This is one book that I am indifferent to write a review about. The author's writing is good but the story is not compelling. Worse, I did not have any feelings for the main characters other than pity and dislike. The book revolves around the death of 17 year old Reba which had occurred ten years earlier. Julie, Reba's best friend, is the main character and is very hard to fathom. I don't feel like I know her and would not care to know her in real life. The other characters are just as self absorbed and shallow. Julie, also known as "Jules" when she was growing up, has the maturity of a 12 year old and her cousin Toby acts even more childishly. Another character named August is a boy that loved Reba as a teenager and is still obsessed with her death. He shows up in New York in the present day to recruit Julie to go back to the town where Reba died and investigate her supposed suicide. He is a one dimensional character for most of the book. I am sorry I could not recommend "Secrets of Southern Girls"-the premise could have made for a decent read but instead it had some odd twists that did not add to the meat of the plot and made it even more unbelievable.
Thank you to Netgalley for the chance to read this book and give an honest review.

I love the concept behind this book. I didn't love the characters right away, and was actually quite annoyed by all of them at one point or another, but they grew on me as they shared more about themselves. I appreciated that most of the story was told through dialogue - a combination of in person conversations and online chats.

This modern love story is about two people who decide to take place in a university study based on 36 questions. These 36 questions are meant to get to know the stranger you are paired up with and supposedly make you fall in love with them.

I had already heard about this study before reading this book, and I did think it was quite interesting, so upon seeing this book, I was very excited to see how everything would play out.

Hildy is an eccentric, loud and sweet character, Paul on the other hand is sarcastic, uninterested and can't wait to be done with the study so he can just get paid. They get paired up and chaos happens.

I adored this fun read, it was witty, and it had an unusual writing style. I also liked the secondary characters, and the backstory.
Although it was somewhat predictable, I did enjoy it.

This was a fun and intriguing read that I very much enjoyed. Paul and Hildy were very REAL characters and their candidness and realism made them very likeable. I was slightly confused as to their ages, in that at first I thought I understood Hildy to be in college, but then she seemed to be a senior in high school. One moment she's at a club getting drinks with friends, the next she's in "senior drama class" at the HS her dad works at. However, that was a minor thing and I loved the story. The idea of getting to know someone through these questions was intriguing, and kept me interested from start to finish. I was left wanting more, but only in the way that you want to see what happens after the happily ever after!

Love, love, LOVE this book! Great dialogue, humor, and unsappy pathos. Likable, well-fleshed out lead characters (supporting characters enough for their supporting roles) embody a truly engaging, relatable YA story. The author does a great job using dialogue to create mood, especially in the opening scene; adept use of sentence structure produces the scene's chaos. [A quirky side note: the word 'raisin' is used twice in this book.] The scene in room 417 reminds me of a two-person "Breakfast Club;" that's a compliment. The author's descriptions are good and supply vivid images to enhance the story. I'm seriously enjoying the level of vocabulary used in this book, too; it's elevated yet accessible. Highly recommended for high school libraries.

I wanted to like this book so much. I've taken multiple psychology classes and have heard of studies like the one mentioned in this book, so I was excited to read it. I think it would have had potential if not for the chat dialogue format.

Most of the book (at least, the part that I read) was like this:

Stereotypical Character #1: I'm really excited about this study.
Stereotypical Character #2: I'm not and I'm really just a jerk but (oh wait) after this study we will magically fall in love with each other anyway.

Nope nope nope nope. I've seen it all before. SOMETIMES MEAN JERKS ARE REALLY JUST MEAN JERKS. Why do these authors keep trying to pair cute, sweet girls with complete douche bags?? It doesn't make logical sense.

Could not continue, not worth the frustration.

This was a good book okay. Despite the bright colors in the cover there were some parts that also hit those deep moments. And the writing of the romance between the two MCs was very unique.


It's just that, well. . . I'm not a fan of the writing style. It didn't grip me and the only thing that was keeping me going was the plot (it wasn't that unique, but I enjoyed it).


BUT what I really liked was the theme of this book as well as the characters in it. The characters were just lovable that I was okay with reading through the whole thing just because I loved the characters. The theme and the air of the book is also a bit refreshing and light and it worked out great for me when I was reading this book. I was also fairly amused with this book and I did find it very entertaining. It reached my standards when it came to the writing of the characters. Though, the character depth was missing.


The questions were too much. Maybe abut 20 questions would have been okay?? I have never been a fan of books that had too many "questions" or "reasons" for the book to happen and what not because when it is too much, the writing will also seem rushed. Sadly, this is also why happen in this book. For the first 26 questions it was still going great but for the last 10 or so that's when the writing started to feel rushed.


The romance did seem pretty long and prolonged if you know what I mean? I actually wanted to see the two main characters interact more in real life rather than just fall in love.

Interesting premise but the pacing was to slow for me and the ending too rushed. I would have liked for the characters to have more face to face contact before the ending.

At the beginning I wasn't too enthusiastic as I found the protagonist a bit off putting, however as the story went on I got more and more into it. I really enjoyed it in the end.

Hildy and Paul have their own reasons for participating in the 36 question experiment and it's such a rush to read this book and try and figure out these characters by their answers and how they relate to each other. Vicki Grant's writing jumps off the pages with wit, a wry sense of humor, and unusual answers to some mundane - and not so mundane - questions. Each character in this book is fascinating in their own special way. I had a hard time putting it down! I loved this concept, enjoyed this book, and I know you will too! Highly recommend!

Fun concept. I liked the format of the book and I think it will definitely appeal to teenagers.

So... a clumsy heroine who is shy and babbles a lot and is prone to accidents. Enter the proverbial bad guy who doens't give a damn and is full of himself. Follow into an interview between them from hell which makes you exit this book as fast as you can afraid this exchange is going to be the way the rest of the book is. Sorry, I guess this book wasn't for me, I got lost as soon as the clichés began entering :S

DNF @ 28%

Received from netgalley in exchange for a honest review.

Great premise that I had my Psych Degree mind in full overdrive but with characters I'm not interested in after the second chapter. Also the potential of one the main characters being stereotyped into the typical thug and other stereotypes with different characters. So nope. Had potential but lost my interest very quickly.

This was a very cute read. I was searching for a good romance to read and I'm lucky I found this one. The characters were very realistic and I think that's one of the qualities that had me like the story so much. How Vicki Grant decided to extend the questions out for so long was genius and I'm so glad I read this.

I liked the idea of this book, but I just didn't like the way it was written. I had a very hard time getting into the book. I think for me unfortunately the book just fell flat. There isn't too much I really enjoyed about it.

Did not expect to get enamored with it like this; great storyline, witty and interesting dialogues, also liked the pacing of the story. Unique plot, highly recommend it!