Thursday 29 January 2015

Book Review: Picture Perfect (Geek Girl #3) by Holly Smale


Goodreads Description:
"My name is Harriet Manners, and I'll always be a geek." It's the hilarious third book in the bestselling award-winning GEEK GIRL series! Harriet Manners knows more facts than most. She knows that New York is the most populous city in the United States. She knows that its official motto is 'Ever Upward'. She knows that one in thirty-eight people living in the US lives there. But she knows nothing whatsoever about modelling in the Big Apple and how her family will cope with life stateside. Or 'becoming a brand' as the models in New York say. And even more importantly, what to do when the big romantic gestures aren't coming your way from your boyfriend...Does geek girl go too far this time? The laugh out loud follow-up to award-winning debut GEEK GIRL and MODEL MISFIT will have you in stitches!



 

Title: Picture Perfect (Geek Girl #3
Author: Holly Smale
Genre: Contemporary, Romance, YA
Format: Paperback
Pages: 400 pages
Publisher: Harpercollins Children's Books
Source: Purchased from Big W


Harriet Manners and the gang are back!  

Picture Perfect is the third book in the Geek Girl series and like the previous books Harriet is back with her random facts as she sweep us into the world of modelling.



Picking up about six weeks since the last book ‘Model Misfit’ life for Harriet is changing... FAST! She's left modelling, is starting A-Levels, got a new baby sister, is turning 16 really soon and to top that her family moves across the pond to New York due to her dad, Richard's new job.


I had Welcome to New York playing in my head while reading this!

I adore reading about Harriet and this book is no exception! At first I found myself a bit frustrated with Harriet on how she acted a bratty and naïve but then I look back to my 16-year-old self and realised that’s probably how I’ll react in a situation like that (sorry Mum and Dad for being a pain in a neck if you’re reading this LOL).  It’s fun watching Harriet acting her age and actually rebelling as she was kind of a goody-two-shoes in the first two books and the start of this book.

Harriet is a head strong and intelligent girl though there were times where she was naïve and clueless in this book and the part that made me cringe was her giving into ‘peer pressure’. (Looking back 16-year-old me was freaking naïve and did at one point give into peer pressure… which is why I’m cringing as it’s a BAD mistake! *sigh* 21-year-old me is face palming at the memories). 

She goes trough a lot in this book like understanding her relationship with Nick, moving to a new country, dealing with a tutor that she hates as well as adjusting to her family's new situation. Harriet eventually handles the situations faced in Picture Perfect and matures trough the book with the help of her parents and Nick.

Speaking of her parents, they were absent through most of ‘Model Misfit’ so it was great to see them more involve in this book. Both Richard and Annabel were great to read about and though they were out of place and forgetful in some parts of the book as well as neglecting Harriet at some points, I don’t blame them as they just moved to a new country and had a new baby. Even so they managed to redeem themselves and help Harriet (and themselves) to their problems. 

Though we get to see Nat and Toby, they weren’t as involve in this book since Harriet moved to New York.

We see some familiar faces in this book including the fabulous Wilbur who gives Harriet a modelling assignment where she meets Cal and Kendrell. 

Cal started out as a charming character that I hated the more I read about him. Same goes for Kendrell, the more I read about her the more I wanted to jump into the book and push her away from Harriet (and tell her to stay FAR AWAY). 


This is how I feel about Cal and Kendrell!!! ALL LIMA HEIGHTS ALA SANTANA ESPECIALLY WHEN THEY TRY TO BREAK UP HARRIET AND LION BOY AND CORRUPT HARRIET'S HEAD!! GAHHHHH!!!
Both Cal and Kendrell had this ‘charm’ in them that manages to influence (aka peer pressure) Harriet to the opposite direction. It sounds like a good idea at first but the more you learn about their motive the more you hate the idea. Even so their influence did teach Harriet a heavy lesson on being true to herself and being comfortable with who she is. 


Picture Perfect is more romance heavy compared to the previous two books as we explore Harriet’s relationship with Lion boy aka Nick. I like how the romance was paced out and it was sweet and fluffy reading more about the two of them. We also got to know more about Nick’s life which I got to know a lot of unexpected things.

This is probably the more ‘heavier’ Geek Girl book with its coming of age theme but it was still light hearted, hilarious and fluffy. 


I love the geek girl series and it gets better with each book (SO KEEP IT COMING HOLLY SMALE!!)  

The ending of the book was very unexpected but was still sweet heart-warming and had me a huge smile on my face. 



I highly recommend the Geek Girl series as they are just one of the best feel good books out there!



Not so sure how many more books are in this series but I’m looking forward to reading more of Harriet’s fun facts and adventures in the next book ‘All That Glitters’



Also a song I'll recommend when reading this book (apart from Welcome To New York) is Charity Vance's 'Picture Perfect'! :D


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