ARC Review: Body Parts by Jessica Kapp

Body Parts by Jessica Kapp
Published: August 15, 2017
Publisher: Diversion Books
Pages: 300 (ebook)
Series: N/A
Source: Netgalley
My Rating: 2 of 5 stars

People would kill for her body.

Raised in an elite foster center off the California coast, sixteen-year-old Tabitha’s been sculpted into a world-class athlete. Her trainers have told her she’ll need to be in top physical condition to be matched with a loving family, even though personal health has taken a backseat outside the training facility. While Tabitha swims laps and shaves seconds off her mile time, hoping to find a permanent home, the rest of the community takes pills produced by pharmaceutical giant PharmPerfect to erase their wrinkles, grow hair, and develop superhuman strength.

When Tabitha’s finally paired, instead of being taken to meet her new parents, she wakes up immobile on a hospital bed. Moments before she’s sliced open, a group of renegade teenagers rescues her, and she learns the real reason for her perfect health: PharmPerfect is using her foster program as a replacement factory for their pill-addicted clients’ failing organs. And her friends from the center, the only family she’s ever known, are next in line to be harvested.

Determined to save them, Tabitha joins forces with her rescuers, led by moody and mysterious Gavin Stiles. As they race to infiltrate the hospital and uncover the rest of PharmPerfect’s secrets, though, Tabitha finds herself with more questions than answers. Will trusting the enigmatic group of rebels lead her back to the slaughterhouse?

This book had so much potential to be so good. It started off so well. With mystery and life and death situations, but as the story progressed I was less and less into the story and the characters. I was so ready to like this book, especially after seeing a few positive reviews, but it just wasn't for me.

The story starts out with Tabitha in the Center and the immediately jumps into the main plot. Within the first couple chapters it is revealed that PharmPerfect isn't all that is seems. I was intrigued and definitely wanted to learn more about the company and the people behind it. I wanted to know more about the society that is ok with turning a blind eye to raising children for parts. 

Unfortunately, that's where my enjoyment stopped. Tabitha wasn't a bad main character, but she made decisions that didn't make any sense. In fact, a lot of the decisions made by the characters didn't really make sense. The secrets and the lying was entirely unnecessary. They seemed to just be there to create tension and add suspense, but kind of ended up flopping in that department as well because none of the surprises were really that surprising. 

Aside from a few things not making much sense, the romance really didn't do much for me. It felt rushed and it didn't feel like there were emotions behind the initial attraction. There was also a love triangle, which honestly never really works for me. I really disliked Parker and how he seemed to feel like he had a claim to Tabitha's life because of a pact they made. I didn't like how both Parker and Gavin seemed to think that they had the authority to be make decisions on Tabitha's behalf too. It wasn't only the guys that bugged me, Tabitha's instant dislike of any girl that Gavin knew was a little much. It wasn't warranted and she judges Cherry so harshly and only because she has a history with Gavin. 

This just wasn't my cup of tea. It wasn't really a bad book and I could see many people really enjoying it. It's fast paced and the story definitely draws you in, but there were just too many parts that I didn't enjoy that made it difficult for me to like the book as a whole.  

*I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review