle trope but something about this book really intrigued
me and the trope did end up working quite well, definitely supported by the
focus on all three parties not expecting commitment. I was incredibly
conflicted for the majority of the book as to which MMC I wanted Abbey to end
up with but (being mindful of avoiding spoilers) she did end up making the
right choice in my eyes.
I had a real love/hate
relationship with Abbey as a protagonist. I liked the banter she had with her
flatmates and particularly her relationship with Mr Baxley the librarian (who, aside
from their demon pet cat, was my favourite character) but aside from this she
felt like a largely two-dimensional character so it was at times difficult to
see why she had half of England falling at her feet. Morally it was quite difficult
to get on board with her too as she spent half of the book preaching that she
wasn’t the kind of girl to steal another girl’s boyfriend but then went and did
it anyway, using the technicality that nothing physical happened between them whilst
he was still in a relationship.
It did also feel
like all of the male characters were quite two dimensional also and based
around stereotypes. Jack was a blonde, tanned, muscular Australian rugby player
who spent more time shirtless than not, Jamie was a posh playboy and Nate was a
free-sprit motorbike-driving musician. They did start to explore Jack and Nate’s
characters on a deeper level as their relationships with Abbey blossomed but I
would have liked this to have been developed even further. The character I was
most disappointed with was Lee who was portrayed as your stereotypical 00s
rom-com gay best friend when he had the potential to be so much more than that,
had he been better written.
In terms of
spice-level this is probably a low 3 out of 5. There are a couple of open-door spicier
scenes which are largely well written, but the majority of potentially good spicy
scenes, especially involving Jack, had a fade to black which was a shame. It
was disappointing that there wasn’t more of an even split of spicy scenes between
the two love interests.
I do, however,
want to praise the positive portrayal of female pleasure that we have within one
of the scenes between Abbey and Nate, one of the male love interests. During a
spicier scene, Nate actually asks Abbey “what do you need to come?”, acknowledging
that few women can climax from penetration alone and that most will require
another form of stimulation. We love respectful lovers like Nate who prioritise
their partners pleasure alongside their own and actually understand how the
female body works! This was ruined slightly later in the scene when it felt
like Abbey mocked him for saying this but this largely felt like a really
important portrayal of female pleasure.
I was disappointed
with the fact that it felt like the UK university experience hadn’t been very
well researched at all, which feels like a fundamental flaw in a book about
someone studying abroad in London. In Girl Abroad, Abbey starts her first
semester in August when UK university academic years don’t actually start until
at least mid-September. There were also language choices which were incorrect,
such as use of ‘spring break’ which isn’t a thing in the UK, we have an Easter
break. The idea of university students living in Notting Hill was also
borderline ridiculous and implied that the author’s only understanding of British
life comes from 90s and 00s British romcoms and the Taylor Swift song London
Boy. There seemed to be few other references to British culture – aside from a
few pub trips – so it just didn’t feel authentic to British student life which
was disappointing and a real missed opportunity.
I did largely like
the historical mystery element to the novel – as Abbey tries to uncover the identity
of the woman in a mysterious painting she picked up at an estate sale, as part
of her studies – and the way it mirrored the love triangle Abbey found herself in
but at times it felt like it took away from the romance plot.
Overall, this was
a largely enjoyable read it just lacked quite a lot of the substance I was
craving. Those who want an easy romance read, especially fans of the love
triangle trope, will like this book.
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