BOOK REVIEW: The Perfect Girlfriend by Karen Hamilton @KJHAuthor @HarlequinBooks #ThePerfectGirlfriend #bookreview #bookblog

YOU’VE NEVER READ A LOVE STORY AS TWISTED AS THIS.

You know when you read a book, and you know logically who you are supposed to like and dislike, and somehow you feel the exact opposite? That describes how I read The Perfect Girlfriend in a nutshell!!! This book is T-W-I-S-T-E-D!!! I sat down to write this and I wasn’t even sure how to begin because this is one of the strangest and most entertaining books I’ve read in ages—in a good way!

About the Book

Juliette loves Nate.

She will follow him anywhere. She’s even become a flight attendant for his airline so she can keep a closer eye on him.

They are meant to be.

The fact that Nate broke up with her six months ago means nothing. Because Juliette has a plan to win him back.

She is the perfect girlfriend. And she’ll make sure no one stops her from getting exactly what she wants.

True love hurts, but Juliette knows it’s worth all the pain…

Reflection

Oh, Juliette… Or should I say Lily? Or Elizabeth? Juliette has as many names to switch around from as she has personalities and I was LIVING for it. Told in first person narrative, Juliette tells the story of what happens after the love of her life breaks up with her. Ok, so maybe she didn’t handle the break up that well. But now she is giving him exactly what he asked for—space! So he will come back to her at the end, right? He will definitely understand what she did to meet his needs.

Juliette is playing the long game. She could arrange a meet-up at any time if she wanted to, but she has this planned out. Slow and steady. Stick to the plan. Everything will work out if you stick to the plan. And so we see her applying for his airline, going through the long flight attendant trainings (seriously, flight attendant training at many companies takes about 8 weeks), and then building up her seniority on her flight schedule.

“Perseverance always pays off. It never, ever fails.”

Juliette should have friends to show she isn’t needy, right? So she makes a friend. And by the way, their friendship was SO entertaining! It was such a delightful part of the storyline, particularly Amy’s reactions to a few odd things Juliette does, and then in Juliette’s monologue we hear her “I guess it was a bit odd…” It kept cracking me up! Because, YES. Juliette is at a minimum a bit odd, and more accurately she is off her rocker.

And this brings me to who I should like and dislike, and I oddly found myself rooting for Juliette and all of her crazy ideas! She was just SO entertaining and persistent. A person like Juliette is capable of an extreme amount of focus, which oddly enough made her an outstanding employee…most of the time. And even though she is absolutely someone who needs serious help, everyone who has been cruelly dumped, bullied, or mistreated will find a small amount of delight in her revenge plots.

“You think you can use people and discard them when it suits. Like I was nothing. Like I meant nothing. Like we meant nothing.”

The writing on this book is divine. So much of this book happens inside of Juliette’s head, and yet she often doesn’t clue you in on her plan in advance, so we see it unfold in shocking real time. And here is where we should give all of the credit to Karen Hamilton’s writing. Her story is gripping and hard to put down, though much of it is inner monologue. And she also finds a way to humanize and make Juliette sympathetic, despite the fact that she is absolutely vindictive and crazy.

There’s a sequence of events that occur around 50% and set in motion the second half of the book that had me shocked and delighted by the sheer amazingness of it all! Juliette is someone who is capable of such restraint. But the moment she gets what she wanted, she hits the fast forward button and she is off to the races. She has no in between speed. She is slow and methodical or all-in. And that is one of the many reasons I think she can be attractive as a character. Nothing in Juliette’s life happens due to anything other than extreme mental focus and over-the-top heart.

I got a chance to buddy read this with my friend Berit at Audio Killed the Bookmark, so make sure to check out her page! Thank you to Harelquin’s publicity team for my copy. I loved it!

Mackenzie