BOOK REVIEW: Any Other Girl by Rebecca Phillips

I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. The scheduled publication date for this book is January, 26, 2016.

After a disastrous, reputation-destroying party at the end of junior year, Kat Henley has a new plan. When it comes to boys—especially other people’s boys:
 
Don’t touch.
Don’t smile.
Don’t charm.
 
In the past, drawing attention to herself helped distract people from what really makes Kat different—having two gay parents. But it’s also cost her friendships. Kat can’t afford to lose any more of those, especially not her cousin, Harper. They’re spending one last summer together at the lake, where they run into an intriguing newcomer named Emmett Reese. After years of trying to prove she’s just like everybody else, Kat has found someone who wants her because she’s not. A boy who could be everything she wants too—if Harper hadn’t liked him first…

This was another book that didn't really evoke strong feelings in me. There were things that I liked and things that I didn't. I didn't expect to like Kat at first. It took me a while to connect with her. The book starts with her flirting with her best friend's boyfriend at a party. It irritated me that she would do that at all, but then when her friend confronted her about it, she shrugged it off and said she didn't do anything wrong. She was just saying that the whole flirting thing was part of her personality and her friend knew about that and nothing was ever going to happen with the boyfriend anyway, so who cares? 

But as the book went on, I kind of understood just why she felt the need to flirt like she did and why she didn't mind extra attention. Kat grew up with two dads and she quit soccer after hearing soccer moms complain that it is not surprising she wasn't "ladylike" because she was being raised by men. Ugh. That kind of ignorance bugs me. So after that, Kat quit sports and started dressing up more and doing her hair and makeup, etc. She also drew extra attention to herself because she wanted people to pay attention to HER and not her dads. So I could kind of understand why she felt the need to show off her feminine wiles to any guy she met. 

After this disastrous incident at the party and her best friend shutting her out, she heads off to spend the summer at her family's cabin, along with her cousin, Harper. I really loved Harper and I loved their relationship. That was one of the things that I wished the book had focused even more on. I mean, there was a focus on the friendship, but only in the fact that a guy was coming between them. So Harper seems to be a great friend (and family!) and she called Kat on her issues. When Kat explained what happened with her best friend's boyfriend, Harper didn't hesitate to tell her that she was wrong. I think we could all use friends like these, right? 

So that brings us to the guy, Emmett. Harper has a crush on him immediately and is therefore off-limits to Kat. I think that's awesome because there is a girl code about not going after a guy that your friend likes (or at least, there should be). I can't really call this a love triangle because nothing really happened between Emmett and Harper. Emmett liked Kat, but Kat didn't want to do anything. Admirable, yes. But since Emmett and Harper were never really together, she really wasn't doing anything wrong. I feel like a lot of drama could have been avoided if Kat had just been honest with Harper. But she started keeping certain things from her and then things spiraled out of her control.

There was some character development and some growth in this book, which I liked. I just didn't like the romance as much and wished there had been more focus on the friendship between Kat and Harper, as well as a focus on some of the family issues that made Kat the way she was. Her dads seemed great and I kind of wanted more of that. Emmett was also a bit of a bland character. He was very sweet and also honest (which I loved), but I didn't sense much chemistry and there was some family drama with him that didn't need to be there. I thought his family drama took focus off of what was going on with Kat. This was not a bad book, but I think it could have been better.

Buy/Borrow/Skip: Skip this one.