Sunday, September 14, 2014

Pretty Girl by Amy Heugh

PRETTY GIRL
by
Amy Heugh

Page Count: 393
Stand Alone.

My Rating: ★★★
Current Average Rating on Goodreads: 3.88

Synopsis:
If there were one day that she could change it would be the day she was taken. 

After her parents’ divorce, seventeen-year-old Izzy Scott and her mother move to the old town of St. Augustine to begin a new life, a life beyond the media attention and the memories of the traumatic experiences that left an everlasting affect on their family. 

The former ballerina is trying to adjust to the outside world without suffering a panic attack and exposing who she is - all while getting through her senior year at a new school. That’s easy to say until she meets local boy Mason Winchester, a boy with a tragic past. 

Mason has a reputation for violence, but a love for motorcycles. At the age of eleven he lost his mother to cancer and from then he has been running from something, but could never really get away. 

Like any other angry teenager, he just wants to be left alone and to have nothing to do with anyone else because he believed that he had nothing to offer. That changes the moment he saw what was in the new girl eyes. 

Tragedy wasn't new to either of their lives but among the secrets and the memories the one thing they both never excepted was to find hope. 


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pretty Girl.

Can you guess what it's about? ;)

The book was overall a little cliche and nothing I haven't seen before. But Amy pulled it off pretty (heh) well and it kept my interest throughout.

My first thought was These are seriously some MESSED UP characters.

But it reminded me of Pushing the Limits. Two characters with bad history attracts for no particular reason, get together, have problems, blablah. And also like in that book, the only reason I could tell the two PoVs apart was because Mason swore a lot. If there was a curse every two sentences, might as well be Mason. So if I was confused, I just kind of skimmed the page looking for a curse word o.O Not weird at all.

The writing was great, with a few exceptions of typos but that's nothing an editor or a proofread can fix ^.^ I loved the wide range of vocabulary used. This lady knows a lot of words xD
It lagged a LOT in the middle though. I actually skimmed 40%ish of the book :/
Me: *at 40%* Lalala....this is getting kind of boringggg......
*50%* Hey, even if I skim these five or so paragraphs, I'd still get the story!
*60%* Ugh there's no dialogue.....skim skim skim.... oh look they talk! Oh no that's over...skim skim...
*80%* They're talking more now! Hallelujah! No more heaps of descriptions to skip overrrrr

Yep. So basically, there was one sentence of actual talking, and then either Izzy or Mason went into these looooooong borrrrrring descriptions of how they were broken and scarred. Dude, we get it. You had a tough past. WE DON'T NEED TO KNOW EVERY OTHER PAGE!
So I skipped over those and only read the dialogue.

Example:
He opened the door. "Get in"

*insert 10 paragraphs of random description here*

"And why should I listen to you?

(Okay, I made those up xD I'm pretty sure there that wasn't in the book)

And I still got the story really well! So the book could have been like two times shorter and equally good (or maybe better.) That was annoying. It picked up pace around 75-80%, but it was so latee! Me no like waiting for more than half the book to actually start getting in the story.

I didn't particularly take a favourite of the characters, I have to admit. I know none of them were meant to be perfect or anything..... but just....yeah. Izzy wasn't bad though :D

The sliight love triangle wasn't necessary.

Dear Authors, 
You can have an amazing YA book even without two guys pining over one girl like idiots.

Sincerely, 
Cassie.

*mails letter*

I've seen way too many examples where they just stuff another love interest there for the sake of it -.- That's just a noooo!

Jake could have been an awesome friend, not a love interest. Shame he wasn't a more major person though. He seemed quite nice. And just as messed up as the rest of the lot *le sigh*

I DID NOT like Mason's decision and character in the beginning. So sexist -.- Girls aren't playtoys.
But we had a bit of development so it was all good. Meh.

There were also some spots were it jumped around a lot and left me confused. Like Izzy would be walking towards an art room, and then DUN she's going home in a car.
I'm just like ... Wait what?

and a few descriptions tried too hard to be metaphorical. Metaphors have to, you know....actually make sense for the reader to visualise more clearly. Not just saying some random things and yeyyy it's an awesome metaphor! *shakes head*

So I think that could have been improved.

Oh also, it FRUSTRATED me when Mason kept calling her "pretty girl" ... he sounded like a pervert! >.<
Like if someone always said something like Hey pretty girl, whatcha dooin? to you,
doesn't it sound a bit creepy? Only me?

There isn't really much more to say... hmm.

Yeah overall, it was
—a relatively unoriginal story.. (how they met first annoyed me the most.)
—Okay characters (no one stood out)
—Too long. Could have been shortened.
—Too jumpy. The scene changes could have been smoother.
—Interesting. It held my attention . (My other ARCs didn't work out so well....heh..)
—Reminded me of ALL OF ME by John Legend xD And aaaaalll of meee..loves aaall of youuu...all your curvess and all your edges...all your perfect imperfectionsss ;)
—Instalove -.- Ugh.

I liked the ending.. I'm not really sure how I feel about it but I liked it! PLOT TWIST!

Recommend? Why not. Just a warning though, the middle is horribly boring. If you just get past that part it's okay :)

*Thank you Amy for giving me a free copy in exchange of an honest review.*

—MissOddball™ Over and Out.

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