What a fun read. Sharp prose, flawed but likable characters, realistic relationships, and just enough will-they-won't-they to keep us turning pages while Gonzales explores deeper meanings within the varied interpersonal relationships (romantic, friendly, and familial). POP reads like a breeze that allows its messages to sink in without being heavy handed or slogging down the pace of the unfolding plot. I was rooting for everyone in this story and while the tone set us up for a triumphant happy ending, Gonzales keeps her situations nuanced. The humour in the voice is spectacular. The representation is essential. The world feels grounded and relatable. It's no wonder three more books are already on their way.

WOW just WOW.
This book is so relevant now a days, that teens and schools should be reading this. I have read other books that are LGBTQ, but it was nothing like this one.
The love in this book that Darcy and Alexander have, and the illustration of this book is just wow.
What to say what to say… I feel just saying wow is not going to do this justice, I also do not want to give anything away because this is one that if you only want to read one book this year. Then this is the book you need to read.
This book had everything that you are looking for in a book. You have laughs, tears and an emotional rollercoaster that you can help but love the bumps along the way.
With everything that is going on in the world atm I do not think that this book could come at a better time, and to have it written as a YA book could not be better. When this book comes out next March its one you gotta read.

I had high hopes for this story, and... they were all met. And then some. Oh boy.

The themes Sophie Gonzales approaches in this book hit extremely close to home, and, as was the case with her previous novel, Only Mostly Devastated, were written in a very thoughtful, delicate way that left me unable to put it down until I had read it entirely.

The story touches on themes of internalized biphobia, LGBT+ relationships, parental conflict, lying... Expressions of emotions and feelings are on point (I might have cried, more than once) and the book is full of all the complicated relationships and drama that are so characteristic of high school experiences. The romance is also super sweet, which is always a great point.

Darcy and Brooke... the unrequited love trope is something I'm very partial towards - if it's done well, it can be so much fun for the readers, and this one is done perfectly. I also loved the relationship between the main character and her transgender sister, and the way all of the characters were fully fleshed out and each had their own journeys throughout the course of the story. These characters aren't perfect, they make mistakes, (and downright questionable choices, looking at you Darcy) but they try to learn from them and do better - and that makes them all the more likeable and attaching for me.

Some people have mentioned the common plot points with the how Sex Education (the secret locker and giving advice to other students part) but, as with OMD, since I haven't watched that show, I didn't have any sense of déjà-vu. (Additionally, as the author said in a tweet recently, this book was mostly written by the time Sex Ed came out - it's not plagiarism in any way!)

This is absolutely a five stars book for me, and I would definitely recommend it to YA romance readers, and contemporary YA readers in general. Sophie Gonzales is now firmly on my list of authors I'll read every book of, and I'm so excited to see what she writes next!

P.S.: As an additional note : some reviewers have mentioned that this story was "unexpectedly mature" and "not appropriate for YA". I won't elaborate too much on that here, because it would honestly deserve an entire book, but I'll tell you this : the most mature thing in this book is a kiss, and I think we know exactly what this person had in mind when they made this critic. LGBT representation is not inherently "mature". Our existences aren't "mature", they just are.

Leave queer kids alone. Stop policing queer books.

This book is perfectly wonderful and takes you on a ride, It leaves you guessing and wondering who each person that rights a letter to the locker is.

Perfect on Paper 3.5/5 stars

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC!

Darcy Phillips is a connoisseur of relationship advice who starts a side hustle answering her classmates’ requests for relationship advice via an unused locker. Alexander Brougham, the enigmatic, Australian swimmer, catches her in the act of retrieving the letters and asks her for coaching to get his ex-girlfriend back. Turns out, while Darcy has a “95% success rate” with her advice, she doesn’t always use the letters she gets to help others, and she definitely hasn’t used her advice to understand herself.

Overall, this was a sweet book that worked really hard (sometimes it felt a bit too hard) to give queer kids a space to live their identities in their truest ways. Darcy is a bisexual girl who struggles with what it means to be a relationship with a man and how it might be perceived to negate her queerness. Darcy’s sister is trans, and they are surrounded by other kids who are queer. This book does not explore negative reactions to queer students from families, peers, and teachers, which is refreshing for sure.

For me, the first half of the book was entertaining, if a bit slow, and my overall impression was that it all felt really young. That might seem like a silly conclusion to come to, since this is YA fiction, but as an adult I do not typically find I have that experience with most YA. The conflict and momentum of this story lives in the second half, which I found developed into a more mature and interesting narrative as it built to its conclusion.

Overall, while I didn’t love everything about this book, it was an entertaining story and a super positive representation of bisexual identity and queer identity more broadly. I can see this being a great novel for teenagers looking to see themselves reflected on the page.

darcy just wanted to secure her bag... this is why private school shouldnt be real but honestly this story was so cute i shouldve been studying for my history class but i read this all in a day and they small excerpts of letters and darcys thinking process gave me flashbacks to when i used to take a psych class i love it so much

What a wonderful, fun book! As an adult, I loved every aspect of this teenage romance. The portrayal of so many diverse characters is amazing-any young adult who is questioning their gender or sexuality, or wants to learn more about those that are, will really appreciate this story.
My only complaint is that I didn't have to opportunity to read such a well-rounded and lighthearted story as a young adult.

I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.

THIS WAS SO MUCH FUN. Diverse characters who were charming without being unrelatable, a plot that was complex without being convoluted, and a relationship that made me squeal with joy - plus echoes of Simon Vs. and Sex Education with a bisexual protagonist who's allowed to crush on boys AND girls? LOVE. This was so cute and warm and fun, and I truly cannot recommend it highly enough!

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/ Wednesday Books this arc in exchange for a review!
I was such a huge fan of Only Mostly Devastated and I was thrilled that I got access to this arc. I think I enjoyed it even more. The story was so heartfelt and genuinely high school, full of all the messy complicated feelings that come with being a teen. The cast of main and supporting characters was wonderfully diverse and felt like my high school friend group. This combined with the adorable unique plot made me rate this book 5/5 stars.
The focus on bisexuality is so important. I felt represented on the page and I can't wait for high school teens to see themselves in a way that's so real and true to themselves.
I think I'll read anything that Sophie Gonzales writes, but this one felt extra special.

I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Perfect on Paper was adorable. In it, you will meet Darcy and Alex. The way they meet was all kinds of awkward because Darcy kind of had an alter ego (in a way). See there's this locker at her school that doesn't belong to any student or staff. Yet, every once in a while a letter is dropped into it. Somehow they are mysteriously answered and the whole thing remains a mystery.

Well, it did until the day that these two met one another. Again, it was awkward but I had a feeling that something was going to happen to these two after that day. Luckily for me, it was a very cute adventure with some bumps along the way. I mean this book delivered on the drama but a lot of it was pretty predictable. I still enjoyed the heck out the book though.

In the end, I am glad that this didn't go down the love triangle route. Like beyond happy because I despise those. I'm also really happy that everyone was all friendly again towards the end. Plus Alex and Darcy were pretty darn cute. Ugh, loved this book and definitely look forward to my next book by this author.

I loved the representation in this book. It was true to gen z and millennial culture. It was a great romantic light read for these times.

4.5 stars rounded up

I loved this! It has a great plot, with relatable characters and some emotional moments that gave me the feels.

Darcy has a great job, she's the mysterious relationship guru at her school, giving great advice at ten dollars a pop. She takes it seriously and keeps things professional, except when it comes to her best friend and crush Brooke. When she's caught by popular hottie Brougham, she begins helping him get back his ex girlfriend and lets him into her life. I thought Darcy and Brougham's friendship was great, they tease and push each other's buttons, but also feel safe to open up about their insecurities and secrets. I just wanted to push them together and let them be happy.

There's also a theme of friendship and family, which I adored. Darcy has a major crush on Brooke, but it doesn't always bring out the best in her. I couldn't get enough of Darcy's relationship with Ainsley, her transgender sister. They played off each other so well and are sister goals for sure.

Finally, the discussion of bi-phobia and the validity of being queer and part of the LGBTQ community was amazing. Anyone can belong and no one should feel the need to 'prove' they are queer enough.

Loved loved this and I look forward to when it gets released! I highly recommend checking this out.

I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

I really can’t say enough about this book. I absolutely loved ONLY MOSTLY DEVASTATED and this book was no different. Sophie Gonzales is turning into an autobuy for me (except obviously I keep reading her eARCs). BUT! It is fairly rare that I NEED to buy a book after reading an eARC and that keeps happening with Gonzales.

Let me break it down.

The plot: Secret love advice, criss-crossing love triangles(?), messy lies, and more. There is nothing I love more. From the very beginning, I was invested in the story and the characters. It never waned. And once everything went to shit (because of course it did) it was like watching an accident on the highway. I just couldn’t look away. But also, the second-hand embarrassment and other complicated feelings were very real.

Gonzales also has a great way of slipping in really strong subplots. Too often in YA romances, the subplots are super weak, if they’re there at all. She’s an expert, though. Ollie’s aunt’s cancer in OMD was spot on. The subplots here were also pretty strong (though, they didn’t have quite the punch as cancer). Brougham’s family drama, Darcy’s complicated relationship with her mom, her amazing relationship with her sister, and more.

The characters: Darcy was an amazing main character. She was complicated and messy, but also loving and determined. She was the perfect balance of strengths and weaknesses. I love her fascination with relationship counseling (and Youtubers haha); it’s such a unique characteristic. Her advice really is spot on. She takes what she’s given and finds a way to kindly problem-solve her classmates dating lives. A lot of her advice centers around communication (something she does not excel at her own personal life) and deciding what is best for themselves. But there are more “scientific” details to back up her advice, which was just fascinating.

And then there’s Brougham. Oh, Alexander. He seems like your typical douchy, prep school guy, but there’s a lot more to him beneath the surface. He was a caring, lovable, funny counterpart to Darcy. I just love him. Darcy and Brougham’s banter was spot on. And it was so sweet to watch Darcy progress from actual “insulting” banter cause she didn’t like the guy, to cute, “I actually love you” banter.

The side characters were all amazing too! Darcy’s sister Ainsley was the best. Top-notch sibling relationship. Brooke was solid, too. And Finn! Haha I loved him.

LQBTQ+ rep. It was amazing to see this many queer characters all in one place. Darcy is bisexual, her sister is trans, her best friend (and girl she’s crushing on) is a lesbian. There are also other lesbian, gay, aro/ace, and non-binary side characters. I’m probably leaving out someone, too. There were just so many. It was glorious.

Biphobia takedown: One of the best aspects of this book was really Gonzales’ comments on real issues. Darcy struggles with her own “queerness” when she thinks she has real feelings for a guy. Her confronting the idea with her Q&Q club and getting the support she needs was amazing.

Anyway, I could go on and on. The point is: I adored this book. And I will throw this and OMD at anyone who will listen.

I loved this book so much. I loved the representation and I loved the romance between Darcy and Alexander. This book (kinda) had a love triangle since our heroine has been in love with her best friend for a long time but it's clear that she doesn't feel the same for her. It's one-sided and after a while, we see a shift in Darcy. One that she doesn't seem to understand immediately. Because she's starting to really like the boy who paid her for giving her advice on how to get his ex-girlfriend back.

You see, Darcy has a secret. She's the person behind the famous locker 89, the one where you'll receive good romantic advice if you put a letter with your problem inside it. Darcy is afraid it will come out since she did something selfish once and that concerns her best friend.

Overall, this book was pretty fantastic. At the very beginning, I was hoping Brooke would fall in love with Darcy but I quickly changed my mind and I don't regret it. I loved the banter between Alexander and Darcy and when they finally kissed and talked, it was so sweet!

(Thank you for letting me read and review an ARC via Netgalley)

A big thank you to Net Galley and Wednesday Books for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. As always, all opinions are my own.

Perfect on Paper follows high schooler Darcy Phillips. Darcy Philips is a self-proclaimed relationship expert. She has watched a lot of youtube videos on the topic and has done a lot of studying on it as well. Darcy even has a relationship advice business at school. Everyone at her school knows that if you slip a note with a relationship question and ten bucks into locker 89 you will receive an email back with relationship advice. No one knows that Darcy is behind locker 89. Darcy needs to make sure it stays that way because of what she did to Brooke. (Brooke is Darcy’s best friend and crush.) This is why when cocky and rich jerk Brougham asks for her help she agrees. Brougham found out she was behind the locker and said he would tell if Darcy didn’t help him. He asks Darcy to be his relationship coach and to help him get his girlfriend back. Darcy thinks this will be easy… but will it be?

I think this book could be good if it wasn’t for the language. It had a good plot and lots of LGBTQ representation. However, the number of times the F-bomb was used made me uncomfortable and made me decide to DNF the book. I know strong language is used to express emotion in YA books, but it was used very casually and excessively in this book. I know people have different opinions and thoughts on how much language should be used but it was a lot for me. I personally felt uncomfortable with the excessive use of the word and it distracted me from the story as well.

TW: biphobia

First of all, I just want to thank the publisher for granting me this book in exchange for an honest review. It is such an amazing experience to be able to read books in advance since I am such an impatient person. And since I am majoring in English Language and Literature, it makes me feel like I am doing something right. Well, anyways I saw this book via someone's Bookstagram stories and I knew that I needed to read it.

I read Only Mostly Devastated by Sophie Gonzales and to be honest, it is one of my favourite queer books. For me, it is one of those comforts reads that I want to reread constantly. So, reading and loving Only Mostly Devastated so much, I think I had big expectations about this book. Which is why, at first, I thought about DNF’ing this book when I was just a few pages in. In the end, I decided that it was wrong to compare the two books just because they have the same author. I am telling you beforehand, leave all of your expectations aside. It will be a better read then.

When I first started reading this book, I didn’t notice that the main relationship was between two people of different genders. And that fact is actually what sparked my interest. Because, before knowing about it, I was just thinking about bisexual/pansexual people in ‘straight passing’ relationships. I saw a post this specific topic a few days before finding out about this book, which made me question a lot of things. Because I experienced this firsthand. I had a boyfriend, back when I was about 12. I thought I was bisexual at the time, (I later discovered that I was, in fact, panromantic demisexual) and since I was 12 it was that time I was just starting to realize that I wasn’t straight. My boyfriend at that time was the first person I came out to. Because apart from being my boyfriend, he was also my best friend. This year, when I looked back at that moment I realized that he wasn’t as appreciative as I thought. I was full-on crying, afraid that my parents wouldn’t want me, and there he was saying that it wasn’t a big deal and that it wouldn’t matter because I could just fall for a guy and I wouldn’t even have to mention it. Those moments are real. The relationship isn’t straight if one of the people in the relationship isn’t straight. Even if the relationship is between a man and a woman. And being in this kind of relationship doesn’t make that person any less queer. We should all remember that. Because, even within the queer community, we can sometimes see that some people say this kind of queer representation isn’t real representation. By the way, this book had so much representation. Transexual, bisexual and lesbian rep, minor pansexual, ace, non-binary and gay rep. And I just want to say that I love how schools in the USA or the U.K or I don’t know, in the West, in general, have these clubs for queer and questioning people.

While I was reading the book, I had a complicated love-hate relationship with two major characters. Some of their behaviours pissed me off. But I think the fact that the characters made mistakes and made some questionable choices was what made the story more realistic. And in the end, they grew on me. The story kind of reminded me The Half Of It. Well, of course, it had major differences. So, from the moment I first started reading this book I thought that it could be easily turned into a movie. It felt like a movie while I was reading too. And, honestly, I can only hope that it gets turned into a movie because we all know that we aren’t at a time we have queer movies about just ‘love.’ It’s usually just about the struggles of being queer and while that is valid in every way, I think we also deserve just love stories. Not about coming out, not about being accepted. We need queer stories about love that we can look up to. And of course, this book had some heartbreak. But it was just the right amount and it wasn’t about being queer at all.

I loved seeing the e-mails and the letters Darcy got. I also loved seeing her responses to those emails. I feel like those interactions we got to see were much more meaningful. We get to see Darcy giving the ‘perfect’ advice and failing miserably when it comes to her own love life. So many of her advice felt on point but it was nice to see that life isn’t always what we expect. As long as we don’t invade other people’s privacy and personal space, there isn’t a rulebook we should follow. It usually doesn’t happen that way and we got to see that. Apart from these interactions, there were also some informative undertones to this work. Lately, a few books I’ve read had these undertones which I am so grateful about. There were some great points about the distinction between sexual attraction and romantic attraction. So many people don’t even realize this distinction and they aren’t aware of it. As a negative note, sometimes things felt overly detailed and it made me bored a little bit but that's probably me being depressed.

This was the perfect YA read I didn’t know I needed. I loved the LGBTQ aspects, sad to say I have no read many books with LGBTQ characters. There was so much growth, self realization, and other teenage struggles in the book. The main character, Darcy, irritated me at times but ultimately I loved her and her personal struggles throughout the book felt so relatable and the ending couldn’t have been better, in my opinion.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for an advanced readers copy of this book. All above opinions are my own.

I've been wanting to read Perfect on Paper ever since I read a comment Sophie Gonzales wrote about it on Goodreads, about how writing it was partially pushback against the criticism she'd received over having a bisexual character end up with a person of the opposite sex. As a bisexual teen, I've often been made to feel by people both inside and out of the LGBT+ community that I'm "not queer enough" whenever I express attraction to masculine-presenting human beings. I've even felt pressured, on multiple occasions, to speak negatively about my attraction towards men, as if it is some burden I would rather not carry, in order to feel accepted in queer spaces. I really wish I'd had a character like Darcy to hold on to when I was first struggling with these issues post-coming out. That was one of my favorite things about this book: it isn't a coming out story. Darcy is out and proud and openly discusses her bisexuality with her love interest, but still has niggling doubts about being viewed as not queer enough if she's in a "straight passing" relationship. Reading about Darcy's struggle with this internalized biphobia, and her friends' reassurance that she is queer, was exactly the sort of catharsis I was hoping to get from this story. And that was just one of the many many things I loved about the book!
Other things to love about this book: Awesome relationship advice that acknowledges that romance can be tricky and there's no one right way to approach a conflict. A variety of beautifully queer characters, including Darcy's sister who is a really badass trans YouTuber, High school musical discourse. And flirting at Disneyland! (Seriously this book might as well have been handcrafted for me because it gave me so many things I never even knew I needed from a contemporary. I finished it in a single evening because it made me so freaking happy I just couldn't put it down.

This was such a fun, well written queer rom-com that would be perfect for classroom libraries. The writing was engaging, the pacing was solid. I never felt bored while reading the story. I think it's an age appropriate story and the writing and characterizations reflect the target audience.

I really enjoyed this book even though I don't usually read queer rom coms. It pulled my attention in from start until finish! It had very few slow parts and kept a nice easy pace throughout. I thought the characters were well written and relatable.