I really enjoyed the book however in the last quarter it got a bit too far fetched for my liking and then seemed unbelievable

The writing is very good and I will definitely try more books by the author however I just didn't enjoy the story. It was a little too far fetched for me which probably means it could be true

If you are looking for a dark messed up thriller with equally dark messed up characters. Get this book.

I liked this book but I didn’t love it. I’d recommend it to certain people I know who would appreciate it but there’s lots that wouldn’t.

Am I confusing you? I’m confusing myself!

It’s a bit dull and slow going at start, well, a lot….
It was worth me preserving though .

It’s spiteful, it’s nasty.

This book for me is mixed - I read it in one sitting as I was so intrigued, but the plot was just so dark and twisted and bizarre.

As soon as I read the first chapter I went out and got a physical copy. You can always tell when you're hooked so early that it'll be a book that you'll reread more than once. Amazing voice, addictive plot and a perfect read that will make you look forward to the next book by the author.

A complex a disturbing tale of friendship, love, infatuation, mistakes, and games where no one wins.

Even though I'm not totally the demographic that this book is focused on, I still enjoyed it, and I'm very glad none of the girls were any of my own....... Entertaining, recommended!

Last time I read something by Lynn Weingarten was 3 years ago and it was Suicide Notes from Beautiful Girls. It was an ok book. Nothing amazing but it was entertaining. I saw that Weingarten had another book out and I was intrigued to see whether her writing style had developed and what new thrilling plots she would come up with this time. So I dived right in to Bad Girls With Perfect Faces...
No one is good enough for Xavier. Not according to Sasha, his best friend. There's nothing Sasha wouldn't do to protect Xavier from getting hurt, especially by his cheating ex Ivy, who's suddenly slithered back into the picture. Worried that Xavier is ready to forgive and forget, Sasha decides to do a little catfishing. She poses as a hot guy online, to prove cheaters never change.

But Sasha's plan goes wrong fast, and soon the lies lead down a path from which there's no return

THIS IS SUCH A DARK PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER! It's just craziness the whole way throughout and it gripped me from the very first line to the very last, and I think I read it in a couple of hours (it's only a short book as well!)

When I finished the book, my initial thoughts were that it was messed up and just weird. There's a huge portion of the book which is Sasha cat fishing Ivy which is just PLAIN WRONG, and then there's a big part of the story that deals with emotional abuse in a relationship... There was just so much going on. 

I've read some reviews which say that the characters are pretty straightforward and I've read reviews that say that the characters are complex. To be honest, I don't know what to think of them. At some points in the book, I would agree that the characters are basic and that they don't have that much depth to them, but then there's instances where Weingarten delves into their character... So I don't know. I guess that the characters are a bit of both.





“Life messes us up in so many ways, messes all of us right the hell up. And when we fumble and bumble around, crashing into one another, stepping on toes and hearts, it's not on purpose. Being a person is nearly impossible.”

― Lynn Weingarten, Bad Girls with Perfect Faces





The first half of the book is basically building the foundations for the second half (which was also THE MUCH BETTER HALF). This is where the cat fishing takes place and the mysteries are presented to the reader. The focalisation of the story was really all over the place in this one. You've got 1st person POV from Sasha, which in the second part briefly changes to 2nd person; then you have 3rd person POV from Xavier and then 1st person POV diary-entry style from an unnamed character. That's not to say that the focalisation  was bad and that having all of the POV's interrupted the story, because they really didn't. I found that they added a necessary depth to the story and to the characters.

I can really appreciate what Lynn did with the second half of the story as well as how she handled such a very tough subject of manipulation. If anything, the second half of the story is where it shines best. I've seen a lot of mixed thoughts about Xavier and while I do understand why some people may not like him, there is more to him that a weak character. Keep in mind, he has been manipulated by Ivy so many times that he is willing to forgive her even after she does something bad. That is pretty common in cases where a person is being controlled by their significant other. I also admire Weingarten for exploring an abusive relationship where the female is the one doing the abusing. It isn't that often that YA explores female abusers, it's mostly men abusing women in one way or another. 

There are so many twists and turns throughout this novel, and there were a few reveals that left my mouth hanging open and my head reeling. I know that my initial reaction to this book was a 3 star, but after writing this review, I've come to realise that - even though the story is MESSED UP - I really did enjoy reading it. So I'm going to up my rating to 4 stars; and I do think that Bad Girls With Perfect Faces is better than Suicide Notes From Beautiful Girls.

Disclaimer: this book was sent to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Dark and chilling book,a very interesting read,well written and kept me hooked all the way theough

Sasha loves Xavier. She would do anything to protect him, especially from his manipulative ex, Ivy, who has wheedled her way back into his life. Posing as a hot guy on Instagram, Sasha does her very best to prove that cheaters never change, but things are about to go horribly, irreversibly wrong.

I don’t really know how to talk about this book. It is silly and unrealistic, and I loved it. There were plot twists here, there and everywhere (some predictable, some not) most of which were completely improbable. I was hooked.

The story starts out as your generic high-school, angsty romance: well-written but predictable and a bit dull. But, after lulling you into a false sense of security, everything flips. Bad Girls with Perfect Faces is thrilling, immersive and addictive. The relationships featured within the book are complex and authentic, even if the plot is rather farfetched.

Surprising, and much, much better than I was expecting.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately i was not able to send this to my kindle before the archive date

I am not usually a big fan of thrillers but this was fantastic! The characters were so brilliantly written that all the suspense felt natural when occurring to them.

This is my second encounter with Weingarten. I really liked Suicide Notes from Beautiful Girls and was excited to immurge myself into her writing. This does have similar to that book, but I didn't like this one as much. I mean I did really like Suicide Notes.

The plot is okay, there were some twists attempts, but I wasn't the right type of invested to care. Half way point kinda lost me. It works well in theory, but also seem like quite a standard affair. The plot is bit reliant on the characters being idiots.

This is another friendship bordering on romance. It works well and funly tragic. The characters do a lot of dancing around each other. This is more relationship based than plot, as everything that happens due the character's relationships have with each other.

Overall, I give this book 3/5 stars for locked accounts. I had high hopes for this book and sadly it didn't meet them. It was still a decent read, and if you're looking for a YA thriller, give it ago.

Teenage love - you'd do anything for that person. But how far would you go? Even if that person didn't know how you felt? This book looks at just that kind of obsessive love between Sasha and her best friend, Xavier. But he's dating Ivy. Screwed up, unreliable Ivy. Sasha just wants to make him see that too. Dark, disturbing and with several major plot twists, this is a very addictive read.

Wow Sasha & Javier what a duo they make! Even though this book was YA I actually enjoyed it, a great take of friendship and darkness, jealousy, envy and love. It had a fair few twists in it for a YA and I really enjoyed the 3 main characters especially Ivy, it was a really good read I was surprised as I didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I did. Great book give it a whirl.

Brilliant thriller which is all over the place in the best possible way. It starts off with a girl named Sasha who is secretly in love with her best friend Xavier. Just as she is ready to tell him how she feels he gets back together with his ex-girlfriend Ivy. Sasha thinks Ivy is no good for Xavier and is convinced she will cheat so she sets up a fake instagram account pretending to be a guy named Jake and starts messaging and flirting with Ivy.
And that's when the craziness starts, this is so twisted and I didn't have a clue what would happen, it kept me in suspense the whole time just like a good thriller should.

I requested this book based on its description and it skipped my attention that it was aimed at a YA audience, but hey, every now and then it’s a good idea to read something outside your usual genres and I confess it had me gripped. I think this book will appeal to a teenage/young adult audience, as it looks at relevant themes and has all the trademarks of a good psychological thriller.
The premise is one which quickly draws you in. The idea of someone posing as someone else online is not unheard of on social media platforms, but this storyline does act in many respects as a cautionary reminder to readers to stay safe online.
The story is primarily told by our two main protagonists, Sasha and Xavier, 17 year olds, who have been best friends for a year before Sasha realises that her feelings have transformed into love. Sasha had been a tower of strength for Xavier through months of heart break after his girlfriend finished with him and just when she feels the time is right to admit her feelings for him, his ex, Ivy, seeks him out and wraps him around her little finger. Ivy is by anyone’s standards an absolute bitch - just out for thrills with narcissistic traits, using boyfriends to stroke her ego and lying through her teeth, whilst Xavier is the kind and trusting type, who only sees the best in people.
Sasha has to stand by and watch while Ivy manipulates Xavier, feeding him just enough crumbs of encouragement to keep him hook, line and sinker, while Ivy plays the field. That is, until Sasha can no longer bear to witness him suffering and an idea comes to her. She will invent an online profile as a hot guy and request Ivy as a friend, then when she’s got enough proof of her infidelity, she will be able to convince Xavier that Ivy is bad news. Before long Ivy takes the bait and Sasha realises just how easy it has been to make Ivy believe that she’s a hot guy named Jake. Trouble is, their numerous exchanges and flirtations soon turn into a situation that gets out of hand. Sasha thinks she’s still in control whilst getting herself into really deep water. As her plan backfires, the plot takes a dark, sinister and twisted turn - a scenario Sasha had never been up for, but which sucks her in deeper and deeper.
The reader too is left with a sick feeling, watching helplessly as Sasha gets herself into more trouble than anyone could have bargained for. It becomes quite a grim and teeth-clenching read and is not for the faint-hearted with bags of tension and an impressive twist at the end. In many ways Bad Girls with Perfect Faces is a cautionary tale about the dangers of social media and how there are people out there ready to exploit and manipulate us. It’s also a reminder to us all not to dabble in anything unethical. No matter how innocuous it initially seems, these things can cause so much upset at best and at worst ... well read the book and find out!
Many thanks to Netgalley, Edmonton Publishing and Lynn Weingarten for an advance ebook in return for an honest review.

This book was absolutely not what I expected. It changed so much and so quickly throughout the book, often changing the feel of the book or even what you think you've read so much. I liked it. I think. It's hard to really say when it changed so much. I definitely liked the catfishing element of it and what it sort of became. Then the twist in the middle shocked me a lot and I wasn't really prepared for it, but it was okay. It all makes sense in the end and you can see where it comes together. So I liked it over all but there were a lot of times where it was like what's going on.

I liked the characters a lot. I liked how they were so defined. I think that made the book for me really. Though I think i would have liked to hear more about Ivy and her viewpoint. There wasn't really much time to get to know her and understand why she treated Xavier the way she did.

It's a good book, but I think you have to like dark stories. I think it threw me a bit because I was so unprepared for quite how dark it was going to go. I also felt more could have been said about Sasha's bisexuality. Because it was just sort of thrown out there that she liked girls as well and then it wasn't really picked up again. For a while, I wanted her and Ivy to get together, because I thought that would be a good twist and be interesting.

So yeah, mostly just prepare yourself for the fact that it gets really really dark.

For me, Bad Girls With Perfect Faces is a book in response to which my thoughts aren’t easily collected. It’s one of those where I’ve closed the final page and, despite days of consideration, I just can’t work out if I liked it or not; if it was good or not. There’s that John Green quote which I am certain is about more pretentious things than a Young Adult murder-mystery that I can’t help but apply to my current muddled mind: “my thoughts are stars I cannot fathom into constellations”. And I don’t know if it’s down to my mixed views on the book, or the fact that I haven’t slept, but that sentiment really rings true right now.
Positively, Bad Girls With Perfect Faces has some of the most realistic teenage characters I have read in YA in a long (long!) time. The friendship between Xavier and Sasha, their boozy teenage social life, and the temptation to return to a shitty ex (can someone remind me to never do that again? It always ends badly, I mean, not this badly but still pretty bad) - it may not be the reality of some of the audience of the YA genre, but it certainly rings true of myself and most people I know.
And, I’m not even a teenager. Maybe university has regressed me?
Compared to some of the characters I have read in other Young Adult books, these guys actually come across as seventeen and not some whiny, naive pre-teens with a narrow world-view and an archaic view on sex and relationships. I would have loved to see more of them hanging out, going to more parties, just having fun, really… Honestly, what I am saying is that these characters in any other YA book would have been close to perfection. Them in this particular book? Not so much.
My main issues with Bad Girls With Perfect Faces centre on the murder-mystery elements. I know, I know, it’s really weird for me to like a book for everything apart from the conventions that made it the genre it was supposed to be, but this is why I am having so much trouble with my thoughts surrounding it.
I just think that those elements were sloppy, lazy and not even close to well done. The characters (and by extension, the wider society and its police force) seemed to completely forget about DNA and evidence. Also, yet again, I find myself in the exact same position as I did at the end of One of Us is Lying. You do realise that people kill people just because they’re shitty human beings, right? It doesn’t always have to mean they have a mental health condition.
Do you know what? I’m so tired, and it’s not just from the lack of sleep. I just can’t summon the anger that I did towards One of Us is Lying, I’m just so bored by the constant inclusion of tropes that continue to demonise a HUGE part of society that don’t all secretly want to kill you. Shocking, I know.
So yeah… 5* to the character conception, 1* to everything else.

A very dark and chilling read it really freaked me out well worth it though.