Beauty Is Truly Skin Deep- "Fugly" Review

Normally, during the month of October, I am sifting through the book club’s paranormal options and trying to decide which book actually makes me want to give another paranormal regency story a shot. We all know how successful this turned out to be when you stop to consider the fact that my review for “Bewitching” never got published even though it is mostly completed and has been for well over a year. This month, however, my cozy little state got the scare of a decade when hurricane Matthew set his sights on Charleston and the Carolina coast as a whole. It was during this time that the magical Facebook ad generator decided to make my wish come true and tell me that a book that I had been wanting to read finally went on sale for $0.99. Really, what better way to spend 48 hours without power than to spend it reading the book you’ve wanted for months (while snuggled up with wine)?

Oh Lily.

The book in question that I have been pining away for since the beginning of spring is Mimi Pamfiloff’s “Fugly”. It grated against every grain that I, as a reader have felt in quite a while. The supposed “Hero” was contrary to even modern day standards of what I would look for in a man. Let’s face it, just from the blurb alone, he seems like the kind of person who goes against every general standard of normal human decency ever known. A man who is physically repulsed by the sight of a woman and a woman who still gives him the time of day in exchange for the career she’s always dreamed of creates a premise that seems almost morally reprehensible to me and naturally, I gravitated to it like a moth to a flame.

Our heroine is one who’s tragically named Lily Snow. I must ask that if we are going to continue the billionaire/plain jane tropes, can we please get better names for our plain women? (I’m talking to you Ana Steele.) Is it truly too much to ask for a name that requires more than just one or two syllables to pronounce? Moving on, Lily is not like other characters that proclaim being hideous due to lowered self-esteem. Unlike Frankie from last month’s review who was described as very “Princess Jasmine looking”, Lily is truly ugly. She over compensates for it in every aspect of her life. From being very well toned and fit, to being an academic overachiever and all the way down to working for one of the top cosmetics companies in the nation to gain the experience that she needed to work at the prestigious Cole Cosmetics. It just so happens that this prestigious company is also owned by Maxwell Cole, giant jerk extraordinaire.

Maxwell is a shining example of a man who would be genuinely punched in the face within five minutes of being initially met by any normal woman. He is rude to Lily and dismisses her nearly immediately during her interview for a position that she was well over qualified for. He looks physically pained to even be in the same room with her because of her looks. You see, Max has a deep secret that he has been hiding. Due to his judgmental and abusive mother, Max has a physical reaction and aversion to ugliness called cacophobia, which is documented by his therapist. Not only does this guy cringe at the sight of her, but he is blatantly crude and overall terrible towards her.

They come up with an idea that is not the greatest by any means. To get the position that she is qualified for and to help with his disorder, Lily agrees to trade her virginity for the dream job and the promise of possible plastic surgery in the future. While I wasn’t exactly open to this idea, I did grow to open up and love the characters as they grew closer to one another. Along the way, they do learn how to deal with each other’s issues. He becomes attracted to Lily for her personality and compassion, and she learns to see Max as more than an egomaniac and they fall head over heels for each other.

Naturally, as they settle into a happy routine and a semi-happy life, they self-sabotage the relationship

before they could truly get it to begin. The problem is that Lily isn’t the first ugly woman that he has

Why would you lie about it?!

tried to use for his self-therapy of dealing with ugliness. He apparently had gone through a series of women, though with no romantic involvement, and one of the women killed herself over him. The woman’s sister, a vengeful character if you’ve ever seen one, has written a tell-all book about Max Cole and how the empire he created is a sham. The man who was idolized by many women was a shallow man, who was afraid of ugly people. Max, of course, neglected to tell Lily about the expose piece. As a result, when she is cornered by the dead woman’s sister it pushes Lily and her insecurity to her breaking point. That and the blackmail photos that Max’s mother leaked to the paparazzi shatters Lily’s confidence. She spills the beans and blabs about Max’s disorder to the woman and it spurs a larger media firestorm.

Lily almost ends up dying after a major car accident that happened while fleeing the pap’s and has to have full facial reconstructive surgery. Max, of course, being in love with her, pays for it all and worries even while she is being cared for and rehabilitated by her family. After the truth about his disorder came out, he dissolved his company and decided to start over again. Lily does try to come back and apologize for all of the problems that she has caused, but Max just leaves them broken up. The changes in her life sends her fleeing back to California to the arms of her waiting family and she ends up opening a clothing store and starting her life over, leaving the carnage and heartache of Max behind.

I won’t deny that I did have some reservations after the initial few chapters. I knew from the original blurb that Max would be a rough character to grow to care about, but just the nastiness that he displays to Lily in the beginning really disturbed me. However, the book is steaming hot with the romance between the two of them. Despite how he feels about her appearance initially, the very visceral reaction he has to her after the fashion show is nothing less than electric. The aspect that most held me was the just pure heartbreak by the end of the book. I have come to expect just sugary, happy endings that I have grown used to with years of historical romance novels and a lot of the contemporary novels that I have covered recently. However, to have a book end on a somewhat bittersweet note of her just leaving Chicago and starting over after her entire life falling apart is something that is very rarely seen.

It's a doozy!

I did read the sequel, “It’s A Fugly Life” shortly after the completion of this book. However, that book has a much stronger issue that I didn’t want to go into in this particular review. All in all, if you want a book that will in equal parts thrill you and infuriate you, “Fugly” does not disappoint. Honestly, it was one of my favorite books that I have read this year. It’s funny, it’s sexy, it’s maddening. It was the great read to get me through two days of power loss.