Perfect You - Dark Publications

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Editorial Reviews:

Product 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....

Customer Reviews: Read 10 more reviews...

4 out of 5 stars

A Year of Changes March 12, 2008
17 out of 18 found this review helpful

Kate's life has never been perfect, but it used to be fairly okay: She grew up with a best friend, Anna, who knew everything about her, and vice-versa. She had a roof over her head, two parents with stable jobs, and no big conflicts with her older brother. She got decent grades in school and had a decent freshman year.

But now she's a sophomore, and Kate's life is so far from perfect that it's in another state. When Anna came back from her summer vacation, she looked like a different person. Newly thin and blonde, Anna starts hanging out with the popular crowd at school and stops speaking to Kate. Kate's father abruptly quit his job to sell Perfect You infomercial vitamins in a booth at the local mall. Kate is expected to work there after school, and she doesn't get paid for it. In fact, sometimes, she's the only person manning the booth, as her father is prone to wander off to play video games or solicit customers from other stores. Due to her less-than-stellar driving tests, Kate isn't allowed to get a car yet, so she has to rely on her family members to cart her around. Her brother obtained a college degree, then moved back home. Instead of actually getting a job, he sits on the couch and decides he wants to be an actor. Of course, he changes his dream job as often as he changes his socks, so Kate doubts he's serious. To top it all off, a guy at school named Will with a reputation for flirting and leading girls on keeps bugging her.

Kate is conflicted, to say the least. Her first-person narration relates her ups-and-downs with Will, Anna, and her family members. She doesn't want to admit that she likes Will and she certainly doesn't want to get hurt, but she starts to see him anyway. She restricts their time together to mall breaks, not wanting people at school to know about them, and she refuses to let things become serious. She doesn't even know if Will honestly likes her or is just using her like he's used all of the other girls, and she pretends as though she doesn't care either way. She desperately wants to repair her friendship with Anna but isn't sure what it will take to do that. Kate is mortified by her father's antics at the mall, but she suffers these little indignities quietly, not wanting to stir up trouble. She can sense that her parents' relationship, once fun-loving, is starting to get strained. Kate's maternal grandmother comes to visit and ends up staying indefinitely. After taking a second job to make ends meet, Kate's mother is stressed enough, and the addition of her own mother to the household only causes more problems.

Sometimes, all it takes is a good or bad conversation, even one that's ten seconds long, to change your mind and your feelings. Elizabeth Scott (Bloom) writes dialogue that sounds very true to life and very true to teens - remarkably, with minimal swearing and slang. A quick exchange of words with Anna and Kate thinks they are friends again, then a blatant snub in the hallway makes her heart sink. It's hard to have a friend "outgrow" you or otherwise leave you behind. I like that they drifted apart due to their own changes (well, Anna wanting something more and changing herself) rather than being torn apart by some devastating, earth-shattering event. Nevertheless, it still felt devastating to Kate.

By the end of the book, things in Kate's home have changed yet again, and her relationships with Anna and Will are totally different than they were at the beginning of the school year. Kate has to decide whether to hang on or move on.

5 out of 5 stars

Perfect You- a Perfect Book April 9, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

PERFECT YOU by Elizabeth Scott is the perfect book. When I started reading I wondered how I could ever relate to Kate, whose life was spinning out of control when her Dad quit his job to try and sell vitamins in a mall. As her life crumbles and evaporates- her best friend no longer speaks to her, her family is dysfunctional at best, her home is slipping away- she is beset with doubts and pursued by a guy who might just be a player. During this collapse of all she held near and dear - we begin to see her strength. She is afraid of living her life as it has become and she longs for normalcy- and instead gains such an insight into herself and her friends that we have to rejoice. The ending is clever and a gifted concept. I truly loved this book. It is well written and funny and quirky. I feel we, the reader, should learn something about ourselves, our relationships and the realities of life from every book we read. This book delivers. Yes I cried, my friends know I do that a lot, I laughed, and I thought of how I can be a better friend and eventually a better girlfriend. There is not a word of this book I would have changed and I highly recommend it.

5 out of 5 stars

The Compulsive Reader's Reviews April 10, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

Kate's sophomore year hasn't been the best so far. Her only close friend has stopped speaking her after she lost 90 pounds and made friends with the popular crowd. Her father quits his job to sell cheesy, overpriced vitamins, and money is so tight that her wealthy nightmare of a grandmother moves in, causing even more tension at home.

Her whole life seems to be falling apart around her, but strangely enough, obnoxious Will Miller seems to be paying quite a lot of attention to Kate. But is he looking for an actual relationship or just another meaningless hook-up for which he is notorious for?

Here is a novel full of loyalty, laughter, anger, and tears. Every sort of insecure feeling that you've ever felt is artfully channeled through Perfect You in such a way that each and every reader can make an instant connection with Kate. Her fears, hopes, and expectations are tangible and are those that you can easily empathize with, making her triumphs over each insecurity all the more satisfying. Scott's portrayal of first love is confusing, exhilarating, and refreshing, and readers will delight in the verbal sparring between Kate and Will as they try to find a happy medium. This is the type of novel that will cause you to smile just as quickly as it will make you sad. Wholesome and substantial, Perfect You is as real as it gets.

5 out of 5 stars

Charming, humorous, and utterly satisfying July 25, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

Elizabeth Scott's second novel is just as poignant and addictive to read as her well-reviewed debut, BLOOM --- perhaps even more so. In the year since BLOOM's publication, Scott has clearly honed her skills, crafting a tighter story that fluently captures the anxieties of talking to (let alone trusting) a first crush, the self-deprecation and anguish of losing a best friend, and the bemusement that comes with having to parent...your parents.

But what does all of this have to do with vitamins?

It all started when Kate's father quit his job at a prestigious software company because his desk had broken in half. He figured it was a sign. Not even a month later, he cashed in his retirement fund to purchase boxes full of infomercial vitamins called "Perfect You." His plan? To buy a booth at the mall and sell them to anyone who would take the bait --- with Kate's help, of course.

So instead of going to parties with her friends and cheering for her boyfriend on the basketball team, Kate is stuck trying to hide her mortification when her father wears his B-Buzz vitamin bee costume during her shift, or worse yet, when he gets thrown out of the Sports Shack for pushing vitamins on their customers. But wait. Kate doesn't have a boyfriend. Nor does she have any friends aside from the three Jennifers who are so busy competing to be each other's best friend that they barely notice her.

Granted, Kate's life hadn't always been so terrible. Prior to her sophomore year, she spent every waking second with her best friend, Anna, who never seemed to care what anyone else thought --- at least not until hunky Sam, the boy Anna had been in love with for forever, called her a "wide load."

After that, everything changed. Anna came back from her summer in Maine, determined to be a different person. She was blonde, 70 pounds thinner and suddenly popular, which, of course, meant No More Kate. So for the first few months of 10th grade, Kate spends every day alone --- that is, until Sam's cute friend, Will, kisses her behind the dumpsters at the mall.

In the chapters that follow, Kate bumbles through a series of crushing setbacks (Anna delivers one too many blows to her dwindling self-worth, her parents separate due to her father's seemingly endless mid-life crisis, Will asks her out on a date --- to humiliate her?) before ultimately crumbling in defeat.

But, as those who liked Scott's first novel are aware, Kate's story is far from over despite the trauma she has endured, and readers will breeze through the last few chapters with genuine pleasure.

PERFECT YOU has just the right combination of humor, charm and weight to satisfy old fans and win over new ones. Its rich characters --- especially haughty but wise Grandma --- are brimming with quirky idiosyncrasies meant to both irritate and please. Like in BLOOM, Scott navigates familial dysfunction and teen melodrama with aplomb, and teens will eat up what develops when Kate and Will finally "get real" at the end.

--- Reviewed by Alexis Burling

5 out of 5 stars

Perfect Book:) July 31, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful

I absolutely fell in love with this book. It was so cute and heart felt and funny.

Okay, the narrator of this story, Kate Brown has been having a sucky year. Her best friend got a new look and dumped her for new friends, popularity, and a hot boyfriend. Her brother is moving back in, and then her dad quits his job to sell Perfect You vitamins and her sassy tongued grandmother comes to live with them indefinitely. And to top it all off, Will Miller, the "King of hook-ups", takes an interest in her and starts to talk to her. Kate acts like she hates the guy but she actually has a crush on him, but is too stubborn to admit it.

Then later in the book, her parents' relationship is strained, her ex-best friend is talking to her again, but is she really trying to be friends again? AND then Will asks her out, and she doesn't know what to believe anymore.

Anyways, this book was about how changes can be a good experience for you and that it won't necessarily ruin your life.

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