Perfect on Paper
A Novel
-
-
4.0 • 32 Ratings
-
-
- $9.99
Publisher Description
“Perfectly wonderful.” —Becky Albertalli, New York Times–bestselling author of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda
“An electrifying love story.” —Booklist
FROM NATIONALLY AND INTERNATIONALLY-BESTSELLING AND INDIE NEXT PICK AUTHOR Sophie Gonzales comes Perfect on Paper: Leah on the Offbeat meets To All the Boys I've Loved Before in this YA romcom, where a bisexual girl who gives anonymous love advice to her classmates is hired by the hot guy to help him get his ex back
Her advice, spot on. Her love life, way off.
Darcy Phillips:
• Can give you the solution to any of your relationship woes—for a fee.
• Uses her power for good. Most of the time.
• Really cannot stand Alexander Brougham.
• Has maybe not the best judgement when it comes to her best friend, Brooke…who is in love with someone else.
• Does not appreciate being blackmailed.
However, when Brougham catches her in the act of collecting letters from locker 89—out of which she’s been running her questionably legal, anonymous relationship advice service—that’s exactly what happens. In exchange for keeping her secret, Darcy begrudgingly agrees to become his personal dating coach—at a generous hourly rate, at least. The goal? To help him win his ex-girlfriend back.
Darcy has a good reason to keep her identity secret. If word gets out that she’s behind the locker, some things she's not proud of will come to light, and there’s a good chance Brooke will never speak to her again.
Okay, so all she has to do is help an entitled, bratty, (annoyingly hot) guy win over a girl who’s already fallen for him once? What could go wrong?
Customer Reviews
Spot on YA book for 2021
Content Rating: 16+
Genre: Contemporary, Young Adult, Romance, LGBT
Pages: 304
Date Published: March 9, 2021
Published by: Wednesday Books
Perfect on Paper, written by Sophie Gonzales, is a fun, sweet, bold, sincere, and uniquely fresh and romantic YA book. "And it's unapologetically, intensely, queer," according to the author, and I wholeheartedly agree.
Perfect on Paper is the first book by Sophie Gonzales that I have read, and I was pleasantly surprised. I enjoyed Gonzales' writing style; it was clear and concise, the characters were well developed, and most importantly, they were all believable. I find that most rom-coms are challenging to make funny and romantic, but Perfect on Paper accomplished both with the addition of tackling the complex subject of bisexuality within the LGBTQ community. As a straight woman, this book helped me appreciate the complex issues regarding bisexuality within the LGBT community I never knew existed.
So, does anyone remember Dear Abby? She wrote an advice column in the newspaper. Perfect on Paper is the modern-day Dear Abby set within a high school setting. Our main character Darcy is an endearing bisexual young woman that thinks she is more intelligent than most of her classmates. She is far from perfect, but that's what makes her lovely. Darcy starts a cottage industry out of locker 89, giving her classmates anonymous relationship advice.
Darcy makes plenty of mistakes, learns some things about herself that she wasn't expecting, and is a better person in the end.
"...if you're having relationship issues and slide a letter through the vents of locker eighty-nine, you will receive an email from an anonymous sender within a week, giving you advice. And if you're wise enough to follow that advice, your relationship problems will be solved, guaranteed, or your money back."
An outstanding cast of characters surrounds Darcy. Her best friend is a lesbian who, unfortunately, is in love with someone else. Her sister is in transition, and the hot straight guy she cannot stand has hired her to help get his girlfriend back. You may ask, what could go wrong?
Perfect on Paper is a sweet YA book that will keep you on your toes while having a good laugh. Although Perfect on Paper was a bit predictable, the ride was fun, and I highly recommend this book.
* Please note the quotes in my review are subject to change once the book is published. *
** I kindly received this galley by way of NetGalley. I was not contacted, asked, or required to leave a review. I received no compensation, financial or otherwise. I have voluntarily read this book, and this review is my honest opinion. **
In-line Texts missing
I liked the book just fine but the ebook version I read on my phone didn’t properly load text messages embedded in the story. Which was frustrating because several key plot moments hinged around a text message. However this is not the authors fault so I’m not going to penalize in my rating. Just be aware that the iBook version is wonky and you should buy in a different format.