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Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Review: Present Perfect by Alison Bailey




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Blurb:

Amanda Kelly spent her entire life trying to control every aspect of it, while striving for perfection. Her obsession with being perfect, along with her feelings of worthlessness, consumed her. The one thing she thought was perfect in her life was the bond she shared with her best friend, Noah. 


Everything was going according to her life plan until she woke up one day and realized she had fallen in love with him. The one thing she couldn’t control was the affect he had on her. Noah had the power to give her one hundred lifetimes of happiness, which also gave him the power to completely devastate her. He was the one thing in her life that was perfect, but she couldn't allow herself to have him.

Her life begins to unravel. Events take over and force her to let go of her dreams and desires. She needs to realize that a person cannot control the events in their life, only their reaction to them...but will it be too late for her to save her relationship with her best friend? 

Present Perfect is a story of how past events have present consequences and how perfect your presentcould be if you stopped fighting and just allowed it to happen.



Stephanie says:

“I’ve been unsure about many things in my life except for one thing, that I have always loved him. Every single minute of every single day that I have been on this earth, my heart has belonged to him. It has never been a question, never a doubt. The love had taken on many different forms over the years, but it had always been a constant.” 



This book is a FANTABULOUS debut for Alison Bailey.   It is the heart-breakingly beautiful story of a girl, who wants so badly to be perfect, and her best friend, who wants nothing more than for her to realize that no one needs to be perfect.  They just need to be them.  We meet Amanda aka “Tweet” and her best friend Noah when they are six years old and are given bits and pieces of their childhood that shows us how their incredible bond develops as they grow into adults.

  I did not want to put this book down, at all, once I began.  I read it in less than 24 hours, and it’s no novella. The most amazing thing about this book was the way I felt everything Amanda felt through-out the whole book.  At times she made me want to yank her out of the book and shake her until she realized no one is perfect, but there were also times I could identify completely with how she was feeling.  And Noah is just about the most amazing best friend on the planet.  I think I want a Noah of my own and not just because he turns out to be an amazingly hot baseball player, whose stomach you could wash your clothes on.  He is so wonderfully caring and patient with Amanda.  When the two of them are together, the banter is awesome and the chemistry is palpable.

I very much enjoyed the push and pull and ups and downs of their friendship/relationship.  This book definitely took me on an emotional roller coaster, but I loved every minute of it, almost. There were only one or two “are you f-ing kidding me?!!!” moments, but I actually loved the sweet torture of those, too. Give this debut novel a chance!! It is incredibly well written and impossible to put down.  I cannot wait for more from this incredibly talented author.

I was given an ARC by the author for an honest review.   


Author Links

Bio:

Alison was born and raised in Charleston, SC. As a child she would create (write) additional scenes to TV shows and movies that she watched. She attended Winthrop University and graduated with a major in Theater. While at school she began writing one act plays which she later produced. Throughout the years she continued writing and producing several one act plays, but then life got in the way and she hung up her pen for a while. At the end of 2012 a very talented author friend convinced Alison to go back to writing and see what happens. So she did and fell back in love with it. Present Perfect will be Alison's first self-published book. A few personal facts, Alison loves anything sweet, especially frosting, and is addicted to Diet Pepsi. Alison's philosophy: Don't let your obstacles define you. At times life can get pretty overwhelming, but with a great support system and a lot of humor you can get through them. If you have humor in your life your spirit stays strong and you can tackle anything. 

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