Review: A Perfect Mess by Zoe Dawson

A Perfect Mess
(A Perfect Mess, #1)
By: Zoe Dawson
Publisher: Blue Moon Creative
Published: Aug. 5, 2013
Genre: New Adult
Rating:

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I know what you did last summer.

Aubree Walker, the perfect girl most likely to succeed, is sure there’s only one person who knows what she did.

Booker Outlaw, one of the three Outlaw brothers—all identical, all gorgeous, all from the wrong side of the tracks, and all pure bad boys. He was always the unpredictable one, the one who would be brash enough to make it big self-publishing horror novels on the internet. He promised never to tell, but everyone knows you can never trust an Outlaw.

Then a year later, in the middle of the night, she receives a phone call at Tulane. Her aunt, who took her in after her mother’s death, is in a coma under suspicious circumstances. Now she has to face that one person who knows all about what she did that summer—sexy Booker.

Returning to Hope Parish to be with her aunt, stirs up all those ugly memories. When Aubree starts getting threats, she can’t help but wonder if what she did last summer was tied to her aunt’s “accident.” Afraid, she turns to the only person who knows the truth and Booker doesn’t hesitate to offer his broad shoulder for her to lean on. But Booker has a secret of his own that could crush their fledgling relationship.

As the hot, sultry summer days move on, she finds that even a perfectly smart girl can lose her heart to a perfectly bad boy. What is she going to do when someone starts asking questions Aubree doesn’t want to answer? She’s knee deep into a terribly dangerous, wholly life changing, who-can-she-really-depend-on perfect mess.

Aubree is the 19 year old goodie two-shoes math whiz while Booker is the 19 year old bad-boy who just so happens to be a best-selling author. They each share a secret. The same secret that made Aubree run from her hometown one year ago. But when her aunt (who raised her), takes a serious fall and ends up in a coma, Aubree goes back to the place that she never planned on visiting again. A place that holds her deepest darkest secret.

This was an entertaining read. You had some suspense over Aubree getting these cryptic text messages from someone claiming to know what she did last summer. The summer that holds her dark secret. So she confides in Booker since he was involved in what happened that night. However, we as readers have no idea what this big bad secret is until the very end. So the entire time I was speculating what could have happened. So I did like the mystery behind the big secret.

However, I had a problem with the characters. These are supposed to be 19 years. What I read were people in their late 20’s or early 30’s. The way they portrayed themselves and the way they talked did not come off as someone in their teens. So throughout the entire time I pictured people who were older. I mean, Booker self published a few books online and all of a sudden he’s this big hot shot author who has 3 vehicles, a fancy house and is pretty much a famous author. Maybe because I’m a blogger and talk to authors who are not only published through big publishers but indie authors as well, I’m calling bullshit. All the stories I’ve ever heard from authors is that it’s not as glamorous of a job as people think. They are not rolling in the dough, in fact most still have day jobs. Then you have Booker’s brother who owns a bar/grill. Who again, is 19. Not only does he have a liquor license at his establishment but him and his brothers (triplets) drink there. I just couldn’t get on board with it. No one at 19 were saying things like “I was ‘overcome’, not just by your emotions but by my own.” The characters should have been written as adults instead of teens. I think had that been the case I would have enjoyed the story so much more and wouldn’t have had to keep pulling myself out of the story to remind myself that this was a group of teenagers not full blown adults.

I liked the idea of this book and I enjoyed it as a whole but I really had a problem with the way the author wrote the characters. It felt more like the author had written this story initially about a 25-35 year old couple and then went back and changed the age to 19. And that really messed up my reading when I had to keep reminding myself that these were teens not adults. If it weren’t for that, I could’ve easily given this 4 emotes but it messed with my head way too much.

“I couldn’t stand there and stare at her. My reputation in town was bad enough. I didn’t need to add perv to it.”