Life is not meant to be flawless
As I really enjoyed Flawed by Cecelia Ahern I was thrilled when I was given the opportunity to read the sequel before its publication. I tried my luck requesting it on NetGalley and was thrilled when they said yes. For those of you who aren’t aware Cecelia Ahern has decided to venture out of her adult fiction world and try her writing skills at Young Adult dystopian. The first in this attempt was Flawed which was a fast paced and enjoyable read and I was hoping that Perfect would live up to my expectations.
As I enjoy Ahern’s writing style and I knew I would enjoy Perfect. It has the same pacey style to the writing that makes this a one sitting kind of read. Celestine North has been branded flawed, not only this but she has received the most brands in all history. All she did was use her compassion and logic to help an old Flawed man on a bus. Yet in Celestine’s corrupted society, this is illegal and this one act has transformed her life. Now on the run from the revenge possessed, Judge Creven Celestine must figure out who she is and what defines her, the brands or her choices.
I really like Celestine, in the first book her logical way of looking at things was surprisingly helpful. She was as I put in my first review always slightly too trusting and I was pleased she seemed to be working on this in this concluding book. Due to the first person narrative, it moved along at a fast reading pace and you do just want to keep turning the pages. Unfortunately using the first person narrative when your heroine is on the run makes some of the other characters lose their identify, I would have loved a bit more character development especially on Celestine’s family and Carrick with his. The other downside of the first person narrative is that it feels like Celestine has all the light bulb moments. Yes, we know she is logical but sometimes it borders on psychic with the way she figures things out.
Despite these issues, I was hooked. I love the way Ahern writes and she has managed to move seamlessly into a young adult style of writing. Many scenes are just as brutal as the first book. Reliving the branding scene from Flawed was just as difficult and rage inducing to go through again. Like before I stayed up way to late and I devoured the book desperately; the tension although sometimes a bit stuttering stayed high enough that I needed to know where she was taking the story. Ahern had me second-guessing myself most of the first half and my heart was in my mouth on several occasions. Naturally a strong moral runs through the story about loving people despite their flaws, learning from your mistakes and importantly loving yourself regardless of how the world defines you. Ahern really knows how to make me sob with shock and sadness as of yet I haven’t made it through one of her books without crying.
I really like Celestine, in the first book her logical way of looking at things was surprisingly helpful. She was as I put in my first review always slightly too trusting and I was pleased she seemed to be working on this in this concluding book. Due to the first person narrative, it moved along at a fast reading pace and you do just want to keep turning the pages. Unfortunately using the first person narrative when your heroine is on the run makes some of the other characters lose their identify, I would have loved a bit more character development especially on Celestine’s family and Carrick with his. The other downside of the first person narrative is that it feels like Celestine has all the light bulb moments. Yes, we know she is logical but sometimes it borders on psychic with the way she figures things out.
Despite these issues, I was hooked. I love the way Ahern writes and she has managed to move seamlessly into a young adult style of writing. Many scenes are just as brutal as the first book. Reliving the branding scene from Flawed was just as difficult and rage inducing to go through again. Like before I stayed up way to late and I devoured the book desperately; the tension although sometimes a bit stuttering stayed high enough that I needed to know where she was taking the story. Ahern had me second-guessing myself most of the first half and my heart was in my mouth on several occasions. Naturally a strong moral runs through the story about loving people despite their flaws, learning from your mistakes and importantly loving yourself regardless of how the world defines you. Ahern really knows how to make me sob with shock and sadness as of yet I haven’t made it through one of her books without crying.
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