I will not be giving feedback on this book. I started it, and was not in the right mindset for reading it. When/if I do pick it up again, I will definitely leave a thoughtful review.

Gonzalez's strength as a writer is characterization. The plot of this book is pretty typical teen rom-com- kind of a Pretty in Pink for 2021- but it's very readable because Gonzalez creates characters that I get invested in.

The main character is a scholarship student at a Richie Rich school, who supplements her income by anonymously dishing out relationship advice via "Locker 89." She is brilliant and insightful. She is studious yet not socially awkward. She is bi-sexual and remarkably self-possessed. Enter rich boy Alexander Brougham, who has a special beauty physically and rattles m c Darcy by demonstrating equal cleverness and confidence. He wants her help getting a girlfriend back, so he tracks down the true identity of the voice of "Locker 89" and forces her to help him.

We all see where this is going. But the audience will want to go there, so the tropey stuff is actually a strength. Still it's Gonzalez's ability to create unique, relatable personalities of the central as well as supporting characters that makes this book worth the time.

This isn't as strong as her upcoming book If This Gets Out, but it's close and very enjoyable.

A very well written, easily readable and digestible as well as insightful book that shares some profound concepts in a very natural and completely non patronizing way. Well done! A powerful read. A more thorough review will be available at the links below.

Simply darling. Perfect on Paper is a fun-loving read that kept me turning pages! This is perfect for lovers of YA fiction and lighthearted romance.

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟
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. **

Perfect on paper by Sophie Gonzales is a ya contemporary novel that I've been looking forward to read for a whole year and just now in September 2021 I finally got around too it!
This follows a girl who has a secret job on her school campus. She gives advice to all her classmates about love life and what to do in a ceritan situation, and nobody have caught her doing this yet until one day when Broigham catches her and then he deciedes to blackmail our main character. So we have a lot of characters that we follow so that was a little confusing for me but other than that I thought this was an overall a cute and lovely story! Can't wait to read more from Sophie Gonzales! 4/5 stars

Actual rating 4.5 stars.

I’ve been on contemporary slump this past few months, but Perfect on Paper single-handedly brought back my love for this genre. It’s just THAT cute and adorable.

This book follows Darcy Phillips, who anonymously runs a relationship-advice business. She’s pretty good at it, though the fact that she’s the one who run this business cannot ever go out since once upon a time, she abused her knowledge and power on Brooke aka her best-friend (and crush). One day though, Alexander Brougham, a quite-popular senior, caught her in the act of collecting letters and ask her to help him win back his ex-girlfriend.

Y’all could probably guess what happens next. I’m a sucker for this kind of romance where initially they’re just helping each other and then find out they’re better off with each other instead. Darcy and Brougham are no different, they had such great chemistry that it’s hard not to ship them! I smiled a lot whenever these two interacts. Of course, I can’t talk about this book without talking about the bi representation, especially regarding internalized-biphobia. I’m not bi, but I really think it’s done well and quite eye-opening. Also the Queer and Questioning club is such a cool concept, I really wish every school has them since I imagine it’d help lots of people.

All in all, Perfect on Paper is definitely worth the read! You won’t be disappointed.

This was okay didn’t stand out. I wish books were more original and I know it’s hard with contemporary. I was just expecting so much more. Thank you so much for the book!

I absolutely loved this book. This isn’t the first time I’ve read Sophie’s work and she doesn’t disappoint. The inclusion of different sexualities and genders is refreshing. One of my favorite parts was the section on internalized biphobia. I myself have experienced that, and it was very nice to see that so eloquently represented in print. I think teens and young adults, both straight and queer could benefit from and enjoy reading this book.

Dear Diary,
.
Perfect on Paper is a teenage sex education Netflix reminding tale that I wish would have been written fifteen years ago.
.
Locker 185 <I think that was my high school locker number?>
.
Ever felt like you've had to scream at the top of your lingd? Get all the stress out? Broughman and Phillips have the best place for you.... Disneyland. 
.
Perfect on Paper is a stellar followup to Sophie Gonzalezs freshman novel. With spark, sass and Disney a reader will not go wrong when picking up this tale.

We all look perfect on paper. Behind profiles and social media, through video screens and iPhones. What we write and comments we make can come off as so smart, so ingenious, and downright brilliant.

But what happens when the screens are closed, the social goes down, and people find out who you really are? In real life? Do we really want people to know all those things we said and little secrets we told behind the scenes (or screens) came from us? It’s easy to say whatever you want when nobody knows who you are, but what kind of backlash would there be if we were exposed? Good question.

@sgonzalesauthor wrote a charming book called PERFECT ON PAPER that is wonderful and sincere and full of humor and love, and I know if you haven’t read it yet, you really need to. Its unputdownable and just darn-right enjoyable as heck. Put this one on your TBR now.

This was such a cute YA story. I loved Sophie's writing and appreciated the queer representation in her work. The romance was such a great story as well. Will definitely keep an eye out for her next book.

This book was really good and we will be purchasing for our collection. I really like the fresh take and think our teens will love it

I love when plans go awry and I get to spend time with a book such as this. Well written and timely, especially in the discussion of how others view us and how we internalize those views. Locker 89 has been a cash cow for Darcy. She anonymously exchanges relationship advice for money and it has been a lucrative and successful business. Until, that is, Brougham spots her after swim practice. Will he keep silent? Will her help with winning back his ex keep her secret safe?

I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This book is well written and the characters are described well. I enjoyed Ainsley, Darcy and Alexander's characters. The pacing of this book is good. It is set in Britain. It has great LGBTQ representation. I highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone. It is a great contemporary romance. It is in stores for $18.99 (USD).

Very enjoyable read. Super real characters. As a middle school librarian, the use of "gummies" and underage drinking but this out of reach for my readers, but I would recommend to high schools who are comfortable with such content and are looking for more books with relatable LGBTQ characters.

The tagline pretty much says it all: "Her advice, spot on. Her love life, way off."

I enjoyed Perfect on Paper's fresh rom-com energy. Darcy operates as an under-the-radar Agony Aunt at her school, which lands her in hot water when the Brougham catches her emptying the locker. She makes some tough choices, does quite a few things wrong, but always wants to help her classmates and support her friends. I really can't fault her for that. Gonzales does a great job at creating empathy for her characters throughout the novel. There's room for readers to disapprove of or question their actions, but still have heart to love them and want to see the ends of their stories through.

Some moments felt overly moralistic, as though the novel was trying very hard to be inoffensive and model "good behavior" for readers, but for the most part I truly enjoyed the realism of each character. We get to see Darcy's flaws and mistakes, even while she's being kind or funny or supportive one chapter later. And that's something we get so rarely in queer characters--the ability to have flaws and be imperfect, maybe not a role model for "ideal citizen." Even though it's true. Queer people aren't exempt from being human--we can be petty and precocious and anxious all at the same time as fun, reactive, and empathetic, just as Darcy is.

My favorite topic addressed in the novel is biphobia--Darcy is bi, and encounters erasure of her identity, and the idea that bi people aren't queer if they're in an m/f relationship. That harmful misconception is addressed in the novel, and this discussion will be so validating for bi readers. If you're out there, reading this, please know that I'm happy to talk or find more books with bi characters for you! It's a hard knock life out there in terms of queer rep in media, so this is me saying you're not on this path alone.

Look no further than Perfect on Paper for a nuanced contemporary rom-com that offers discussion of queer issues, honesty & trust in friendship, and how to step back and learn from mistakes. Darcy and her crew will make their way into your hearts in a snap. 4/5 stars.

(actual rating: 4.5/5)

I'm someone who absolutely hates love triangles, in any shape or form. Usually, this is because the person that the mc will end up with is quite obvious from the very beginning, and the only reason that there even is a love triangle is for the added drama. This book has broken my streak of hating on love triangles just because they exist, which is definitely something I didn't see coming.

'Perfect on Paper' follows Darcy Philips, a bisexual teen with a secret: she's the one running locker 89, an anonymous dating advice service for her fellow classmates. However, when Alexander Brougham discovers her secret, he has a proposal: Darcy helps him win back his ex-girlfriend, and he keeps her secret (along with generous pay, of course). The only problem? Darcy can't stand Brougham, and is in love with her best friend, Brooke, who she hasn't exactly been honest with.

Part of the reason that I love this book is because, as mentioned earlier, the love triangle isn't there to create more needless drama in the book, but rather, to explore Darcy's bisexuality and all that it entails. This book itself is so, so, so important because of the way that it tackles bi erasure - it acknowledges that bi's don't need to have been involved with both people the same gender as them or not to be considered bisexual, they're queer enough on their own. I absolutely loved reading about Darcy's experience with the way other people reacted to her bisexuality, and the way others stood up for her as well.

The romance is absolutely adorable, I cannot even. Brougham and Darcy have such good chemistry, and the love triangle never felt like it was impeding the progress of the romance, but rather that it helped it along.

The characters, but Darcy specifically, were awesome. I loved how she was able to grow as a person over the course of the story - she wasn't some picture perfect book character, but rather, a realistic teenager who made mistakes but also learned and grew from them, which really is an attestation to Sophie Gonzales' writing.

The plot was admittedly a bit all over the place, but in a good way? It's a bit hard to explain, but it often felt like two-steps-forward-one-step-back with Darcy and her love triangle. And while this made for some entertaining relationship dynamics, it could be a bit hard to follow at times.

Overall, I really, really, really enjoyed this book, and I would definitely recommend it to all the YA romance fans out there. It was a little different than the books that I usually read, but I certainly don't regret picking this one up.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book.
So apparently, YA rom-com is not my cuppa tea. It’s a cute story with some fun characters and an engaging plot. But just not really up my literary alley. I would recommend it to my 8th grade students who are interested in the genre-- I think that they’d love it!

This book is full of great representation and filled with good advice for teens exploring relationships.