THE PERFECT ESCAPE made me laugh out loud countless times. Nate and Kate, the lovable protagonists, are each hilarious in their own ways, yet not without depth. The survivalist competition is such a fun and unique arena for the rom and the com as this duo battles zombies and other teams in attempt to win the money that will fund their dreams. Nate and Kate both want to win the money, but up against so many obstacles, will they be able to win each other’s hearts? I found myself tearing through the pages to find out.

SUCH a great read. Fast paced and witty, and I adored both Kate and Nate (bonus points for rhyming names!!) Such a fun story and I can't wait for her next book.

The premise of this book is absolutely amazing and yet there are glaring holes in the execution that ruined the entire book.

Kate's dad is extremely abusive and manipulative. He neglects her unless he's deciding her future and micromanaging her life. He threatens to cut off the internet because she went 14 minutes over on her use. He has decided her entire future, to the point where he buys another company to rig an international contest so she can't escape him. The level of horrible he is matches that cliche idea of a supervillain who wants to take over the world. This is Kate's biggest problem and her whole motivation for entering the contest and yet she forgives him, off-page, and is completely okay with him. He's never held accountable for what he's done nor are any of his actions shown as bad besides Kate or Nate saying they are.

Nate's big problem is that his father has been laid off and he needs money. A "dumb, rich boy" goes as far as to enter the contest to disqualify him so that he'll have to throw his grades to get money from the "dumb, rich boy" and the others at his school can get into better colleges. The boy goes as far as to fire Nate's dad from the company to put him into a situation to need this money. How is this even a real problem? In what world would this actually happen? If the dad was willing to fire the dad, why wouldn't he just approach Nate directly and say do this for my son and your dad will keep his job/get a raise? One of his friends is in on this and the only resolution to this problem is telling the dean on the "dumb, rich boy" and no consequences really happen.

The zombie survival contest itself was a joke. It was a really small part of the book and it didn't make any sense. It didn't seem to be very well thought out. The zombies were hyperrealistic robots and it was all a ruse to sell data to the military. How does that make any sense? What does that do to the narrative at all? How did this company have so much disposable income as to make, test, and perfect these zombies AND give a $50,000 prize? For an extremely hyped-up international contest, they sure signed up no problem at all. The entrance fee was also only $100 for a pair. You spend more to sign up for a tough mudder and there's no huge cash prize payout.

I wanted to love this book so much and yet the plot, problem, and resolution were a joke. The characterization of the two characters and their banter was great but that was it. There wasn't another redeeming quality about this book.

*I received a complimentary copy of this book from Sourcebooks Fire through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.*