Book Review: Perfected

Title - Perfected 

Author - Kate Jarvik Birch

Genre - Dystopian YA 

Published - July 1st 2014

Publisher - Entangled Teen

Format - Kindle 

(Goodreads)(Amazon)

Synopsis

Perfection comes at a price.

As soon as the government passed legislation allowing humans to be genetically engineered and sold as pets, the rich and powerful rushed to own beautiful girls like Ella. Trained from birth to be graceful, demure, and above all, perfect, these “family companions” enter their masters’ homes prepared to live a life of idle luxury.

Ella is happy with her new role as playmate for a congressman’s bubbly young daughter, but she doesn’t expect Penn, the congressman’s handsome and rebellious son. He’s the only person who sees beyond the perfect exterior to the girl within. Falling for him goes against every rule she knows…and the freedom she finds with him is intoxicating.

But when Ella is kidnapped and thrust into the dark underworld lurking beneath her pampered life, she’s faced with an unthinkable choice. Because the only thing more dangerous than staying with Penn’s family is leaving…and if she’s unsuccessful, she’ll face a fate far worse than death.

For fans of Kiera Cass’ Selection series and Lauren DeStefano’s Chemical Garden series, Perfected is a chilling look at what it means to be human, and a stunning celebration of the power of love to set us free, wrapped in a glamorous—and dangerous—bow. 

Review

 Ella is a pet genetically engineered girl created to be the perfect human pet. Picked third Ella is chosen by the congressman who helped to pass the law that people could own human pets. Ella was groomed for the last four years by the kennel to be the perfect pet trained to play piano filled with expectations how she is to be treated. Quickly she learns that things may not be the way that the kennel trained her when her playmate is a little girl. Not all of the household is thrilled with her arrival and she learns that she’s not the first pet but the second the other being sent away but other than she was sick they couldn’t treat her.

The more time Ella spends living with the congressman she learns that maybe she doesn’t want to be a pet anymore. The more Ella gets to know Penn his son she finds feelings she didn’t know existed or expected to ever have. When the night of a party Ella is kidnapped taken to a safe house by the neighbor in attempt to free her even when she doesn’t want to leave starts the catalyst that will change her life forever. As her relationship grows with Penn what will the Congressman think if he finds out? Will she be sent back to the kennel with the fated red door?

I liked Ella she’s so sweet innocent learning to live after spending her whole life expecting to be a pampered pet. I like that as the story progressed Ella became more than just a pet in fact a girl in love willing to risk it all for the one she loves. I love Ruby the poor girl she needs friends, with her mother things can’t be easy.  I have hopes for her in the future. Than we have Penn at first I didn’t like him but he grew on me and turned out to be a perfect match our little Ella.

I wasn’t sure about this one but I’ve seen it around a lot and the concept I found fascinating. The idea of human pet’s is very interesting and I was curious to see how it would play out. Set in modern day times in a world where genetic engineering has created the perfect human girl for the top 1%. While I found the concept interesting as the book progressed I saw Ella as nothing more than a piece of property and it started to bother me. While I enjoyed the book I just didn’t love it like I had hoped that I would. The characters are great and the concept is unique but something was bugging me. I kept waiting for Ella to see a darker side of being a pet but I guess we will have to wait for the next book. I’m looking forward to the next book because this one ended in a cliffhanger that if it hadn’t been an ebook would had made a trip across the room. I liked the authors writing style she’s created a captivating novel filled with suspense and intrigue it’s a great example of a dystopian novel.