Perfect Escape by Jennifer Brown

Perfect Escape by Jennifer Brown
Series: N/A
Source: Bought
Publisher: Little, Brown
Publication Date: July 10, 2012

Kendra has always felt overshadowed by her older brother, Grayson, whose OCD forces him to live a life of carefully coordinated routines. The only way Kendra can stand out next to Grayson is to be perfect, and she has perfection down to an art -- until a cheating scandal threatens her flawless reputation.

Behind the wheel of her car, with Grayson asleep beside her, Kendra decides to drive away from it all -- with enough distance, maybe she'll be able to figure everything out. But eventually, Kendra must stop running and come to terms with herself, her brother, and her past.

With undeniable grace and humor, acclaimed author Jennifer Brown explores OCD, the pressure for perfection, and the emotional highs and lows of a complex sibling relationship.

I generally like Jennifer Brown's books, so it's really not a surprise that I enjoyed Perfect Escape. Her writing is good, and she writes about good topics - but the endings of her books tend to be a tad bit unresolved, and that was my problem with this one.

The characters were good - I understood Kendra, and even Grayson to a point. And while they both have some serious issues, they're an okay kind of people. Kendra is argumentative and tempestuous, but she's just a regular rebelling teenager. And Grayson? His OCD can definitely be hard to deal with, but when he's not struggling - he's really a good guy. You just have to talk him down quite a bit.

I liked some of the side characters that we met - Rena, for one. She was interesting, but I wish that her life had turned out better. I mean, she was seventeen and she had a kid with someone who could be her dad. Her life could have been better. And I'll admit to shipping a relationship between her and someone else in the book, but it didn't happen.

The road trip was fun. I liked that it was more about self discovery than anything else. And it was nice to see Kendra and Grayson finally healing their relationship. All in all, Perfect Escape was a good read, but I wanted more from it.