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The Girls' Global Guide to Guys
Tired of the dating scene in Boulder, Colorado, best friends Jadie Peregrine and Tate Moran embark on a hilarious world-wide adventure when they decide to write a travel guide detailing international dating rituals. Reprint.
303 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2007
3 people are currently reading
159 people want to read
About the author
Theresa Alan
10 books1,170 followersMy interests are women's fiction, literary fiction and nonfiction, humor, suspense, chick lit, health and fitness.
I became a bestselling author with my first novel, Who You Know (2003), and my novella Santa Unwrapped was in the New York Times bestseller Jingle All the Way (2004). I am the author of six additional Kensington novels, including Spur of the Moment, The Girls’ Global Guide to Guys, Girls Who Gossip, Getting Married, Spa Vacation, and The Dangers of Mistletoe. My work has also appeared in the anthologies I Shaved My Legs for This?! and Sex and the Single Witch. I was named the Colorado Romance Writer of the Year in 2004.
A graduate of the University of Iowa and the University of Colorado at Boulder, I live in Denver, Colorado. I'm a member of the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, Women's Fiction Writers Association Association, and Romance Writers of America.
http://theresaalan.net/
I became a bestselling author with my first novel, Who You Know (2003), and my novella Santa Unwrapped was in the New York Times bestseller Jingle All the Way (2004). I am the author of six additional Kensington novels, including Spur of the Moment, The Girls’ Global Guide to Guys, Girls Who Gossip, Getting Married, Spa Vacation, and The Dangers of Mistletoe. My work has also appeared in the anthologies I Shaved My Legs for This?! and Sex and the Single Witch. I was named the Colorado Romance Writer of the Year in 2004.
A graduate of the University of Iowa and the University of Colorado at Boulder, I live in Denver, Colorado. I'm a member of the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, Women's Fiction Writers Association Association, and Romance Writers of America.
http://theresaalan.net/
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
September 5, 2025
This is a lightweight read -- and I feel a bit suckered for completing it because it is set just after the first dot-com collapse and the protagonist basically has the same job that I had at the time, though she was about 7 years my junior.
She wants to be a writer -- but doesn't spend much time or effort doing research or getting out and seeing the world. To rectify this, and maybe find true love in the process (aka "fuck your way across Western Europe") -- she takes off on a 4 week trip with her friend.
It's sort of "Pollyanna goes to Europe" but with sex. Our protagonist is not afraid to share her insecurities, preconceptions and naïveté with us because she doesn't seem to know better. She thinks she's more mature and clever than she is -- this comes across frequently.
For example, the Australian love interest of her friend makes jokes about religion and says he would start his own religion where everyone would just give him all their money, and all the female followers would have to be be available to have sex with him. This is seen as HILARIOUS by the protagonist who says something like "I love that Pete is so smart and funny and feels comfortable being himself." Never mind that the rest of us see him as a cringe-worthy troglodyte.
Another example is the explicitly detailed sexual attraction between our protagonist and her vacation-fling -- starting off with chaste snuggles and infatuation, then unprotected sex and annoyance with each other. She even describes her feelings about post-sex wet panties as a barometer of her feelings toward a guy (I can't imagine it being a GOOD feeling, ever). She also uses the reading of her love interest's decreased tolerance of her vegetarianism as a barometer -- and yet she's surprised when he decides to break away from the group and go off on his own trip. She should have said "Good riddance!" and dumped him sooner, when he started being crabby, fussy and rude.
The entire trip through Europe seems improbably jam packed -- I would love to see what that itinerary looked like -- they hit all the big tourist attractions in London, Paris (even Versailles), Florence, Venice, Rome and then head to Greece (another bus trip tour) but it seems improbable that trip is only 4 weeks!
The book is also impossibly white, with the exception of "gypsy thieves" mentioned a few times during the Italy parts of the trip (my trips to Europe in the same time frame were full of Northern African immigrants on the streets of Paris and Florence).
The protagonist also has some conflicted attitudes toward beauty - she describes the women she meets and interviews about their "worst date ever" in details and terms not used for men she meets. In one case, she describes a woman as so beautiful that she feels like she should punch her in the face (wow - internalized misogyny, much?).
Early in the book - and repeated at least three or four times -- our protagonist describes her "disastrous" love life, that includes "getting hit on by a string of lesbians."
It makes me wonder whether our protagonist is, in fact, deeply closeted about her attraction to woman and not nearly as much to men -- causing her to make disastrous choices in romantic relationships with men.
In the end -- our protagonist seems to realize that she has to put in some effort to get something she wants, and she does some research, follows up with her European trip contacts (the women, of course) and puts together some articles that sell. It would be great to see a follow-up to this where she comes clean about her attraction to woman and stops pursuing dead-end relationships with men.
She wants to be a writer -- but doesn't spend much time or effort doing research or getting out and seeing the world. To rectify this, and maybe find true love in the process (aka "fuck your way across Western Europe") -- she takes off on a 4 week trip with her friend.
It's sort of "Pollyanna goes to Europe" but with sex. Our protagonist is not afraid to share her insecurities, preconceptions and naïveté with us because she doesn't seem to know better. She thinks she's more mature and clever than she is -- this comes across frequently.
For example, the Australian love interest of her friend makes jokes about religion and says he would start his own religion where everyone would just give him all their money, and all the female followers would have to be be available to have sex with him. This is seen as HILARIOUS by the protagonist who says something like "I love that Pete is so smart and funny and feels comfortable being himself." Never mind that the rest of us see him as a cringe-worthy troglodyte.
Another example is the explicitly detailed sexual attraction between our protagonist and her vacation-fling -- starting off with chaste snuggles and infatuation, then unprotected sex and annoyance with each other. She even describes her feelings about post-sex wet panties as a barometer of her feelings toward a guy (I can't imagine it being a GOOD feeling, ever). She also uses the reading of her love interest's decreased tolerance of her vegetarianism as a barometer -- and yet she's surprised when he decides to break away from the group and go off on his own trip. She should have said "Good riddance!" and dumped him sooner, when he started being crabby, fussy and rude.
The entire trip through Europe seems improbably jam packed -- I would love to see what that itinerary looked like -- they hit all the big tourist attractions in London, Paris (even Versailles), Florence, Venice, Rome and then head to Greece (another bus trip tour) but it seems improbable that trip is only 4 weeks!
The book is also impossibly white, with the exception of "gypsy thieves" mentioned a few times during the Italy parts of the trip (my trips to Europe in the same time frame were full of Northern African immigrants on the streets of Paris and Florence).
The protagonist also has some conflicted attitudes toward beauty - she describes the women she meets and interviews about their "worst date ever" in details and terms not used for men she meets. In one case, she describes a woman as so beautiful that she feels like she should punch her in the face (wow - internalized misogyny, much?).
Early in the book - and repeated at least three or four times -- our protagonist describes her "disastrous" love life, that includes "getting hit on by a string of lesbians."
It makes me wonder whether our protagonist is, in fact, deeply closeted about her attraction to woman and not nearly as much to men -- causing her to make disastrous choices in romantic relationships with men.
In the end -- our protagonist seems to realize that she has to put in some effort to get something she wants, and she does some research, follows up with her European trip contacts (the women, of course) and puts together some articles that sell. It would be great to see a follow-up to this where she comes clean about her attraction to woman and stops pursuing dead-end relationships with men.
September 2, 2018
Wasted reading time. I disliked the narrator immensely. I found the writing style insulting, as if the writer were talking down to the reader. If I were still in junior high, I think I'd feel the same way.
August 6, 2018
I didn't enjoy this book as much as i thought i would. The concept of it is a good idea which is about a girl who decides to travel to Europe with her best friend to write about the different cultures in dating, marriages and romance. But once, i get into the book, that concept is rarely seen. Even the descriptions of the different places in Europe were not fun at all. There is more reporting of events than actual descriptions; I was mostly reading what the characters were doing there of going to hotels, sleeping, eating, drinking.. and i didn't feel like they were having fun. I also didn't like the narrator who is the protagonist at the same time. She was too sarcastic; it was fine at some point, but later, it gets annoying. I also didn't feel the accuracy of what she was giving me of information as a reader, because i noticed a contradiciton in telling her dating experiences; at the beginning of the book, she described the terrible dates she had with weird guys and saying that this was her dating experience. But later in the book, she told other stories of her dating life. I felt confused as a reader, because i thought i already figured out that concept about the protagonist.
The plot is slowly described and the events are told more than shown and they are also predictable. And the ending is just fine. I don't know what to say more about this book, because i don't have any favorite part and i didn't gain any new perspective.
The plot is slowly described and the events are told more than shown and they are also predictable. And the ending is just fine. I don't know what to say more about this book, because i don't have any favorite part and i didn't gain any new perspective.
June 16, 2014
I'm giving this one two stars simply because some of the descriptions of Europe were nice. The book, though, doesn't work overall. The book was too short for what the author wanted to do. There's not enough romance, so it fails on that level. On the level of travelogue it also fails. The characters weren't interesting. Too many things happened with no real explanation.
May 10, 2020
Chick lit. Poor writing style, lots of glossing over, giving the message that mixed morals is the norm.
April 26, 2009
"This is the oldest story in the world: girl meets boy. Girl falls for boy and convinces herself he's just as crazy about her as she is about him. Boy feels constrained by the fervor of the girl's ardor and does his best to get away with minimal, if any, discussion of what it all meant. His memories of me quickly become hazy and distant, while I have recorded everything about him in my journal, everything we did together, everything he said, how he looks when he laughs, smiles, so I can analyze my time with him again and again like a precious gem that becomes even more interesting when examined closely from every angle in different shades of light."
Jadie Peregrine is tired of her boring office job. She desperately wants to break into writing full-time, but so far she's had little luck. The city of Boulder, Colorado that she lives in is just not prime dating ground either -- she's had nothing but miserable dating experiences, from lesbians hitting on her to other scenes from dating hell.
What she wants to do more than anything is take off and travel through Europe. But how can she afford it? While pondering this very question, she is suddenly hit with an idea: what if she were to travel the world and write a book on the differences and similarities of dating in other cultures and countries?
So Alan peppers the novel with descriptions of some of Europe's greatest sites -- the Eiffel Tower, St. Mark's Square, and the Lion's Gate -- as well as with descriptions of dating and marriage customs around the world. You can say that it's part travel guide lite and part romance story. I like Alan's fresh take on this chick lit; somehow she didn't make it sound too flighty. One can identify with the characters and their respective experiences felt realistic to the reader.
The only flaw is the title is a misnomer; it should have been called something like, "The Girls' Global Guide to Travel". And it certainly gives an accurate description of the traveling.
Book Details:
Title The Girls' Global Guide to Guys
Author Theresa Alan
Reviewed By Purplycookie
Jadie Peregrine is tired of her boring office job. She desperately wants to break into writing full-time, but so far she's had little luck. The city of Boulder, Colorado that she lives in is just not prime dating ground either -- she's had nothing but miserable dating experiences, from lesbians hitting on her to other scenes from dating hell.
What she wants to do more than anything is take off and travel through Europe. But how can she afford it? While pondering this very question, she is suddenly hit with an idea: what if she were to travel the world and write a book on the differences and similarities of dating in other cultures and countries?
So Alan peppers the novel with descriptions of some of Europe's greatest sites -- the Eiffel Tower, St. Mark's Square, and the Lion's Gate -- as well as with descriptions of dating and marriage customs around the world. You can say that it's part travel guide lite and part romance story. I like Alan's fresh take on this chick lit; somehow she didn't make it sound too flighty. One can identify with the characters and their respective experiences felt realistic to the reader.
The only flaw is the title is a misnomer; it should have been called something like, "The Girls' Global Guide to Travel". And it certainly gives an accurate description of the traveling.
Book Details:
Title The Girls' Global Guide to Guys
Author Theresa Alan
Reviewed By Purplycookie
April 30, 2014
Best friends since they first started waitressing at the Tofu Palace in Boulder, Colorado, when they were eighteen, Jadie Peregrine and Tate Moran are now twenty-seven and still on the lookout for something, anything new or different. Jadie has finished her degree in journalism, but her dreams of becoming a world-famous, globetrotting investigative reporter have yet to be realized. In fact, she couldn't even land so much as an internship at a newspaper. It was hardly in her plans to have to take a nine-to-five desk job at an internet company. Jadie travels whenever she can, and she has managed to sell her travel articles--but she spends far more on the trips than she pulls in with her writing, so quitting her day job just isn't in the cards anytime soon. And as if her pitiful career weren't depressing enough, her last several dates have been colossal disasters, including run-ins with a sex maniac and a lesbian couple who got her drunk and tried to woo her into bed. Still, she can't help clinging to the belief that the man of her dreams really is out there, somewhere--he's just not in Boulder. The dating scene has got to be better in other parts of the world, right? Determined to find out, Jadie manages to talk Tate into taking her savings and traveling around the globe with her until the money runs out. The plan is to talk to women from every corner of the world about dating, romance, and men--and then compile all of the information into a definitive, one-of-a-kind guide. That's right: Jadie's going to write the book of love. And they're off. From London to Paris to Greece to Hungary to Germany to Amsterdam and back to Boulder, the two friends hurtle along on a head-spinning, wickedlyfunny, and utterly unpredictable odyssey. In Theresa Alan's deliciously madcap third novel, Jadie and Tate are about to discover that when it come to love, romance, and men, nothing ever goes according to plan.
June 23, 2010
I finished this one last night in bed. I'd been reading it for a while (more than a week) which tends to be a long time for me with chick lit, but I blame it more on preggo brain than on the book itself. It reads really easily, a combo of chick lit and travel writing, but leans much more heavily on the chick lit part. Often I was wishing for more of the travel writing part! I also found it hard to read about Justin. Something about that character just didn't feel right, not genuine perhaps. My stomach was waiting for any moment when he would "turn" - stealing her stuff, breaking her heart, show a really nasty side. He was written pretty flatly and I guess I was looking for a sinister side to round him out a bit. *sigh* I wasn't quite satisfied with his exit either. It didn't seem to keep with the character nor did it "reveal" a hidden side to him. It just felt fake.
Overall, though, it was a light and easy read. I liked Tate and her spunk, more than I liked the main character. The little insights on love from the European women were interesting too.
Overall, though, it was a light and easy read. I liked Tate and her spunk, more than I liked the main character. The little insights on love from the European women were interesting too.
October 5, 2013
This book was the worst for many reasons. The idea of the book is not bad, which is why I bought it on the clearance rack from Half Price books (never a good sign). The author desperately needs 1) a good group of friends who read and can give honest feedback 2) a new editor. The character is a huge loser. She is such a loser that I was happy when she was dumped. She acts like a spoiled, rich teenager while she is abroad. She is always complaining about the culture of the country she is in - too much art, too many churches, too expensive, not enough vegetarian dishes, too many tourists, too much walking (and there's more!).She is supposedly doing research on dating and weddings in other countries, but her research consists of asking one person in a bar in each country. She spends two days in each place and after that is an expert on its dating rituals. The dialogue in the book is also awful. If this is sitting on your shelf, go ahead and put it in giveaway now.
February 5, 2017
Didn't enjoy and wouldn't recommend.
The book may as well have been set in one location for all the talk about the places they went to. It was basically, we saw the (landmark), spent 5seconds taking photos and then wondered what to do next.
I get that travelling can exhaust you and you do get sick of seeing one more museum but they had only been travelling for a few weeks!
We got too much information about certain lurid details, like the guy basically guilt tripping her to let him come inside her. He sounded like an absolute a$$hole and she was ready to rearrange her life to fit in with his.
The book may as well have been set in one location for all the talk about the places they went to. It was basically, we saw the (landmark), spent 5seconds taking photos and then wondered what to do next.
I get that travelling can exhaust you and you do get sick of seeing one more museum but they had only been travelling for a few weeks!
We got too much information about certain lurid details, like the guy basically guilt tripping her to let him come inside her. He sounded like an absolute a$$hole and she was ready to rearrange her life to fit in with his.
November 21, 2011
This was a light and easy chick-lit book, told with some humor. I didn't love it. A lot of the main character's behavior in Europe made me cringe, and it bugged me that she kept saying how great her European trip was, but when actually recounting the journey, there was nothing but complaints. But in general, it was fine. I recommend it for plane or beach reading.
March 12, 2014
I picked this book because it promised to have travel and romance in the story. Who wouldn't like that, right? Jadie went backpacking in Europe because she has this dreams of becoming a travel writer. But while she's traveling, she just complains. How can someone write about travel if she doesn't even like walking? I wasn't transported to Europe while reading this. I can burn this book. Ugh.
September 21, 2007
I loved this book because the two main characters visited the European countries I've been dying to visit. Sites are described in depth. The book is about finding yourself and following your instincts.
August 16, 2009
Ugh ... does it take a trip across Europe to figure out that love doesn't happen when you want it to?
February 18, 2011
A few pages in and already I am annoyed by the Boulderite stereotype. Will keep going for a bit but don't hold out much hope that this book will improve.
October 21, 2008
it was okay but not good enough for me to recommend to my friends....
September 3, 2008
It wasn't all that great. I was expecting something a bit more...
June 29, 2012
Awful book. Disliked it a lot. Will review it tonight
May 7, 2013
Really love this book and dreaming that I can travel around the global like her.
June 30, 2015
The book inside is not what's promised on the outside. That said, sometimes I did feel it was the story of my life... I'm not as pathetic though, so am now thinking of ways to write a better story..
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews