This book was cute and fun and... predictable.

Within the first ten pages, anyone with half a brain knew where this story was going.

And yet... this story was surprising. I know what you're thinking. Predictable and Surprising are not words that go together. Well, let me explain.

The ACTIONS, the things that HAPPENED in the story were predictable. But there was this whole other layer, of REVELATIONS that the character was coming to based on the ACTIONS. And those REVELATIONS were what was surprising.

All in all, this book was cute and fun, but also touching at the same time. It was a light read with some deep undertones. ( )

I don't know. I'm not quite sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't really this.

There were things about this book I enjoyed: generally a light tone, the development of the father-daughter relationship, an honest and vulnerable heroine and likable friends. But I found some other things not as great; only a few grammatical errors, but the occasional remark that I just didn't know how I felt about. Some of the driving premises of the story also read as slightly cheesy to me, though I didn't feel that it was excessively sentimental for the most part. I didn't enjoy the plot that much, which has more to do with personal taste than it being poorly developed, I think. I also found Shelby's constant questioning of God--I'm not sure. Honest, and for that reason interesting, but for me, not satisfying.

Overall, it was fine, and I liked it okay, but wasn't a huge fan. ( )

Just before her mother died, ten-year-old Shelby promised she would do three things: listen to her father, love as much as possible, and live without restraint. It's been fairly easy to follow those three promises so far - she avoids having her father tell her not to actually do something so that she can still follow through on the third promise and even has a list of (sometimes crazy) things she hopes to accomplish in life.

But when her father tells her about the Princess Ball where daughters vow to live a 'pure' life (no drugs, no sex until marriage and no alcohol until age 21), Shelby finds herself torn between Promise One and Promise Three. Until, she finds a loophole. Just like the one that allows her to do crazy things as long as her dad tells her best friend Jonas or someone else not to do them, Shelby has found a way around the chastity vow for the ball.

If she loses her virginity before the ball, the vow will be void and therefore she can make it and not be lying to her father but still not break Promise Two or Promise Three to her mother.


When I heard that Jackson Pearce was writing a contemporary YA about a purity ball, I was in a bit of love . . . and I so wanted to stay in it. But, I didn't.

I actually had a hard time finishing Purity. Shelby's mother makes her promise to 'listen' to her father and somehow Shelby takes that as doing exactly what her father says - if he says don't do x she can't do x. I can understand listening to him but just because he wants her to do the purity ball doesn't mean she can't voice some disapproval. To me, 'listen to your father,' doesn't quite translate to 'blindly obey - while finding any loophole around doing what your father says.'

Shelby didn't talk to her father about her discomfort with the vows, or anything at all, really. I had a hard time connecting with a character who makes a promise to her mother to listen to her father and then, because she doesn't want to vow to remain a virgin until marriage (or tell her father so), plans to lose her virginity in seven weeks.

The ending (as it pertained to two characters) was one I could see coming from the very beginning. It wasn't a big to-do at the end so it wasn't particularly rewarding, it was just something predictable throughout the story.

I still love the idea of a contemporary YA about the purity balls - and what they really mean; whether girls are taking them seriously or just doing it to look good to outsiders, how their families feel about it, if it's like a Deb Ball but with the vows and really just a society thing . . . I love all of that, but I didn't quite find it in Purity.

Here are two reviews one and two by bloggers who liked Purity more than I did - you might get a different sense of the book from them (I think they were able to connect with it more than I did).

As I said, I'm a Jackson Pearce fan and do hate that I didn't like this one - I'm hoping for more contemporary YA from here, though.


Rating: 5/10


thank you to LBYR and NetGalley for my egalley for review

Purity by Jackson Pearce runs the extremes. There’s some humor, but essentially it is a sad book, but different types of sad for different reasons. It’s my first foray into Pearce’s books and despite a recommendation and review from some journal or other, I wasn’t quite ready for the story.

So, I’ll ask you. If you’re 10 years old and your mother is dying of breast cancer and she asks you to promise her three things, what would you do? Of course, you’d do anything under those circumstances. And, when you’re fifteen, and those promises either don’t make sense or are unrealistic or you disagree with them, what would you do then? Keep them? Find loopholes? Well, that’s Shelby’s dilemma.

Shelby’s father, who for the past five years, has been a relatively silent house partner, gets involved in planning the Princess Ball, a father-daughter dance, and wants to attend with Shelby. That’s all well and good, but there are vows that the daughters must make, part of which is purity (abstinence) until marriage, of which Shelby disagrees. So, she goes looking for pre-Princess Ball sex (the loophole being if you’ve done it before the vow, then the vow is null and void).

I’ll let you read the book to find out what happens. But here are the different sads:

1. A 10-year-old (or anyone, for that matter) losing a loved one to cancer. We adults can’t come to grips with “God’s plan” or the withering of a body. How can a 10-year-old?

2. Pearce makes a point at the end about taking promises literally or understanding the meaning. Shelby’s relationship with her father is the result of a literal translation but there is so much missed as a result. But then again, can a 10-year-old read between the lines? Can a grown man read between the lines?

3. Although Pearce makes and reinforces the distinction between ‘getting laid’ and ‘making love’, Shelby and her friends’ cavalier attitudes to losing their virginity (both boys and girls) is unnerving for an old guy like me. And while pre-marital, extra-marital affairs are commonplace in our world, I would hope I’ve instilled in my children that making love is special and getting laid is vulgar. (My own humble opinion, folks.)

4. More melancholy than sad are the memories of moms (and dads) who have passed away. Regardless of your age, those memories remain and Pearce says it wonderfully.

“People expect you to miss the big things after someone you love dies. They expect you to think about graduating, falling in love, getting married without your mother there. And I do think about those things. But the things I really miss are smaller, fractions of my life intersected with hers, the moments I didn’t bother remembering because they seemed too unimportant–going to the grocery store, coming down the stairs in the morning, watching television, folding laundry. Things that happened a thousand times that will never, ever happen again. It’s like a drug that I can’t have, yet am hopelessly addicted to; I want those moments all the time. Some days all I do is imagine them, an endless stream of daydreams.”

From a literary standpoint Purity is nicely written but it’s the story that makes this book worth reading and thinking about. Unfortunately, I find much of it a sad commentary. ( )

Title : Purity
Series : -
Author : Jackson Pearce
Pages : 218
Release Date : April 24th 2012
Publisher : Little, Brown and Company for YR / Hachette Book Group Canada
Format : Harcover
Source :
**I received this copy from HBG Canada in exchange for an honest review.**





My Opinion :


Purity is the first book by Jackson Pearce that I have read (although, I do own Sisters Red...). I was actually really looking forward to it. I was so excited when I got it, that I read it the evening it came. But... it just didn't meet my expectations.

I thought Purity by Jackson Pearce would be a less fluffy book, and maybe more of a big dramatic book.

The plot was the best part of the book, although I thought the 'Promises', which are promises she told her mom (before her mom died) that she would respect and obey. But, Miss Pearce felt like she was trying to make it sound like Shelby was taking the Promises too far... but I don't feel like she really was... Anyways, in Purity, Shelby needs to attend this Princess Ball, where daughters vow to their fathers their purity for life (therefore, the title of the book), and so, Shelby is freaking out, because she just can't break a promise, one being that she holds every promise she tells her dad. And so, she tries to lose her virginity before the ball, because she and her two best friends figured out that the promise she didn't 'have meaning' if you broke it before doing it, so, like, it deletes the promise. But...

In Purity, Shelby has two best friends, the main bet friend being Jonas, a boy, and her second best friend, Ruby. Alright, so we develop Jonas a little bit... but not enough. I feel like maybe you should have flashbacks of when they were younger, or maybe just some things that happened to Jonas, but he wasn't involved enough, in my opinion. Same thing for Ruby. except that Ruby felt like a third wheel that was never there (or almost), and that she wasn't really Shelby'S friend, moer like a someone Shelby knew...

The writing was nothing that special, although it was pretty easy to read. It was pretty much fast-paced - too fast-paced. You skipped big time (because each chapters is like '3 days before', and it's before the Princess Ball), and sometimes you'd just skip so many days. I mean, in those days, something could have happened! I don't know, Shelby could have gotten a A in a English test or something. Just... add something! And, add drama (because, well-done drama is what makes a book good!)

I enjoy Jackson Peace'S videos a lot on Youtube, so, I am sure to continue watching them, even if I didn't like Purity that much. Also, I'm hoping that Sisters Red will be better!

*Although Purity wasn't the best book I have read this year, I know that a lot of people enjoyed it, and so I don't recommend you decide not to buy it because of my review; you should check out other people'S review to see if, maybe you'D like it. This is just my take on the book.*


RATING
3.5 roses...
( )