Book Review: MY SWEET GIRL

 

I wasn't quite sure what I was expecting when I picked up this book. I don't think I've read anything by Char Dafoe before, but the plot sounded interesting so I wanted to give it a chance. It's a sweet New Adult book with inoffensive characters and a relatively quick and simple romance.

If you're looking for a book with low angst, likeable characters, and a sweet and simple plot, you might enjoy this book. I have some...complicated feelings about it, but the writing is solid and other readers may enjoy it more than I did. Take care and happy reading!

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Title: My Sweet Girl
Author: Char Dafoe
Publisher: Painted Hearts Publishing
Publication Date: January 1, 2025
Genres: New Adult, Romance
Pages: 157

At the tender age of twenty, Eve Sommers has set out to achieve her goal to complete her four-year apprenticeship toward her Journeyman license. In between working, she spends her time with her grandfather, riding her motorcycle, and kicking back with friends. Nowhere in that plan said anything about love. When Nova White, a special girl from Eve’s past returns home from university, a fire kickstarts inside Eve’s heart and suddenly, the path to her future changes.

Nova White had always kept to herself with her head down and focused on her studies. Graduating early from high school to achieve her degree in Fashion Design, Nova never had the time for romance. Upon returning home after three years at school, Nova’s plan is to spend time with her mother while being a free-spirited nineteen-year-old and simply enjoy summer. What she isn’t expecting is the cute blonde she attended high school with, Eve Sommers, to re-enter her life and stir up long dormant feelings.

A tentative, first-time sweet summer romance between two young women just starting out in life who aren’t looking for love until love finds them.

Start Date: January 1, 2026
Finish Date: January 1, 2026
Format: Digital
Representation: Sapphic
Purchase: Amazon

Trigger/Content Warnings: None listed

Overall:

Plot:

Writing:

Characters:

Romance:

Say it all. I can take it.

If you can't tell by the rating, this was definitely not my favorite book. I didn't even strongly dislike it or anything, I just found it a bit unimpressive and unmemorable. I don't always need a book to latch onto my brain and live there. I don't need to memorize every line of dialogue. But when a book ends and I can't remember the characters names or what they look like, that's not a great sign. It's a sign that it failed to capture my attention even the slightest and that I read it without feeling attached to it.

I do want to stress that this isn't a bad book. It's well-written and well-edited. The author's voice is there, even if it didn't always feel strong to me. It's got a sweet plot that makes sense considering both the ages of the characters as well as the length of the book. The family dynamics were interesting and I wish they had been explored a bit deeper than they were. Other people probably will, and likely already have, enjoyed it. It just wasn't for me.

One of my biggest problems with this book is that I just found everything to be flat. The characters, the romance, even the fight, it all just felt one-dimensional to me. There was no substance behind it, nothing that drove the story and the characters forward. I know that can be hard to incorporate in novellas like this, but I was still expecting more than I received. I think there's exactly one plot point I actively remember and it's not for a good reason.

This book just left me feeling meh. At no point did I connect with the characters or their burgeoning relationship. I didn't not want them to get together, but I also had no stakes in the relationship either. I should want characters in a romance to get together, I should be actively rooting for it. Here I was just...accepting of it. Whether they did or didn't made no difference to me.

Again, I do not think this is a poorly written book. I just don't think it's for me. The book felt shallow, hinting towards more interesting problems and dynamics but never really exploring them any deeper. Altogether, I was unimpressed and I see myself forgetting about this book very easily.

About the Author:

Char is a thirty something year old woman who lives in the Great White North. When she's not caring for her two children she's sitting down with her music and her words. She's always loved writing since she was a child, and her second grade school teacher was the first person to encourage her to write. Char doesn't write mush, love, or romance without a little bit of spicy and dicey action to go with it. The uncomfortable, the taboo, the inappropriate and the down right dirty does not shy Char away.

Char Dafoe can be found on Painted Hearts Publishing, Instagram, Goodreads, and Threads.