ARC Review | Finding Perfect by Kendra C. Highley

Title: Finding Perfect
Author: Kendra C. Highley
Publication: September 14th 2015 by Entangled Crush
Format: Advance Reading Copy
Source: Provided by the publisher via NetGalley
ISBN: 9781943892433

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How far will you go for perfection?

For “Perfect Paige” Westfield, today is “D” Day. As in, she just got one on her calculus test. With her dreams of Stanford, her reputation, and her parents’ expectations at stake, Paige needs to find a way to save face before everything she’s worked for goes up in flames.

Ben Franklin (yes, he’s related) is from the wrong side of town, with the wrong clothes and the wrong kind of life. He also knows an opportunity when he sees one, and he’ll be happy to tutor Paige—if she makes him into the kind of guy her best friend, the hottest girl in school, will date.

It’s the perfect arrangement. And Paige is determined not even the inconvenient—and utterly imperfect—attraction simmering between her and Ben will ruin it…

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I received a digital ARC of this book from Entangled Publishing via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. By no means have my review been affected and/or influenced.

Finding Perfect had me at it’s synopsis. I know it isn’t something new; girl sets up boy for her friend but falls for boy instead. How complicated, right? And how very YA Contemporary Romance. (The cover alone, which I absolutely love with that touch of purple, already screams Contemporary Romance.)

To be honest, I thought I knew where this story was headed. If you didn’t get the hint already, Paige is the girl with a perfectly planned future ahead of her… then she gets a D in Calculus. Enter Ben Franklin, math genius. He offers to tutor her, in exchange, she’ll have to set him up to date the most popular girl in school, her best friend, Zoey.

Paige’s character is something that you’ll root for all the way to the end. She’s intelligent, hard working and kind-hearted. But the thing about her is she isn’t confident about herself. She always seeks her parents approval and let’s them control her life. She finds it hard to say no and doesn’t see how amazing she is. On the other hand, Ben isn’t exactly Paige’s opposite. He is just like Paige in some ways. He has low self-esteem and thinks he’s not good enough (not rich enough) to be associated with people like Zoey, or Paige. But unlike Paige, he finds motivation in those things.

These characters may sound like the YA Contemporary (high school) stereotypes. It’s a risk to have characters with labels like “the popular girl”, “the smart one”, the “geek” or even “the uptight parents” because such labels takes away the chance of having these characters have their own identity but in Finding Perfect, every character has depth and isn’t defined by the label alone.

The only trouble I had with this book is that it is narrated in the 3rd person POV (alternating between Paige and Ben). It took a little while for me to get around with it but a few chapters in, I got used to it. And I didn’t have to be reminded to which POV I’m currently reading because both Paige and Ben each have a distinct voice of their own.

But all in all, Finding Perfect is my kind of Contemporary Romance. Perfect for those who are looking for a sweet, light and a little complicated read.

Rating:

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• Character Development – Paige and Ben’s character weren’t perfect to begin with but they weren’t perfect either in the end, but they were better.

• Cute Romance – Finding Perfect is definitely a book I’d automatically put on my want to read list if I’m looking for a book with the right amount of swoon with a less amount of cheese.

• Epilogue – The book’s epilogue was a tease! It’s in Zoey’s POV and it seems like it’s a beginning of a new story. I’m not really sure if there will be a next book but I definitely want one.

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Book description and cover image from Goodreads