North of Beautiful by Justina Chen Hedley

Title: North of Beautiful
Author: Justina Chen Headley
Age Group: Teens
# of Pages: 373
My Rating: 5/5

From behind, Terra Cooper is seemingly all-so-beautiful as she have the figure, model height and blonde hair. However, if she was to turn around, one would have a double take. Due to her port wine stain that takes up part of her face, she buries her flaw underneath heavy makeup.

Terra plans on moving far away in order to start her life anew, away from her father who constantly verbal abuses her and her mother. She is tired of the life she is living and wants something different. Her wish is granted when she meets a goth Chinese boy who understands her and is not bothered by her face. Everything changes for her when she spends more time with him and the doors to the world open up.

You may notice that my reviews aren't very current with the latest novels as I'm trying to get through my current pile first. I was so glad to have North of Beautiful in the pile.

Generally, characters with Terra's brief characteristics tend to be those girls who have it all in those Gossip Girl themed novels. However, Terra is different. With her birthmark, she thinks a lot more differently than the usual teen. She for sure wants to fit in, but at the same time in her own way craves for new changes in life. She loves her mom and wishes that her mother could do better because her father is so mean and is not worth staying with. In all honesty, I was supporting Terra's mom the most throughout the novel. I wanted her to so badly to divorce her husband and was looking forward to that.

My favourite part of all is the fact that Terra and her mother got to go to Shanghai, China along with Jacob (Chinese boy) and his adopted mother. She experiences a whole new culture and it is great to see how it changes her perspective on things. I'm at the stage where I want to desperately go out and see the world and this book gives me that.

North of Beautiful is not your average, typical teen book. It have depths and meaning on being truly beautiful and the idea of living life. This is a great novel to pick up if you want something a bit more mature (not in a sexual way at all) and developed, not just your usual "girl likes boy" story. Or if you are tired of being bombarded with the latest titles and would like to go back to ones that you may have missed in the past couple of years.

Won copy from Books by Their Covers.