Past Perfect Life by Elizabeth Eulberg Pages: 328
Published by Bloomsbury YA on July 9, 2019
Genres: Young Adult, contemporary, mystery, Suspense
Source: eARC from Publisher
Small-town Wisconsin high school senior Allison Smith loves her life the way it is-spending quality time with her widowed father and her tight-knit circle of friends, including best friend Marian and maybe-more-than-friends Neil. Sure she is stressed out about college applications . . . who wouldn't be? In a few short months, everything's going to change, big time.
But when Ally files her applications, they send up a red flag . . . because she's not Allison Smith.
And Ally's-make that Amanda's-ordinary life is suddenly blown apart. Was everything before a lie? Who will she be after? And what will she do as now comes crashing down around her?
Past Perfect Life is a young adult contemporary mystery by Elizabeth Eulberg. I enjoyed Past Perfect Life. It is a mystery but the mystery element of the book was over much quicker than I expected it to, and instead the main chunk of the story deals with the aftermath of the event, which was interesting. I really enjoyed this book. It was a quick read that had me feeling all the feels! I think Past Perfect Life if good for readers who enjoy emotional contemporary reads that also incorporate mystery and suspense elements.
In Past Perfect Life we meet our main character, Allison, or Ally, as she tries to complete senior year and her college applications. When she finds out something she was not expecting- that she isn’t who she thought she was. I have to admit, this would really rock my world, so I completely related to Ally when it totally turned her world upside down. This was a really emotional read for me, and I loved Ally as the main character because I felt like I was in sync with her throughout the whole book. I was really all over the emotional spectrum, just like she was. Understandably so!
The plot of this book was great. I enjoyed the twist in the story, even though I kind of felt like we learned about it a little too soon. View Spoiler » watching Ally navigate everything that was going on all around her was interesting. I found the character development and thought processes to be the best part of Past Perfect Life. I also enjoyed the romance, which was cute but nothing remarkable in my opinion.
Overall, I enjoyed Past Perfect Life. It didn’t blow my socks off, but it was a good emotional read. I think fans of contemporary coming of age stories mixed in with a side of emotional suspense books will enjoy this book.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- 2020 Tackle My TBR Reading Challenge
- ARCtober 2020
Leave a Reply