Karla and Kinsey Book Review: Part II

Babe in Boyland

by Jody Gehrman

Reviewed by Kinsey Manchester

3.5/5 stars

High school junior Natalie Rowan writes the love column in her school’s newspaper. Natalie is sure that her alias, Dr. Aphrodite, gives the best advice and is the only thing keeping people reading the newspaper. However, a bunch of guys tell Dr. Aphrodite that she never looks at the boy’s side of things. Natalie realizes that she has zero dating experience and her advice isn’t exactly perfect. Determined to prove that she can turn the criticism around, she asks boys for their opinions and what they want in a relationship. As a girl, though, none of them take her seriously. Then, Natalie and her best friends, Darcy and Chloe, come up with the best idea: to disguise Natalie as Nat Rodgers and send her to the all boy’s school, Underwood Academy. As a boy, she will be able to figure out exactly what guys think and how they view girls! Natalie can use that information to improve her advice column. It’s a perfect plan, until things start going wrong. Natalie falls for her roommate, Emilio, but can’t do anything since she is Nat, not Natalie; Natalie’s archenemy, Summer, has her sights set on Emilio, too; and lastly, Summer will do anything to ruin Natalie’s life, even if it means blowing Nat’s cover.

Babe in Boyland is a fun, quick read. The characters are developed very well. Natalie is a very relatable main character, and I soon found myself looking forward to hearing more about her situation. Natalie’s voice as a character is funny, and it made the book a lot more enjoyable. As a reader, I really like when the main characters have a sense of humor. In this case, Natalie not only had a sense of humor, but it helped that the whole situation was funny. One of my favorite scenes is when Nat goes on a date with a girl named Erica. Nat feels nothing for her, but goes anyway. Jody Gehrman does a really good job of instilling emotions in the reader, such as what I felt toward Summer Sheers. I definitely found myself making faces whenever Summer came into the picture. Emilio is the quintessential dream guy and of course Summer would steal him from Natalie. I loved the way that the author painted pictures of the campus at Underwood Academy. I could picture exactly what it would be like to visit this place. The descriptions of the scenes were flawless and helped a lot when I was reading. There was only one minor setback. The plot is, more or less, predictable. I guessed most of what happened. It reminded me a lot of the movie, “She’s The Man”. Although it was predictable, I loved the story and the characters, and would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for an enjoyable and short read.