Title: You Asked for Perfect

Author: Laura Silverman

Genre:  YA, Contemporary, Romance

Summary: Senior Ariel Stone is the perfect college applicant: first chair violin, dedicated community volunteer, and expected valedictorian. He works hard – really hard – to make his life look effortless. A failed Calculus quiz is not part of that plan. Not when he’s number one. Not when his peers can smell weakness like a freshman’s body spray.

Figuring a few all-nighters will preserve his class rank, Ariel throws himself into studying. His friends will understand if he skips a few plans, and he can sleep when he graduates. Except Ariel’s grade continues to slide. Reluctantly, he gets a tutor. Amir and Ariel have never gotten along, but Amir excels in Calculus, and Ariel is out of options.

Ariel may not like Calc, but he might like Amir. Except adding a new relationship to his long list of commitments may just push him past his limit.

Can I just take a moment to be so happy for the Jewish representation without bigoted stereotypes? Seriously. Amazing.

This book made me so happy because of that. There was talk of religion, but a supportive religion, without oppression due to sexuality. There are supportive parents, parents who actually tease their sons about boyfriends and romance.

It warmer my heart so much.

I took a while to read this book, which is unusual for me, but it gave me the opportunity to savour it.

Ariel is a character who made me feel so much empathy toward him, because I too, know what its like to be under a huge amount of pressure. His feelings are illustrated so well in this novel I wanted to ask the other characters why they weren’t noticing.

That being said there is a little bit of an unreliable narration.

This book is about pressure, being comfortable with yourself and what you can do as well as looking outside of yourself at the others around you.

Received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.