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Book Review: Not That Kind of Call Girl

By IndieBookView on July 8, 2024

Not That Kind of Call Girl

by Nova García

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

ISBN: 9781509255085

Print Length: 260 pages

Publisher: The Wild Rose Press

Reviewed by Andrea Marks-Joseph

"Carlton's going to pay. I'm going to get his job. I'm going to save the world. Or at least the call center. And maybe the paper? And Carmen. I'm going to save Carmen."

Not That Kind of Call Girl follows Julia Navarro, a brilliant, admirable call-center manager on her journey to save the newspaper she works at from closing down and to rescue her employee from an abusive home—while struggling with the unexpected devastation she feels at being new to motherhood. Julia should be enjoying a relaxing few months acclimating to being a mom; instead, she finds herself leading a high-stakes investigation and rescue operation. Author Nova García writes Julia's experience as a woman of color in the workplace with refreshing clarity, convincingly incorporating the nuances that come with balancing our humanity and survival instincts.

We first meet Julia Navarro while she's preparing for her maternity leave. Julia, who supervises a team of call-center workers at the customer care line for a local newspaper (the story is set in 2016-2017), is interviewing a new employee and relying on her list-making skills to accomplish all the necessary tasks on time. But these lists are quickly deemed irrelevant when her water breaks right in the office, weeks earlier than she's planned for. And that's just the beginning of the way motherhood shakes up her life.

"Baby Love Magazine said Trey was too young for a bottle as it might disrupt the mother-child bond. Screw Baby Love Magazine, she told herself. A bond? What bond?"