Review: Far From Perfect by Holly Smale

The second sensational book in the Valentines series – a hilarious and heart-aching story about the impossible standards for being a girl.

Be yourself but, you know, someone else . . .

Enthusiastic but not desperate; calm but not dull; funny but not try-hard; sparky but not crazy; feisty but not aggressive; beautiful but relatable; elegant but not icy; confident but not arrogant; feminine but not girly; nice but not boring.

Faith Valentine has it all – fame, money and extraordinary beauty. But what she wants more than anything is a quiet life away from the cameras. Except nobody ever asks Faith what she wants, and her family’s expectations are crushing her.

The world thinks she’s perfect, but is there is more to perfection than meets the eye?

Review: I loved this second book in the valentines series. This book follows Faith, sister of Hope who we met in the first book in this series. Again we have a show all take on what it is like to grow up with famous parents and live life very much in the limelight. 

The difference between Faith’s story and the first book in this series though is that Faith is older therefore she is very much expected to be part of the fame gang, she is expected to live life as her instagram account dictates, to be an actor and to have a hollywood style relationship all at the age of 16. As you can imagine this takes its toll on Faith and so we get a behind the scenes look at what life is really like for her. 

Just like the first book in this series, we get the message of don’t believe everything you see on screen and the message about what a devil fame and not being able to live the life you want is not all it’s cracked up to be. I think that this message isn’t just relevant when it comes to children in a famous family like this one but all young people today. They are constantly bombarded with images and messages on social media that just aren’t how life actually is and are selling a false existence. What you see on the grid doesn’t show you what a person is going through. 

This book also has good messages about mental health and what can go wrong if you bottle up your feelings and don’t actually take time for self care and a bit of mindfulness. There is so much pressure nowadays especially on young people and this book gives a clear message of how destructive that pressure can be. 

This is a really fun family to spend time with and because of the fact that they have fame and money we can see them do things we can’t normally see in a book about young people, they have the fancy parties, the cars and cinema rooms in their houses and so it is a lot of fun to live in their extravagant lives over the course of the book. We do also see the price that this fame costs though. 

I love the opulence of this series and the over the top nature of all the characters in this novel, but most of all I love the messages about social media and mental health that come across loud and clear. I can’t wait to read the next book in the series

To order your copy now, just click the link: UK or US