A Note About Loving Yourself || Smart-Mouthed Waitress by Dalya Moon

Dear Perry,

Love is a funny thing. People survive for love, strive for love. And you, you change for love. Well, not love exactly. More like sex and the notion that your virginity is something that you want to dispose of fast. There are two guys in your story, and the entire time you act like they have no choice is whether or not they are attracted to you. And babe, I wish you didn’t feel like the way you look is how you will morph them into someone who will desire you. I wish you loved yourself a little more. You can wear dreads and more ‘feminine’ clothes just as easily as you can cut your hair and wear black lipstick.

You knew this in the beginning of the book. When you commented on the stupidity of him liking you better soft than rough around the edges. (you make yourself unrecognizable and only then do you get a second look; his loss, babe) Everyone has a type; you shouldn’t have to change yourself to be his. If he really liked you, you wouldn’t have to feel like you need to change your identity for him.

You don’t belong to a man. You belong to yourself. 

I’m down with trying something new (I mean I just got a few crop tops and I am in love) but doing something because other people think you’ll look better…that makes me uncomfortable.

In your story, I never really got the feeling that you were comfortable with the ‘new you’ and felt like with everything going on in your personal life…you were drowning a bit. I suppose my main thing with your story was that I never really got to know you, and since this is your story I kind of need to know a bit about you.

What do I know? That you really want to lose your virginity. Not my personal approach, but you do you, girl. I don’t know…with this book…I just felt like you were desperate for the Male Gaze to an extent where you forgot about loving yourself. Unfortunately, you got yourself a reader who likes change when it’s for personal growth and not for the reason of changing who you are for another person to like you more. I didn’t see the ‘smart mouth’, but instead a girl who doesn’t really know who she is. Her family structure is crumbling a bit and all she wants is some affection.

I just don’t get you.

~Jackie

Find the book on

Goodreads || Amazon

Perry makes a strong first impression, from her white-girl dreadlocks to her uncensored opinions.

When she combs out her dreads on a whim, she catches the eye of a cute guy who’s a regular at The Whistle, the diner where she works as a waitress. He mistakes Perry for someone completely different: the girl of his dreams.

Perry tries to become that girl.

But it’s so hard to be normal.

And eyebrow piercings are so cute.

~

With her mother down in LA recording her comeback album, Perry’s in charge of the family household, and things are going to change. She starts with paint colors and moves on to doling out retributive punishments for her fifteen-year-old brother.

What Perry really wants, though, is her first boyfriend. She’s eighteen, and it’s about time!

Boyfriend candidates include: the cute but quiet restaurant regular, the all-too-willing coworker, or the outgoing artist who’s eager to whip off his clothes and model. One of these guys loves Perry exactly how she is, but how can she tell which one?