Chick Lit Plus Blog Tour: Phone Kitten

Phone Kitten by Marika Christian is another book that is part of a Chick Lit Plus Blog Tour. Thank you to Samantha at Chick Lit Plus and Marika for letting me be a part of this tour!

First up, the synopsis of Phone Kitten from Goodreads:

Shy, slightly overweight Emily would die if she had to talk dirty face-to-face—especially to her hot boy friend. She sure didn’t set out to do phone sex—she wanted to be a writer. But when her BFF framed her for plagiarism, she got in a tiny financial hole and saw this ad for “phone actresses”… Hey, it’s not nearly as bad as it sounds. No pantyhose or pantsuits, no regular hours, you’re your own boss, and lots of people to talk to. Guys, that is. But here’s the odd thing—lots of them want to talk about more than Emily’s imagined attributes; they start to think of her as the best friend they’ll never have to meet. Next thing you know, one of her customers gets killed and Emily knows a lot more about it than she should. What’s a phone kitten to do? Solve the murder herself, of course—because wouldn’t it be a great story for the newspaper that wrongly fired her? It’s her ticket back to her real life—if it doesn’t get her killed.

(Quick note: I actually took out a bit from this synopsis. It gave something away about a character that I think is good not to know. I had obviously forgotten by the time I got around to reading my ebook and I'm glad that I did. So I'm not going to tell you! :) If you really want to know, just head on over to the Goodreads page)

If you're like me, you might be thinking...phone sex operator? Really? I'm not sure what I expected with a main character whose job is to talk dirty to men on the phone, but I was quickly proven wrong. While her job is what gets her into the mess of trying to solve a murder, it is not really the focus of the novel. Everything surrounding the job is written in a tasteful yet hilarious way. I give Christian credit for being able to write an amazing character with such a taboo job.


Part of why I loved this book was because of the characters. Emily is so incredibly lovable and down to earth, even if she does completely crazy things...like go off on a Nancy Drew adventure to catch a murderer. The only thing I didn't like about her? That she didn't think she was capable of having a good looking boyfriend because she was chubby. But, that wasn't a huge deal because I could tell this was going to be one of those stories where the character really grew as a person and accepted her so-called flaws and realized she really was a beautiful and amazing woman. I was happily proven correct as Emily starts as an insecure but great character and develops into someone even more fantastic and much more confident by the end of the novel.

Every good Nancy Drew wannabe needs some sidekicks, and Emily's came in the form of her gay best friend Dennis and his boyfriend Craig. Dennis is a trainer and, while he obviously loves her, is very tough on Emily. He just wants to make sure that she's safe and happy, but has his own special way of looking after her. I absolutely adored Craig. Every scene with him made me laugh. I really liked that she did not hold a grudge against Dennis for sharing things about her with his boyfriend. As you'll see in the synopsis, Emily's so called BFF turns on her and she's upset because she's lost the only girlfriend she had. While discussing the murder investigation with Craig he does something that is so stereotypically gay and Emily realizes that she's just found her new best girlfriend. I wish I had written down the exact phrasing of this scene because it made me laugh out loud.

This is one of those books that I have to tell you who I was picturing when I was reading it. Emily I saw as the gorgeous America Ferrera and Rick, her sexy boyfriend, looked like Roberto from The Bachelorette. That may seem random...but does anyone else who's read the book agree with me?

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it - especially for a summer read. It's light and fun but with a great storyline. Fans of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series will enjoy this hilarious debut novel from Christian. It made me laugh, made me think, and made me want to be friends with the characters. Do you need any other reason to read this book? I didn't think so. :)

Make sure you check out the guest post that Marika kindly wrote for me. I'm sure it will make you laugh!


Join Chick Lit Plus and Marika Christian next Thursday July 14th at 9pm EST/8pm CST for her TwitParty!