We are the Perfect Girl by Ariel Kaplan- Reshelved Books

Are you all ready for a YA review? 

I hope so!

Has anyone ever been in that position where you like this person (as does your best friend) and you feel that your best friend (or even a friend) would be a better fit for that person you like.  So, you do everything in your power to help get them with that person, all the while, you're getting closer to that person and it's starting to get harder to suppress the feelings that you have.  These feeling, of course, are getting more and more intense; which is only adding insult to injury. 

We are the Perfect Girl is about 17 year old Aphra Brown and her friend Bethany Newman and how when they join forces, they essentially create "the perfect girl".  

 Aphra and Bethany are TOTAL OPPOSITES; Aphra is loud and outspoken, witty and full of sass.  Bethany is quiet and timid, hesitant and beautiful.  This is how Aphra sees everything. 

At the beginning of the book, I didn't believe that Bethany was someone who was rather quiet and kept to herself.  

Bethany likes this guy named Greg.  Greg is like the total high school junior package.  He's very good looking, he's on the swim team, he's super smart and super linguistic.  Bethany is very taken with Greg but the problem is that she's shy! She can't bring herself to talk to anyone.  To help Bethany, Aphra tries coaching Bethany with what to say to Greg. 

While Aphra is trying to help Bethany get the guy; Aphra is working on her app for her computer class, which is slowly becoming a flop.  The coding for her app, isn't yielding the results that she was hoping for.  In an effort to save her project (which was 35% of her grade), Aphra starts to answer the anonymous advice seeker.  Before she knows it, Aphra is getting attached to this anonymous chatter and she quickly puts the pieces together and discovers that she's been chatting with Greg.

For as much as I wanted to get annoyed with Aphra's character, I knew that I couldn't.  At the end of the day, she's very relatable.  She's a junior in high school, she's the middle child, she's on crew, she likes the same guy her best friend does.  Not only that but she doesn't think she's pretty.  Her nose is the elephant in the room for her.  She feels that it's nose better fit for a man. 

As crazy as it sounds, Aphra's nose is a topic that comes up quite frequently in the book.  Aphra's addresses that her and her sister looked identical to each other before she had her surgery.  She also went on to change her hair and that really made sure they didn't look alike any longer.  (I can see how that would hurt someone.)  It's an issue that Aphra had such a strong reaction to, that she ends up having to see a therapist. 

Adding to her dimension, she's also a funny character.  I found myself laughing out loud a lot.  The beginning scene in the book was hilarious.  A floating "chicken cutlet" in the pool, is pretty funny.  

But I'm telling you, how the beginning of the book is laid out, makes you feel like Bethany is the outspoken one and that Aphra is the introvert.  

All of this being said... I give this book 4 coffee beans out of 5. 

- Jillian

10 Blind Dates by Ashely Elston- Reshelved Books

To quote The Bubble Guppies "What time is it?" It's time for a new review!

For some reason that is a little lost on me, holiday themed books come out in October... The library has been getting these holiday books this month and when I went to Barnes and Noble a few weeks ago, I was seeing them as new releases. 

Link to cover

10 Blind Dates is a fun and quirky YA book that is centered around the holidays!  The title wouldn't make you think about that but the cover art definitely does (once you notice the little ball of mistletoe).   This book also came out this month.  

Elston definitely was channeling quirkiness when she wrote this book.  Sophie is 17 years old, she's a high school senior, she's able to become an aunt!  She also is about to spend the next 2 weeks of her holiday break with her family three hours away.   Keep in mind, that this is family that Sophie feels she's grown away from in recent years.  As a result, Sophie decided that she wasn't going to stay with her family for as long.  She decided that she was going to stay home and then this way, she would be ale to spend time with Griffin, her boyfriend.

The night that her parents leave, is the night that Sophie decided she's going to tell Griffin the good news.  Sophie goes to a party to see and talk to Griffin when she overhears that Griffin doesn't find her to be fun anymore and that maybe, they should go on a break. 

WELL. 

Sophie gets upset and leaves the party.  Totally understandable! 

Now, this is where the quirkiness comes in.  After arriving at her grandparents house and telling Nonna what had happened and then sleeping on it for a night, Sophie wakes up to a surprise.  Nonna is going to set Sophie up on 2 weeks worth of dates!  Which would be a date every day that Sophie was there.  Different family members would set Sophie up a different dates with different boys. 

Think of it as speed dating. 

The idea is that all of these dates are going to help Sophie get over Griffin.

Will they work? Well.  You're just going to have to see for yourself! 

I'm going to give this book 4 coffee beans out of 5. 

~ Jillian