The Duff by Kody Keplinger

Who: Kody Keplinger
What: The Duff (Designated Ugly Fat Friend)
When: September 7th, 2010
Why: Curiosity
How: We Love YA Tours

Seventeen-year-old Bianca Piper is cynical and loyal, and she doesn't think
she's the prettiest of her friends by a long shot. She's also way too smart to
fall for the charms of man-slut and slimy school hottie Wesley Rush. In fact,
Bianca hates him. And when he nicknames her "Duffy," she throws her Coke in his
face.

But things aren't so great at home right now. Desperate for a
distraction, Bianca ends up kissing Wesley. And likes it. Eager for escape, she
throws herself into a closeted enemies-with-benefits relationship with Wesley.

Until it all goes horribly awry. It turns out that Wesley isn't such a
bad listener, and his life is pretty screwed up, too. Suddenly Bianca realizes
with absolute horror that she's falling for the guy she thought she hated more
than anyone.

I don't like Contemporary novels. Rarely, do I pick them up (like I did with Sea and loved it!). I didn't have any interest what-so-ever in reading this book. Nope, nada, zip, zero. But then I saw all the great reviews of it and still wasn't very interested. THEN I saw it on We Love YA ARC Tours (which is run by the awesome Kelsey), I thought i'd give it a shot. Good thing I did!

I think everyone feels the Duff at some point of their lives, especially in their teens years. My group of friends are all extremely pretty and while I have a good self-esteem, I do sometimes feel like the Duff. But I know that sometimes, so do they. Everyone feels like that at least one, even the most vain, vapid, self-centered person you know. The Duff is a portray of how much being a Duffy can affect how you are and the decisions you make.

The relationship between Wesley and Bianca was purely physical and sometimes I did find Bianca's random tendencies to kiss him then smack him a bit random, it is something that people do (enter relationships like that) because they are stressed or freaking out about life. Bianca was someone everyone could relate too, at least anyone who's been a teenager.

Bianca's best friends were two people I actually didn't like. It's not that they are bad people but they were pretty annoying and I kinda wanted to skip the scenes they were in. Welsey was everything you want in a male lead with just a touch of man-whore-ness which a lot of the time, was not attractive. But he was sexy and mysterious and cocky, but you could still see that over time, he cared about her. And she just continually shut him out.

Bianca's journey through life (which makes me think of THIS Bianca ) was a book that I devoured in 3 hours and really did like! Kody is a really good writer and the whole novel embodied the feeling of looking at yourself in the mirror and sometimes not liking what you see.

Also, I LOVE the cover!

I rate: AMAZINGNESS.

Happy Reading!
-Harmony B.