.’Confessions of a Not It Girl’ by Melissa Kantor takes readers right into the mindset of Jan (pronounced “Yahn”), who thinks (and sometimes professes to know) that she doesn’t have high hopes in the areas of guys and popularity. Even though her best friend Rebecca is basically a rising socialite with infinite prospects of guys, colleges, and everything else Jan could possibly want, her life feels dull and unaccomplished by comparison.

Being a senior in high school is hard enough, let alone feeling this way all the time. Instead of living the high life, dating older guys and taking glamorous trips with her parents like Rebecca tends to do, Jan finds herself relegated to having a crush on a guy named Josh whom she’s sure doesn’t notice her, dealing with what she considers her insufferable parents, and trying to fend off another guy who she used to like but now would rather not deal with at any cost. The world seems to be against her (at least from Jan’s perspective), and nothing she does seems to be good enough in her eyes, based on the turnout from every encounter she has.

As the novel goes on and Jan falls harder and harder for Josh, conflicts ensue between Jan and Rebecca, and eventually Jan and Josh. Revelations that she thought would keep the other guy who likes her away from her come back to haunt her, causing her relationship with Josh to take a swift turn for the worse, and making her question whether anything can go right in her life.

Despite some of the predictability of the ending, the issues that plagued Jan throughout the story were well-conceived, and I very much enjoyed watching Jan have issues so I had all the more reason to root for her to get the outcome she wanted in the end. I look forward to reading more of Melissa Kantor’s books. She definitely knows how to add personality and vitality to her characters.

You can find ‘Confessions of a Not It Girl’ by Melissa Kantor here