I absolutely loved this book and I am sure that I will love the next books to come in this series. Why did I love it so much? Females playing sport is why. There are a lot of books out there with have male characters playing sport and females typically are portrayed dancing, netball or cheerleading and not sports which are typically male dominated. I love it when books are brought out that don't follow these stereotypical female sports which is why I such a huge fan of this book, Catching Jordan & Stealing Parker by Miranda Kenneally, Hooked by Liz Fichera and Head of the River by Pip Harry.Ashtyn is the kicker for her school's football team and surprisingly (to her at least) to picked as captain over her boyfriend Landon who is the QB. Landon who I thought was a total douche right from the beginning just becomes distant and ignoring Ashtyn after losing the captain spot to her, seriously dude you are just an idiot. Landon was just a character who you hated. Ashtyn loved football, she spends hours just kicking the ball through the posts until she has perfected it. Derek just got kicked out of boarding school for playing one too many pranks on the school. His step mother is Ashtyn's older sister who she hasn't seen since she left when she was 18, Brandi. Derek doesn't want to be there, Derek isn't a fan of his step mum and would much prefer to spend the summer at boarding school.Throughout Better Than Perfect we get to see how high school relationships change, how different situations affect them and how sometimes you might need some help to get to where you want to be. The team dynamics (sorry sports psychology words coming out here) of Ashtyn's football team really shows how well they fit together, get along and play the way that they do. The relationship between Ashytn and Derek progress naturally the way that you see in real life.Better Than Perfect is a great foundation of the Wildcards series with the ending making you want to find out what is going to happen senior year. It breaks the gender norms in sport with a female being on the football team which is different from many other novels. Thanks to Bloomsbury Australia for this review copy.Rating: 4/5Keely xx First off, this is the first book I've read properly by Simone Elkeles. Perfect Chemistry is undoubtedly one of her most popular books, and while I own a copy, I must admit that I more or less skimmed read it when I was younger and have a vague recollection that I liked it. However, since Bloomsbury was kind enough to send me a review copy of Better than Perfect (more internationally known as Wild Cards) I thought it would be a good time to start one of her novels and remember it better for a change. In theory, this would be my exact kind of novel. It's a contemporary. It's a romance. And don't get me wrong, I did enjoy this book. Ashtyn and Derek had good chemistry together and I enjoyed the banter between the two but the sexual tension was less sizzle and more okay-can-you-stop-pretending-that-you-don't-like-each-other-already by the time I got a few chapters in of the two meeting each other. And while I liked how Ashtyn and Derek weren't your conventional lead characters in that Ashtyn was the captain of the football team rather than the other way around, there's no denying that Better than Perfect was chockful of cliches. Derek had your typical 'bad boy with a heart of gold' syndrome and while it was clear that Elkeles wanted to show that there was more depth to Derek than what meets the eye, the effect was kind of ruined every time Derek had a two-page internal monologue about how hot Ashtyn was. She's attractive. He's attractive. Sparks are flying. We get it. It also bugged me how much of a douche Ashtyn's ex-boyfriend was and how Ashtyn didn't pick up on his less than stellar personality until far later in the book. It seemed a bit obvious that he wasn't the perfect boyfriend Ashtyn wanted to be and the fact that Derek picked up on it before she did was sort of mind boggling. Regardless, I did enjoy Better than Perfect. It was a cute, quick read although I must admit that I started skimming a bit during the latter half of the book when the angst started getting laid on a bit thick. I think the book would've worked better if it just stayed light-hearted instead of getting too serious like it often did. Better than Perfect is the first book in the Wild Cards series and I'm fairly certain the second book will be about Victor which I'm looking forward for if it is about him.
What do You think about Attirance Et Confusion (2014)?
Such fun characters! It definitely lived up to Elkeles' Perfect Chemistry trilogy =]
—Lauren
me fascino!! bueno, todo lo que escribe Simone me fascina. Super recomendado.
—tashamack__
This book was horrible. The writing was terrible.
—Perkins18
