To Be Perfectly Honest

Sones, Sonya. To Be Perfectly Honest. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2013.

Genre: Poetry; Realistic Fiction

Intended Audience: 14 and older

Personal Reaction: Colette is a liar.  She is also the narrator of this story, telling of her summer in a fancy hotel in small town.  Her mother is a movie star and they go to the town for a photo shoot all summer.  Colette falls in love with Connor that summer.  She and her brother, Will, hang out with Conner all summer as Conner lies to her so he can sleep with the daughter of a movie star.

The story feels like it has many plot lines, as do many teen fiction novels, but the fact it is written in verse helps it flow quickly and tie in all plots.  I really enjoyed this book, much more than I thought I would.  I think the fact it moved quickly despite being almost 500 pages helped.  Not once was I stuck in the book waiting to see what happened next, instead I was reading to find what happened.

Author Facts: Sonya Sones has a background in animation and taught film at Harvard for a time.  She worked and lived in Hollywood after her time at Harvard. When she got married and pregnant she was able to quit her day job and stay at home with their daughter Ava instead.

Author Website: http://www.sonyasones.com/