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Perfect Couple (2000)

by Jennifer Echols(Favorite Author)

3.73 of 5 Votes: 5

languge

English

genre

Romance

series

Superlatives

review 1: Why I Picked It UpI had been eyeing this series for a while now, with Biggest Flirts having caught my attention when it came out, so I jumped on the opportunity to read this companion novel.PlotPerfect Couple was a pretty cute and fluffy contemporary young adult novel. It followed main charter Harper, the weird photographer for her school yearbook, who was paired with football star Brody in the Perfect Couple That Never Was superlative. The awarding of that title pretty much spurred on the feelings that the two had been harboring for each other, and they decide that if the school thought they should be together, that they would give it a try. Perfect Couple wasn’t dry or anything. It was pretty entertaining. However, it wasn’t anything special in terms of plot or chara... morecters. It wasn’t boring, by any means, but it wasn’t necessarily a completely captivating read.Leading LadyHarper was actually not my favorite character to read. I was constantly rolling my eyes at both her narration and her actions–she came off as quite childish for a majority of the novel, with it getting to almost unbearable near the climax of the story. She was a pushover but at the same time, she was almost paranoid of what other people thought of her. She let other people’s opinions change who she was, and that was a trait that I did not like about her. She was just a very flat character, reminding me somewhat of a impersonal robot.Leading MaleBrody was the main male character. He was the football star who was going through some tough things–and I don’t mean the emotional or extremely serious things that some young adult or new adult male characters go through nowadays. It was more superficial feeling to me, but it was an interesting spin to attempt at depth in his character. It worked only a little bit, but I still enjoyed Brody’s character. He was carefree, playful, and sarcastic, and I felt like his personality helped dull my feelings toward Harper.RomanceThe romance in this novel had me feeling all types of ways–at times I loved it, at others I hated it. There are two relationships in this novel: Brody and Harper, and Kennedy and Harper, with Kennedy being Harper’s boyfriend at the beginning of the novel. Because of this somewhat attempted love triangle, I felt like I didn’t enjoy the romance as much as I had the potential to. Harper allowed Kennedy to walk all over her. At the same time, she was fawning over Brody while insisting that Kennedy was her “perfect match”. It actually got creepy at some points, Harper’s yearning for Brody. View Spoiler » And there was some drama, of course (because what is a contemporary romance without drama?) but the sequence of events, to me, was a bit on the unrealistic side. But on the other hand, there were moments between Brody and Harper that I loved. It was a curios balance.Other CharactersOne thing that I absolutely adored about this novel was the diversity in the characters: there were all types of ethnicities and sexualities. It was really nice to see it portrayed in such an obvious manner, especially because I felt like it made the secondary characters that much more real: they all had their separate stories and personalities, and it made me want to read the other companion novels to find out more about them. In some ways, I liked the secondary characters more than the primary ones.ConclusionPerfect Couple wasn’t the strongest Jennifer Echols novel that I’ve read–to me, the slightly annoying main character and the romance just isn’t quite do it for me; however, at the same time, it was a story that was able to keep my attention, while also displaying fantastically well-written secondary characters that I can’t wait to read more about.
review 2: Harper’s passions are photography and art and she hopes that her skills on the year book will help her cement entrance into the college of her choice. When the school decides that she and the football quarterback are the ideal couple and she has to photograph herself with him, she tries to narrow down a creative angle. The two both have significant others, so a balanced teasing between them starts to take place between this unlikely pair. After her parents acrimonious divorce, she has issues with relationships even the one with Kennedy, who is the year book editor. As Harper tries to avoid conflict with Brody’s girlfriend, Grace, she has to admit to herself that there is a spark between her and Brody. To be honest, her relationship with Kennedy didn’t seem like much to me, more just friends and it bugged me the way he bossed her around.I think every group has a “Brody” in it, the one guy who is the total jock and hunk and he knows it. He thinks Harper is sweet and that she is different from a lot of the girls he has dated. The mutual fun and teasing between the pair is adorable and typical. While this book is much lighter in tone that my favorite Echols book (Such a Rush), this one did bring up some important social issue about homophobia in high school in a clever and charming way. I don’t think anyone ever had a “coming out” cupcake event at a high school before, but then I was in high school ages ago.I didn’t read the first book in the series, but I felt I didn’t need to since everything was easy to pick up and now I plan on reading the first one for full introductions to the characters. I was happy with the ending and, as always, it has a bit of a twist, but still satisfactorily happy. Parents: there are sexual situations in this one with a bit of langauge. I really recommend this one if you are looking for a light-hearted quick read. less

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