If I was allowed only one word to describe A Perfect Picture of Us, it would be: cerebral.

Is that a bad thing? Maybe not. But from the looks of the cover, I was expecting something lighthearted. Something fun. That’s not what the reader gets.

Jessica Edwards and Leonardo Martinelli met in law school. Part-way through the first semester, Jess left school without explanation, leaving their emerging romantic feelings in the lurch and unresolved.

Ten years later, Jess has built a social media lifestyle brand on the premise “no one likes ugly.” Things are going along fine until she learns she’s being sued. The person to serve her the papers? Her long-ago crush, Leo.

Leo isn’t happy about his role as the attorney representing the plaintiffs. He’s thought about Jess frequently over the years, so he can’t help but feel fate has brought them back together. But the timing is terrible. He’s recently been selected for a promotion that will require moving to London, and he’s needed there within the month. If the case isn’t settled quickly, if it goes to trial, Leo will lose the promotion. Also, Leo knows the lawsuit is based on spurious, unfounded charges, made by a scorned woman and a company that’s trying to cover its own ass.

This sounds like the basis of a great story! But the main problem I had is that it’s supposed to be a romance. Where was all the romance?

The couple spends very little time together during the course of the book. It seemed the basis of their “love” was the few short months they spent as study partners over ten years ago, in a relationship that never evolved past friends. Which is not to say their love couldn’t have begun then. But to have three short instances of communication - all of them awkward and tense - and decide you’re in love? I didn’t feel it, I couldn’t buy it. Leo saw this as an opportunity to get to know each other and start dating. But from Jess we get sweeping statements like “He kept her safe and accepted her” that weren’t the least bit substantiated based on what we read in the book. Based on misunderstandings by the heroine, we saw the opposite actually…

The other big issue I had with this book is that it was almost all internal monologue. Thankfully, it wasn’t overly repetitive, and it wasn’t about looks. But there was A LOT of description, about everything. Which normally isn’t bad. But in this case I felt it completely overwhelmed the story. Very little of it was about how they hero and heroine were feeling. This was a romance with very nearly no romance in it, whatsoever, outside the two pining after each other (I can’t even remember if they share a kiss until the epilogue!). And really, they don’t know much about each other NOW, so it seems all their feelings are tied up in what happened 10 years ago.

This could have been a really compelling book, but it never got there. The heroine has some emotional issues based on her upbringing that could have made her very sympathetic. But it wasn’t developed as much as it could have been. The hero, who had a better family life growing up but still had his own insecurities, was truly faced with a dilemma, but again, I hardly felt the angst he should have been feeling. Mostly, this book just made me think too hard while I was reading it. Thus the word cerebral.

And I just have to get this off my chest. A real hero wouldn't let his heroine get railroaded into doing the wrong thing. I don't want to spoil anything, but I am totally NOT okay with how Leo allowed the lawsuit to be resolved. Grrrr...

The only thing I liked about this book was the epilogue, where we get to see Jess and Leo living their happily-ever-after. We get dialogue between them (finally!), we see how they resolved their career conflicts, and we see them happy. But that’s the only chapter of this book that made it feel like a romance.

* thank you to NetGalley and The Wild Rose Press, Inc for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review

Utterly boring and slowly paced with poorly drawn characters. There was no spark in either the chemistry, writing or dialogue. A Perfect Picture of how not to start the year. Let's go find better books.

A Perfect Picture of Us is told in dual perspectives of Jess and Leo. Jess is a lifestyle blogger who has run into some recent trouble when it comes to an unhappy client, and Leo is an attorney who is representing the unhappy client. The problem? Jess and Leo used to go to Law school together and had some feelings for each other but they never acted on them. Now with both of them being older and in different parts of their lives maybe they can get to know each other properly, or maybe this case will keep them divided.

Overall I did find myself enjoying this book. Jess is a really interesting character in that she has made an empire of sorts for her self in the Chicago area. Sadly though this empire is starting to crumble due to an ex and some bad press. How she handled all of this though with her best friends and legal team behind her was really nice though. They were fully supportive of her and even though they didn't really agree with the decision she made to continue things, they also understood why she felt like she needed to. I also like Leo as a character, the way he made sure his parents were provided for was really nice to see, and he was work-obsessed but that was to be expected. As for their relationship together it seemed very drawn out and like we never really got to see them fully interact with one another. We know they had a past, but we didn't get to see the full past sadly so we just had to go on the little hints that we discovered throughout the book. I did enjoy this book and it was a nice clean romance read.
3.5 stars

Jess Edwards has had a rough year or so and when things are finally looking up, she is served with a lawsuit. The lawyer serving her is a her former law school study partner, Leo Martinelli. At one time, they were good friends with the possibility of something more but then Jess dropped out of law school and disappeared. Leo became a successful attorney and when the lawsuit was dropped in his lap, he wanted to see Jess again. He knew he wasn't good enough for her but what if he could be?

I enjoyed the story very much. The characters were fairly well developed and the story flowed well. This story has a happy ending and is a clean romance without foul language and descriptive sex scenes. I wanted Ryan to get his just rewards but was happy with how the story resolved.

I was given an arc copy of this book and I willingly offer my review.

The story of Jess and Leo - a second chance for them as they re-connect years after they last saw each other at college.
He is a lawyer and she is a lifestlye blogger. They meet again when he starts legal proceedings against her on behalf of the company he is working for. Both of them need this case to be over quickly so they can get on with the next stage of their lives, but it doesn't go smoothly!

"A Perfect Picture of Us" by Rachelle Paige Campbell.
My first time reading that author, I don't regret it.

Jess and Leo knew each other years ago, they now reconnect as adult. She's a blogger and he's an attorney... He serves her with a lawsuit... She wants to hate him... but...
They're both competitive and won't give up...
They have a second chance...

4 stars.
Good story, good character development, really interesting. Well written romance.
I also really loved the cover.

Thank you NetGalley and The Wild Rose Press, Inc for the ARC of this book. This is my honest review.