Monday, January 12, 2015

Perfect Couple ~ Jennifer Echols (arc) Tour Review [@jenniferechols @The_FFBC]


Perfect Couple (Superlatives #2)
Simon Pulse
January 13, 2015
336 pages
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Perfect Couple is #2 in the Superlatives series about seniors at a Florida high school who are selected for their class's superlative categories in the yearbook, and how the labels change the way they view themselves and alter the course of their lives.

Can your heart be put to a popular vote?

As yearbook photographer, Harper is responsible for capturing those candid moments that make high school memorable. But her own life is anything but picture perfect. Her parents' bitter divorce has left her wondering what a loving relationship would look like. And ever since the senior class voted her and star quarterback Brody the “Perfect Couple That Never Was,” her friends have been on her case to ask Brody out.

Brody doesn’t lack in female admirers, but Harper can't see herself with him. He seems confused about why they were matched together, too. They’re total opposites—the last people in the world who would ever be compatible, let alone the “perfect couple.” Yet ever since the class paired the two of them, they've found themselves drawn together--first by curiosity, then by an undeniable bond.

The trouble is, though they're very attracted to each other and both of them admit this, they have a hard time getting along or even communicating clearly. If they’re the perfect couple, this shouldn’t be so difficult! Soon it becomes clear their class was wrong, and they throw in the towel. But after they walk away, both of them feel so changed from making the effort that they can’t forget each other. What if that means this match made in hell is the perfect couple after all?
Review:

Jennifer Echols' Perfect Couple is the second book in the Superlatives series (after Biggest Flirts), but don't worry if you haven't read that first book yet. Each book revolves around two seniors in a St Pete, Florida area high school chosen as their classes Most Likely to (fill in the blank). As classmates and friends, they are in each other's lives - and books.

Each book is focused on two characters, though, so if you haven't read the first book, that's okay. You may know the characters better if you have read Biggest Flirts but you don't feel like you're missing anything if you haven't (I haven't, yet).

Perfect Couple is a fun YA romance. The characters seem like complete opposites, cannot understand why the class picked them . . . and yet they seem drawn to each other.

Both Brody and Harper's characters are a lot of fun to read about and to discover more about. Brody is not the stereotypical jock, but he's also not the (almost) stereotypical really-is-a-softie-and-so-sensitive guy the 'jcoks' in books can turn out to be. He's somewhere in between and it's fun as a reader to try discovering - at the same time Harper is - just where that 'in between' is. He's not perfect, but he's overly flawed, either.

Harper has an image at school she's worked to cultivate. People know her as the photographer (for the yearbook and more), they know her for her fashion choices. They don't know all of her. And maybe she doesn't, either. With her mother running a B&B, her parents' divorce still pending, a boyfriend she wants to be a perfect fit and now the Perfect Couple business, Harper has a lot to figure out.

Harper was a hard character for me to get a handle on. I liked how she fit in with her friends, the thoughts she had around her future, her parents and her relationship with her mother. It was hard to be sure who she was and why she was doing some things, though. I do think some of that was due to her own uncertainty about herself.

I very much liked Perfect Couple as a whole, it was a fun novel. I was not quite as in love with Harper or Brody and Harper, however. Some parts of Brody's personality, while fitting him, didn't quite work for me when it came to him and Harper. I think, if I had been more sure of her and who she was, her reaction to those things would have worked, As it was, some parts didn't quite click.

I really enjoyed the inclusion of their friends and classmates and what they added to the story. The characters at the center of Most Likely to Succeed were two I liked in this story and I'm excited by the potential of their story. I'm also hoping to see Brody and Harper in the third book and 'getting' them more.






Quote:

"...If he didn't remember that, we needed to have a talk about what he did remember, and what year it was, and whether he should be allowed to live alone and own a microwave oven."


The Series:


Biggest Flirts (out now)
Perfect Couple (January 13th)
Most Likely to Succeed (coming August '15) 


About the Author
Jennifer Echols was born in Atlanta and grew up in a small town on a beautiful lake in Alabama—a setting that has inspired many of her books. She has written nine romantic novels for young adults, including the comedy MAJOR CRUSH, which won the National Readers’ Choice Award, and the drama GOING TOO FAR, which was a finalist in the RITA, the National Readers’ Choice Award, and the Book Buyer’s Best, and was nominated by the American Library Association as a Best Book for Young Adults. Simon & Schuster will debut her adult romance novels in 2013, with many more teen novels scheduled for the next few years. She lives in Birmingham with her husband and her son.

author's: Website / Blog / Instagram

Giveaway:

Details: Win (1) of (5) books in the Superlatives series: BIGGEST FLIRTS (Superlatives #1) or PERFECT COUPLE Superlatives #2) by Jennifer Echols (US Only)

**See all terms & conditions in the Rafflecopter.
a Rafflecopter giveaway


Direct Link: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/share-code/ZDk2ODFiODY3NDEwM2NiMjgzNjI4NzAwNDkzZTRhOjgy/?






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