Book Review~Sam Cruz's Infallible Guide to Getting Girls by Tellulah Darling

Title: Sam Cruz's Infallible Guide to Getting Girls
Author: Tellulah Darling
Publisher: Te Da Media
Pub Date: October 17, 2012
Format: e-book
Pages: 170
Links: Goodreads ~ Amazon ~ Book/Author Site
Summary: Why the hell can't chicks be more like guys?

That question plagues high school senior Sam Cruz. Sam is perfectly happy being a player. He just wishes girls wouldn't change the game from sex to relationships. It makes him look like an asshole. But when Sam's best friend, Ally Klinger, gets dumped, she begs him to transform her into someone who can screw around then screw off. No risk of heartbreak that way. It's Sam's chance to create the perfect female AND cheer up his best friend. Armed with Sam's Three Step Guide to Backseat Success, Ally gets the game better than Sam thought she would and before long, Sam has his wish: the female version of himself. Too bad it's driving him nuts. Told from Sam's and Ally's alternating POVs, Sam Cruz's Infallible Guide to Getting Girls is a fast-paced romantic comedy that follows these teens as they navigate the minefield of sex, love, and friendship.

This book contains strong language, drinking, euphemisms, and lots of "bow chicka wow wow."

Trailer: 

Rating: 9/10

Source: Netgalley. A HUGE THANK YOU to Te Da Media and Tellulah Darling!

Cover Talk: I love the cover! It's so simple and blue's my favorite color ♥ But I love the trailer even more! It's so funny and sums up the story perfectly! And the characters, even if the are cartoons, are exactly how I imagined Sam and Ally to be. It's so cute!

My Thoughts: I loved this book! It was so cute and funny! I gotta admit I was nervous about reading it because it had mixed reviews on Goodreads (half of the people gave it 4 stars and the other half gave it 1) and none of my friends have read this book. So I didn't really know what to expect. And when it started out I was still kind of unsure. But by the third chapter I started enjoying it. And when I finished it, I ended up loving it!

I love best-friend love stories. I know it's a big cliche but I still love them! I think romantic relationships should always have friendship in them. And when you've been best friends with a person for 17 years, you know everything about them. And if you love them still, for better or for worse, well, then that's true love. So naturally I loved this book, because it totally complied with my opinions.

The writing was good. There were times when I didn't get some references (like movie references and all). But all around it was good and it wasn't boring. Although if the writing would've been a bit different, I would've given the book 5 stars. I'm not saying that the writing was bad, I'm just saying that it was ok or good. That it wasn't 'amazing'. Or my type...

But I loved that it was written in alternating POV! I love those kind of books. I love reading both sides of the story. 

I loved the characters! The thing I liked the most about them was that they were real. They felt real emotions and made real decisions. I didn't feel like "what the hell, that's not even believable!" Because all of it was! And they were well developed. But most of all, they didn't have mysterious pasts and everything happened in the present. Not that I don't like the 'mysterious pasts' thing. But the books I've been reading, almost all of them had the mysterious past thing going on. This was fresh for me.

I didn't develop a book crush on Sam (even if I do love his name!) but he was really sweet. And I really liked his character. I don't usually like guys like Sam, you know the player type, "jump in bed with anyone" type, "no commitment" type, but I get his reasons. And he was a really great friend and over all a really good guy.

At first I didn't like Abby. She was too nerdy. But then around Sam and her other friends she was fine and I realized that the nerdiness was only around her boyfriend and that was only a part of her character, to show how she evolved.

My favorite part of the book was Sam's and Abby's relationship. To see how they evolved and accepted each other. How they realized what they actually wanted. 

Overall, this was a fun read and I would definitely recommend that you check it out. A warning though, there's sex and swearing in the book so if you're not comfortable with that, I recommend that you pass this book. If you're fine with it, then go ahead and read it! Then come back here and let me know what you think.

About the Author: 

Tellulah Darling

noun

1) YA novelist
2) Alter ego of a professional screenwriter/instructor
3) Sassy minx

Geeks out over: cool tech.
Squees for: great storytelling.
Delights in: fabulous conversation.
Writes about: where love meets comedy, flavored with pop culture. Awkwardness ensues.

Help her procrastinate at: www.tellulahdarling.com.

Extras: Inside the Author’s Head: The Making of Sam and Ally (***SOME SPOILERS)

It all started with the phrase “Why the Hell can’t chicks be more like guys?” A riff on the whole My Fair Lady thing. Or Frankenstein, depending on what you think about the real nature of Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle’s relationship.

And then, because if I don’t torture my characters, I haven’t really done my job, I knew that whoever was asking that silly question about girls, had to be best friends with, of course, a girl. A girl that he didn’t really see as a girl but with whom he had the best relationship.

And I wondered “what kind of shake up did it take for two good friends—who could be so great together—to start to see other in a new way?”

So all that was my jumping off point. From there I began to figure out who I wanted Sam and Ally to be. I knew that I wanted both of them to have these coping mechanisms that they were using to keep themselves happy. Or so they thought.

Sam, having lost his mom, keeps himself safe by never having a relationship. I remember a friend of mine being the same way. Better to get out first, right? Sam has probably never questioned his confidence because he’s never had it challenged. He built this wall up, stuffed all his vulnerability behind it, and kept himself untouchable.

Ally doesn’t risk herself either. She’s the smart kid who doesn’t really have to work that hard. She knows she’ll get into whichever university she wants. Academia is a simple box for her. So is Jeremy. Here is a guy that she initially liked for his brains. Not a bad thing. But do you ever get the sense that Ally was made vulnerable at all in this relationship until the moment she gets dumped? Not really. Even though she was second fiddle in the relationship, I don’t think it truly mattered that much at the time because in the scheme of things, Jeremy didn’t mean that much.

Okay, confession. That was a relationship I had. Looking back, I let him kind of direct the relationship, was shocked when I got dumped, and then pretty quickly realized that I missed the idea of him more than him. But it did help me to figure out what I didn’t want from a relationship.

Eventually…

For the novel, I needed to put Sam and Ally through a major shake up. And that meant that the relationship that had to be on the line was the only one that either had truly invested themselves in.

Their friendship with each other.

And yes, I chose to get them naked. Because I felt that in order to genuinely have them see each other in a new way, it would take a sexual connection. It was the only kind of connection they didn’t already have with each other. I truly believed that this was where my characters needed to go.

One thing I get asked is, given the sex, why did I make Sam and Ally teens? Simple really. Emotionally, they are teens. They’re struggling with issues of empowerment, connection, and identity that I remember being pretty pervasive for me at that age.

But more specifically, this came out of a very personal experience from my own adolescence. I was the girl who had really great friendships with guys but rarely became the object of interest. And I couldn’t figure that out. It seemed like me and my friends were all equally normal cute girls, so what made some of them so sought after and me the one that guys wanted to hang out with, joke with, and talk with?

I remember thinking that maybe if I looked a certain way…

I’m happy that Ally realizes that that isn’t the answer to her problems. She has a ton more self-awareness than I ever did. And happily, in the end, a lot more confidence.

And even though Sam has the biggest transformation in terms of relationships—it’s his voice that starts and ends this book, I think I’m proudest of where Ally comes to. That she has to be happy in her own skin. On her own two feet. That having that great boy love her can be the icing, but she herself has to be the fabulous, geekilicious cake.

I’m hoping that the issues that these two struggle with will feel universal to you, my readers. That all of you who pick up the book will be able to identify with Sam and Ally and their journey.

But more than anything, I hope that in the end, I leave you laughing and loving Sam and Ally as much as I do.

Happy reading!