Picture Perfect (Geek Girl, #3)

by Holly Smale

[Leah]

Holly Smale's Geek Girl series has quickly become one of my favourite series of books. They're just DELIGHTFUL, and charming, and quirky and I just LOVE anyone who's a geek and a model. It's the dream, am I right? And Harriet Manners is the most wonderful character, ever. If I was a sixteen-year-old still, I would want her to be my best friend. Heck, I am 24 and I STILL want her to be my best friend. Her facts about anything and everything are awesome, and she manages to be both charming and delightfully silly at the most inopportune of times. It's a series every single teenager should be reading, because it's simply awesome. Geek Girl: Picture Perfect is the third book in the series, and it's probably the best one yet.

In Harriet Manners's life, things are good: She's officially a "girlfriend" (it's inscribed on her notebook and everything), her home life is fabulous, and she's just about to start sixth form, until her parents spring a move to America on her. NEW YORK CITY! Manhattan! The Statue of Liberty, all those musuems... It sounds like the perfect way to spend 6 months, except she'll be without her friends Toby and Nat, but it's only 6 months! And she'll be spending it in the middle of NYC, or so she thinks... Until they get there, and they're actually going to be living 90 minutes away from the buzz and bright lights of the city. Harriet's got no friends, a horrible tutor, and she isn't quite sure how her life can get any worse, until she gets the opportunity to get back into the world of modelling, and it's the perfect distraction from all of her problems...

I just loved Geek Girl: Picture Perfect. It was pitch perfect, Harriet's on the cusp of growing up (she turns 16 during the novel!), and it felt like a big step forward from previous books, even if she still had her moments (which made me chuckle). Sure, she's still prone to crazy acts (like running away - three times!) but I could sorta see where she was coming from, since their life in America is hardly what she expected, and since things go disastrously wrong on her 16th birthday, so wrong that it made me want to cry. So I could understand her rebellion, and her need to run away, and try and make her life on her own, because it came from her deep disappointment about their American adventure being NOTHING like you see on Friends. And, let's be honest when you hear you're moving to New York, you immediately think Friends. Or is it just me? And Harriet?

Probably my biggest disappointment in the book was Harriet and Nick's relationship. It's a tough balancing act to get right considering Nick is modelling all the time, and Harriet is in the vast depths of New York no one's ever heard of (I'm kidding), and it all had an awful sense of inevitability about it, and as soon as the charming Cal popped up, I was terrified for Harriet. And Nick. There's the big happy-ever-after part of me that wants these two crazy teenagers to live happy ever after RIGHT NOW. To be with each other all the time, and it just wasn't feasibly possible except for a few spots here and there, and it kinda bummed me out. I love Freckles and Lion Boy. I'll just be super interested to see where it all goes in the next book, it rather left things where I wanted more, damn it. And debating tears again.

Holly Smale is one of the best new writers to emerge in the past couple of years. She's tapped into a fantastic character with Harriet Manners - she's unforgettable, and it helps SO MUCH that her family and friends are just as awesome. Seriously, her Dad should have his own series. He wasn't as witty this time around (the Mars Bar texts from Geek Girl: Model Misfit are hilarious, what with his job & the move, but he's still number uno on my list of top ten favourite fictional dads. I absolutely adored everything about Geek Girl: Picture Perfect (my disappointment about Harriet/Nick doesn't change a thing - that's just semantics, unavoidable ones and it was nice to see their relationship progress, I will grudgingly admit...). I can't wait for Geek Girl: Number Four. I need Harriet Manners in my life, for as long as possible, and I'm dying to know what adventures she gets up to next time!