Perfected
Author: Kate Jarvik Birch
Pub. Date: July 1, 2014
Acquired: From publisher/author in exchange for honest review.
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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.
For fans of Keira Cass’s Selection series and Lauren DeStefano’s Chemical Garden series, Perfected is a chilling look at what it means to be human, and a stunning celebration of the power of love to set us free, wrapped in a glamorous—and dangerous—bow.
~My Review~
Amazing. Just what I needed to read right now. I absolutely fell in love with a story concept of humans returning to the role of slaves. People can’t really get much more depraved than when owning a human being. Only this time we’ve endeared the slaves as “pets” to help soften the blow. Well, sort of.
Females bred to be sold for others’ entertainment and use. Bred to “perfection”. Children’s playthings. Men’s playthings. And what’s worse is most of the pets think nothing of it.
Ms. Birch brilliantly sucked me into the story and took me from a slower-paced introduction all the way to an extremely climactic ending. This is one story you are not going to want to miss.
What happens when a “pet” decides she doesn’t want to be a pet any longer?
Love this! Can’t wait for more!
~My Rating~
~About the Author~
Kate Birch has loved writing ever since she was a little girl. She wrote her first novel in fourth grade (the main character was suspiciously similar to herself). As an adult, her essays and short stories have been published in Isotope: A Journal of Literary Nature and Science Writing, Saint Ann’s Review, Scissors and Spackle and in a forthcoming issue of Indiana Review. Her first play, (a man enters), co-written with Elaine Jarvik, was produced in 2011 by Salt Lake Acting Co.
