I loved this! It was so funny I was cackling out loud at parts, I loved how fast-paced it was, I loved the characters, and their friendships, and I just had so much FUN. Right now, very few things in the world feel fun, so I needed this.

My favorite part was the commentary about the value of platonic love, especially the aroace representation and the relationship between Henry and Ivy. I also loved Ivy and Mack, who obviously adored each other but were starting to grow apart to each of their dismay, and who come to realize that one person can't be everything in your life, and the healthiest relationships are ones that make up a whole web of friendships. Weston was hilarious, and I lost count of the number of fanfiction and trope references from him. He wasn't really a character, I guess, so much as he was... fanfiction itself, personified? Can fanfiction be a character? Somehow, it was, and it worked. You'll understand what I mean once you've read it, and I highly recommend you do!!!

For such a dumb book, this was deceptively smart, and I mean that as the highest compliment.

For a start, the satirical element was a masterclass in commentary and comedy. The author has mentioned on her socials that she was aiming for a sitcom vibe, and I think this came through perfectly in the book, with a seamless transition between the serious tone of the past, and the bonkers tone of the present. I had a thought while reading, and I saw another reviewer mention this too, that it almost reads as though Weston appearing onwards is actually fanfiction written by Ivy about her own life, in which all of her problems are solved and she is brought back together with the girl she never got over, Mack. Given the constant references to Ivy's tendency to self-insert in fanfiction, as well as the contrasting world rules between the two timelines, this is canon to me, though I think the story works just as well if you take it at face value.

Sitcom-style word rules, where everything is slightly elevated and zany, with over-the-top scenarios and reactions and fourth-wall-breaking (along with some moments of gravity where we get the much-needed character development) is so rare in books, and even more so in YA. The only other book I can think of with this specific tone is TJ Klune's The Extraordinaries. Personally, it's something I love, and a refreshing change of pace: truly unique stories are rare in traditional publishing these days!

This is a younger YA, so don't go in expecting spice or a heavy romance plot. Rather, the book excels in comedy, genius references to fanfic, distinct characters, an interesting exploration of friendship and what it means to rely on other people for our safety and happiness, and a sweet romance that will leave you smiling. This would be an excellent addition to any school library, or to the bookshelf of enjoyers of classic comedy movies and shows.

Okay. Listen. I understand that the "how?! and why?!" of it all of the basic plot-propellant of this novel—imaginary fanfic version of a character comes to life and the author of that fanfic has to deal with it; wackiness ensues—is secondary to the emotional growth of the characters and all. But we all agree this is an insane thing to happen in an otherwise normal world, right? And to just never address it! And never explain it!! And when all is said and done for all the characters to know about it to just massively shrug!!! I couldn't get past it, I'm sorry, it was just too weird for such an otherwise emotionally grounded book—if everything was like 40% wackier I could let it go, but the whole rest of the book was about like, wildly normal stuff and big, important feelings. Weird choices were made here!

Pretty fun concept, but I found the constant switch between past and present to be a little jarring. Well before the 50% mark, I had a clear enough picture about what had happened between Ivy and Mack in the past, so the past chapters just felt redundant. I have no doubt that some additional editing might clean this up a bit, but I think that unless the majority of the flashback chapters are removed, the tension and build-up in the present suffer.

The last few chapters were pretty fun though- I wish the conflict at the end had been explored for a bit longer because honestly that was creative and terrifying.

I didn't really connect with this book. I was interested in Sophie Gonzalez's work, but this one didn't appeal to me. Despite the intriguing concept, it failed to capture my attention. Mack and Ivy's friendship, with their continual petty disagreements, made them unlikable to me. The general tone sounded too young for my taste, which I believe is why it didn't resonate with me. It might appeal to a younger demographic, but it was not a good fit for me.

This story of a fanfic writer whose stories come to life is so entertaining, and it was a lot of fun to see so many different tropes throughout the book. While the concept is interesting, I wasn't a fan of the format with the back and forth between past and present, which I didn't feel was very effective, and some parts of the book were a miss for me. I feel like the story feels a bit juvenile at times, and the execution could have been better. That said, I still enjoyed this one, and I look forward to the author's next books!

Readers are invited to experience a delightful queer romance, blending the magic of fandom with the complexities of teenage relationships. In ”The Perfect Guy Doesn't Exist" by Sophie Gonzales, a dash of whimsy and a sprinkle of heart create a story that will resonate with fans of love, friendship, and the unexpected.

Meet Ivy. She’s an ardent fan of the television show Hot, Magical, and Deadly (H-MAD). Her obsession with the show borders on the fanatical, and her crush on Mackenzie, her ex–best friend, only adds to the drama. When Ivy accidentally manifests Weston Razorbrook, the dreamy main character from H-MAD, into her bedroom during a thunderstorm, her life takes an unexpected turn. But here's the twist: Weston is straight out of Ivy's romantic fan-fiction, complete with all the tropes she adores. Unfortunately, real life doesn't always follow the script, and Ivy soon discovers that the turbulent man from her stories isn't as dreamy as she imagined.

Meet Mackenzie. She’s the former best friend of Ivy, who turned reluctant partner in managing the magical mess. As they navigate the chaos of Weston's presence, Ivy grapples with her feelings for him, despite Mack's insistence that Weston should vanish back into the fictional world. The tension between Ivy and Mack is palpable, and their dynamic shifts from friends to enemies and, perhaps, to something more.

Gonzales's portrayal of queer protagonists is refreshing. Ivy's white identity and Mack's Black identity add depth to their interactions, highlighting the complexities of friendship, attraction, and self-discovery. While the romance blooms against the backdrop of fandom magic, the story occasionally feels superficial. The plot-driven narrative could have benefited from deeper character development and a more vivid setting. Ivy's reactions to Weston's sudden appearance sometimes strain believability, but the charm of the premise keeps readers engaged.

At its core, The Perfect Guy Doesn't Exist celebrates the messiness of love. You know: the imperfect, the unexpected, and the magical. Gonzales weaves humour, heart, and a touch of whimsy into a tale reminding us that even when our fantasies collide with reality, there's beauty in the chaos.

The novel's LGBTQ+ representation is commendable, and Gonzales deftly explores themes of identity, friendship, and the blurred lines between fiction and reality. Whether you're a seasoned fanfic writer or simply someone who believes in the magic of unexpected connections, this book will leave you with a smile.

This is a cute, if lightly developed, friends-to-enemies-to-lovers romance offering a delightful climb through fandom, friendship, and the messy magic of love.

Thank you to NetGalley, Wednesday Books, and St. Martin's Press for a temporary e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was a cute romance! The idea of a fantasy character coming to life is somewhat exciting but also terrifying! I enjoyed reading about the characters and would be interested to see the author continue writing about other characters from the story, maybe one about Henry?!

Thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press & Wednesday Books for the ARC!

The Perfect Guy Doesn't Exist, a story of a fanfic writer, who accidentally brings to life her "Perfect" person, Weston Razorbrook, to find the love she was looking for was always closer than she'd thought.

The story of friendship, the importance of mutual understanding, love and support.

Really loved the characters and their ARC's, Ivy, Henry and Mack's personalities shine throughout the book and we get to see more & more of them with each chapter. I didn't care about Weston that much by like 60%, he was just there wreaking havoc and making Ivy's life hard.

Liked the humor, the representation and how well the emotions were described. I connected to our characters despite not experiencing anything like that before.

Overall, 4.75 stars. Good writing, will definitely be reading more by Sophie Gonzales in the future!

Thanks to NetGalley and Wednesday books for providing me a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was so fun! I didn't read the summary bc I auto request all Sophie Gonzales' books so I was a bit surprised at the fanfiction element but I really liked it. I loved the friends to enemies to lovers and I especially loved the aroace best friend. Please give me more aspec characters and aspec normative language in all queer books!

🦇 The Perfect Guy Doesn't Exist Book Review 🦇

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

❓ #QOTD Name one favorite and one "ugh, no" trope OR what fictional character would you love to date IRL? ❓

🦇 What if your favorite TV character appeared in your bed one day and claimed to be your soulmate? When Ivy Winslow wakes up with the house to herself for a week while her parents are away, she doesn't expect to find the very hot fictional character from her favorite show in her bedroom. To figure out why her fanfic brought him to life, Ivy must team up with her current best friend Henry and former best friend/crush Mack. Can Ivy and Mack deal with the fallout of their friendship, or will they realize there was something bigger behind their fight all along?

💜 The strongest aspect of this story was the satire on overused media tropes (both from a television and writing standpoint). Weston starts off all heart-eyed, head-over-heels for Ivy, and it appears sweet and innocent. Once the bigger tropes come into play, readers see how they'd never work in real life. Even the "only one bed" trope we all know and love becomes frustrating (hello, boundaries?). "Touch her and you die" almost became a thing. The fanfic fusion into YA aspect if fun and playful, though I do wish we'd seen a few more parallels between Ivy's writing and Weston's actions. This is definitely a book fanfic writers will adore; a great example of messy wish fulfillment. Beyond that, the writing is effortlessly queer, as queer characters SHOULD be.

💙 Suspension of disbelief, especially when used in an otherwise contemporary setting, is crucial for a story that contains magical realism. For it to work, however, your characters have to act reasonably. Ivy just seems too naive. It takes her WAY too long to realize that Weston wasn't pulled from her favorite TV show, but from her fan fiction writing. Her reactions are a little too silly. Even her word choice makes her seem younger than she is. I understand differentiating Ivy's fanfic writing by adding grammar and spelling errors, but she's a student. It shouldn't have been THAT cringy to read. Usually, Sophie Gonzales writes young adults with a level of maturity and emotional intelligence. Ivy is less mature than expected (and yes, you can have a mature character who struggles with confidence and independence AND anxiety), which makes it difficult to connect with her. One of the benefits of reading YA is universal experiences (as adults, we've been there, we get it, so we can connect to it), but I couldn't connect to Ivy (and I was an anxiety-ridden fanfic writer who obsessed over every fandom, so I SHOULD have!).

💙 Ivy's lack of chemistry (even from a friendship standpoint) with Mack is concerning. There are versions of healthy co-dependency between friends, but these two don't have it. The flashbacks should have given us more of a reason to love these two together than Ivy coming out to Mack and having a crush on her (after that, we immediately see the flaws in their friendship, which completely lacks communication and therefore feels toxic). Perhaps it would have worked better without the romantic aspect; if we'd focused on Ivy and Mack restoring their friendship.

🦇 Recommended to fans of Rainbow Rowell.

✨ The Vibes ✨
🌬️ Bi, AroAce, & Lesbian Rep
🌬️ Sapphic Romance
🌬️ Young Adult Fantasy Fiction
🌬️ Friends-to-Enemies-to-Lovers
🌬️ Multiple Timelines
🌬️ Magical Realism

🦇 Major thanks to the author and publisher for providing an ARC of this book via Netgalley. 🥰 This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for sending me this ARC in exchange for a review.

I love fan fiction.
I love the unrealistic nonsense that can happen in fan fiction.
I love the way people can conjure up such ridiculous scenarios.

This book really made me think about all the fan fiction I've read, and what kind of hilarity and mayhem would ensue if one were to play out in real life.
The way Ivy slowly realises that sometimes what you write about doesn't translate too well to reality is very funny. I feel like I could just tell how exasperated she was, inadvertently with herself, and the secondhand embarrassment from her imagined scenarios playing out in real life, in front of witnesses.

So many elements in this book about what it's like to be such a passionate fan were very real for me. I remember my first convention, and the excitement around the whole experience. I remember bonding with like minded people for the first time, and the unbreakable connections and relationships that evolved because of that shared interest. I remember that feeling of real acceptance for the first time, no judgement, just pure acceptance.

On the other side, I also remember my first friendship ending because she moved on while I didn't. Unlike Ivy and Mack, we've never made up.
I am always so impressed with Sophie's writing, but particularly when the relationship is so fragile. I love that Ivy and Mack made up in such a way that showed they both still really cared for each other, even after falling out. I really enjoyed the teenage self discovery in this book and the dual timeline flickering between past and present so the reader gets an even deeper look at how when you're a teenager everything is a big deal, and nobody is coping well with it.

For me, being so embedded in fan culture, the relationship kind of took a back seat. I loved how they developed their relationship, but I definitely related more to being a head over heels fan of something, and how it consumes your whole life.

My favourite quote has got to be, "I want him to know I'm one of his rational, loyal, thoughtful fans, not an obsessive, impulsive, fame-hungry one." because, as I regularly say to one of my favourite musicians, every time we meet "I'm not a creepy stalker, I'm a regular stalker" so that one sentence in particular had me laughing ridiculously to myself on the bus.
I really am not a creepy stalker, we just happen to share quite a lot of mutual friends. I like to reiterate the point so that he really knows for sure, haha.

Written in past and present time lines a fanfic writer brings her favorite TV character to life, leading to unexpected chaos in this friends-to-enemies-to-lovers.
Ivy’s week alone turns into a situation when Weston, the dreamy lead from her fantasy show, appears in her bedroom, claiming to be her soulmate.
I think the fanfic come to life was a great way of showing what we all feel. Personally, enemies to lovers is my favorite trope. But IRL I would cry and hate it!
Overall, this was a fun, quick, effortlessly queer novel.

Oh my gosh this cute lil YA romance had me cracking up. It was so funny and cute. It follows Ivy, who is a fanfiction writer as she writes about her favorite character Weston. She accidentally makes him real, like he shows up in her house. It’s up to her best friend Henry and her former friend Mack to figure out what to do with him.

Things I loved about this book:
It was just so funny. Full of wit and charm.
Ivy was a great lead character. She was sweet, a little prickly, but also really self-aware and fun.
Henry was fantastic. I loved his sarcasm and his personality was awesome.
Mack was a fun love interest/frenemy.
Weston going through the romance tropes each day took me out 😅.
That ending part before the actual end was sad and a little scary to be honest!
Super sweet ending!

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I am withholding my review of this book until the SMP boycott is resolved. This boycott in no way has affected my thoughts about this book and is not reflected in my rating of this title.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read.

I was more affected by this book than I though I would be. I figured it'd be a cute YA story about a fanfic character coming to life and the ensuing shenanigans, but it was so much more than that. There was aro/ace and sapphic rep which didn't shy away from the hard details. The use of past and present storytelling device was a brilliant touch as it elevated the magical elements of this story. Thoroughly enjoyed!

Thank you to St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books, and NetGalley for providing an eARC for a honest review.

A billion stars for Sophie's writing. Sophie is one of my autobuy/autorequest authors. I've enjoyed every single book she's written or cowritten. The Perfect Guy Doesn't Exist was no exception.

The Perfect Guy Doesn't Exist is basically a love letter to fanfiction and stan culture. The Perfect Guy Doesn't Exist is the story of a fanfic writer, Ivy, who accidentally brings her favorite tv character to life. When Ivy has the house to herself for a week all she wants to do is binge-watch her favorite tv show, H-MAD, with her bff Henry while trying to avoid her former bff, neighbor, and crush Mack. Ivy, who still feels alone, wishes her favorite actor, Weston, the fictional mc of H-MAD, would just show up and be there for her. And then he does, claiming to be her soulmate. But it turns out that the tropes she adores in her stories are slightly less romantic in reality. To figure out why Weston is here and what to do with him, Ivy decides to ask Henry... and Mack for help. And now she's not sure if reality has been better than fiction all along.

I don't know if I'm outgrowing YA, I know I'm not exactly the target audience anymore, but these characters annoyed me at times. I love tropes. Give me all the tropes. But the miscommunication trope has got to be the worst. It's a typical teenage reaction to act out instead of communicating, but I can't get over how fast Ivy forgives and forgets how much Mack hurt her. Yeah, Mack had her reasons, but she acts like Ivy owed her instead of admitting she hurt Ivy. Idk. It's all too much highschooly toxic drama for me. Ivy and Mack's chemistry was not it. And I know it sounds like I really didn't enjoy the book but I did. I couldn't put it down. The audiobook, narrated by Jeremy Carlisle Parker, was a lot of fun. I laughed out loud quite a few times. Some parts were entirely too relatable. Definitely pick this one up if you love tropes, fanfiction, and Queer contemporary stories.

I can't thank Wednesday books enough for always letting me read Sophie's books early for review. Go read them all but I especially recommend Sophie's debut The Law of Inertia. It is one of my all-time favorite books.

This is a cute YA rom com, about a girl, Ivy, whose fanfiction crush comes to life.. And with the help of her aro/ace best friend, Henry and her ex best friend, nemesis and crush Mack, tries to figure out what the heck is going on. Each chapter has a past and present section the helps you to understand the falling out between the two girls.

I really like the characters, especially Henry. As someone on the Ace spectrum myself, I love any and all aro or ace representation.

While I usually love magical realism stories like this, something about the ending to this one fell a bit flat to me. Overall, it was a good story, with good characters, it was just missing a little something for me.

My wife made the mistake of trying to text me a somewhat serious conversational topic while I was in the last 20 minutes of this book. Though, to be quite frank, I was just as useless after I had finished this book as I was while reading it. She kept trying to talk to me about things we have to do tomorrow and I kept going, “Oh yeah sure right. SO THIS BOOK I JUST READ.” And I just kept gushing about it and was unable to talk about anything else.

This was AMAZING. TRULY. I adore this book. Ivy is so relatable, smart and yet stupid in that way teenagers are, but also just so charming and funny. I laughed OUT LOUD (actually! Out loud!) pretty much throughout this book. I loved how Sophie Gonzales uses all these tropes we love in fiction and points out how ridiculous (or downright awful) they’d be in real life.

The characters are all great. Ivy, Henry and Mack are fantastic together, and I loved watching them struggle through their differences to come together as a team, and as friends. The storyline where you watch Ivy and Mack’s friendship devolve in the past broke my heart, but Sophie Gonzales put me back together again by building a truly beautiful love story between them.

I’ve said this before, but now, past me is wrong. THIS is Sophie Gonzales’ funniest book, but also, it is a masterpiece.

Thanks to NetGalley and to Wednesday Books for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Ivy and Mack are messy and fun and ahhhhh, I loved the fanfic!!!!

I loved their story and can’t get enough of Sophie Gonzales.