Perfect By Sara Shepard Book Review - Pretty Little Liars 3

In Rosewood, Pennsylvania, four perfect-looking girls aren't nearly as perfect as they seem.
Aria can't resist her forbidden ex. Hanna is on the verge of losing her BFF. Emily is freaking out over a simple kiss. And Spencer can't keep her hands off anything that belongs to her sister.

Lucky me. I know these pretty little liars better than they know themselves. But it's hard keeping all of their secrets to myself. They better do as I say . . . or else!

 

Holy…wow.  These books just keep getting better and better.

I read the first Pretty Little Liars book with some skepticism, but ended up finding it quite entertaining.  The second kept in that same vein, pouring on the shocks and scandal with A’s particular brand of torture.

They were nothing compared to Perfect.

Previously, A was more of a threat than anything.  A ton of bark, only a little bite.  Boy, does that change in this one.  It takes A a little longer to make her first appearance, but from there, it is a whirlwind of secrets revealed, lives ruined, and threats acted on that lead up to the most shocking moment in Pretty Little Liars thus far.

You will be tearing through the pages, and when you get to that last one, when you read the final chilling line…well, you’d just better have Unbelievable lined up.

Now, the girls; Aria, who is probably my favorite and the first to see that A really has no problem delivering on her threats, is in turmoil over her father, Byron’s, affair being found out.  She turns to her boyfriend for support and comfort, even while she’s obsessing over the English teacher she crossed quite a few lines with, Ezra.  I shouldn’t love a romantic interest who is a teacher dating his 16 year old student, but I kind of do.  He seems sincere in his affection for Aria, no matter how wrong it is.

Emily is such an amazing character in these books.  She’s dealing with her budding romance with her neighbor and best friend, Maya, and the confusion and fear that comes along with it.  Her parents show us just why she has such a screwed-up view on what it means to be gay; they see it as something horrible, no matter how natural it feels to their daughter.  I really, truly hate her parents in Perfect.  I hate how they represent so many ultra-conservative parents in real life who do nothing but ruin their children’s lives and sense of self.  I am really rooting for Emily and Maya.

We see something so much darker in Spencer in this one.  She still has her constant competition with her sister, especially when the plagiarized paper she turned in for a school assignment – which Melissa wrote – enters her in a very prestigious nationwide essay contest.  To add to her stress, she starts to remember bits and pieces of the night Ali went missing, things she blocked out for years.

Hanna is easily the character I have the most issues with.  I get it, she transformed from the Ugly Duck into the Beautiful Swan, but does the Swan have to be such a bitch?  She is just a bit too bratty to blame it all on her past.  Still, you can’t help but to feel for her with all she is put through in Perfect.  The world of perfection and control she worked so hard to build is crumbling around her faster than a house of cards, with A at its center.

The Pretty Little Liar books are just plain addictive and fun to read.  Anyone who has enjoyed the first two will devour the third with wide-eyed gusto.  It’s still got that element to it that makes it junk-food reading, but this series is one hell of a guilty pleasure.  One I’m starting to feel not-so-guilty for reading.

Perfect – 4 out of 5 stars.