Simple Perfection

To put it lightly, this book completely wrecked me. Yes, I've read an Abbi Glines book before and I know she is known for her angst, and heartbreak. But this was that on a whole new level for me. And it wasn't all just Woods and Della causing my heart to constrict. Now, because I'm a HUGE Abbi Glines fan I have watched most of her ustreams and I heard her say that there were twist and turns in Simple Perfection that no one saw coming. So me, being the cocky reader that I am thought "oh it's nothing I haven't read before." Ummm... wrong. I didn't see any of her twists and turns coming and at the end I was left feeling a bit flabbergasted. I literally had no clue that she was going to take the series where she did. And while I understood show more it, it kinda broke my heart. But no worries, the heartbreak feeling wasn't towards Woods and Della... at least not at the end.

"She is my perfection. She holds my heart in her hands. When she hurts it brings me to my knees."
~Woods

We pick up almost right where Twisted Perfection left off. Woods is now head of the company and the house since his father has passed away and he an enormous amount of new responsibilities. His only stabilizer is Della. A little ironic, since she believes that she is the one upending his life and being a burden. Throughout the whole book, the love between Della and Woods is so palpable. Despite their ups and downs I didn't for a second believe their feelings ever wavered. But a misunderstanding causes Della to begin a journey of self-discovery, away from Rosemary Beach. This book was all about growth. Della finally breaks out on her own, and finds the person she was always meant to be, a strong, willful young woman. And Woods, despite his wants, lets her break out of her sheltered character on her own. I was really surprised at Woods' journey through this. Yes, it was mostly about Della finding herself, but Woods experienced a lot of trials as well. But, I think if they hadn't found a way to break free of their demons they would have come to a stalemate in their relationship, as well as their lives in general.

"What if I was strong after all? What if, underneath all that fear, I had buried someone deep inside who was brave and could take on life without someone to lean on?"
~Della

Woods is such a magnificent character. I want to go up to all the guys I know and make them read these books and say "hey, this is how a guy is supposed to act." Also, can I just say that despite the deeper, more meaningful parts of this book, the chemistry between Della and Woods is disgustingly hot, and magnetic. Like, if there were ever a book that I wanted to be my life... this might be the one. Granted, these two have gone through hell but, they also found each other and personally I think that is karma's works at its best. As for the other characters in the Rosemary Beach world. We get glimpses of fan faves Rush and Blair :D as well as the rest of the crew. One of the aforementioned, heartbreaking parts is a major upset in the group. I won't spoil it but, I seriously didn't think Ms. Glines was going to go through with what she started. I could not breath while reading the scene, and once it was over I had to set down my e-reader and take the rest of the day off from reading. It has its purpose, but it still sucked... big time. All in all, Abbi Glines has written another masterpiece. She delivers a superior story that both melted my heart and made me outright cry. And this is definitely a must read for 2013!

Happy Reading! show less

Oh. My.

This book was not good. It wasn't absolutely horrible, but some of the things it seemed to promote were.

As with the previous book in the series, this novel deals with the heroine's fear of becoming mentally ill like the other women in her family. As with that book, it is filled with stigma about mental illness. The idea that mental illness signifies a weak individual was something that was stated over and over again. And when the character finds out that she isn't going to inherit a mental illness, she makes a miraculous recovery from her anxiety and night terrors because apparently the only reason that she had them was the apprehension about one day becoming like those other family members. This dismisses the fact that not show more everyone with a mental illness is genetically predisposed to them. (Some mental illness is caused by trauma.) It almost felt like Glines couldn't figure out how to give Della a happy ending if Della would one day have a psychiatric disorder, so she gave her this out. To me, that was a weak move. It weakened the entire "plot" of the story, which I already found wanting.

The book also deals with issues like adoption. Did you know that a person not being biologically related to you means that they aren't actually your parent? I've heard that argument from petulant children, but not from adults. It was a bit surprising to see an adult talking about adoptive parents not really being parents. Of course, this character also felt the biological parents were not really parents. It almost felt like a philosophical discussion à la chicken and the egg, except that the book wasn't high enough quality for it to actually be a philosophical discussion. Instead it just felt like a perpetually whiny character being whiny.

There was also more of the "girls shouldn't be having sex or talking to boys that they aren't in relationships with" stuff. Basically, boys can have all the sex that they want and they can have friendships with girls they aren't dating, but for a girl to do that is wrong. It perpetuates the idea that women are in some way owned by men. That kind of idea should be disturbing to all men and women. Ownership is not love and love is not ownership.

Both narrators need some serious counseling. Their codependency and other psychological issues are as horrifying as they are entertaining, much like a car crash. I know I've used that example in other bad books, but that's seriously what it is like.

The actual writing style, grammar, etc. is definitely in need of work. There are some really serious issues. I don't know if the writer meant for the characters to occasionally slip into stereotypical hick language usage, but it happened...quite a lot. It also seemed to happen a lot for boys who went to a boarding school. Unless they were being educated by the Duck Dynasty guys or Charlie Daniels or George W. Bush, their language use was not what I would expect from guys who'd had a quality education.

The book also lacked a real plot, but that didn't really surprise me since the first one was also a bit on the plotless side. It was dull and annoying and I felt little empathy with the characters. I did cry at one point, but I cry pretty easily sometimes so I wouldn't take my crying as being indicative of the book being worthy of praise. It definitely isn't.

I would only recommend this book to people who don't care about grammar, don't mind if a plot is missing, think that women can be owned by their significant others, and think that the mentally ill are somehow weak, defective, or deserving of being mistreated. If those things apply to you, then you should probably read this book. You also should never speak to me. show less

Ok first off let me just say, Holy Hell that was good. There is one part in this book that seriously pisses me off, when you read it you'll know what I'm talking about. I mean after the said part that pisses me off there is another part that made me see why but still all I can say WHY, ABBI, WHY!!!!
But that said it was still really, really good. If you have not yet started any of Abbi's Rosemary Beach novels( Fallen Too Far series and Perfection series) then you need to start. But FYI get some tissues ready.
Now I really can't wait till Grant 's story.
Thank You Abbi for another great book, your soooo good at making me want more.

Review:
Once again Abbi Glines grips me with her storytelling.

I love both Woods and Della, although I loved Della a little more than Woods in this one. Both have their strengths and weaknesses, for Woods, that is Della. He's terrified to leave her alone in case she needs him. And he tries to shelter her from his awful mother. I admire Della for standing up for herself and her health. I think that is a major plus on her character. She’s always viewed as this fragile object that will break. She’s stronger than either she, or Woods, knows.

Simple Perfection is a fast read. It’s one of those that you can’t put down. And I flew through it. There are some awful things that take place in this book, and leave you feeling deflated. But show more there are times when you are cheering the character on when they realize that they are in fact pretty awesome.

If you are a fan of Abbi Glines’s books, definitely read this one. I love how this circle of friends is so close. show less

Abbi Glines has yet to write a book I haven't loved!
It's the perfect mix of Drama, Love & Sex.
I knew that Della was gonna run it was just how she thought things had to be. There's a news dropped on Della that I didn't see coming that changes everything. When tragedy strikes I heart broken along with the rest of the characters. With this tragedy comes out a secret that was shocking. Lots of hot sex.
Fabulous ending.

So this book was BRILLIANT.. along with every other book in this series. I loved every character in this book but, I am not giving this book a 5 for one reason

WHY THE HELL DID JACE HAVE TO DIE? I understand the whole Tripp thing but, couldn't they have put him with someone else maybe he could have been the one to change freakin NAN.

I think this series is great and I loved reading Woods and Della's ending. It was brilliantly written and I hate Angelina almost as much as I hate that damn NAN.

Della Sloane não é uma garota comum. Ansiando se libertar do seu passado sombrio e traumático, ela planeja uma longa viagem de carro em busca de autoconhecimento e dos prazeres da vida real. Seu plano, no entanto, logo encontra um obstáculo: o automóvel fica sem gasolina em Rosemary, na Flórida, uma cidadezinha praiana no meio do nada.
Neste cenário, ela conhece o jovem Woods Kerrington, muito disposto a ajudar uma menina bonita em apuros. O que ela não sabe é que Woods é o herdeiro do country club Kerrington e está de casamento marcado com Angelina Greystone, uma união arranjada que culminará na fusão de suas empresas, garantindo o futuro profissional do rapaz.