The rise of chick lit neatly coincided with my early 20s. Red Dress Ink began publishing the year I graduated college, and both Jane Green and Jennifer Weiner published their first books. It was a great time for books that were funny and engaging and about girls (women) my age. These were the books that spoke to me. They understood that time in a woman's life when everything feels adrift. When you are purely responsible for yourself, but don't feel particularly responsible. While I was already in a committed relationship with the man who is now my husband, I loved that these books understood being broke, trying to hold on to college friends, and just trying to navigate the world outside of school walls.

As I've gotten older, I've turned to the genre less. For one, all the books seem the same! But more than that, I'm just older. I'm not (as) broke, I'm married, I have a career instead of a job, I don't hang out at bars, etc. While I'll still pick up my favorite chick-lit authors' newest offerings, I don't read much of the genre by unknown authors anymore.

Thanks to NetGalley, I was able to read Ten Girls to Watch by Charity Shumway, and I am so glad I did. This book reminded me of why I loved the genre so much in my early adulthood. The writing is funny and fast-paced and the story is original. It follows Dawn West, a young woman one year out of college who is still trying to find a steady job. She has finally ended her relationship with Robert, the guy she dated all through college and who she was still hooking up with occasionally in the months after, and is a bit stunned to find that he is now in a serious relationship with the girl who might just be the one. Robert's family is pretzel royalty and at their annual Hampton's party, Lily, Robert's new girlfriend, introduces Dawn to an editor of Charm magazine. Soon Dawn finds herself temporarily working for the magazine finding the all the women the magazine has named in the 10 Girls to Watch contest they've held every year for the past few decades for the 50th anniversary of the contest.

The novel follows Dawn as she contacts these women, decides what she wants out of life, finds a new guy, deals with the old guy, and basically starts to grow up. I really enjoyed the conversations she has with the amazing women who won the contest throughout the years--and especially liked how each chapter started out with one of the magazine spreads depicting one of the winners. I truly liked Dawn as a character and felt invested in her life as she starts to figure out her own life.

I enjoyed this novel and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys (or enjoyed) chick lit. It is a fun entry into the genre without being the same old book you've read again and again.