Reviewed by Jaglvr for TeensReadToo.com

After finding his office destroyed (though there is never any explanation as to why it had been destroyed), Kate's father quits his job to follow his dream. And that dream is to sell Perfect You vitamins. At a stand in the middle of the mall. Could life get any worse?

For Kate, it can, and it does. Her best friend, Anna, will no longer speak to her. After spending the summer in Maine, Anna has come back gorgeous and is welcomed into the popular crowd. Anna snubs Kate in school, but in private strings her along, telling her that she knows Kate will always be there for her.

To add insult to injury, Kate learns that her mother has invited her grandmother to move in with them. Kate's grandmother has money, and Kate's family is now hurting financially due to her father's crazy dream.

And then there's Will. If everything else didn't already have Kate wound up, Will alone could've done that. Kate keeps pushing Will away before Will has the chance to mess with Kate's head.

During her sophomore year of high school, Kate has more than any 16-year-old should have to handle. PERFECT YOU is a story of one girl's struggle to fit in to a world that keeps changing. All Kate wants is the staid life she has come to know and expect. But no one else seems to realize that's the way it should be.

I have to admit that I was going to give this a 4 star rating. Kate was a bit annoying and constantly pushing people away. But the last fifty pages of the story changed my mind. Kate finally learned to stand up for herself and fight for what she wanted. Her grandmother and her brother finally made Kate realize that she was the one holding herself back.

If you are looking for a feel-good, easy teen novel, this is not the book for you. Ms. Scott writes a shockingly realistic look at how brutal life in high school can be. The story flows quickly and you do get caught up in the characters in the book. There are happy moments in the story, which I don't want to spoil, and you do want the best for Kate in the end. It takes Kate a while to come to terms with the changes in her life, but she does come out okay on the other side. ( )

It’s a great book. At the end when her parents split up and when Will first kissed her were the most compelling aspects. AHS/AB

I would say that it was a lot of fun to read, it was realistic and very believable and cute! I liked when Kate and Will went on their date and truly talked and didn’t just make out. I definitely wasn’t disappointed I thought the book was great. I really related to a lot of the characters, especially Kate. Her sense of humor, and hard-to-get personality was great! AHS/JH

It is about even when life gets you down it still goes on. When everything falls apart is the most compelling aspect. I like how it ended diff. than most. AHS/CK

Kate's life can't possibly get any worse. For starters, her dad quit his job to start selling vitamins in the mall, she's stuck helping him and, oh yeah, her former best friend acts like she doesn't exist anymore. Over the course of several months of the school year, Kate narrates what she's dealing with: school, friends, popularity, family, and just about everything life throws her way.

The characters and their struggles were very real, especially the main character's, but Kate gives away more than she realizes about others like her mother, her brother, and her crush. This was sometimes frustrating because I could usually figure out what was going on faster than Kate did. The other thing that frustrated me was how quickly Kate's problems are resolved. Up until then, a lot of her issues with friends and popularity had struck me as very real and problems I could relate to remembering my own teen years, so the sudden epiphany seemed a bit contrived. Other than that, I found this an enjoyable, realistic read about high school and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to teens. ( )

Full review at http://yannabe.com/2009/08/02/review-...

Summary: Kate lost her best friend to popularity. Any chance Kate had at being popular herself is about to evaporate when everyone finds out she’s working for her vitamin-selling dad at the mall. Unfortunately for Kate, gorgeous, popular Will is working at the mall too.

Review: The romantic scenes are what makes Scott’s books, in my opinion. Because dang, they’re good. The tension between Kate and Will was positively yummy.

This was my third Scott book, but it was still just okay for me. As with Bloom, this one had too much internal dialogue for my taste.

But I did get into the story, and the fact that I finished it says something nowadays! ( )

Kate's life has gone downhill fast. Her dad quit his job to sell vitamins at the mall, her 23 year old brother is living at home, her mom has to get another job, her best friend Anna acts like she doesnt exist, and Will... well Kate secretly likes him. And when her home problems get worse, she stops trying to be happy.
I wasnt impressed with this book. I thought it would be really good, but it was just... there. This book didnt have an impact on me, and its not at all like I had to read it. I did think Grandma had some good advice, and I could see the problems in Kate's life actually happening, but those are about the only good things I thought about this book. ( )