Vain

Vain by Amelie Fisher

If you're looking for a story about a good, humble girl, who's been hurt by someone she thought she could trust, only to find out she's not as vulnerable as she thought she was and discovers an empowering side of herself that falls in love with the guy who helps her find that self, blah, blah, blah... then you're gonna' hate my story.

Because mine is not the story you read every time you bend back the cover of the latest trend novel. It's not the "I can do anything, now that I've found you/I'm misunderstood but one day you'll find me irresistible because of it" tale. Why? Because, if I was being honest with you, I'm a complete witch. There's nothing redeeming about me. I'm a friend using, drug abusing, sex addict from Los Angeles. I'm every girlfriend's worst nightmare and every boy's fantasy.

I'm Sophie Price... And this is the story about how I went from the world's most envied girl to the girl no one wanted around and why I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.

I picked up this book because 1) the cover is beautiful and 2) the blurb on the back sounded intriguing and different. Unfortunately, it was also quite misleading. Now, don't get me wrong, I still enjoyed the book very much but it was nothing like I had expected and some parts were too cliché for me - which is exactly what the blurb promised it wouldn't be. I only gave this three stars on goodreads (probably 3.5 if I could) because I had some problems but overall really liked it. It just didn't quite feel like a 4 star book to me.

So, we follow the life of Sophie Price and at the beginning she's exactly as expected: arrogant, selfish and simply vain. But then everything changes rather quickly. Sophie gets sent to Uganda to serve in an orphanage. Obviously, she somehow discovers her true self there and proves to the people surrounding her that she's not just a spoilt brat. And all that in the first half of the book. Did you expect that from the blurb? I didn't. And with it came my first problems with the book. First of all, I feel like the whole Africa aspect wasn't done too well. Now, I don't know about the author's relation to Uganda, but I would've liked to know a little more about everything. We didn't get any profound background information of the country and I have to say that, even though I just read a whole book taking place in Uganda, I still hardly know anything about the country. Plus, I would've wanted to know that this was a book taking place in Africa for the most part before I picked it up. It honestly was nothing like what the blurb promised and that was a little disappointing to me.

Secondly, the romance was mehh. Usually, the romance is always one of my favorite parts of any book I read. I have never read a book and hated the romance. But here, thinking about it now after finishing the book, it wasn't that great. There was this huge immediate attraction which is always somewhat annoying, I mean have you ever  truly lost your ability to speak because you couldn't help but stare at someone you just met? Have you ever lost control of your body and stood there trembling? Well, I haven't, and it annoys me to read about this kind of attraction in books. Also, it then developed rather slowly from there which is frustrating to me. 

Now, I'm always a lot better at talking about things I didn't like but it's not that I hated this book. I actually couldn't put it down and finished it rather quickly. I just want to tell you that if you consider giving it a try, don't expect a flawless story. I mean, the average goodreads rating is 4.31, which basically promises amazing things but, for me, it didn't quite live up to that. I still recommend this book to anyone who wants to add this gorgeous cover to their collection - just don't go into it expecting too much.

Thank you for reading and also a big thank you to my brother and sister who got me this book for my birthday.