Book Review: Present Perfect - Alison G. Bailey

“You've always been my girl and always will be. No one will ever take me away from you, Tweet. You’re my heart and soul and that’s never going to change, no matter what you say.” 

“...perfection is an illusion nurtured by insecurities.” 

“Looks can be deceiving. You can’t always tell what’s going on inside a person from outside. People put on a brave face when they’re trying to get over heartbreak, but that doesn't mean they have.” 

This book had me from the get go. I was captivated within the first lines of the story. The sweet words are in abundance in this book. But this is where I draw the line because I felt frustrated with the story. The saving grace was the beautiful words and the lovable hero in the face of Noah.

Noah is a sweet, funny, playful character who is too mature for his age. At a very young age he is already full of sweet suckering love and sweetness. I love him. My heart broke for Noah for the repeated heartache.

Now the heroine is the opposite of Noah. Amanda is a damaged girl who thinks so little of herself which stemmed from the constant comparison to her big sister. I understand her in this aspect since it really sucks to be constantly compared, either intentional or unintentionally by her parents, to her sister Emily.

Now there are also funny scenes in the story that made me laugh out loud. But the irritating and stupid choices by the heroine are pretty apparent. I wanted to shake Amanda many times throughout the book. Readers better watch out since the stupidity of the heroine is repetitive. She's also a sucker for punishment and doesn’t have an ounce of self-respect. I really wanted to put down the book at 60%.

The story is nice but the heroine ruined it. But there was one instance where Amanda made me cry. I felt sad for her predicament. To be fair the story picked up at about 70%. I wished the story concentrated on this part more than the stupid choices of the heroine.

However to be fair, there were also other things that I love from the book like the character Dalton. The letters to Halle had been a nice touch to the story and I loved the epilogue as it was told in Noah’s view. I rate this book 3 stars.