Perfectly Unmatched by Liz Reinhardt review

Perfectly Unmatched

(A Youngblood Book)

By, Liz Reinhardt

“You run away for freedom. You run away because you can’t be trapped by the people who love you but don’t understand you. You run away because you want to be missed, you want them to start a worried search party combing far and wide for scraps of evidence that you’re going to be back, safe and sound. Running away is a way to play a dirty trick on the perfect fate that will suffocate you if you’re not careful.”

Benelli Youngblood has her whole life mapped out in front of her. She has the perfect boyfriend that will be the perfect man to take over her father’s business when the time comes, alongside Benelli. But when she catches her perfect boyfriend cheating, she must change her gameplan. Benelli goes to her family’s cottage in Hungary, seeking out a husband and business partner her father will approve of. While dating, she meets Cormac, the complete opposite of what she’s looking for, during her quest to find the perfect arranged marriage.

Now for my honest thoughts. I wanted to like this story, but it didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. Why can’t Benelli run her family business herself? It was because she is a woman, and women cannot run a business. This is 2013, women run companies just as well as men do. Cormac was everything Benelli needs in a husband. But for some reason, she took most of the book to see that her happiness is more important than her families outdated views on business and life. Then there is her best friend Lala, who gives Cormac an ultimatum. She has sway with Benelli, and will be an alibi for them to be together for the summer, but he will have to let her go when she finds a husband. He either agrees to this, or she thinks Benelli will listen to her and be done with him.

Cormac is the redeeming character in this story, he is not the typical hero. He was so likeable, nerdy, smart, adorable, and willing to fight for the girl he loved.

What do you want? “To hold you. To smell your hair and hope you don’t notice and think I’m some sort of psychotic. To watch the way the light moves over your skin. I want you to get chilly and sleepy and need to press your body tight to mine, and I want to wrap my arms around you. I want whatever you write in that secret book of yours about me to be worth all the other rotten shit you’re going to wind up accepting down the line.” That’s, um, that’s incredibly romantic.”

Benelli was a strong-minded, educated woman, whom was treated as a child by all of the people surrounding her. The love story was enjoyable, but the supporting cast brought my views down significantly.  I truly believe this could be a fun, easy read for many readers, it just wasn’t the one for me.

“If you never listen to a word I say for the rest of our lives, listen now. Choose love. Don’t take the easy way out. Choose someone who will push you and challenge you. Okay? Do that because that’s what you deserve.”