If I’m Being Honest… I Liked Cameron Bright

So Cameron Bright is another MC that people seem to love or hate and if I’m being honest… I loved her.

Maybe it’s because The Taming of the Shrew was also one of my favorite plays but this is honestly one of my favorite contemporaries in a while.

Cameron has basically been honing her life to connect with her exceedingly successful but cold and borderline abusive father. As a result she has no tolerance for weakness and a brutal application of the truth.

Including to her mother who she finds a weak-willed loser (ironically for also waiting around for daddy to notice her) and the kids she goes to high school with. It’s worked for her so far until her chosen crush and nice guy Andrew witnesses her brutal takedown of a crying fellow student and brands her a bitch he doesn’t want anything to do with.

In an effort to win him back Cameron basically decides to tame herself. Apologizing to all those she may have hurt along the way. In a project influenced by Shakespeare solely meant to get her what she wants Cameron might just figure out she may want something different and may even find the balance Shakespeare didn’t afford his shrew.

It definitely gave me some 10 Things I Hate about You vibes as well but minus the outside factors influencing the taming. Cameron was her own project in this one and I appreciated that.

This was a good pick for me as I don’t usually love contemporary reads. But Cameron is a great lively MC- not entirely likable but completely understandable (the stuff with her and her father is often brutal) and she’s also very smart. Plus to be honest some of the things she says probably shouldn’t be said but most of the time she’s not technically wrong in what she’s saying.

The relationships are well done in large part because all the characters, romantic options and otherwise, are given respect even if some might not be perfectly shaded out.

I also enjoyed Cameron’s reading of the Taming text but also the little snippets of class room discussion and other students takes on the shrew- as it pertains to Cameron’s story as well.

Plus I love the cover of this one. So all around If I’m Being Honest was a win for me- enough that I’m considering reading the author duo’s first work. But that’s based on Romeo and Juliet a play I have a far different opinion on so we shall see I suppose.

Recommend: Yes.