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Rich Girl

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Words: 19,390 (approximate)

Once upon a time, there was a rich girl who got kicked out of her father's mansion because she couldn't care less about knights on white horses. Instead, she wants her happily ever after with another woman—with Dawn, a cashier at the local supermarket, to be more exact.

"Rich Girl" is a fairy tale without fairies, but with a villain, not one but two damsels in distress, and a helpful sprite. No princes, no dragons, but cash registers and guitars.

ebook

First published September 3, 2013

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30 people want to read

About the author

Joan Arling

5 books4 followers
Joan Arling is a little hard to localize: She lives on German bread, French wine, Irish beer, and Dutch tobacco. When she can afford it, she also likes whiskies from the southern coast of Islay. She’s been a truck driver, a teacher, a drug courier, a rock musician. Her favourite pastimes are mistreating her guitar and spoiling her best friend’s three tabbies. Oh yes, reading and writing, too. (from the publisher's website)

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5 stars
11 (20%)
4 stars
8 (14%)
3 stars
21 (38%)
2 stars
5 (9%)
1 star
10 (18%)
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
Profile Image for Lexxi Kitty.
2,060 reviews478 followers
December 20, 2017
I’m sure that this was originally written in a language other than English (and rather hope it was; actually, not all of it is actually in English – random words, phrases, and occasionally whole sentences are in some other language). The wording was just slightly off throughout – stilted, weirdly stilted. Plus, what the heck century is this story supposed to be set in? I’m referring to several things, including the part where the rich girl actually has money but is being blocked from getting to it by her family. Eh? Mmphs. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

So – the main character, Dawn, is at a charity event dancing and looking around. She’s there because that’s her payment for helping set up the place. She dances with Ric – the Rich Girl of the title. One thing leads to another and . . . Ric decides to come out as a lesbian. Which gets her kicked out of her house and so now she lives with Dawn. Most of which is in the story description, I’m sure.

This is a difficult short story for me to read for the reasons mentioned in the first paragraph – I found it hard to get into the story because of how stiff everything was worded.
”Bren, you cannot just blow through here like a hurricane! We only just discovered that we both like making music as well as listening to it.”
I understand what is being conveyed, but is this story supposed to be set in the 1970s or something? ‘Blow through here like a hurricane’? – eh?

Right, so, as I noted, Rich girl kicked out, moves in with just meet fellow lesbian, Dawn, gets job as a cashier for ‘4 quid an hour’, or something like that, then spots a guitar, plays it – apparently beautifully, is heard playing it with Dawn singing along, gets a duo gig for an hour of music for 50 quid and and and . . my head exploded somewhere along the way. What the heck am I reading here? (I ask that both in the stiff parts and the parts only written in Latin).

I’d like to fill the rest of my review with quotes from the story, all as they appear in the story, as in weirdly formatted . . . but won’t. Though I’ll note that having one of the characters scream ‘Whassup’ was . . . odd.

Father: I call that irresponsibility
Irresponsibility? Wha? Bah. (the word exists, it's real, I know that, I'd have used 'irresponsible' though in this situation)
Daughter: So now I am to blame for the consequences of your bigotry?
Father: Language, Missy!
I, what, I . . . um. Language?

While looking around Ric’s room at her family home, Dawn gazes around and thinks about how none of Ric’s personality appeared to be reflected by the room or its contents. This concept is given to the reader through the words ‘I could not find a trace of her self in it’.

What does this even mean? - ‘I laved her nipples with my saliva’? And eww. Hehehehe – the words . . hehehe during the sex act . . hehehehehe oh shesh. The fragrance she emanated? Mentioning the muscles moving beneath the skin just then and there in the story suddenly had me picturing the insides of humans, you know, those real life humans in museums without skin? Well, suddenly I’m now picturing two skin-less women fucking. Thanks.

I . . . what . . I . . for fuck sake. The very first time they fuck, they, right as one pushes the other into orgasmic release, both say at the exact same time, in unison, ‘I love you’. What. The. Fuck.

(Of note: weirdly, the stiffness and weirdness to the wording and word choices seemed to leave starting in chapter 4; though the plot line was weird. Seriously, what the fuck is up with basically every rich girl poor girl storyline including a part where the poor girl is just too fucking stubborn to allow herself to be ‘dirtied’ by the rich girl’s money. Sure, there are women out there like that (I think?), but . . . every fucking story has this story line. Though here we have the poor girl calmly state ‘no, you are rich’, and without any other words the rich girl storms away and slams her door. What the fuck to both responses? And there are pieces missing I see – the slammed door was because the rich girl thinks poor girl wants nothing to do with her now that rich girl has access to her money – and poor girl has to make much amends for this thought . . . um, what? That foundation hasn’t been laid. All we had was one woman tell the other that the other had money. And the rich one reacted as if the poor one told her, in strong unforgivable language, that the poor one wanted the rich one to leave and never return and die a horrible death. Um, again, the foundation for that reaction is sorely lacking from this story. And then the make-up is super easy. Pfft. The story just isn’t clicking. Things are just so weird. Over the top reactions, and under . . um . . . too restrained ‘fixes’. )

Oh bloody hell, the endless story had an epilogue, then another one and . . . mmphs.

Rating: um, uh, um . . . 1.5

December 20 2017
Profile Image for Dee.
2,012 reviews106 followers
November 30, 2016
4.5 stars

You know how some books give you the feels? Right off the bat you’re invested in the characters, routing for them, hoping they’ll get their Happy Ever After? Well that’s how this story made me feel.

I’m not going to rehash the plot, but will say the first encounter Dawn had with Ricarda’s mother, was as horrifying as it was humorous. My jaw dropped and then I laughed. The Oliver family were despicable.

I like that the story featured a virgin. The intimate scenes sizzled and were tastefully done.

My one quibble is the story ended too soon. I’d love to read a full-length novel with this cast of engaging characters.
Profile Image for Agirlcandream.
755 reviews3 followers
February 7, 2017
Short and sweet. When does YA end and New adult begin? This story of young twenty somethings is a lesbian girls fantasy. Imagine toiling away at your grocery checkout job and meeting a rich girl who, thanks to you, comes out to her parents who promptly disown her. You are there to pick up the pieces and end up making sweet music with the girl of your dreams. Sometimes it's nice to read a nice light romance.
Profile Image for Chey.
125 reviews21 followers
March 16, 2016
This was an eeeeeeh book. It had good parts, but they didn't really outlike the bad parts. It was kinda cute, but also very stereotype lesbian story. I dont like those very much.

So why still 3 stars?
The cute parts were really cute. Also, still a short story. So no high expectations. But now I really want to read a normal size story! Enough short stories for me.
Profile Image for Ameliah Faith.
859 reviews43 followers
November 16, 2019
Oh my goodness this was an amazing story. It was the mushiest true love story I've had the pleasure to read in far too long. This is a very sweet coming out story with the drama that can come with it. Dawn and Ric are easy to love and have the worries people in real life have. Something that is rare to find. I laughed and cried and then when the HEA came I just sighed contentedly. Everything was wrapped up so nice and neat and well, just perfect. I strongly recommend this tale!
Thank you so much Ms. Arling!
Profile Image for Kim.
174 reviews3 followers
January 11, 2017
Considering this is a short story, I didn't expect much when I picked it up, but i'm still kinda disappointing with the story. My review is gonna be harsh so sorry about that, but I hope any future books will be improved
1. The characters are two-dimensional, there's no character development even tho I can see the storyline present itself the opportunity to do so, but I guess it failed flatly
2. I cannot see any chemistry between the two main characters, and they seemed to only attract to each other purely through physical appearance
3. Their dialogue seems kinda .... fake(?)
The only good point is this story have HAPPY ENDINGS :3
Profile Image for Lezfic Lover.
77 reviews1 follower
September 4, 2020
Cute story of a fairytale yet typical lesbian romance. One of the MCs is from a wealthy family and they disown her when she comes out as lesbian. The has to find a way to make it on her own. This is a very short story. Very positive and uplifting.
Profile Image for Ameliah.
55 reviews9 followers
July 22, 2014
Awwww!
Oh my goodness this was an amazing story. It was the mushiest true love story I've had the pleasure to read in far too long. This is a very sweet coming out story with the drama that can come with it. Dawn and Ric are Dawn are easy to love and have the worries people in real life have. Something that is rare to find. I laughed and cried and then when the HEA came I just sighed contentedly. Everything was wrapped up so nice and neat and well, just perfect. I strongly recommend this tale!
Thank you so much Ms. Arling!
Profile Image for Sam.
416 reviews30 followers
April 26, 2017
Dawn is a poor cashier, who despite not having to struggle too much to survive, also never has enough money to really get by. She's also quite confident in her lesbian identity. Ric is a rich girl, who just recently accepted that she likes girls and after coming out to her father is disowned by him. Since Dawn has a spare apartment and neither of them has a lot of money, they move in together. That they find each other quite attractive is another bonus of course. And yet it's not as easy as they thought it would be, especially not with Ric's family trying to interfere with their lives.

This is a very short story featuring coming out, unsupportive families and love found in unexpected places. It is very sweet, but sadly doesn't have nearly as much character development or story as I had expected and so the character's still feel quite flat despite the things we see them go through.

It also doesn't really feel like the fairytale the summary seems to be hinting towards and instead is more of a down-to-earth story featuring a poor working class girl and the daughter of a successful business man, which is definitely more modern.

There is quite a bit of insta-love, which felt really weird at times, but they were still sweet together and their relationship developed a bit more over the course of the story, but not enough for me to really love it. The writing is however quite nice to read and if the story had been a bit longer I would have probably loved it a lot more. I did love how Dawn always stood up for Ric though, especially when other people tried to hurt her.

All in all despite its flaws, this is a really sweet short story dealing with love and intolerance, but it always has a positive side and so it's mostly really relaxing and nice to read. I also really liked the main Characters and that it features a HEA. So if you're looking for a sweet little story, this is a good bet for you.
Profile Image for Dannica.
836 reviews33 followers
April 12, 2017
I think novellas are generally speaking not for me. There's just not enough space to fully develop the plot or the characters. That said, this was still a fun story, and the characters did go well together. One of the better novellas I've read recently.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews

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