Smart Boys & Fast Girls

The Girlfriend’s Guide to Boys #4

by Stephie Davis, Stephanie Rowe

When she makes the varsity cross country team, Natalie finds her grades suffering from her new-found popularity and gets a very cute, yet very taken, tutor who unfortunately has no romantic interest in her. Original.

Genres: Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary, High School, Young Adult Romance, Sports, Chick Lit

178 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2005

About the author

Alias of Stephanie Rowe, under which she writes young adult fiction.

Reviews

[Mya · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am in love with her stories. They are so amazing.

[Adrienne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the last book in the series! And I'm feeling so sad about this. I had fun getting to know Natalie, Blue, Allie and Frances -- the author can't end this now. But apparently, this series is over. And I'm left in my pool of tears.



I'll try to make a semi-coherent review.

Quick Overview
Natalie has gotten into the varsity cross-country team. The problem? She's being ignored by the popular runners in the team, she's the only one who doesn't have a boyfriend among her circle of friends and she's flunking geometry. Her math teacher's assigned her to a tutor, a snobby know-it-all named Matt who has something against jocks. Natalie doesn't want her parents or best friends think she's dumb enough to need a tutor though so she tells them Matt's her boyfriend. This tiny lie changes everything and Natalie gets more than what she bargained for.

My Thoughts
Natalie was a very perky character. I had fun watching everything through her eyes. Her squabbles with Matt amused me to no end, and I couldn't stop smiling whenever Natalie would use Matt to make Zach jealous (or Matt would use Natalie to make Zach jealous). I was worried at first that Matt and Natalie wouldn't end up together. But everything went along smoothly and before I knew it, Nat had gotten her happy ending. A very adorable read. I'd recommend this entire series to ten-year-olds to fourteen-year-olds all around!

[Danielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

ON YOUR MARK

Natalie Page is overlooked and unappreciated.
Yeah, sure, she can run fast.
Yeah, sure, all the boys love her...as a buddy.
Yeah, she has plans every weekend night...with her friends and their boyfriends.

GET SET

It's time for the world to sit up and take notice. When Natalie makes the varsity cross country team, it seems like the fast track to being cool. The popular girls notice her, the hunky captain of the boys team is giving her rides home. Natalie Page is off and running.

Then she starts to fail geometry. She has to get a tutor: a very annoying boy who thinks sports are for idiots. A very smart boy who thinks she's stupid. A very cute boy who already has a girlfriend and has no interest in her. A boy she told her parents she was dating.

GO!

Natalie Page can run.
Now she has to decide how to finish.

I liked it, yet I don't know, something about it irks me at times. I would like to question the maturity level of certain characters *cough* Natalie *cough*. Her obsession with being "cool" is probably the only real thing in this book that annoys me. I understand how she feels, being a high school student myself, but really, she's trying a little TOO hard to fit in if you ask me. Making some poor innocent boy who has a serious girlfriend pretend to be your boyfriend just to hide the fact that you're being tutored is a little too much, don't you think? Especially when the guy's girlfriend does not like the situation so you bribe him with a job opportunity he really wants.

But if you ask me, that's how high school works. Well, it's a little exaggerated, but close enough. It does describe the classic high school cliques. The "stupid jocks" and "annoying math geeks". I feel for Natalie because it is difficult to be a guy's "buddy" instead of girlfriend. Then there's the evil, vindictive ex girlfriend of the guy, Zach, that Natalie likes. Along with her boy troubles, NAtalie also faces some within her friends. She feels left out because all her close friends have boyfriends. That's understandable really. I have to say though, I was rooting for Matt and Natalie to be together. It would be pretty predictable, classic jock and brain relationship, but I think they're cute together. I felt bad for Matt's girlfriend though. As I got towards the end, I got giddy (yes, giddy) because I could tell that Matt was going to change his mind about going to London and show up at Natalie's meet. It was really sweet and even though Natalie did bother me at times, I did like the book. It is a pretty short, enjoyable read, which is exactly why I picked it up in the first place. It's the perfect summer read for teen girls, or anyone looking for a quick paced romantic comedy.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The fourth and final book in a series about friends finding their first loves. By far my favorite aspect of the book was the sincerity of the main characters. You can feel Natalie's pain of always being seen as one of the guys, especially now that her best friends all are dating. You see through Matt's facade of being an all-business tutor and tell that he is gradually becoming more invested in Natalie's life. And when Natalie, the narrator, thinks about Matt or any other person, you feel what she feels. Hats off to author Stephie Davis; this is my favorite book from her, just because of how closely I felt what her characters felt. This isn't a cliche and waste-of-time romance novel. It is real, funny, and heartwarming. Five stars.

[Amiera Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Didn’t realize that this was a children’s book until after I had bought it. Still ended up loving it, though

[Megan (The Book Babe) · Rating 3 out of 5]

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Due to copy and paste, formatting has been lost.

I actually ended up liking Smart Boys and Fast Girls a bit more than I expected. At first, I really wasn't sure about it. It didn't start out very good, what with that terrible cliquishness in the beginning, and that the "bomb" so to speak was dropped within the first few pages. But I kept reading in the hope that it would would get better. And I definitely think that it did.

At first, I was convinced that this was going to be an overly simplistic book. And it was fairly simple, but I found that I liked it like that. Everyone had such a straight-forward way of going about things-- there was no beating around the bush here!

Well, accept for the obvious beating, you know. Speaking of which, Natalie and Matt's faux-relationship was so adorable. It was predictable, but it was just the cutest thing that I can think of right off. I liked them as separate characters too, though. Natalie is her own brand of awesome, even if it's clear that she doesn't really think too much about how her decisions impact others. And they do. But Matt-- even if he's too young for me, that boy is so sweet.

I liked that none of their interactions ever felt forced, no matter how far-fetched their plotting was. And that ending was absolutely perfect. It was sappy and cheesy and wonderful-- the best kind of ending.

All in all, Smart Boys and Fast Girls was a cute and satisfying read. I would definitely recommend it for anyone who's looking for a little fluff!

[Anna Hardesty · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't like this book at the beginning, because it seemed to me that it was just a book about a dumb jock and her fighting over two boys. But in the end, it showed me even jocks really do have their own problems, even if they are really stuck-up.

[Milagros Guevara Bernabé · Rating 2 out of 5]

Calificación: ⭐⭐ (2.1/5)

Review:

¡Atrévete a sumergirte en el aparentemente maravilloso mundo de "Smart Boys and Fast Girls" , donde las apariencias pueden ser engañosas y los protagonistas pueden salirse con la suya sin consecuencias! 🌟

Al principio, todo bien con este libro. Es corto, súper adictivo y perfecto para devorar en un abrir y cerrar de ojos. Sin embargo, permíteme soltar un suspiro de frustración mientras todos alaban esta historia sin mencionar el gran elefante en la habitación. ¿En serio nadie va a hablar de cómo Matt, ese chico tan inteligente, hizo trampas en su relación y salió impune? 🤷‍♀️

Me pregunto si la gente ha decidido pasar por alto ese pequeño detalle, o simplemente están tan encantados con la trama que están dispuestos a dejar pasar cualquier cosa. ¿Cómo es posible que Matt pensara que besar a otra chica no era engaño, pero invitarla a salir sí? ¡Inteligente, Matt, muy inteligente! 🤔

Claro, todo se resuelve al final de manera dulce y tierna, pero no puedo evitar preguntarme por qué nadie cuestiona la moralidad de nuestro astuto chico. ¡Ah, el amor en la literatura juvenil, tan complicado como siempre! 💑📚

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this was my absolute favorite book back in the day but it doesn’t hold up for adult Erin. Everything was a lot more stereotypical than I like. I mean how many times can we say “jocks” and “brains” 🙃
And it was a lot of unnecessary battling with Valerie (the classic mean girl villain) who wanted Zach but was going to lie and be shady about it. Then it was a lot of lying and omissions from her best friends because Natalie was the only one without a boyfriend (and they’ve been secretly ditching her every weekend to triple date without her?? Yuck) Idk I’m not saying it’s unrealistic for the ages of the characters but it wasn’t necessarily an enjoyable read.


I mean I guess I’m glad that it worked out with Natalie and Matt but based on what I read I didn’t even really see any chemistry that went beyond “I’m teaching you math for the opportunities” and “I don’t want that jock encroaching on my fake dating territory”


Also at least Valerie was somewhat redeemed at the end so it wasn’t super girls vs girls but yeah ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ just a meh book

[Kristen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute and pretty predictable. There were times when Natalie's inner monologue got on my nerves and when I wasn't sure why she liked her friends...but it was cute. Mostly anyway. Most of the characters were jerks and it bugs me when authors use idioms without actually knowing how they're supposed to be said. Especially since it's pretty unrealistic that the super smart kid would say "I could care less" instead of the correct "I couldn't care less".
That one was in there a few times, along with a variation of what's supposed to be "you've got another thinK (not thing) coming."

[Ronnie~ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remembered being desperate to get a credit card of my own at the age of 14 or 15 just so I could get my hands on a copy of this book. I looked for this book everywhere in leading bookstores in the small city where I'm from just to secure a copy.

After a few years, I finally succeeded.

I fell in love with your Boyfriend Game book as well. Thank you for this- it made my teenage years brighter and lovelier.

[Naomi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was one of the first books that got me into reading. Even though I don't remember clearly every detail of it right now, I felt everything that was happening as it was happening to me. Also, is good that the book was short because I finished it in one day and read it again twice. Unfortunately, I don't have the book with me because it was lend to me by my best friend. But if I had it, I would read it again!

[Molly Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely cheesy, but it was just what I wanted to read.

[Jessica Camp · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute story, a good quick read.

[Hailey Carr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Also cute and silly

[Valeria · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story is undoubtedly fantastic.

[Katy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yes, the book was fluff, but hey, don't dog on it because you HAD to know that this book would be just that. I was disappointed the ranking is so low on this book, but people who read fun reads like this should understand that these are fun reads and rank them to the types of books they are, what audience they are geared to and whether or not they accomplished the goal of that particular genre - in this case, keep the reader entertained.

I LOVED this book.. I had read the Boyfriend Game and liked it enough to check out other Stephie Davis reads and really liked this one. Yes, it has your stereotypical jock and nerd storyline, but it was a cute read. And Matt NEVER struck me as the geeky, high pants, thick glasses type of nerd. I liked from the very beginning. I found myself going "EEEK!" or wanting to jump up and down or grin several times.

After I finished this book, I went back and read the other books in the Boys Series, seeing how this was the last in the four-book collection, and I found that I did not like them much, maybe 3.5 out of 5 stars. They were cute yes, but a disappointment compared to this one. A lot of times authors would write an awesome first book, and you really questioned what they were thinking when the sequels came out. In this case, the last book was definitely the best and outshone the others by far. I think it's actually my favorite Stephie Davis books.

[Lexi Rydstrom · Rating 5 out of 5]

My math teacher? "What did she want?"
He sighed. "To remove you from the team."
I blinked. "What?"
"Natalie, you've failed all three geometry tests this year."
He said it like it was a big secret I'd been hiding from him. In fact, he sounded almost like my dad, which was really bad. I mean, Coach was the one person who'd been giving me time over the last six weeks, and he'd kept telling me I was fast. He was the one person I wanted to still think I was cool.
And instead, he now he knew I was stupid, thanks to my teacher. My heart started racing and I felt sweat between my shoulder blades "I did fail them," I said carefully, "but-"
"No buts, Natalie. You have to get that grade up or you're off the team for the season."
Off The team? But the team was my life. It was everything.

This was a heart stopping book, but after it pulls you back in and it gets you going again. All the things that it does just makes you jump and think wow what will happen next? Then you find out and your like that just happened.
I finished this book in two days thats how great it was. All the events that happen are crazy. This book is a teen book that drama goes down, it goes back to normal and then they have party and all that. This is a book that things happen that actually happen in real teens life.

[Jasmine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Smart boys & fast girls is about a girl named Natalie who makes the varsity cross country team. It seems like the fast track to being cool. She wants to be noticed by the popular girl on the team. She then starts to have a crush on the hunky captain of the boys team Zach. All her friends have boyfriends besides her. She feels they abandoned her because she doesn’t have a boyfriend.

Then Natalie begins to fail geometry. Her teacher tells her that she needs a tutor or she will be kicked of the track team. She doesn’t want to get kicked off because then Zach wouldn’t notice her. Her tutors name was Matt. He was kind of a nerd and she didn’t get along with him at first. She keep the tutoring thing a secret from her friends, her parents, and even Zach. Natalie told her parents that Matt was her boyfriend because she didn’t want them to know about the tutoring thing.

After a while everyone knew about Matt and Natalie going out. Then Zach found out which made everything worse. And that was just the beginning.

I thought this book was very interesting. I recomend this book to teenage girls. There were some funny parts and also some serious parts too. I think every girl will enjoy this book very much.

[Minerva · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's the YA kind of book teenage girls love to read (not to mention anybody else who is still young at heart and remembers what a high school crush and romance feels like). One of the things I really enjoy about the novel is the voice of Natalie Page. She is authentic in showing what it feels like to work your way to appreciated status in the high school bureaucracy of cliques. Jocks have standards, the brainiacs have standards, but isn't wonderful when the two can sort of mesh? Well, without giving away the ending, you will surely enjoy and reread all the tense, fresh, flirtatious conversations between Natalie and her fake boyfriend, Matt--the supersmart boy who easily grows on any girl with his confidence and cuteability.

[Sam Chase · Rating 2 out of 5]

Actual Rating: 1.5 stars

Although I loved this quartet (as a quick, cute, predictable read, of course) this was my least favorite of the series. Natalie was incessantly winy, and she was SO SELF CONSCIOUS AND NOT AT ALL CONFIDENT. Every single little thing Matt says makes her cry or think he's making fun of her, and poor Matt has to console her and pick up all the pieces. It's also so unfair that she asks him to defy HIS GIRLFRIEND. It's his life! Let the man be, okay?
That aside, the romance was cute, which bumped it up a half-star. If you are going to read this series, though, I'd recommend just completing the first three- don't even bother with this one.

[Sandra Strange · Rating 2 out of 5]

Natalie Page is the fast girl: one of the varsity cross country team’s brightest stars, and only a sophomore. However, she feels unwanted, unnoticed and unappreciated by her team, hunky boys, and her three best friends, all of whom ignore her for their boyfriends. Then because her failing geometry grade endangers her athletic eligibility, she is forced to submit to tutoring by a real “math geek,” an annoying “smart boy” who thinks she’s stupid. Predictable, but positive and enjoyable “chick” novel.

[Hannah Goodman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I connected to this book because the girl opens the story by saying she is every boy’s “buddy” and now, junior year, wants more. I expected to see this struggle played out, and it really wasn’t the main thrust of the plot. However, I did let go of that enough to enjoy it. But it made me realize that it’s important to go through your story to make sure that things you “say” are things that you “show” and if you don’t, maybe that’s not something you need.

[Kate (VerbVixen) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stephanie Davis’ novel is so cute and disarming, you have to like it, even if you aren’t a runner, which I am not. While Natalie is really insecure and Matt has serious jock issues, their story was so cute. Classic brain and jock romance, but I rooted for them to get together the entire time.

Plus, it was a short read. Perfect for a Sunday afternoon.

Soundtrack Song: Virginia Coalition, “Look My Way”

Overall: A-

[Kara Chavez · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book as an adult and what can I say..I read it one sitting it was super cute!! I gave it to my cousin to read and she really liked it too. Its hard to find really good CLEAN romance stories for young teenage girls. And this was one of the best that I have come across in a long time. I especially like how the main character is this girl on the track team and how she ends up with the nerdy guy who ends up being her tutor

[Drucilla · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'd been wanting to read this book for a long time and I went to a lot of trouble to get it. Unfortunately, I was disappointed. Natalie is 15 but acts so immature. She's soley concerned with popularity and it's annoying to read. She also had too many friends. I know this sounds weird but each of her three friends had boyfriends and it was difficult keeping track of who was who. And having Matt's girlfriend in London made her seem like a non-entity.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

RATING: 3.5

FUN FUN FUN!

If you're having a cranky day or just want to kill time I would definitely read this novel. It's a fun one time read that you should totally borrow from the library some day. :)

OVERALL RATING:

[Marlyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh My!

Siempre tendré sentimientos encontrados con esta serie, pero realmente me alegro de haberla terminado. Casi un año después de haberla comenzado, sí, pero misión cumplida.

A nivel de la historia como tal, la de Nat y Matt fue mi favorita de las cuatro, ambos personajes son geniales y me pareció hermosa toda su relación.

Definitivamente esta es una de esas series que compartiré con Bella

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the title! Making the varsity cross-country team puts Natalie Page on the fast track to popularity, but her nearly perfect new life is tripped up when she starts to fail geometry and falls for her new tutor, a cute, smart boy with a girlfriend, a disdain for sports and athletes, and no interest in Natalie whatsoever.

[Deborah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was very cute. I really love this author. It took me a couple of hours to read, and was just a fun YA book. If you don't mind high school crushes and funny situtions, then you would enjoy this book. This author knows how to keep it clean and entertaining. I wish our library had more of her books.