Beautiful by Cindy Martinusen-Coloma

Beautiful by Cindy Martinusen-Coloma

Release Date: November 3, 2009

Publisher: Thomas Nelson

Age Group: Young Adult

Overall:

Have you ever had a story touch your heart in a way that it actually made you rethink your own perspective on things? Beautiful by Cindy Martinusen-Coloma is a story that will do just that, or at least that’s what it did for me.

Ellie Summerfield is Little Miss Perfect; at least that’s how she appears to everyone else. Ellie has a 4.0 GPA, a list of extracurricular activities that would make any college beg for her, she’s beautiful and has a gorgeous boyfriend that seems to actually love her, and everyone in school adores her. But that doesn’t mean she’s happy behind the almost permanent smile she has pasted onto her face.

But as always, there has to be a twist that knocks the seemingly perfect character off their feet and forces them to show their true selves to the world, right? Right. There is a twist in Beautiful, but I can guarantee you that you won’t see it coming, and neither did Ellie; and it changes the course of Ellie’s life and everyone else’s.

It’s been a long while since a book and a story has made me audibly gasp. I didn’t realize when I started reading Beautiful that it’s classified not just as YA, but as “Religious Fiction”; But don’t let that shy you away from this story, it’s one that needs to be heard, and I never would have realized it was classified as “religious fiction” if it hadn’t been printed on the back. There is some mention of God and Ellie’s faith and whatnot, but it’s not really all that noticeable or excessive.

Mrs. Martinusen-Coloma has given us characters that are so realistic and relatable that you’ve got to remind yourself that they’re characters on a page and not people you’ve already met (Megan is the most amusing thing, and so easy to relate to and adore). The writing itself is fantastic and I can’t wait to read more from Mrs. Martinusen-Coloma, there’s something to be said about an author that can make their characters and story jump off the page like Beautiful does.

It’s not a story that you’ll immediately forget or get out of your head. As someone who’s generally opposed to all the happy endings that YA fiction tends to have, this is a story that begs for one and while it wasn’t the ending I was hoping for, it was one that was satisfying enough that it made me smile.

I’ve not been affected by any story like this in a long time, but Beautiful touched me in a way that I don’t think I will soon forget. It’s happy, it’s sad, it’s…Beautiful.

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I received this book for review from Book Divas.