As a gent reading was is clearly intended as Chic Lit, I began These Girls with a fair dose of trepidation. Nothing in the first quarter did much to relieve this - the main characters were obnoxiously normal woman, battling diets, relationships, and career trouble.

As the book progressed, I found myself warming to the ladies, or at least their melodramas. Even speck of dark humour emerged as Renee struggled to handle the trollish personal comments that emerged when her boss directed her to write a blog.

Unfortunately I had to drag my rating down to three stars, as the conclusion was somewhat of a let-down. Turns out a good talking about your problems solves them without any back-lash at all.

I also found myself gagging at the final credits when (the author?) poses some study questions. I normally ignore these, but I couldn't help notice this subtle number: "If These Girls was made into a movie who would you pick to play them?"

Bravo, even cockiness, can be a respectable quality. Desperation? Not so much.