Book Review: Perfected - Kate Jarvik Birch

Title: Perfected

Author: Kate Jarvik Birch

Release Date: July 1st 2014

Publisher: Entangled Teen

Age Group: Young Adult

Source: eARC from publisher

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Perfection comes at a price.

As soon as the government passed legislation allowing humans to be genetically engineered and sold as pets, the rich and powerful rushed to own beautiful girls like Ella. Trained from birth to be graceful, demure, and above all, perfect, these “family companions” enter their masters’ homes prepared to live a life of idle luxury.

Ella is happy with her new role as playmate for a congressman’s bubbly young daughter, but she doesn’t expect Penn, the congressman’s handsome and rebellious son. He’s the only person who sees beyond the perfect exterior to the girl within. Falling for him goes against every rule she knows… and the freedom she finds with him is intoxicating.

But when Ella is kidnapped and thrust into the dark underworld lurking beneath her pampered life, she’s faced with an unthinkable choice. Because the only thing more dangerous than staying with Penn’s family is leaving… and if she’s unsuccessful, she’ll face a fate far worse than death.

Imagine a world where girls are genetically engineered and raised to become a perfect pet. Once they are of age, they are sold to the highest bidders, brought home, and treated like a labradoodle or what have you, pampered like a princess and displayed like a gold bar. The girls are expected to obey every single one of their masters' whims because if they don't, they will be put down like a useless K9 (a practice that I absolutely abhor, by the way). There. See it in your head? If you can't, you need not worry because that's exactly what Perfected is about.

Your sole purpose is to enrich the lives of your new owners. 

This book ended up being different from what I'd expected. Instead of a full-blown action-packed sci-fi/dystopian, I feel like I read a contemporary with a side of action, so don't go into this expecting the former. That said, I can say that the premise made Perfected nothing like anything I've read before. The idea of breeding girls to be sold and used in whatever way was just sick and disgusting, and the need to know the reason behind the practice made this book a must-read for me.

Maybe freedom wasn't a state of being. Maybe it was an act of courage. Maybe freedom was defiance and sacrifice and pain, something that couldn't be won without giving up something else in return.

Ella - as she's named by her owner - knows only a life of refinement and obedience, and as a pet, she's perfectly alright with that. Her owners are kind enough, and she's well-fed and more than well-dressed; she doesn't have reason to want for more. But soon she learns how it is to be treated like property, and although most readers will find her helpless - which she was, indeed - that didn't irritate me at all because she was raised to be like that, like a damsel in distress. It was hard to relate to her, but it was easy to understand her.

The romance aspect was sweet enough, but to be honest, I could have done without it. It didn't distract from the story, but aside from being a major motivating factor for Ella, it didn't add much more to it; actually, I think it's the reason why this book, though unpredictable and intense, dragged in the middle. Good thing it picked up towards the end, but the ending? Let's just say it made me go "Wait. What? That's it?", and not in a good way.

MY FAVORITE PART is Penn playing for Ella :3

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