Books, Bad Boys & Tattoos

3 out of 5 stars.

Once again a book I'm not sure I like or not hence the 3-star rating.

This story's about a cynic and a playboy. Bianca crosses paths with Wesley when he approaches her one night and calls her the Duff. The Duff, according to Wesley, is the Designated Ugly Fat Friend, which means the least-attractive friend in the group. This enrages Bianca and makes her despise what she calls the "man-whore" even more. But the unexpected comes when things at home don't go very well and Bianca suddenly sees Wesley as a distraction. The distraction? A kiss. Little did they know, that kiss is the start of a hate-with-benefits-relationship. And as much as Bianca hates to admit, she realizes she's gradually falling for the man-whore.

It's a short and light read, nothing much of conflicts and breath-stopping chapters.

I must say I somehow enjoyed the book solely because of Bianca's narration. She's a straight-A student, yes, she's very critical when it comes to love, yes, but she's not boring and actually has a sense of humor. At some point her "tone" even reminded me of the movie Juno and I imagined her as Ellen Page's character in that movie. 

I also loved the characters especially Bianca's best friends because I saw my best friends in them. And somehow, the word "Duff" stirred something in me and then I realized I'm the Duff in our group. But it's not the physical aspects that reminded me of them, it's the characters' personalities that did.

And the sequence of events are okay, there are no unnecessary scenes to complicate the story.

However, I didn't like how fast the transition is between Bianca's loathing for Wesley and then their hate-with-benefit relationship. The premise says Bianca is too smart for Wesley's playboy-tactics but it takes her only a few days to start having this kind of relationship with him. I mean it's sex, it's a big deal for someone who believes love takes years to establish and develop.

And then there's this issue of her cynicism most especially with guys. It isn't stated upfront but it is directly implied. I understand that she has so much going on at home and every time she's with Wesley, for some unknown reasons, she forgets about these things and stuff. But my point here is, why sex? At the latter part of the book it shows that Wesley is someone you can confide in so why sex? It just shows that most people, God forbid teenagers, nowadays resort to sex when every thing comes to worst. And to think that a lot have "shelved" this book as Young Adult? I don't think it's quite acceptable.

I also don't think I should recommend this to people who easily get offended by guys who mistreat women. Wesley here is a jerk and the word "Duff" is actually a big deal to Bianca. She even admits this word is rather offensive and prejudicial. Oh so there's one more thing that waged a war inside me. Bianca claims that Wesley hurts her emotionally every time he calls her this and Wesley calls her this word the entire time yet she still allows him to let alone screw her? That's just so wrong, so wrong. 

Over all it's an okay read it's just that this book raises quite a couple of questions.