The Perfect Boy

by Hailey Abbott

Ciara's summer must-haves:
• Breezy beachside job
• Bright white uber-short tennis skirt
• Backstage passes for the B-Dizzy Crew
• The Perfect Boy

Ciara Simmons is tired of random hook-ups with lame guys from school. She wants a boyfriend. So she waves good-bye to her wild LA ways and heads to Santa Barbara for the summer. When she sees sexy AJ rapping at a local club, she's sure he's the one! But AJ is only devoted to his music career. So Ciara and her pal Kevin develop a sneaky little scheme to pull AJ out of the limelight and into her arms. But does AJ have what it takes to be Ciara's perfect boy?

Genres: Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary, Summer, Chick Lit, Summer Reads, Young Adult Romance

276 pages, Paperback

First published April 24, 2007

About the author

Hailey Abbott grew up in Southern California, where she split her time between creative writing and creative beaching. She is the author of Summer Boys, Next Summer: A Summer Boys Novel, The Bridesmaid, Getting Lost with Boys, and The Secrets of Boys. Hailey now lives in New York City.

Her first book was Summer Boys, published in 2004, the first of a series. It was described as "escapist beach reading" by the School Library Journal.

Reviews

[Ifrah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ciara is a bit of a "player" and has the reputation to go with it. She decides she's done being a player and goes to stay with her dad in Santa Barbara for the summer. This is where she plans on finding "The Perfect Guy" and is convinced that this guy is AJ, a childhood friend who has transformed from nerd to hottest-boy-around. She teams up with Kevin, another childhood friends who has gone through a similar transformation, and they come up with Operation Woo-ha. The plan is to get AJ interested in Ciara and Maggie, nice-girl-turned-wild-child, interested in Kevin. The problem is that Maggie and AJ seem to be interested in each other. Ciara is so sure about AJ being the perfect guy that she is willing to do almost anything to get him, even if that means betraying her friends. Ciara discovers that her perfect guy may not be whom she's thought all along.

This book really didn't do it for me. I pushed through the first half and once I realized that the second half wasn't any better, I skimmed through it in about an hour. The whole thing just dragged on and on and there wasn't much of anything happening. The narration was a bit dull, the story wasn't convincing, the characters seemed very one dimensional, despite the author's efforts ( I felt like every time Ciara said something about her parent's divorce or AJ about his fame, they were just saying it because maybe that's what people say when they are in those situations, I didn't feel like they actually meant it or that they were genuinely feeling those things. I didn't believe any of it) and.... Well, it just wasn't up to par with the better YA romance novels.

[Kendra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ciara spends almost the entire book doing all she can to get AJ. She worries over her friend, Heidi, changing her looks and behavior in trying to get the same guy (and that's something else to discuss!), but doesn't see that she's doing the exact same thing. I didn't like how self-absorbed Ciara acted through most of the book, and I can't believe she didn't think twice about breaking the unspoken rule of going for your friend's guy or ex-guy. Whew!

Now, this story isn't all bad. One of its redeeming features is a nice subplot concerning how Ciara is dealing with her parents recent divorce. Ciara's feelings of being betrayed by her parents' decisions and her actions towards her mom ring true to life.

Being a romance, of course, all ends well. Ciara ends up with "the perfect boy," just maybe not the one she's thought of as perfect through the story, AND the relationship with her parents is on the path to being repaired.

I'm guessing that teens will like this one much more than I did.

[Britt Meter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ciara in my opinion is a "player" when it came to finding the right boy for her, and at the same time she's really dumb for trying to pursue a relationship with AJ even though AJ is stupid, pathetic, an ego maniac and a workaholic. In my head when I was reading the book it was a typical soap opera kind of thing going on for me but in the end everything worked out for Ciara, but it's not the kind of book for me and I wouldn't read it again.

[Kelly · Rating 1 out of 5]

Please note: this is a very, very, very long review. If you are not in the mood to read an extremely long and very ranty review, then please skip this one and pretend you didn't see it. Thank you!

Wow, do I have a lot of negative things to say about this book. If the author ever chances by this review, please don't read this, I'm not out to make you feel bad. I know how hard it is to write a book and I don't want to make anyone feel rotten. I just really needed to rant and vent and so I focused on the negative here. I believe that everyone can improve and get better, and there were plenty of positive things too.

I was just completely blown away by how unbelievably misogynistic this book was, especially considering that it's directed at teen girls, who are already dangerously exposed to serious risk of body issues considering the insanely unrealistic beauty standards expected of them, and the expectation to be sex objects at a very young age.

There is nothing "revolutionary" or "rebellious" about females being sex objects: patriarchy has objectified and fetishized females for hundreds of years, there is nothing more conforming than this.

You might say "oh chill, this book isn't actually influencing any teens, it's just fiction" - but oh yes it is. The vast majority of what becomes normalized to people is normalized through things they read and watch, just like this novel.

No, I do not have a problem in theory with young women wanting to kiss a lot of boys--I did too when I was that age. However, apart from the fact that I would only recommend this to young people who are INCREDIBLY SAFE AND RESPONSIBLE about intimacy (can't be safe and responsible? Don't do anything physically intimate), there is something else very important about this. The thing that is empowering to females is to have a DESIRE for intimacy. That is: not to be ashamed of enjoying physical intimacy and pleasure, which is human and normal. But it is NOT empowering to be a sex object and strive to live up to the provocative fantasies of males, which is what this book was very casually filled with when it came to females (and females only). This book completely equated "female confidence" with "being a half-naked sex object that appeals to the male gaze." If you are at all confused about whether being a sex object is empowering, consider the fact that male confidence is rarely ever measured by how willing they are to parade around in skin-tight clothes that reveal 90% of their bodies. (And no, a guy with a six-pack and muscular biceps is not the "equivalent" of a female showing her cleavage and behind. A woman with a six-pack and muscular biceps would be the "equivalent" of a guy with a six-pack and muscular biceps. A focus on muscles is a power fantasy, it does not involve scrutiny on one's most intimate physical parts and whether they can or can't be grabbed-- which is what you get when there's a focus on women's cleavage and behind.

It was awful how Heidi was worried that "everyone around was losing their virginity and only she wasn't!" - no, not everyone is losing their virginity at the age of sixteen, a ton of people aren't, please don't normalize this or add to the already present pressure that teens feel about this totally false pretense. Teenage pregnancy is already so widespread as well as the spread of STDs, it's totally normal and fine to wait, and even adults who can't be safe and responsible shouldn't have sex! You heard me! You've seen how unsafe people are about covid, they're even more unsafe about STDs! Intimacy should NEVER be something you are pressured into doing, and this is doubly important for young women to understand, because there is tremendous pressure on women to submit to the sexual fantasies of males that are blasted at them from every ad, TV show, video game, and anything at all that they see.

I think that perhaps the most detestable example of how bad this book is for women (young or otherwise) was when the main female character was angry at herself because during a kayak incident she ended up being the one to be confident and take charge and rescue the guy-- instead of being the damsel in distress who was helplessly reliant on the guy to save her-- because "guys like it when females are helpless so that the guy can take charge."

Also there were constant references to how "strong and confident and big and in charge" the males were in order to present them as attractive - while when she spoke of females being attractive it was always about how minuscule and tiny their skirts and tops were, or how tight their jeans were. The entire book it felt like the author was saying "yeah, I'm going to write about things being real, I'm not going to clean it up for teens and I'm going to tell it like it is" - as though "women being sex objects who degrade themselves for the sake of males" is "being real and how it is." (And no, this was not presented from a critical stance, like as a critique of society or something-- it was just totally normalizing it, as though it was telling any teen girls reading this "get with the program, this is what's normal" - it isn't!!)

The whole story talked about how this girl called Heidi was "getting in touch with her wild side," where this was just basically "making a sex object of herself and dressing in the skimpiest possible clothes." Funny how when guys are "getting in touch with their wild side" this doesn't translate to "wearing skin-tight, extremely revealing clothes that leave nothing to the imagination."

Another thing that I'm so tired of seeing every book and movie and show do is that whenever there's an interracial couple, it's never the woman who's black, always the male. Just once can the woman in the interracial relationship be black please? (I will give the author credit for making one of the males Asian, that's almost equally rare-- it's always the female who's Asian and the male who's black. At least this book had an Asian male love interest! Now maybe she can work on not making the Asian guy "the nerdy dork" for once?)

Not to mention that there was also plenty of hate directed at Ciara's working mother (and... of course, being Latina, the mother is named Maria)-- where on the surface it was because she had an affair, but the subtext was that "she was just so overworked that she never had time for her family." How dare a woman have a career! At the same time it talked about Ciara wanting to have a career as a lawyer - but her mother is being demonized for focusing on her career? It's not empowering to women if you show love to your young female character and hate on your middle-aged female character. Middle-aged females are almost always shown hate in stories, books, movies etc - but every young woman will eventually become a middle-aged woman. Hating on middle-aged women is just hating on all women.

I also really didn't need to read about Heidi, at sixteen, ending up dating a second-year university student, ew?? There's nothing "hot" about this? Please don't normalize this, there are enough guys in their 20s and 30s creeping on teen girls? Why does the guy always have to be older anyway? "Oh but it's okay because he wants to be a veterinarian!" like he's only a second year in undergrad and he already knows he'll get into veterinary school, something you know nothing about in your second year of university? In your second year you're still just doing basic science pre-requisites, but they're talking about him like he's already a veterinarian? I'm so tired of these masochistic fantasies that females have where they like guys to have careers that the females see as "impressive" - why does the guy need to be more impressive than the woman? Maybe make it so the woman is the one who wants to go into medicine, not always the guy?? Make the woman have a more impressive career than the guy?? Like for a female to be desirable she just has to be physically pretty, but a guy needs to have an impressive career? No, make the guy important for his body and sweet personality, not a career! You know, the way that most of the world looks at females! I liked that at least there was Ciara's aspiration of wanting to be an attorney, but I didn't need this other guy as "oh swoon, he wants to be a veterinarian, hence it's fine to date this pedo!" - just no on all counts!

(Can I also say: please stop saying "girl" but "man" when there are two people of the same age? Either say "girl" and "boy" (or "guy") or "woman" and "man." But this book is just filled with the term "girl" right next to the term "man" when referring to two sixteen-year-olds. Please stop infantilizing specifically females!

And finally, something else that has been pointed out by other reviews-- the constant product placement was so cringeworthy. I really just wanted it to stop. Sometimes stuff the author said just made no sense. In the bio it said that she grew up in southern California near the beaches-- well, so did I, and so I was really weirded out that she said the water in the Pacific ocean is warm?!?! Anyone who actually went in the water at the Pacific coast (Orange County, LA, Santa Barbara, Monterey, etc) would know that it's freezing cold?? And there was a description of there being dunes on the beach at Santa Barbara? I have never seen this, but maybe I had somehow missed it??

Another minor gripe: why does every sixteen-year-old kid have their own car? You get your license and immediately have your own car, what? Maybe some kids do, but every single kid in this story? And okay, so everyone has their own car - but why is it ALWAYS the guy who's driving? Make it so the females are the ones driving and the guy is in the passenger's seat!! Having the guy drive is just another implication that the guy is in control - it's not "hot," it's sexist! And not every teenager out there is constantly out there drinking alcohol? I didn't? A lot of teens don't?

[Carmen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sixteen-year-old Ciara is a player. She hooks up with boys and never sees them again. But it's starting to sicken her. So she jumps at the chance to spend a summer at her dad's place in Santa Barbara. There she can have a fresh start. Then she sees AJ. He is nothing like the scrawny thirteen-year-old she remembers – he is a very hot sixteen-year-old now! She wants him as a steady boyfriend – no more playing for her. But he doesn't seem that interested. So she and her other childhood friend Kevin form a plan. Kevin likes Heidi, who won't give him the time of day, and Ciara likes AJ. So they team up to help each other. But are they really chasing the right people? I don't think this was as good as Getting Lost With Boys or The Secrets With Boys.

[Paper Thoughts · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ciara is a bit of a "player" and has the reputation to go with it. She decides she's done being a player and goes to stay with her dad in Santa Barbara for the summer. This is where she plans on finding "The Perfect Guy" and is convinced that this guy is AJ, a childhood friend who has transformed from nerd to hottest-boy-around. She teams up with Kevin, another childhood friends who has gone through a similar transformation, and they come up with Operation Woo-ha. The plan is to get AJ interested in Ciara and Maggie, nice-girl-turned-wild-child, interested in Kevin. The problem is that Maggie and AJ seem to be interested in each other. Ciara is so sure about AJ being the perfect guy that she is willing to do almost anything to get him, even if that means betraying her friends. Ciara discovers that her perfect guy may not be whom she's thought all along.

This book really didn't do it for me. I pushed through the first half and once I realized that the second half wasn't any better, I skimmed through it in about an hour. The whole thing just dragged on and on and there wasn't much of anything happening. The narration was a bit dull, the story wasn't convincing, the characters seemed very one dimensional, despite the author's efforts ( I felt like every time Ciara said something about her parent's divorce or AJ about his fame, they were just saying it because maybe that's what people say when they are in those situations, I didn't feel like they actually meant it or that they were genuinely feeling those things. I didn't believe any of it) and.... Well, it just wasn't up to par with the better YA romance novels.

[Sharlae · Rating 5 out of 5]

My book is called "The Perfect Boy" by Hailey Abbott. This book is fiction. It's fiction because this novel is a short story. The theme of the book is you don't go after everything you want, I mean you can but then again if someone doesn't want you just leave it alone. Don't do anything to hurt them or yourself you have to respect whatever they may say to you. Also, this book is about This high school girl name Ciara and she just fed up with hooking up with just boring guys in her school. She really wants a boyfriend and someone other than the people she has already dated. She stays in LA but moves to Santa Barbara for the summer. When soon after staying in Santa Barbara she spots out this fine boy name AJ rapping at a local club. Ciara has this gut feeling that AJ is just the one and she feels like that she has to be with him. AJ is not dating type he is more focused on his music career. He doesn't pay that much attention to Ciara. AJ is not into girls, but Ciara does some sneaky things to win AJ over his career.

[Madison Munson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think that this book was overall a well written book and it will keep you hooked though out the whole book. It is relate able for high school girls, which makes it irresistible. The main character, Ciara, was my favorite character because she had a lot of personality and I could, for the most part, relate to her situation of having a crush on a boy that is off limits. She was always cooking up new ways to get his attention and still being herself, which getting their perfect guy in always on their mind. My least favorite character was, AJ, because he was very self involved and he only cared about money and his image. He was playing Heidi and Ciara, which causes problems for Heidi and Ciara because they are both trying to get his attention, and he ended up not wanting to be with either of them at the end. Foreshadowing is partially involved in the book because she has a moment with one of the other characters Kevin who is helping her to impress AJ and at the end of the book they realize they were meant for each other. The imagery in the book is amazing, I could practically picture every chapter in my head perfectly because of the detail in the book. The conflict character vs. character arises when Heidi and Ciara are fighting for the same man but only one or no one can have him. Through out the book they both put up a good fight and they would have a new round in each chapter. This book was a great book, it was hard to put it down.

[Jennifer Wardrip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reviewed by Taylor Rector for TeensReadToo.com

Ciara is tired of the same old boring guys from school. She has always liked to randomly hook-up and be done with it. But now she decides that she wants a real boyfriend.

She leaves her home in Los Angeles to go to her dad's house in Santa Barbra for the summer, and meets up with some old friends at a club. Specifically, she sees AJ rapping (Ciara is the hip-hop/rap queen) and she realizes that he is going to be her boyfriend.

Ciara and her old friend, Kevin, create a scheme to make AJ fall in love with her. But, as predicted, nothing ever goes the way you want it to. AJ is all about his music career, and not about having a girlfriend. So will Ciara be able to make AJ into her "perfect boy?"

Read THE PERFECT BOY, the pool/beach novel of the summer, to find out!

What I really liked about this book was that I had so much in common with the characters. That's how all of Hailey Abbott's characters are like. And I love her for it! Perfect for reading while chillin' by the pool in the 100 degree heat!

[Fanoon Janahi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Totally a Fun/Short Read Loved all the pure love thing and the fact that this book just SCREAMS SUMMER!!! ... Cant wait to start this summer vacation nothin left \o/ ... any way back to subject the book is perfect for young girls ... it starts with Ciara being a Wild child in LA "Where her mum lives" and Changes that by going to Santa Barbara in summer which is where her fathers Lives "Her mum & dad are divorced" So Ciara decided to have change her wild child behaviour and looks for the perfect boy "AJ" while getting help from his best friend "Kevin" which basically she ends up having mixed feelings for .... any way who will she picks ? or willl she be dumped by both ? .... HAHAH YOU MUST READ IT !!! PS. The ending wont disappoint you ;)

[Sabrina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about a girl who spends her summer with her father, and finally sees her old friends again from long time ago. But when she meets one of her old guy-friends, she find out he's more attractive then the last time she saw him. So she falls in love with him. But one problem, the boy she's so attractive too is a singer and has a lot of groupies around him. So she's never able to tell him how she feels about him. But, through her time when she finds this mysterious love, she also has one of her old friends with her to team together to help her get to the boy. But at the end, she dates her friend that helps her out the whole time instead of the signer boy.

[al · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was a yawn.
Probably one of the worst chick flick type of book I've ever read. The characters and their personalities were terrible. The writing was awful. The whole story line was just so bad and incredibly predictable. I knew how the entire story was going to end by chapter three, and what's the point in reading until the end if you know what's going to happen? Naturally, I did finish, but only because I wanted to say I read 9 books this summer, but, that's beside the point.
The Perfect Boy was so bad, I can't even remember the character's names and I finished the book only two days ago.

Augh. Don't waste your time on this book.

Thank God I only paid $3.99 for it.

[Steph · Rating 1 out of 5]

Omg I'm about to rip my hair out of my scalp! This book was so...lame. The author tried SO HARD to fit in with the cheesy teen activities, the out of date slang, and what's with the old rap song quotes?

I got to page 45 before I gave up. I tried to not hate it, but totally failed. Do not read this book unless you're into Tupac and 50 Cent quotes, a cheesy wannabe rap group, and a half Peruvian half black slut trying to be a good girl. Whatever, I guess some people are into that kind of thing. I sure as hell am not. Terrible excuse for a summer book! gah!

[Rachael Bragg · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gotta say I am not a fan of this book. It had the potential to be so much better but I really struggled to like the main character. I felt like Ciara was underdeveloped, immature and quite frankly very shallow. This plot is one we have seen a hundred times written much better. Usually I like the girl meets hot guy, thinks she loves him when best guy friend is really the one for her and she is too blind to see it stories but this one was poorly written. I don't recommend.

[Annie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought that this book was interesting because it was ironic and the ending was really cute. I enjoyed this book because it was descriptive and I would reread it anytime. This book was about a girl named Ciara who wanted to change her bad habits. She moved to Santa Barbra to do so and in the process, she was reunited with her childhood friends.

[Jackie Schuler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ciara is known as the school player. When she goes back to her summer house where her dad lives after some years, she realizes she needs to behave. She catches up with an old friend who surprises her by being so understanding. The friendship grows to much more towards the end of the book,but I won't give the entire story away.

[Janelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

After reading the last book by Hailey Abbott, I had to say I was pretty disappointed in this one. The plot didn't move for most of the story, and only on the last page did it start to get interesting. Overall, I was just reading it so I could finish it and move onto a different book.

[Catalina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh a light read. I wasn't too into it, only finished so I could move on to other books weighing down my to read pile. Seriously, it needs a backbone. Or maybe I should break it up into smaller piles? hmmm.

[bianca]

I have to say that what I liked most about this book was the ending. I don't want my review to be spoilery so I'm not going to say more.
Ciara's not really a character I connected with, I couldn't really "understand" her.
Overall, this is a fun, light book

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was glad she ended up with a guy but I was still kinda hoping that AJ would deflate his head and be with her. Kevin is just too much of a nerd for me but in happy that everyone ended up with someone in the end.

[Elora · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm going to write my review about this book in a few simple sentences.
Bad writing.
All the characters with weak and unremarkable personalities.
Common storyline


And finally,

A very bad read.

[Josie]

I didn't believe the MC as a character. I thought, a 16-year-old who can be so sexually confident, can be honest with her best friend, and that put me off from there. I also felt like the pacing was a bit slow and everything seemed to come quite easily for Ciara. This was a DNF for me.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Breezy beach read. Main characters emotions and immediate and full connection to the love interest is hard to believe, but everything works out in the end. Just for fun.

[Diane ϟ [ Lestrange ] · Rating 4 out of 5]

I light summer read! :)

[™yourbeautifulnightmaree™ · Rating 4 out of 5]

i really liked this as a light summer read, i read it at any chance i got!

[Rusette · Rating 3 out of 5]

So so. Not too good. Not too bad.

[Minji · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick read. I read this book in one sitting. Entertaining enough to keep me reading until the end.

[Samiah Lowe · Rating 4 out of 5]

was a very good book. had a great discription and voice. i would recommend this to people that like short easy to read books

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a wonderful story. A friend thats close has the potental to get much closer if you let them.

[Deedee · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars