In Jackson Pearce's Purity, Shelby has been living her life on the edge ever since her mother passed away. Before she passed, Shelby's mother made Shelby promise three things:
1. To listen to her father
2. To love as much as possible
3.To live without restraint
These promises led to a list of life goals that include things such as traveling... and stealing a car. She crosses things off this list with the help of her best friend, Jonas. This part of the book makes total sense and is actually kind of sweet. Shelby lives her life according to these promises and never does anything to potentially break them. But then her father is put in charge of planning the town's Princess Ball and wants her to partake in the tradition of vowing to lead a pure life. She now has to make a decision- which promise should she break? She finally manages to find a loophole- she will lose her virginity before the ball. The rest of the novel is dedicated to her search for a potential sex partner and the planning of the dance.
The first part of the novel is great. It's wonderful to see that Shelby is so dedicated to her mother that she will do anything in her power to keep her promises. However, I don't see how rushing to lose her virginity and trying to find some guy that she is more or less using helps to keep that promise. Unless she had put on the list something along the lines of "have pre-marital sex" I don't see how taking the vow and following it would go against her mother's wishes. Maybe I am putting to much thought into it, but I can't help but feel this way. It almost felt like this was just an easy way to push the plot along. This wasn't necessarily a bad novel, it just would have been better if I could read without thinking about how the plot could have been better. It's a decent piece of chick lit that I don't regret reading but will likely not make it onto my list of books to reread..
Happy Reading!
-Melly
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