Adelaide has two families and a different personality to go with each one. Although I feel like many people can relate to that, I thought it was highly unrealistic that she could keep the secret of a double life from both sides of the family. It was a fun story though, and I will definitely be recommending it to some teen patrons at my library.

I really liked this! When I picked it up, I wasn't sure if I'd enjoy it, but I'm glad I stuck with it. It felt fresh and summery, and was a super cute read.

I loved how almost every character was fleshed out. Even though I spent almost the entire book disliking Marnie, I could sympathize with her, and did want her to find her way. Lilli was the character we got to know the least about, but really enjoyed any scenes she was in! Della was a super interesting character, and I was rooting for her the entire time. It was super touching to watch her come into her own, and to do what she wanted to.

I also really enjoyed the romance were given in this book! By no means is this a romance, but the romance was a great addition. Della and Jude were adorable together, and I loved how healthy their relationship was. It was an understated enemies-to-lovers, which is something I always love.

I do have to say that the first half of this was a bit hard to get through. This may only be for me, but I really couldn't handle Della's Michigan family. They were manipulative, and were keeping so many secrets. I loved watching them navigate their way back to each other, but it was hard to read at the beginning.

This was a super enjoyable book! I felt like it dealt with split families super well, and I loved how realistic our characters felt. I'd definitely recommend this!

Thanks to Netgalley and Liz Reinhardt for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review

Loved the premise of a teen growing up in 2 different worlds due to divorce. Quite readable and interesting how being the oldest in one family and the baby in the other can be so vastly different

I recieved a free copy from netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
I didn't link this book. I wanted to and the plot summary seemed interesting but this book just didn't work for me. I can't exactly pinpoint why not but it just didn't connect. The book felt too long and there were so many small plots that were randomly brought up and didn't really feel like they resolved anything. Even the ending where they just moved and didn't have to deal with any of the problems in Michigan. AJ/Della was annoying as was Marnier. Jude didn't seem like a real 18 boy whenever he spoke. This just wasn't the book for me.

An unexpected coming of age story.

Rating : 3.5/5

The Flipside of Perfect by Liz Reinhardt is a book of self-discovery, and is full of robust, albeit weird, characters and enough improbables that it is an adventure through and through.

Watching Adelaide struggle with the boundaries of AJ and Della brought me right back to high school, where balancing good grades, a social life, and plans for the future. It was entertaining enough, and was at times surprising, but I had a hard time connecting to Adelaide as a main character. It might have been all of the internal conflict, and the fact that as a high school junior she is trying to balance the world on her shoulders, but Adelaide spends the majority of the book coming off as way too grown up (which is a central theme of the book) while also extremely young at the same time. Her relationships with Lex and Jude are both really confusing, and I don't think there's enough build up to the big-romance that is an underlying theme for the story.

I love how Reinhardt kept AJ and Della separate. Being able to clearly bounce back and forth, from Michigan to Florida, was intriguing. And I did really enjoy AJ's young sisters. AJ's friends felt extremely unsincere, which I'm still not convinced was on purpose, and her two older siblings weren't given nearly as much attention as the younger two were - which made it really hard to connect to Della's life in Florida.

All in all, a solid story about a kid trying to come in to her own. I would recommend to my younger (HS age) sister for sure.

I received this book compliments of NetGalley and Liz Reinhardt. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

What a beautiful story that touches on self-identity! I have never read anything so interesting before! Poor AJ/Della was putting so much pressure on herself at the beginning, but watching her character development throughout the novel was absolutely wonderful. I love the ending, where Dell is still not sure about herself, but she is on the right track to figuring out who she is as a person. I love how the author gets her readers to realize that perfection does not exist; everyone, even the most wonderful, put-together people, make mistakes. Mistakes are all apart of growing up. Challenges happen to everyone, and how you grow and learn from those challenges are what make you the person you are. Also, the people who love you for who you are, will never judge your mistakes, nor make you be something that you are not. Feelings are meant to be spilt, not bottled up. The ones who will listen are the ones you need in your life. Definitely a wonderful young adult novel that gave a lot of important life messages.

This book is fantastically fun. You’ll fall in love with these folk. AJ and Della (two names for the same person) is such a wonderful girl, you can’t help but love her and relate to her. She got a tough life juggling two families and trying to keep everyone happy and separate. She has been successful for years. Until her sister has an issue and her house of cards crumbles. But it couldn’t work out any better. This is a win-win at its best. A happy book, it’s the perfect weekend read that will leave you with a smile on your face.

DNF

I couldn't get into this book. I felt like I was already part way through and nothing super interesting was happening. It was just this girl living her 2 different lives and talking about the differences in them which I can get behind to a point because I do need exposition, but I felt like it had gone on for longer than necessary. I might try reading it again and see if I can become more interested since the premise seems interesting. But for a first read I wasn't super intrigued.

This just not the book for me after reading so much rich nonfiction, more emotional fiction and engaging thrillers. I loved the pretty cover, premise and idea for the book but it fell flat for me. A character living life as balancing act juggling two roles add drama to this flat book which was needed but not executed well. I also felt the supporting characters were unlikable, especially Lex, what a d-bag!

I can still recommend this however to people who like a complicated character who does not know where her place in the world should be. I found that to be the only believable part of the book.

Thanks to Netgalley, Liz Reinhardt and Inkyard Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Available: 4/6/21

"AJ is a buttoned-up, responsible student attending a high-achieving high school in Michigan. She lives with her mother, stepfather, and two younger half sisters. Della spends every summer with her father in Florida. A free-spirited wild child, she spends as much time as possible on the beach with her friends and older siblings. But there’s a catch: AJ and Della are the same person. Adelaide Beloise Jepsen to be exact, and she does everything she can to keep her school and summer lives separate."

The Flipside of Perfect has so many dimensions to it that I was not expecting. I knew that I would be reading a cute summer YA romance. I did not expect a tale that included so many layers of healing and mental health issues. An an educator, this struck deep. There are so many layers to young adults, many of which they never show you. I cannot wait to introduce how AJ/Della melded her two lives together to make the happiest and healthiest version of herself.

In her mother's world, she is AJ; magazine-cover ready with a picture perfect smile, nothing-bad-can-happen honor roll student and Miss Popularity at school in Michigan. In her father's world, she is Della: carefree, colorful, relaxed and rolls with the flow of each moment on the beach in Florida. She appreciates each world for what it is, but keeping the two apart so as not to disappoint each parent and the other people in both worlds adds another level of stress to her life. When her sister in "AJ's world" has a meltdown and must come live with her in Della's world in Florida. The two sisters bond and AJ/Della realizes that her life does't have to be either/or, it can be her best parts of both.

Interesting perspective from a girl who lives in a joint custody situation. Both parents clearly love AJ/Della and want what is best for her, but their views of what is best are very different. This story gently shows that as you are nearing the end of high school and becoming an adult, you can have a say in your own life and future. This is a good YA "beach" read.

It's a romance, coming-of-age and family story. The book covers a lot. It's cute and funny and sad at the same time. it does have a good ending... not to worry. :) I like how realistic and relatable it is. Unfortunately, divorced families are common and the kids are torn apart... The ending is hopeful and happy.... I enjoyed it a lot!

The story was a little difficult at first. There was not enough description of the main character, I’m still not sure what she looked like which was hard for a reader who likes to visualize. The fact that she goes by both AJ and Della was not explained and confused me. And some of the dynamics of having to live split between two households just seemed a little too far fetched. However, the story was actually very well done. There were a lot of secrets that she juggled and the story really exposed just how much holding everything in impacts people. The characters were really well done, and their relationships grew and changed in a real and natural way through the course of the novel.

This book is really well written in an extreme split family life. The author really delves into what can happens when a child splits their life between mom/dad. There are a few too many references to god/church/religion to recommend it for a public school curriculum but other than that, I would recommend it!

What person has never felt that maybe, sometimes, you have to be someone different because of who you are with or where you are? AJ/Della determines at the end of elementary school that her two worlds, her dad's family in Florida and her mom's family in Michigan, can never mix. She becomes two, completely different people based on who she is with and where she is located. At first, I really struggled with AJ. She is SUPER high-achieving and somehow had "best" friends and a boyfriend (that she had been on-and-off with for years) who did not know about her father's family in Florida that she spent every summer with. This threw me for a loop. How does one keep that kind of a secret? Especially with two younger siblings in the home? Della's people in Florida knew about her Michigan family (somewhat) but had no idea that their laid-back, super-tan, care-free Della was actually over-scheduled, organized, high-achieving AJ.

The story goes between the summer before AJ/Della's senior year and major events that happened the previous year involving her middle sister, Marnie. After a series of bad decisions, Marnie, ends up in Florida with AJ. This forces AJ/Della's two worlds to collide for the first time and she has to navigate that. It was at that point that this story felt the realest to me. I loved summer-in-Florida Marnie and post-summer Marnie. I really enjoyed coming along as AJ/Della continued to learn more about herself, her families, and who she wants to be as she goes into her senior year.

I think teens will love this cast of characters. I definitely already requested that my library add it to our teen collection when it's published in April 2021. I appreciate Inkyard Press and NetGalley for providing me with this eARC!

Disclaimer: I got this ARC from @NetGalley.

This is the perfect summer YA book. If you're missing the beach and want something to give you summer vibes, then this is for you!! I'm a huge fan of the opposite attract which is what AJ and Della have. AJ is an uptight, slightly pretentious teen and Della is a bit of a wild child. I loved seeing how they interacted with each other and

This was delightful. I loved the points the story made about the different sides a single person can have, and who they show which sides to. It's the perfect summer read,

The Flipside of Perfect is an invigorating tale of a young girl straddling two worlds. This book was cute and funny and sad and all the things that made for an exciting and engaging story.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

2.5 stars, rounded up

AJ/Della is good student and free spirit straddling two worlds. When she's with her mom, she's the stressed academic, trying to be the perfect teen. When she's with her dad, she's able to let loose and enjoy her summer. When her younger sister surprises her while she's with her father, AJ/Della's world collides with interesting consequences.

I found AJ/Della to be an interesting character, but she was often a bit too mean and inconsiderate of other people's feelings. Her sister, Marnie, was full of emotions and bad decisions; she was kind of insufferable. I also thought there was a lot of telling rather than showing with what was happening in the story. The ending was wrapped up in too neat of a bow, in my opinion.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance copy.

I had no earthly idea what to expect when I first was approved for this book and was well surprised with how cute it was, how realistic it was, and how much I enjoyed it! Here, main character Adelaide has divorced parents, and when she splits her time between their homes across the country, she takes on an opposite persona. With her mom, stepdad, little sisters, and school friends in Michigan, she's the proper, perfect, good girl AJ. Then, with her dad and older siblings down in Florida over summer breaks, she's the more free-spirited and fun Della. These separate worlds, while both her, do not have any overlap whatsoever, until the summer after junior year. While she's at her dad's, her younger sister Marnie unexpectedly comes to stay with her and she must realize who she is and how to merge her separate lives. It's almost as if she lives parallel lives and doesn't know who she really is or how to merge her complete self into one. It has such an engaging, compelling, and relatable point of view. It's a quick, fun read that I couldn't put down. I just had to know what would happen next! Then, there's Della's former childhood nemesis Jude, who works for her dad in Florida. And the two of them are so dang precious with their little crushes and feelings. Like, awww!! Seriously, this book was just so flipping cute.