This RITA Reader Challenge review is from Kristi Davis. This book is nominated in the “Best YA Romance” category for the RITAs this year. 

The summary: Sarah Burke is just about perfect. She's got killer blue eyes, gorgeous blond hair, and impeccable grades. There's just one tiny-all right, enormous-flaw: her nose. But even that's not so bad. Sarah's got the best best friend and big goals for print journalism fame.

On the first day of senior year, Rock Conway walks into her journalism class and, well, rocks her world. Problem is, her best friend, Kristen, falls for him too. And when Rock and Kristen stand together, it's like Barbie and Ken come to life. So when Kristen begs Sarah to help her nab Rock, Sarah does the only thing a best friend can do-she agrees. For someone so smart, what was she thinking? 

And here is Kristi's review:  

Flawless is one of those books with a ‘happy sigh’ ending. This is a Young Adult RITA nominated novel in a high school setting. It is a modern version of “Cyrano de Bergerac” which features Sarah with her ‘ugly’ nose who falls in love with the one guy she can never have. The guy her best friend falls in love with first.

This book is about loyalty, trust, and acceptance and hits a lot of sweet notes for me. Sarah is completely loyal to her best friend Kristen. Their friendship is completely solid. Kristen has been there for Sarah her whole life, helping her stand up to immature high school idiots making fun of Sarah’s ‘large’ nose. Kristen is a fun-loving girl who has a few insecurities come out when she feels she won’t be able to win the new boy in class, Rock Conway.

Sarah doesn’t want to ‘pretend’ to be Kristen over email and Facebook messages yet she helps her out even those it feels wrong. As usual, a few mistakes are made along the way and the story progresses in quite a humorous fashion.

I loved a lot of things about this book. Sarah’s relationship with her mother was rock solid. You have your usual teenage thoughts of not wanting to spill all the details of your high school life with your MOM, and other irritating funny clichés yet she has enough trust to confide in certain things to her. Rock Conway was thoughtful, sweet, and smart! You have to love that about your hero. Sarah also stands up for herself quite a bit which made me internally stand up and cheer. Pulling some beautiful poetry into the mix, it also gave me a small education which I always appreciate.

I thought that the interlude with Sarah’s Mother’s competition at the station was a little odd. It threw in some obvious red flags and I thought it would be one of the major points of tension yet (luckily!?) it was not. I couldn’t decide if it was extra info I didn’t need or if it made the book not seem as predictable.

Many have commented that the cover of this book is beautiful. It is, and one plus is that the model on the front doesn’t show a nose so you really have to imagine it in your head.

I also loved the price! Currently at $2.51 for the Kindle, this was a steal compared to other nominated RITA novels that are sitting at agency pricing for e-versions.

I give this novel an A- and will be looking forward to reading Lara Chapman’s next novel.

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