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Review: Tarnished (Perfected #2) by Kate Jarvik Birch

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Title: Tarnished
Author: Kate Jarvik Birch
Publisher/Year: Entangled Publishing 12/1/15
Length:   217 Pages
Series:  Perfected #2

Overview

Freedom comes at a cost…

Ella was genetically engineered to be the perfect pet-graceful, demure…and kept. In a daring move, she escaped her captivity and took refuge in Canada. But while she can think and act as she pleases, the life of a liberated pet is just as confining as the Congressman’s gilded cage. Her escape triggered a backlash, and now no one’s safe, least of all the other pets. But she’s trapped, unable to get back to Penn-the boy she loves-or help the girls who need her.

Back in the United States, pets are turning up dead. With help from a very unexpected source, Ella slips deep into the dangerous black market, posing as a tarnished pet available to buy or sell. If she’s lucky, she’ll be able to rescue Penn and expose the truth about the breeding program. If she fails, Ella will pay not only with her life, but the lives of everyone she’s tried to save…

My Thoughts

This is an interesting series that we’ve got here – one that really gives you a reason to pause and wonder what else is going to go wrong.  We go on this journey of finding yoruself and your place in life and then trying to find happiness and love all at the same time.  The way that we see our main character Ella grow and change throughout gives you a reason to hope for the best.

Where we left off at the end of the first book is a place where Ella had managed to escape her home and was now in Canada, all alone since Penn was captured.  Lucky for her though, she’s found herself back with Missy – the pet from down the street back home who’s also out there in ‘freedom’ and it’s through this friendship of sorts that we take the rest of our journey in book 2.

The biggest bit to think about in this 2nd book is the fact that Ella wants not only to be free from being a pet – learn how to be her own person and live her life with her own choices, but to also have that life with Penn.  That’s the biggest problem since she knows that she has to go back for him and doesn’t know how to get there.  We go on a rather interesting and colorful journey to get there.

It’s interesting to see the role that Missy plays in this 2nd book  – i feel like there’s definitely much more to her than meets the eye, and we see that she’s far more knowledgeable and selfless than you’d ever imagine.  It’s only through Missy’s street savy and willingness to just do whatever she needs to that they both manage to survive escaping not only from Canada, but to Buffalo and then all the way to CT where they are finally able to meet up with Penn.

That’s where things get interesting of course though.  You see – they realize that there’s something dark and wrong going on with NuPet – the company that creates the pets and it’s their goal to blow the roof off what’s going on.  While they think they’ve succeeded in uncovering the underbelly of things, they realize that there is so much corruption behind it all that there’s no end to what’s being done.  It’s through misfortune, even through the good help of a reporter that we get one step forward and 2 steps back.  Ella’s being hunted, Missy offers herself up instead to give Ella a chance, and again, we find that we’re on the run with loves and friendships torn apart.

It’s sweet really – seeing that the undertone of this story is to prove to yourself that regardless of what people say, human is human and you’re able to make your choices for yourself.  you’re not to be told what to do or kept in a cage.  It’s a coming of age bit honestly, where we see Ella come into her own, and stand up to be a focal point all with the best of intentions.  I can only hope that there’s a book 3 that resolves it all and that we see that there’s a way for things to end up as they should.  I honestly don’t know how it would all play out since there’s corruption and money and government behind things, but i feel like in these types of stories, we see that there’s an emotional tug that some how makes the public take a stand and then everything works out.  I guess we’ll have to wait and see.  Enjoy!

Review: Perfected (Perfected #1) by Kate Jarvik Birch

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Title: Perfected
Author: Kate Jarvik Birch
Publisher/Year: Entangled Publishing 7/1/14
Length:   197 Pages
Series:  Perfected #1

Overview

Perfection comes at a price.

As soon as the government passed legislation allowing humans to be genetically engineered and sold as pets, the rich and powerful rushed to own beautiful girls like Ella. Trained from birth to be graceful, demure, and above all, perfect, these “family companions” enter their masters’ homes prepared to live a life of idle luxury.

Ella is happy with her new role as playmate for a congressman’s bubbly young daughter, but she doesn’t expect Penn, the congressman’s handsome and rebellious son. He’s the only person who sees beyond the perfect exterior to the girl within. Falling for him goes against every rule she knows…and the freedom she finds with him is intoxicating.

But when Ella is kidnapped and thrust into the dark underworld lurking beneath her pampered life, she’s faced with an unthinkable choice. Because the only thing more dangerous than staying with Penn’s family is leaving…and if she’s unsuccessful, she’ll face a fate far worse than death.

My Thoughts

To be honest, I’m not even sure what i’m reading about here – or the point in time that we’re at.  There was a snippet that said ‘if you like Matched or Chemical Garden you’d like this’ and while i get where the similarities are being drawn, they are all quite different from one another and even from this series.

So as the summary here says, we’re living in an era where legislation has been passed to allow people to have pets in the form of girls.  These girls have been genetically engineered and grown and trained to be petite, beautiful and the perfect pet.  We meet Ella at the onset of this story – where she has completed her four years of training and is up for auction to be purchased as a pet.  In her mind, she’s fulfilling her duty and she’s excited to do so, but of course, what she’s been trained to expect is completely different than life itself.

She’s purchased by a congressman, the one in fact who’s passed the law, and living in his home is an interesting experience for her.  She’s rendered a bit uncomfortable by him given that he’s paying her attention in a way that’s not known, and his wife seems to hate her.  The children in the home are a different story and we see how that plays out.  In addition to that adjustment, it seems like the lessons that Ella was taught in terms of how to conduct herself, how to talk to the owners etc, is so far off from what life expects that she’s really out of her element.

Throughout this story what we have here is a tale of a girl learning to be herself, and understand what she is and what makes her happy when all she’s been taught to do is please others.  Ella really just wants to play the piano, and find happiness and love with others, but of course as a pet, one that some love and some abhor,

In learning more and more about Ella, we also get to be a bit closer to Ruby, the congressman’s daughter who really just wants a friend. she’s not the most popular little girl and having Ella is something that means a lot to her.  We also meet Penn, the son, and his relationship with his family is one that’s troublesome since he wants to do what makes him happy yet that’s contradictory to what his father wants.  With the introduction of Ella, things get to be even more complicated since they find that there’s a bond, something really special there that keeps drawing them together even though they both know that it’s a bad idea.

Where this story takes us from there is a quest for freedom, to be allowed to be happy doing whatever it is that you want, and to not have to fear every move that you make.  There’s reason for an escape attempt or two for Ella and others, and where we are left at the end of this first installment is seeing freedom almost granted for one and lost for another.  I think there’s so much more to come out of this series, so perhaps book 2 will give us that depth.  To be honest, i think that’s the biggest thing that i’m missing here – on the surface it’s a sweet book but i don’t know that we get too deep into any fragment of the story and those are often the best pieces.  So on that note – i hope you guys give it a try and enjoy!