Review: Perfect You by Elizabeth Scott

Title: Perfect You
Author: Elizabeth Scott
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Pages: 282
Release date: March 25th 2008
Genre: Contemporary YA; romance
Source: Bought
Find out more: Amazon ; Goodreads

 Goodreads description:

Kate Brown's life has gone downhill fast. Her father has quit his job to sell vitamins at the mall, and Kate is forced to work with him. Her best friend has become popular, and now she acts like Kate's invisible. And then there's Will. Gorgeous, unattainable Will, whom Kate acts like she can't stand even though she can't stop thinking about him. When Will starts acting interested, Kate hates herself for wanting him when she's sure she's just his latest conquest. Kate figures that the only way things will ever stop hurting so much is if she keeps to herself and stops caring about anyone or anything. What she doesn't realize is that while life may not always be perfect, good things can happen - but only if she lets them...

First sentence:

Vitamins had ruined my life.

My rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Elizabeth Scott is turning into one of my favorite authors! I can't believe I hadn't read any of her books before this year. There's something about her writing - it's just so easy. I know that's not really a way to describe writing, but I don't know what else to call it. It's just so graceful and flows so nicely.

Kate's world is easy (that word again) to get lost in, and she's so easy to relate to and feel for. She's just such a normal girl, and in this case I mean normal as a good thing. She feels things everyone feels, in one way or another. Even though I didn't agree with all of her choices (actually, a lot of them are pretty stupid), I understood her and felt for her. Her character growth is described so well - I love that this isn't just romance but more about what Kate goes through and how that changes her as a person. But I have to admit, she is pretty whiny. If you're easily annoyed by whiny characters, this book probably isn't for you.

The secondary characters, though, I really disliked. I don't mean that they're not well-writen - they are, they're all fully-developed and realistic characters - I mean that I didn't like them as people. I constantly wanted to shake them and make them stop making such stupid decisions. Her dad is so frustrating. I mean, sure, it's okay to want to pursue your dream - but selling vitamins at the mall and making absolutely no money? I just don't get how he can justify that his wife needs to work two jobs and that he wants to take the money his son earns just so that he can keep selling vitamins instead of going back to his office job. The mom frustrated me too, even though she's a sympathetic character. I was annoyed by how she couldn't stand up to her husband and say enough is enough, when her husband is making no money even though he could and is going over their decided budget to buy something as useless as video games. Anna, though, is the character I wanted to shake the most out of all of them. How could she just abandon her best friend like that, and then, when she needs Kate, expect her to be there for her but leave when Anna's new friends could see her? And I wanted to shake Kate, too, to make her see that she deserves better than Anna.

With that out of the way, I did like some of the characters. Even though he's not someone I'd like in real life, Todd, Kate's older brother, is so much fun to read about. His relationship with Kate and the way they fight is just adorable. It's actually a pretty normal brother-sister relationship, and I don't know what it is about them, but I just thought the way they treat each other is really cute. And then there's Will. (Weird, that sentence is also part of the synopsis...) I can't think about Will and Kate together without smiling - the two of them are just so adorable. I can't think of anything else to say about them, other than the way they interact is so funny and cute and just makes me want to hug this book.

The ending is perfect - not too happy to be unrealistic, but not too sad and depressing, either - it matches the hopeful and sweet tone of the novel perfectly.

I love this whole book. No, it's not the most deep and important book I've ever read, but it's sweet and insightful and portrays teenage life well. It's great how Elizabeth Scott's books can be both original and normal at the same time - the characters are just your average teenaged girl and easy to relate to, but some of the situations they're in are crazy and unusual. I can't wait to read the rest of Elizabeth Scott's novels!