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Perfect You    by Elizabeth Scott Amazon.com order for
Perfect You
by Elizabeth Scott
Order:  USA  Can
Pulse, 2008 (2008)
Softcover
* *   Reviewed by Lyn Seippel

Vitamins are ruining Kate's life. Her dad walks around the mall in a bee suit handing out samples of Perfect You vitamins while she takes care of sales. If there were any sales. So far her dad's dream business is bankrupting the family as well as ruining Kate's life. Her mother is the only one with a paying job. As their finances get worse her grandmother comes to stay, promising a loan – with strings attached.

Even before the vitamins, Kate's sophomore year was off to an unbearable start. Her best friend Anna went away for the summer and returned a slim pretty blonde. Picked up by the popular crowd, she treats Kate like she's invisible. Kate is part of her fat girl past and Anna plans to keep her that way. Kate misses Anna so much she'd forgive her in an instant. No one else would ever understand how she feels about her family.

Kate's humiliation of working with a bee in the mall where her friends and classmates shop is increased when Will Miller takes a job in one of the mall stores. At school he seems to take perverse delight in baiting Kate and she's always ready with a sharp reply. At the mall, he seems interested in her as a girl. She tries to pretend distain, but she really likes him and doesn't want to end up being his latest conquest. Will has hooked up with half the girls in school.

Scott's characters, even her minor ones, have real problems. Problems that sometimes can't be resolved. They also have flaws, but their imperfections don't keep them from being likeable. Good things can happen in other areas of Kate's life even while her family falls apart, if she'll just let them.

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