harpercollins

Title: Perfect (Flawed #2)

Author: Cecelia Ahern

Published: April 6th, 2017

Publisher: Harper Collins Children’s Books

Find the Author: Goodreads

I received this book for review on my blog! As always, my reviews are fair and unbiased.

The thrilling, shocking and romantic sequel to the bestselling YA debut FLAWED is finally here. When we embrace all our flaws, that’s when we can finally become PERFECT…

Celestine North lives in a society that demands perfection. After she was branded Flawed by a morality court, Celestine’s life has completely fractured – all her freedoms gone.

Since Judge Crevan has declared her the number one threat to the public, she has been a ghost, on the run with the complicated, powerfully attractive Carrick, the only person she can trust. But Celestine has a secret – one that could bring the entire Flawed system crumbling to the ground.

Judge Crevan is gaining the upper hand, and time is running out for Celestine. With tensions building, Celestine must make a choice: save only herself, or risk her life to save all the Flawed. And, most important of all, can she prove that to be human in itself is to be Flawed…?

Review

I am a HUGE fan of Cecelia’s books, and have been since the day I read Where Rainbows End many years ago. Since then, her writing style has remained one of my all time favourites. I’ve always thought she fitted the Adult fiction world so flawlessly, but after reading Flawed last year, I knew she was a total contender to be a hit author in the YA league as well. I was so over the moon to be invited to be part of the Perfect tour that I actually did a small happy dance.

Where we left off in Flawed, Celestine had a perfect life. She never put a foot out of place and was so well loved by everyone. So when she makes an impulsive decision when she encounters something she can’t ignore, the remnants of her life turn upside down. She could now be found flawed and imprisoned. Now in Perfect, Celestine knows that the society she lives in, the one that requires absolute perfection, has turned her back on her after she was found flawed by the court. Everything in her life she knew like the back of her hand has been totally shattered. With a target on her back after being deemed a threat to their society, Celestine has gone on the run with the only person she can trust, Carrick, but that’s just the beginning of what’s going to happen to her life. Her secrets could bring an end to the entire Flawed reality, and faced with the options of rescuing herself or the entire Flawed, she knows that there’s a thin line between being Flawed and just human.

Perfect delivers an incredible follow up to Flawed. Not only does Cecelia’s writing soar beautifully, but my expectations were exceeded and blown away. Celestine is a fresh, brave and intricately foolproof character. I love how not only did the story take some turns that surprised me (emotionally and powerfully), but the love triangle was effortlessly done. The romance in YA literature, especially utopian and dystopian, can sometimes be cliche and come undone, but Cecelia knows her way around a gorgeous romance highlight to a story and she wrote it brilliantly.

Overall, Perfect was the perfect (pun intended) end to this duology. I thoroughly found it engrossing and a unique turn on the dystopian genre. Celestine was such a memorable character and until I picked Perfect up after reading Flawed last year, I forgot just how much I loved reading about her. Cecelia never fails to impress! 5 stars.

Tips for World Building by Cecelia Ahern

I wrote Flawed in 6 weeks which is the fastest time I’ve ever written a novel. I felt so passionately about the story, it just flooded out. However I wrote it without there being a very strong sense of place. I understood my character and the story but the first draft had no real feeling for where it was set. During the editing process I went on a city break to Prague with my husband and as soon as I set foot in the city I realised I had found my world for Flawed and Perfect. While my novels are set in a fictional country named Humming, in the capital city Highland, the city has a history and aesthetic very similar to Prague. I loved that it had darkness but also a fairy tale quality. It had so much history, it had experienced great turmoil and also had great beauty. From the medieval palace to the baroque bridges, its town square with the astronomical clock that reveals the Walk of the Apostles on the hour, ending with the figure of death ringing the hour, to its fairytale houses surrounding the palace, I knew I had found a place that fit Celestine’s town. A place that had suffered in the past, a modern city rich with history, that was dark and light, and had many stories to tell.

Cecelia Ahern was born and grew up in Dublin. She is now published in nearly fifty countries, and has sold over twenty-five million copies of her novels worldwide. Two of her books have been adapted as films and she has created several TV series.

What did you think of the Flawed series?

Let me know in the comments, by using #PerfectlyFlawed on social media and don’t forget to stop by all the stops on this tour! I’m so honoured to be part of it.

happy reading!

Title: Dumplin’

Author: Julie Murphy

Published: January 28th, 2016

Publisher: Balzer & Bray

Find the Author: Goodreads

I received this book for review! As always, my reviews are fair and unbiased.

Self-proclaimed fat girl Willowdean Dickson (dubbed “Dumplin’” by her former beauty queen mom) has always been at home in her own skin. Her thoughts on having the ultimate bikini body? Put a bikini on your body. With her all-American beauty best friend, Ellen, by her side, things have always worked . . . until Will takes a job at Harpy’s, the local fast-food joint. There she meets Private School Bo, a hot former jock. Will isn’t surprised to find herself attracted to Bo. But she is surprised when he seems to like her back.

Instead of finding new heights of self-assurance in her relationship with Bo, Will starts to doubt herself. So she sets out to take back her confidence by doing the most horrifying thing she can imagine: entering the Miss Clover City beauty pageant—along with several other unlikely candidates—to show the world that she deserves to be up there as much as any twiggy girl does. Along the way, she’ll shock the hell out of Clover City—and maybe herself most of all.

With starry Texas nights, red candy suckers, Dolly Parton songs, and a wildly unforgettable heroine— Dumplin’ is guaranteed to steal your heart.

When I first saw Dumplin’, I knew it was book love at first sight. Willowdean was such a bold, loveable character with a prismatic personality that made reading her story feel like watching your favourite movie (Dumplin’ the movie, anyone? YES). Will has always been fearless and confident in everything she did and with her best friend; Ellen, by her side, she always felt like she could take on the world.

So when Will takes a job at Harpy’s and meets the animated and charming Bo, she falls hard. But what she doesn’t expect is that Bo likes her back and might actually feel the same as she does. Even though he calls her beautiful and pays her attention, Willowdean can’t help but feel exact opposite of how she’s felt all her life about her body and sets out to find a way to reassure herself that she is beautiful and confident and does the thing that scares her the most. She enters the Miss Clover City beauty pageant, determined to take back her pride and maybe even change the town along the way.

What I loved about Dumplin’ went far beyond the characters and setting – it was the message of the book. As a curvy girl myself, Dumplin’ showed me that beauty, pride and stature didn’t come from being thin and popular, it came from being yourself and content with who you are, inside and out. That thin and fat and all the in-betweens are beautiful, especially that we don’t need anyone else’s reassurance or permission to be comfortable in your own skin. Even though no one will ever be constantly happy with their looks or how they feel outside and in, it’s okay to feel that way. So for me, Dumplin’ went beyond being a story about Willowdean, it was much, much more in every single way. It meant that beauty and confidence weren’t things you could buy or put on, it was a feeling that came with knowing the only person’s opinion that matters is our own – and you’re beautiful, just the way you are.

Overall, Dumplin’ goes far beyond a standard story. Through the red candy suckers, Dolly Parton songs, friendships and romances, Will was an extraordinary character with a powerful message that makes this book a bold, definite five-star read.