Review Me Twice- Don't Ask by Natalie Bell

Things I really liked about this book: I really liked the characters.  They were dynamic, fleshed out people who had personalities and troubles and quirks and problems.  I think Bell is very good at characters.

I also enjoy her writing style.  She has (mostly) believable dialogue, good flow and tends to let her reader make the connections, which is good.  Sometimes the conversations got a little insipid, especially when it came to Julie and Duncan, but for the most part, the interactions between characters were good.

I could also REALLY relate to Julie's relationship with Derek.  Now, I'm aware that that's a personal thing, but I've been in a relationship like Julie's and it blows and you feel stuck and scared.  You don't want to be alone but you can't seem to break it off with this person that you've grown comfortable with, that you're used to.  You hold onto this unbelievable hope that the other person will change and, well, they don't.  And none of Julie's men did!  Which I think is AMAZING.  I love that Bell never, at any point, sent the message that "people will change for you," because that's an unrealistic expectation.

However, there was one huge flaw in this book that stopped me from really loving it.  Nothing really happened.  There didn't seem to be any conflict, any difference in the day to day.  There weren't any real upsets.  It was just following Julie with her multiple men that she was involved with and, even at the end, I didn't feel like I got a satisfactory ending.

My Bottom Line 3 out of 5

Can I just point at Cassy's review and say I agree? Because I came here, all pumped to write my review, with all my points organized in my head, and then I saw that she had written exactly what I was going to say.

Well, except for the personal experience thing. That's all hers.

To reiterate, the characters are so well-built, I would believe that they are real people. And the conflict is lacking, so it feels more like I'm chatting with a friend who doesn't have anything to say but wants to tell me a story anyway.

And, as I discussed last week, chick lit is not my jam. So maybe if I were more into that, this would have held a stronger appeal for me. Unfortunately, next week's book is way more my jam, so I was just happy to read this one and move on.