I decided to read this on a bit of a whim.  I had requested it on Netgalley, but had since forgotten what it was about.  But, I was immediately caught up with the story and, when I was a couple of chapters in and read the blurb, I really felt it didn't do it justice.

Sasha and Xavier have a great friendship.  Although Sasha is desperately in love with Xavier, and, like many boys often are, he is completely unaware of it, this adds to the twos dynamic. Ivy, Xavier's horrible ex-girlfriend is now back on the scene and we are clearly not meant to like her - it's made pretty easy for us.  So the book starts off with a clear outline of the characters we do and do not like.  However, Sasha comes up with a plan to try and 'protect' Xavier from Ivy.  And I started to question her motives: is she simply looking out for a friend? Is she jealous? Is she trying to steal him away? As the novel progresses I felt I could understand and justify Sasha's actions, but it definitely raises the issue of how far will you go for someone and why.

This was an enjoyable, quick read, and although it's not necessarily a book I'd re-read, I will definitely be looking out for other books by the author.

Don’t read before bed…
Reading before bed is supposed to be relaxing, right? Everyone says that you get a great night’s sleep if you dip into your book for half an hour at the end of your day. But I don’t think they were thinking of this book. Firstly, it’s impossible to get more than halfway through it without HAVING to read it straight through to the end to find out what happens. And secondly, once you finish it, sleep will take ages to come as you won’t be able to stop thinking about it.

Bad Girls with Pretty Faces is the story of Sasha, Xavier and Ivy. On the surface, it’s a simple tale of unrequited love – Sasha pines after her best friend Xavier, who’s just got back together with his terrible ex, Ivy. Under the surface though, it’s so much more than that and gets seriously dark before the end. Sasha and Xavier are such an adorable couple – I love the examples of their unconventional relationship and wanted it to work out for the two of them. But as the story evolves, it becomes clear that it’s not going to work out for anyone.

It’s a fun, pacey thriller which zips along quickly and leaves you with a sick feeling in your stomach as you consider how wrong things can go. It reminded me a little of Girl on the Train and In a Dark Dark Wood, as it left me with a similar feeling and features some unreliable narrators and plays with the narrative style. The motivations of some of the other characters are unclear, particularly Gwen, who feels a bit shoehorned in when you consider the important part she has to play later. So this is a 3.5 star review, rounded up to 4 because it was just so readable.

I received a copy from Netgalley.

A dark YA thriller about friendship, obsession and jealousy taken over the top and everything going horribly wrong. Sasha and Xavier have been best friends for years. Sasha is not the most likeable character in the world, she’s cold, blunt and frankly, kind of a bitch. The only person who gets her moods and can handle her is her BFF Xavier. Who this reader found kind of dull and rather bland. But he and Sasha connect pretty well, they hang out, have their own sense of humour and inner jokes. They get each other.

It’s worked for years, they live in a small town, are outcasts at school and pretty much just have each other. Until Xavier got a girlfriend, Ivy. Ivy was even more of a brat than Sasha. Ivy came from a very wealthy family, she has an outgoing personality, but she’s also the type of manipulative bitch who knows how to push people’s buttons and wrap them around her finger and make them think everything she does is okay, no matter how wrong it actually is. She plays with Xavier pretty much breaks his heart.

At the start of the novel what Sasha doesn’t know is that Xavier has started seeing Ivy again. What Xavier doesn’t know is Sasha has fallen for him and has no idea how to tell him. Naturally she’s worried that if he doesn’t feel the same way their friendship would be ruined. And it doesn’t help that Ivy is now back on the screen.

Sasha and Ivy can’t stand each other. Not surprising really, their personalities clash and they are both epically jealous of the other’s relationship with Xavier which in a way is kind of understandable as both girls get different sides of him. Only made worse by Sasha’s feelings now boarding on obsession as she worries over what Ivy’s going to do to him this time.

So Sasha comes up with a plan. She invents an online profile of a guy to trap Ivy and convince Xavier finally that she is a cheater and no good for him. Which is sort of cringe-worthy to read and with the feeling of malice and foreboding in the story, it’s clearly all going to go wrong at some point. The novel is told in three different viewpoints – Sasha’s, Xavier’s and Ivy’s. Then when a plot twist happens another mysterious view point appears with no name, someone else who knows something has gone wrong and is doing their own investigation.

The psychological mind sent of the three different characters was quite interesting over how Xavier, and Sasha both displayed obsessive behaviour, while Ivy was obsessing over the fake profile guy she was getting to know and revealing sides of herself she usually keeps hidden.

Of course everything goes hideously wrong and Sasha finds herself in a very bad situation she doesn’t know how to handle at first. It all gets a bit ridiculous here. Xavier ends up tagging along without realising what’s really going on, Sasha’s got another secret she knows she’s never going to be able to keep for long without giving some sort of explanation and that it could potentially ruin her friendship with Xavier. To make things worse someone else has figured out Sasha is up to something and is on their trail.

The drama is a bit over the top but there is a definite rise in tension in this bit. Nerves are stretched to breaking point and it comes through clear in the writing and makes things very uncomfortable. I was quite impressed with the ending. Didn’t see it coming, and the way it concluded was actually quite believable.

It’s definitely a page turner, and while a little silly in some of the plot twists, there’s a compelling element about it that makes you have to keep going to know what’s going to happen. It’s a great example of a good book about unlikeable characters. The characters are well fleshed out and well written even though they are mostly horrible people.

I wasn’t overly impressed with the first book I read by this author, but I really liked this one. I bought a finished copy from iBooks.

Thank you to Netgalley and Electric Monkey/Egmont Publishing for approving my request to view the title.

It has only been the past few years, almost simultaneously with ageing out of teenhood myself, that I truly allowed myself to indulge in Young Adult drama of the high school kind. The one where everyone is under eighteen and yet everyone speaks like they have the vocabulary of a mature grown-up. Sometimes this leads to me reading absolutely brilliant books, like Girls on Fire which rocked my world, or books that slightly let me down, like Girl in Snow. And so I continue with this genre, down this path of hit and miss, and Bad Girls with Perfect Faces is the latest to meet me on my way. Thanks to Egmont Publishing and Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Bad Girls with Perfect Faces is the kind of book you devour in a single sitting, racing through the pages as time flies by, until it's done. And then you just sit there for a second, finally taking the time to actually consider what it is you've just read. A lot of things about Bad Girls with Perfect Faces are pretty straightforward, especially considering its genre. You've seen it before. boy and girl, or girl and girl, are best friends, only friends, or are they? And suddenly there is the ex again, who is a terrible person, making this a love triangle. Now our main girl has to protect her friend, but how? By doing something stupid, something she will definitely come to regret. And welcome to the downward spiral, as all the teenagers involved see their lives slipping down a slippery slope of silly mistakes and regrets. Why is this so entertaining, I ask myself as I read this same plot over and over again, breathlessly turning the pages. There is something addictive about the adrenaline-fuelled mess that is being a teenager, when everything feels dramatic, especially when it is in the hands of a gifted author who manages to make the plot feel new again. And that is the case with Bad Girls with Perfect Faces. It is by no means revolutionary, but Weingarten manages to make it exciting nonetheless. Was I surprised by the novel's plot twists? Not entirely, but did I enjoy going down this rabbit hole again? Definitely!

I always feel slightly dirty after books like Bad Girls with Perfect Faces. None of the characters are truly likeable, all stuck in that teen mindset where everything is horrendous and everything is about them. I saw another reviewer, Parajunkee, comment on how Bad Girls with Perfect Faces struck an odd balance between mature/immature throughout and I couldn't agree more. On the one hand Weingarten's characters are incredibly immature children with no thought for those around them, on the other hand some of the novel's themes, the emotions its characters felt, were surprisingly deep. However, I do think that the limits of the genre hold most of these novels back from really saying anything too profound. There is so much drinking, pill-popping, absentee parents, lack of school, sex and swearing that I hardly recognise it as the world of a seventeen-year old. Sure, that could be me, but it's still odd. Also, why are only the girls going down wrong paths, seemingly? Why are they the ones excelling at crazy while the boys remain floating, occasionally boringly, in calmer waters? Perhaps this is partially why I find the genre so fascinating, because it always comes back one way or another to the high drama of being a young girl, of being a growing woman loving and fearing and losing. And Bad Girls with Perfect Faces does capture the utter fear of losing something or someone perfectly.

I hadn't read Weingarten's wildly popular Suicide Notes from Beautiful Girls so I didn't quite know what to expect going into Bad Girls with Perfect Faces. As I said above, I was sucked into the novel straightaway, she captured me in that way only YA fiction can. Weingarten excels at writing the kind of fiction that speeds up, where every sentence is leading to the next one. There were some things about the writing that threw me off, how one narrator's chapters were in first person and how another's were in third, which were probably done on purpose but felt a bit off. I really enjoyed how Weingarten incorporated social media messaging into the novel, tapping into how we're simultaneously more honest and more deceitful online. Towards the end of the novel a different narrator joined in and their narration really didn't work for me. Although I can see why Weingarten made certain choices regarding how they relayed their feelings it went too far over the immature/mature line for me and felt a bit dramatic. This kind of reflects on the whole end of the novel, where things seem to just get more and more convoluted past the point of the believable. However, I still couldn't put Bad Girls with Perfect Faces down and will definitely keep my eyes open for future books by Weingarten for that adrenaline kick her writing gives me.

I enjoyed Bad Girls with Perfect Faces a lot, even if there were things here and there I didn't enjoy. The novel is a rush and will capture you straight away with its high drama and calmer moments of contemplation. The mess of teenhood is captured brilliantly and I'd recommend this to anyone who likes Young Adult and Suspense fiction.

A dark and psychological read. Gripping from start to end.

A slippery fish of a book, that isn’t what it seems to be. Thank you NetGalley for giving me something so entertaining to read.
Sasha and Xavier are best friends. They’re both secretly in love with the other, and it appeared to be heading in the direction of a fairly standard romance. However, it quickly moved into much darker territory.
When Xavier’s ex, Ivy, comes back on the scene we’re told something awful will happen. It’s a question of what, and when.
None of our characters is entirely honest - with themselves or each other - until they’re in so deep they have little choice but to continue with the course of action they’re on. I couldn’t quite believe where this went, but it kept me gripped from the start.

Sasha is in love with her best friend but can't bring herself to tell him especially as he has just reconnected with his ex Ivy. Sasha doesn't like Ivy anymore than Ivy likes her. She wants to protect Xavier from her though but just how far is she willing to go to save him and can they ever come back from it?

This was a really good read. There were lots of twists to the story. The ending I thought was sad but it was how the book needed to end though I wish it had ended happier. It couldn't gave done but the way it ended was right.

Sasha is a strange character, she has some crazy ideas but at the same time you understand her decisions. I didn't like Ivy but then you're not supposed to. Xavier came across as fragile and weak but it showed Sasha's strength so worked well.

A thrilling read making me want to read more of the authors work.

Sasha's best friend Xavier has got back together with his ex, Ivy, a twisted, torturous relationship that Sasha fears will destroy him. So she comes up with a plan to pose as a guy online and lure Ivy away. All doesn't quite go as she plans, though, as the trap leads to a chain of events that was never expected...

This was entertaining, and I could see what the author was aiming for, but I didn't love this book. I enjoyed the puzzle as I tried to work out what was going on, but I wasn't wowed.

I thought this book was going to be a chick lit / young romance type story and was so pleased when it proved that it was more than that and had a very dark side which crept up insidiously. Very clever and quite riveting. So nearly a 5 star book but I struggled a little with the ending as it seemed too much like wrapping up the loose ends

This is a great psychological thriller and even though it’s aimed at the YA market, I really enjoyed it.
Sasha is best friends with Xavier and on the night when she’s about to tell him that she’s in love with him, he goes off with his ex.
Sasha is hurt by this and takes matters into her own hands but soon things start spiralling out of control...
I won’t spoil it for you but I just want to say this book won’t disappoint you if you want a gripping read.
Thanks to NetGalley and Electric Monkey for sending me a copy to read and review.

From the offset, this seemed like a VERY predictable story, however, it quick changes and the twists and turns lead the story into a direction which was far from expectation! Obviously as this is a spoiler-free review, I'll spare you the specifics, but this one isn't completely predictable and there will be some surprises ahead.

Something that I really liked was that, unlike most thrillers I read, this novel dealt with lots of contemporary issues, including online relationships, mental health, manipulative relationships and gender stereotypes! I think that this was particularly important, because this book is for a YA audience.

However, in terms of characterisation I wasn't fully content. I don't have a problem with unlikeable characters in a story, but I do need characters to have depth and be properly fleshed-out, as the characterisation in books is one of my favourite aspects of reading. I found that in this novel, the characters felt a bit one-dimensional at times, and I wanted more from the author!

I was honestly expecting a very cliche YA plot-line, which seemed even more likely at the beginning of the story. However, Lynn Weingarten's writing in this book is extremely well-done, it is truly gripping, which is something that is an absolute necessity for me in a thriller. However, there was a distinct difference, for me, in how much I enjoyed the first half of the book, compared to the second. The latter half is where the story really took off and became thrilling a page-turner!

Full review: http://thereadingruby.blogspot.com/2018/01/bad-girls-with-perfect-faces-by-lynn.html

I liked this book but i didn't love it. It's a YA book about the darker sides of friendship and while the story was interesting, the characters felt rather one dimensional. I didn't know them as much as i wanted to so it was difficult to get invested.

Sasha has been busy trying to take her best friend Xavier's mind off of his broken heart after his break up with Ivy after Xavier discovered Ivy cheating on him.

When Xavier finally agrees to leave his bedroom and go out on a night out with Sasha he bumps into Ivy and is pursuaded to take her back.

Sasha has been hiding her feelings for Xavier and now he is back with Ivy she knows that Ivy isn't good enough for him and she is going to cheat on him again.

To speed up the inevitable, Sasha takes matters into her own hands and starts messaging Ivy herself, posing as someone else.

What follows is a roller-coaster of twists and turns in an addictive page turner with an unpredictable final twist

A truly heart racing, on the edge of your seat story. Sasha's devotion to her best friend, Xavier was both emotional and commendable. When I first started to read this story, I had a fair idea where the storyline was headed but towards the end, the finale had me thrown! The twist was brilliant and had me gripped until the last page. I enjoyed the short chapters as it helped me read the book a lot faster and keep my interest. Thoroughly enjoyed this book and will definitely recommend this book for 2018!

Bad Girls With Perfect Faces was unexpected, with its lyrical writing style and detailed characters. This is the story of Sasha and Xavier, who are best friends, and on Xavier's birthday they go to a club and run into Ivy, Xavier's toxic ex-girlfriend. Sasha's in love with Xavier, so obviously she's not best pleased, and tries to catch Ivy in the act of cheating. 

The focalisation was very experimental. You've got 1st POV from Sasha, which in part 2 briefly changes to 2nd person, 3rd POV from Xavier, and 1st POV diary-entry style from an unnamed voice. At first I was confused, but by the end everything made sense and I could appreciate how well crafted this book was!

Also, I really liked the social media aspects of the mystery - while the DMs themselves were pretty cringey to read - the use of Instagram was inspired!

What started off as a perhaps a too perfect tale of two best friends realising they love each other takes a dark and twisted turn! This book was full of realistic and believable characters that show that life isnt always clear cut. Morals are non existent yet you still root for them. The ultimate take of how far you would go to help someone you love. Great reading!

Wow ! What a fantastic read, I was totally hooked from the first page, dark and intriguing a psychological dream of a book. You will be engrossed and unable to put this down.

This was a bit of shot in the dark for me as I find YA contemporary very hit and miss. To start with it seemed to be a very bog standard affair and I was convinced I knew where it was headed. The gorgeously crisp, clear prose kept me reading and I discovered that in fact the novel had more in common with a carnivorous plant. You think you know what you’re getting into but it’s most definitely darker and more dangerous than you think. There’s some pert and spikey commentary on pertinent issues facing modern teens – gender stereotypes, online relationships etc – as well as some sharp commentary on social media and how it changes the way we interact. A thriller worthy of the name in a YA market place crowded with slow imitators.