One of the Guys by Lisa Aldin Review

One of the Guys by Lisa Aldin

“Being feminine does not equal less than”

One of the Guys is the story of Toni or Tonya who has always been “One of the Guys” that is until she gets into trouble and is sent to Winston Academy – an all girls school. Over the summer her group of 3 best friends slowly disbands as they move onto different things and Toni struggles to keep them together and to do so she starts up her own business. Rent-A-Gent is a service which Toni sets up fake dates for her fellow student and matches them up with one of her friends.

I really liked most of the characters in the book. Toni was someone who was going through a lot of change and she did make mistakes however she dealt with them head on and fought for her friendship. Her 3 friends; Cowboy, Loch and Ollie all have different personalities and this is partially the reason why they all struggle to continue to be friends over the course of the book. However the boys’ differences showed them to be a misfit group of friends and it was really nice to see the different friendships she had with each guy. Emma who is Toni’s new friend was really sweet and I loved their relationship together.

The plot was good and I liked the idea of the business and the problems and benefits it had to Toni. I liked how Toni tried really hard to make everything right and keep things together.

The romance was really cute – Loch and Toni had such a nice relationship and you could tell that Loch really liked her and had for a long time. The only bad thing was that it took such a long time for them to get together – it was right near the end and it was all due to miscommunication.

“Why should girlie have such a negative connotation”

One of the main themes in the novel was reclaiming femininity after thinking that wearing and doing feminine things meant you were weak. After spending so many years acting like a “guy” Toni finds it hard to fit in at her new school. But she does adapt and she realises with the help of Emma and her other friends that being girlie isn’t a bad thing. One scene I liked in particular is when Ollie is mocking the girls at Winston and Toni comes to their defence because it’s the first time we see her change.  

“Because I don’t want to stay the same forever”

One of my favourite scenes in the book is when Toni’s at the graveyard talking to her father and she tells him how much she’s changed and how she’s not sure when she will stop changing and how she accepts that now.

★★★★☆