Book Review: The Perfect Girlfriend by Karen Hamilton

Publish Date: March 26, 2019

“If you love someone, set them free. If they come back, they’re yours. If they don’t, make them.” — The Perfect Girlfriend

Juliette has everything going for her: she’s young, pretty, and driven, and she’s training for an exciting new career as a flight attendant.

The darkness in her past doesn’t matter, because she’s moved beyond all that, and she’s building a great new life for herself—one that will impress her ex-boyfriend, Nate, who left her in a foolish moment of commitment-phobia, one that he surely regrets now. But he’ll be so proud of her once he sees how much she’s grown. And he will see her. After all, he’s a pilot at the very same airline where Juliette is training.

What kind of man wouldn’t appreciate the effort Juliette has taken to win Nate back? She cleans his apartment when he’s not there, and makes sure to leave all his favorite foods in the fridge. It’s only a matter of time before he leaves his airheaded new girlfriend and realizes Juliette is the only one for him.

He will realize it. Juliette will make sure of it.

“Revenge is a dish best served cold, and mine is going to be frozen.” — The Perfect Girlfriend

Everyone has an inner psycho. They might stuff it deep inside of themselves, but it’s there. Juliette, our main character, is unafraid to show it to the world. She has suffered a huge heartbreak but she is determined to win back the love of her life by doing whatever it takes.

I admire her determination. “Stick to the plan, stick to the plan. Fail to plan, plan to fail,“ she says to herself. “As long as I don’t veer off course, nothing can ever harm me again“. Many people go through bad breakups, but most move upward and onward. Not Juliette. She does things that jilted exes dream of doing, but would never dare: stalk the ex online and in real life, go through his apartment when he’s not home, smell his pillow (!!!), read his mail. She knows that what she’s doing is wrong, but she can’t help it. Love makes people do crazy things.

The story is narrated by Juliette and the reader literally gets into her head and is privy to her real thoughts and feelings. At first, Juliette seems like an average gal who is dumped by a guy that she was really into, but there are telltale clues sprinkled here and there that tell me that she is a little off. Eventually, I realized that Juliette’s head is totally screwed up. Poor Nate. I wonder how he felt to be on the receiving end of Juliette’s obsession. She lives in a world that is far from reality. I felt sorry for her, so I rooted for her. I wanted her to win back her Prince Charming and have her happily ever after.

This book is about obsession, revenge, bullying, stalking, family relationships, friendships, and an inside look into the life of a flight attendant. The author, Karen Hamilton, worked for an airline and her enlightening experiences are reflected in this story.

There are times when I cringed and groaned and said “No you didn’t just do that” but I loved the premise. The writing is strong, the story is entertaining and easy to read, and if you’ve ever had your heart broken, you’ll live vicariously through Juliette.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars