Review: Perfection

Reviewed by Allison
 

I've been waffling back & forth on this book because I picked it up thanks to a raving review from my friend Suzanne. Normally my dear Suzie Q & I have similar tastes so I was so excited to read a laugh out loud funny book!

Unfortunately, I pretty much hated it. (Sorry, Suz!)

Zoe loses her job & is desperate for a place to live. She finds a beautiful condo & wonders what the catch is. She soon discovers it when her neighbor (& landlord) steals her dinner before she can get the door. Instead of arguing when she confronts him, they end up coming to an agreement where she runs errands for him & makes him lunch before work to earn extra money. However, the more time they spend together, the more they end up fighting an attraction & yet another agreement with "benefits" is agreed upon & changes just how they spend their time.

Friends with benefits never works the way you want it to, people! Someone always gets hurt or falls in love. Zoe & Trevor are no exception. However, instead of smiling me way through their tender moments, I had difficulty reading through them simply because Trevor is the biggest ass hat EVER. I don't mind jerks, especially when they're brought to heel by a sweet-natured gal like Zoe (whom I really did like), but he was more than just a jerk. He disrespected & objectified women, he was the most arrogant character I've ever read, honestly believed he was God's Great Gift, & kept calling Zoe his "little tenant." I hate that adjective in terms of women. It's not affectionate. It's demeaning & meant to make the person using it feel bigger & better. Although his food obsession was occasionally entertaining & I did appreciate that he put her money in an account rather than accepting her rent after they started fooling around, he was incredibly too slow realizing how important she was to him. He also knew she had an eating disorder but chose to ignore it until it was almost too late.

I thought Mathewson dealt with her eating disorder pretty realistically having known a few women with the unfortunate disease myself, she really capitalized on what they think of themselves - unworthy, fat, & ugly. It was heartbreaking, because every woman should know her worth - although I understand from personal experience that it's easier said then done.

All in all, I liked the story, but hated the hero so it was hard to enjoy the book overall. I may go back & read the first book of the Neighbor From Hell series, Playing For Keeps, in hopes that Jason is less of a tool than his cousin, Trevor.

Grade: D

Click to purchase: Amazon

Perfection

by R.L. Mathewson

Release Date: August 27, 2011