I am super excited! This will be my first blog done on a book review. YAY!
Okay so this is the book I just finished reading:
Disclaimer:
If you fan girl Harper Sloan, you will not like me after this review. I promise. So if you can handle yourself maturely, continue on. If you can't, keep it moving!
Review:
Let me start off by saying: I think I'm in a massive book funk and this book kept me there.
Moving on:
I've read pretty much all of Harper's books. I know what to expect usually when heading into her books. She's usually a hit or miss with me. I think her best book to date is Unexpected Fate. She completely out did herself. So when I picked up this book I said maybe she will impress me again.
She didn't!
And here's why:
I have a huge issue with insta love. Sometimes I can get lost and believe that, BAM! Love at first sight happens. Then there are other times: I just eye roll throughout the whole story and think "this is so far fetched, I can't even pretend for it to be plausible."
This book tends to fall into the latter. Insta love was not working for me at all here. Every time Kane spoke my response was, "Yea we don't believe you!"
I went into this story thinking: This was going to be a kick ass story about a woman who has issues with how she sees herself and how she triumphs through her struggles to become this amazing strong person.......That's not what I got.
I got a cheesy Cinderella story that's been done too many times for me. (This is just a personal opinion I think the genre is flooded with Cinderella stories)
The formula:
Girl with major family and past trauma. The gay best friend (this varies amongst stories) and other friend who sees her worth, but sadly the heroine can't.
Enter the Hero: Hot shot Mr. Movie Star (or Billionaire, all around popular playboy). Who instantly becomes taken with her the very first time he sees her. But nothing comes of it. Not until later down the line were they so happen to cross paths and he sweeps her off her feet.
MAGICALLY the heroine is all fixed because NOW she believes her worth. Apparently she thought she wasn't anything specially till hot shot Movie Star said she was.
Digressing a little: My biggest pet peeve is seeing someone not love themselves until someone else defines their worth to them. You need to love you for you. You loving yourself should come from you, not because someone else is showing you love and attention. Honestly I think here is where/Why this story quickly died out for me.
Back to the review:
We never really see her struggle enough with her issues. We get the glossed over version in the beginning and then poof she's "fixed." I wanted to see the growth. I wanted to weep with her and watch her rise to "I am woman hear me roar."
I hated that I couldn't connect with the characters and feel for them. I was left bored and annoyed that this wasn't the story I wanted it to be. I ended up skimming the last half of the book.
I'm truly frustrated. I wanted this to be epic. She had a great idea and a great premise. She could have destroyed me emotionally. I wanted this to be a female empowerment and it just fell completely flat.
Great writing and a good beginning just poor execution.
Out of Five Stars: I give Perfectly Imperfect a 3