The Perfect Prom Date by Marysue Hobika Review

The Perfect Prom Date by Marysue G. Hobika

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I got this as an ebook for free thanks to the 1000 Members Giveaway on The YA Book Club (http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/7...). Anyways, this was probably the first giveaway I have ever won, so I was quite excited! Let's move on to the actual book now shall we?

GOOD:
I thought that this book was REALLY SWEET . I just loved the romance in it, because Josie and Brennan truly loved each other and cared so much about the other! There were so many moments when Brennan did something so sweet I couldn't even stand it! Brennan is the perfect boyfriend, and he will have you feeling like you're the love of his life from when you first meet him. Brennan is really cute, and you can just tell that they are the PERFECT couple. ;)

Josie is definitely a good main character. Though she could have used more depth (more on that later) I truly enjoyed her as a person and her quirks. I definitely felt like she was my best friend while I was reading it. She is a grounded, nice, well-rounded person. She is very mature, which is an admirable quality in a character in a romance novel. She gets good grades but isn't a super freak about school, is on the swim team, and is very well-behaved. I liked Josie from page one.

I think that this book definitely gives you a lot of good dating advice and just girl tips in general, although I think that the 10-step plan might have been a little far-fetched....

Brennan's family is really nice and I wish I knew a family like them. They always made me smile. And Brennan's little sister...AH.DOR.ABLE . I just kept saying, "Awwwwwww......." Maybe read the book just to hear about his sweet four-year-old sister?!

This is totally off topic but it was definitely a major score for me: I am one of the biggest Just Dance fans on the planet so to have (view spoiler)[ the main character and Brennan play Just Dance 3 in their awesome ultimate teen hang out? (hide spoiler)] I practically had a spazz attack on my couch (plus Just Dance 3 is the first one I ever played and still my favorite of all of the games)!

I think the only thing that kept the romance in this book from being super stupid was the maturity of the characters. It made their romance real and beautiful, not cheesy and teenaged "love".

BAD:
However, I had a few issues with the book that were kind of annoying.

Three words: MORE. PLOT. DEPTH. This book had no conflict for the longest time. I was worried there was never going to be one! I mean sure there was her b**** sister that tormented her, but that wasn't really a large part of the plot. I mean for the most part everything went smoothly for 3/4 of the book. Which brings me to my next point.

A lot of this book was really glaringly unrealistic. I'm not one of those people who reads a book and goes, "That could never happen!" but I still had a problem with it. It is romance YA fiction, not fantasy. There was a lot of instances where I just couldn't help but roll my eyes. Also, there were some problems with stuff being illogical or just not making any sense.

Examples: (view spoiler)[

Instance 1: One of Josie's ten steps is to surprise her guy. So she decides to surprise him in two ways. Both times, Brennan says something about what a nice surprise it is. Literally. He uses the word surprise . I just couldn't help but feel that part was a bit cheesy. I mean, come on. If you are planning to surprise a guy, his reaction isn't going to be perfect or go exactly as planned. He's not going to respond by going, "What a nice surprise!"

Instance 2:
Josie has this awesome ultimate teen hangout underneath her house that is like this expanded basement with a movie theater, a pool table, and a TV and videogames. Literally the perfect set-up for a date. This just annoyed me because I would have liked a more realistic date. Then there's the fact that Josie's parents had just met Brennan when they let him and Josie go down there for hours alone, unsupervised. I don't think any parent would really allow that.

Instance 3: One of Josie's ten steps is to pretend to be interested in another guy for a while. She feels really guilty about it and thinks it's a bad idea, but she could never stray from the holy Ten Commandments steps to her perfect date. So she goes through with it anyway. Brennan was being completely faithful and then right before she was about to pretend to be interested in another guy he said, "I only love you." As in, HE COULD NEVER LOVE ANYONE ELSE. If I was her, you know what I would have done? Given up my stupid bullheaded plan and listened!!!! Brennan was being so faithful you'd have to be a COMPLETE AND UTTER IDIOT to do what she did. This step turned out to not really help her, although it didn't harm her relationship either. Still, in real life she would have totally lost Brennan. (hide spoiler)]

Instance 4: Brennan put up with a lot of crap from Josie, which was really unrealistic because no guy would put up with the way Josie was at times!

Instance 5: Brennan's family was too perfect. They were too "classic suburban big family.". Also, the siblings all got along perfectly, which really made no sense. I can understand getting along for the most part, some families are like that, but they were literally all like best friends.

Instance 6: Josie and Ellie's relationship. I can understand sisters strongly disliking each other (my sister and I are like that) but the extremes to which it is taken in this book is really out there. They HATE each other. Their relationship is basically that of the most popular girl in school (Ellie) bullying the less popular but pretty and nice girl she's jealous of (Josie). I think having Ellie be that much of a b**** and that evil just didn't really make sense. She is a sophomore, so she is capable of being that evil, but it just didn't make sense. Ellie is her younger sister, not her older. Injust didn't understand why she had so much power over Josie. I know some girls who could totally be Ellie, I just think it might have been easier to understand the hate if the author had elaborated on Ellie's character more. Ellie literally fits the definition of a b****to a T, the author really knew what one of those girls acts like. Because Ellie was it.

Sometimes this book felt like a fantasy, which was kind of weird too read. Basically, my main point is that at least for half of the book, there wasn't any major flaw in Josie's life or conflict in the plot at all. I mean, besides Ellie's b****ness.

Josie was often quite blinded by her plan. It blocked her vision to what was happening in her relationship. She probably could have made going to prom with Brennan a lot smoother if she had just revised some of the steps to her plan that maybe weren't very smart or not necessary now that she was at a certain point in her relationship with Brennan.

One thing I didn't understand was how (view spoiler)[ Josie was so scared of Brennan finding out about Everything Prom and then how she reacted when he did. I mean, why is a scrapbook about prom embarrassing? It's not like it was her diary! I wouldn't have minded at all! I'm sure lots of girls make scrapbooks with pics of dresses. I mean, what other way is there to organize what you like? I think that this was just a plot tool used by the author, because it just didn't make that much sense why she was so horrified. I can understand embarrassment, but her reaction was completely overdramatic. No bueno. I kept rolling my eyes when I read the part where Brennan goes to find where she went after fleeing from the halls in humiliation. (hide spoiler)]

Josie describes herself as having medium popularity. She says that she hasn't ever really been super popular with guys, and that she isn't good with clothes. Then suddenly, as soon as she begins to put her plan into action, she speaks like a seasoned pro about flirting, dating, boys, clothes, fashion, everything! I was like, "Whoa, back up a sec. She knows this how?" It just didn't make much sense. The fact that she just came up with this brilliant plan out of the blue, that just fell from the sky and landed in her brain, just made no sense.

(view spoiler)[ It was really obvious that they would be crowned Prom King and Queen, but I guess that can't really be helped. (hide spoiler)]

A fair amount of spelling and grammar mistakes but I don't mind those really. Just figured I should note that.


OVERALL:
By now you are probably thinking, "Well it sure seems like she should give this book two stars." However, I really did enjoy the book for all of its problems, so I am giving it three stars. It's a light, fun read that is only 0.99 cents on the iBookstore, so if you have some free time, buy it and give it a chance. There is a small plot twist at the end, which felt a bit weird, but was interesting. The plot depth got better towards the end, so that was nice.

I can't say that the title didn't warn me: The PERFECT Prom Date. As in, this book will be a bit too perfect at times and you will have to deal with it.

My final words-
I enjoyed this book and thought it was a sweet romance that just needs some work on the plot. The author needs to revise it a bit is all. Still a "good" read. ;)







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