Book Review: Perfect You

Title Perfect You
Author Elizabeth Scott
Genre YA Commercial Fiction
Rating C-

Summary Kate Brown's life is falling apart: her (formerly chubby) best friend did a transformation over the summer and became popular (too popular to even acknowledge that Kate exists), and her dad quit his job to sell "Pefect You" vitamins at a kiosk in the mall (and makes Kate work with him). Things just get worse from there... except that Will (cute, good with the ladies) might be interested in her now. Really? She can't believe it.

First Line "Vitamins had ruined my life."

Review I had a hard time putting this book down because the end of every chapter was a "cliff-hanger" of sorts and the character of Will was completely engaging. I fell in love with him.

I didn't fall in love with Kate. The primary reason being that her best friend treats her like trash and, instead of forgetting about her and moving on, she keeps hoping that her friend will come back. Her friend actually ignores her, lies to her, stands her up, laughs at her, etc., with the popular girls. At no point did Kate get a back bone and tell her friend she was being a douche bag.

Nope, instead she assumes everyone is going to eventually leave her and ends up treating Will like a douche bag. It was all really annoying. Kate was weak and not altogether interesting. The book wraps up tidily enough, but I was left bored by the end--wanting more Will and less Kate.

After I finished reading, I read the first chapter of Scott's next book, Something Maybe, that was inserted as a tease into the back of this book. I then turned to my sister and said, "The smartest thing a publisher can do is give you the first chapter of the next book." As much as Perfect You was a totally forgettable book (honestly, I can't really remember the ending that well... hence why I wrote that it "wraps up tidily" without any specifics), I'll eventually buy Something Maybe.

Recommendation People who like teen romance stories (of the first love variety) with a seasoning of high school melodrama thrown in, will enjoy this quick so-so read.