Catherine Clark (1) (1962–)

It's the first book I've read that was based on a show instead of a show based on a book.
and, of course, I really enjoyed it. But, I remember loving the show. It was one of the first gritty teen "coming of age" shows that didn't have a perfect family or a perfect beautiful "I tell my mom everything and never get angsty" lead person. It had Rickie and Sharon and struggles with sex (ugh, Jordan is cute but I just want to slug him for treating her like that)! It has drug addiction and absentee show more parents and...all of it.
I will save this for my daughter. It may not have cell phones or computers or any other electronic devices, but it has true teens and their struggles. And THAT always stands the test of time show less

A great contemporary YA novel about a young woman in high school who goes on a bike tour to honor her injured best friend. Just enough romance to satisfy without overwhelming what this book is really about: the meaning of loyalty, discovering who you are, and learning to be a little more comfortable in your own skin. Loved the plot twists. And, of course, the list!

You know what? This whole thing was just... ugh.

So, I often talk about communication and how in YA books, the characters seem to have a notable lack of it. Guess what? In this book, there wasn't!

Yes, one teenager (Mikayla) communicated with another (Lucy) about a problem (Jackson) that might affect the other teenagers life before it was irreversible!

And Lucy was all like, "Oh it's fine if you date Jackson, I'm cool with him as a person now. I am completely okay with this."

But guess what? She show more wasn't.

I feel like this was book was about how Mikayla was a terrible, self-centered friend when Mikayla was actually cool and it was LUCY who was the terrible, self-centered friend who refused to communicate.

But this whole book was Lucy being pissed off at Mikayla about Jackson and I was SO ANNOYED with Lucy because, damn girl, Mikayla asked if you if it was okay and you said it was! Moreover, as soon as Mikayla knew that she and JAckson were likely to be in a relationship, she talked to you about it! It wasn't as if they'd been dating for two weeks when she told you. No. She had had a crush on him for two weeks, but she hadn't been dating him.

I just couldn't empathize with Lucy's upset and she completely pissed me off because she HAD NO DAMN THING to be upset about. show less

I feel like this book should go into a category called Perfect Beach Reads or something catchier. Picture Perfect is one of those cute, quick reads that you don’t have to concentrate too hard to catch everything. That kind of sounds like a back-handed compliment, but that is not the way I intended it.

The story was a pretty cool idea of summer vacation with family and friends all getting together in one big house. I always thought it would be kind of cool to do that growing up. When we went show more on vacation with just the immediate family, which was still awesome. The whole group aspect though seems like fun (this coming from a massive introvert).

I was pretty unimpressed by the chemistry between Emily and Spencer. They seemed to forced and the situations that pushed them together were way too contrived to work naturally with the flow of the book. I’m positive that I rolled my eyes more than once when they were together.

Blake sucked and that was before he acted like a jerk. I really hate the word y’all (which he says a lot). I went to school in SC and I’ve had enough of that accent; it’s not adorable to me. Moral of the story, guys will still act like idiots no matter what the age difference is or how mature they seem to be. That may sound bitter or cynical, but it’s not meant to. That was actually what I got from the book.

I did enjoy Picture Perfect overall. It was a quick read; only took me a few hours to read. If you’re looking for the standard young adult contemporary, quick read then Picture Perfect is pretty perfect for you.

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