Blog Tour Review: Not Like Other Girls by Meredith Adamo

Hey everyone!
Today is my stop on the blog tour for Not Like Other Girls by Meredith Adamo. I am excited to be sharing my review with you all!

A massive thank you to @KaleidoscopicBT and @KidsBloomsbury for allowing me to be a part of the tour.

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Book Summary:

Jo used to be the perfect high-school girl – class president, popular, bright and successful. But when nude photos of her were leaked to the entire school, her grades plummeted, her friends fell away and now she’s a reckless, difficult social outcast. The girl who ‘deserved’ it.

Then her former best friend Maddie disappears. Everyone else assumes Maddie has just run away but that doesn’t add up to Jo. To discover the truth, Jo needs to get back in with the group of classmates who have shut her out: the boys who betrayed her and the clique of girls who whisper behind her back. And she has to make it look as if she wants to be there.

The only way back in is through Hudson. An old fling with his own reasons for finding Maddie, he persuades Jo to fake date him. And it works. But as the truth about Maddie’s disappearance comes to light, so do long-hidden secrets from Jo’s past. Who is Jo really trying to find-Maddie, or the girl she herself used to be?

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My Review:

From the blurb alone, I knew that Not Like Other Girls would be right up my street, but it ended up being so much more than I could have possibly imagined!

The story begins with Jo-Lynn. She has no friends following an incident that happened in the summer, and all it took was one small moment for her to fall from grace. She is also failing in school, and her life seems to be unravelling around her. But when her ex-friend, Maddie, disappears, something doesn’t feel right, and Jo makes it her mission to get to the bottom of what has happened to her.

In many ways, I feel like I really related to Jo, and had a lot in common with her. Growing up, I always had mainly guy friends, and struggled to build friendships with girls. I was just never really into the same things as them. But the older you get the more difficult it becomes, because there’s so much more judgement especially from other girls, and it’s often hard to get away from it. I’ve felt like the outsider, and it’s not a nice feeling at all.

Some of the secrets that are revealed towards the end of the book explain so much that you have already read. There were moments that were rather difficult to read, but they were so important. Jo’s experiences with men will be all too familiar to so many women and young girls, and the sad truth is that for many it is just a part of every day life, but this is exactly why we need to be having these conversations, and the way that the author has woven it into the story is fantastic.

The story comes to an exciting climax that has you on the edge of your seat, with your heart in your mouth. This is where the mystery fully unravels, and it runs so much deeper than you could have imagined. The final chapter is then set a few months later, and also includes some shocks that I didn’t see coming, and the story is wrapped up in the most satisfying of ways.

An incredible debut that will stick with you long after you’ve turned that last page. This is a story that will resonate with so many. This is definitely my favourite book that I’ve read so far this year, and I can’t wait wait to see what the author has in store for us in the future.

I give Not Like Other Girls an easy 5 star rating!

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About The Author:

Meredith likes to write about girls who can make you laugh and break your heart – ideally on the same page. Her non-writing interests include collecting vintage bakeware, crocheting the ugliest blankets you’ve ever seen and grocery shopping. Not Like Other Girls is her debut novel.

YOU CAN FIND MEREDITH HERE:
Website, Instagram, GoodReads

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