Faking Perfect Review

Faking Perfect
Rebecca Phillips
Kensington
June 30, 2015
3/5
Quotes: 

“He made me feel uneasy, unbalanced, alive. He made me feel wanted.”
“I didn’t love Tyler Flynn, I didn’t even like him.”
“First you steal my rum and now my cigs,” Tyler said indignant. “What’s next? You want my wallet? My heart? No wait…you already stole that.”
“I missed the exhilaration and buzz I felt around him, even when we were fighting.”

Rebecca Phillips has created a light and fast paced coming-of-age story. This is a book very fitting for a quick read while spending the day at the beach. It’s not my favorite book, but it does keep your interest.

Faking Perfect follows Lexi Shaw, a girl who is constantly pretending to be something she’s not. By day, she follows her little clique of seemingly perfect straight A students, by night she deals with her alcoholic mother and has a strictly sexual relationship with bad boy drug dealer Tyler Flynn. She has strict rules that Tyler must follow including: not teasing her about her crush on her friend Ben, not telling anyone about them, and avoiding her at school. Lexi gets thrown a curve ball when she learns that her father, who her mom said was dead, is really alive and now has a new family. She must make the choice regarding him and her future in general.

Lexi is a fairly annoying character. Honestly, you don’t end up liking her very much. She just seems selfish and obnoxious to me. I love her best friend, the geeky yet cool Nolan and also his mom, who takes care of Lexi better than her own mom. Her friend Shelby is also a funny and memorable character. My favorite adult is probably her father Eric because we don’t see enough of Nolan’s mom. Ben and her other fake friends are annoying to say the least. I love Tyler a lot and would have loved to see him more in the book.

There’s a bit of a love triangle happening here. But it’s still obvious who she’s going to end up with. Despite this, it still takes her forever to wake up and realize who she belongs with, which is naturally very frustrating. I like her relationship with Tyler because although he has a bad reputation, how he treats her doesn’t reflect that at all. She feels safe with him and that makes me truly appreciate the relationship as it grows into something more than physical. Tyler is charming but I definitely want to know more about him. There’s a big gap in many pages where Tyler is missing due to Lexi freaking out that he’s gotten to attached and that’s the time the love triangle actually shows up. But I do believe that had to happen since she obviously isn’t going to change her mind instantly and run to Tyler, she had to come to terms with her feelings on her own.

I would recommend this to those who love light and fast paced novels. This isn’t a heavy book by any means, it didn’t take me long at all to complete it and I doubt anyone else would take that long with it either. This is a relatable coming-of-age story that doesn’t beat around the bush longer than it should, it gets to the point fast enough. This is a book you should pick up and read sometime this summer!