AJ lives in Michigan with her mom, 2 younger half sisters and her stepdad. Her life is jam packed with extra curricular activities, school and rules. She spends her summers in Key West "Della" as they call her, with her dad and her older half brother and sister. Where she can finally relax, slow down and take it all in as the "baby" of the family. Although, after one summer she goes back to Michigan feeling as she is only half of herself as her friends and boyfriend don't know about her time or family in Key West. Until everything changes one summer while she is in Key West when Jude, who has worked for her dad at his bait shop with her as long as she can remember seems different and a lot hotter. Throughout the summer Jude and her family help her to decide how AJ/Della can become one person and not separate identities.

Even though this story has some sad parts, I would still describe it as a very sweet story. I mean, we can all at least empathize with the "product of two families" thing, right? Almost everyone I know has at least one parent who has been divorced at least once. My own parents divorced when I was 16, so I know how tough it can be sometimes. Adelaide thought she had figured everything out. She bisected her life, giving each half what she could.

I felt so bad for her in so many ways.

I connected with her in ways I wouldn't have expected.

The author did such a good job of making all the characters relatable or hateable in equal measure. It was pretty clear who the reader was supposed to dislike, and who the reader was supposed to love. It was clear cut in this way, but none of the characters were outright bad or evil. They were flawed, in all the human ways.

This book is human. That's really the best way to describe it. Adelaide struggles with a lot of things we all struggle with: family commitments, wanting to fit in, wanting one life but getting assigned another. While Adelaide struggles with all of these things, the way she coincides them together is truly heartwarming.

From the beginning to the end, I was emotionally connected with this entire family. Each member has his and her own struggles, which all come out in different point of the book, and add to the complexity of the entire story.

This book is not a romance, or a rom-com, or a coming-of-age story. It has all those elements, but it stands on its own as unique.

One thing I particularly liked about this book is the mention of religion. Adelaide and both of her families attend church. While their beliefs aren't a huge part of the story, you'll be able to tell how growing up with that foundation has affected Adelaide's decisions. 

I absolutely loved this book, and if you like sweet, heartwarming stories, you probably will too. I have quit giving star ratings on books, because I don't think they do much good on my blog, but I will be giving this book 5 stars on Goodreads. It was THAT good.

I absolutely love this cover and premise for this book. Living two different lives and having them come together is just asking for trouble, haha.

There are good moments in this book but I just couldn’t get behind the main character. Aj/Della was a bit confusing at first because you can easily forget that they are the same person. She has divorced parents and decides to live two different lives because of it. I’m not really sure that’s the best way but we all cope in different ways.

I didn’t care for the other characters, Lex being the worst. What a dillweed!

One of the bigger issues I struggled with was the writing. It was hard to get into and sometimes the characters kind of just meshed together.

Overall, it just wasn’t a book for me but I can see others liking this story especially if they can relate to the family dynamic.

I enjoyed the premise of this book & can relate to the family dynamic. The love story portion was pretty good too. I didn't care for how much swearing there was in a young adult book that is marked for ages 12 and up. Not super impressed with that part.

I think we all have a flipside like AJ/Della. Have you ever used a customer service voice? Then you have too.

This book is a blast to read, the drama, angst and wide netted cast of characters keep this book exciting. A strong core of family and friends helps ground it. The thing is- this struggle of multiple identities is played out quite literally here (Michigan and Florida) while most teens may find this struggle to be digital via social media, without pushing too hard we can see the parallels and feel the hopelessness that she feels.

Dipping into the melodramatic a bit The Flipside of perfect is a great breezy summer read with relatable characters just trying to get it all together.



Received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

“Last summer he told me that he loves Excel. Who in their right mind loves Excel?”

At its core, The Flipside of Perfect is all about family. The biological kind, and the kind that we choose for ourselves. AJ’s family is insane. There’s nothing wrong with them; she just has two full fledged families.
And while this is initially something exciting for her, it begins to trap her as she grows older. She begins to realize that, maybe, she isn’t even fully AJ or Della. She suddenly comes to the realization that enacting two different personas that are poles apart is preventing her from ever being comfortably herself.
The drama builds slowly, but my god is there a lot of it. The plot keeps getting tighter, and the non-linear storyline helps keep it from getting too boring. Though I’ve read a lot of books about characters that go off with one of their divorced parents for a summer of reinvention, this one felt different because of the generous plethora of characters. From all of AJ’s siblings to her parents to her many friends, everyone in this book adds flavor to the story. Everyone has their own personality, and they all help AJ grow in one way or another.
Also, twins are my literal weakness and AJ is sandwiched between twins. Her older siblings, who live with her dad, are fraternal twins. Meanwhile, her younger sisters, who live with her mom and stepfather, are “Irish twins” which apparently means that they were born less than a year apart.
Overall, The Flipside of Perfect has a sweet plot chock full of drama and lovable characters. Watching AJ wrestle with her challenges is hooking, and the decisions she makes are ultimately liberating and surprising.

I love how AJ/Dell's character develops. Should she please others, or be herself? Poor AJ/Dell struggles with this question every day. With her family and friends, we learn so much about teenage struggles, along with family values.

This was amazing from beginning to end!!

Della use to feel lucky for having two families. Dani locks herself in her room . Della goes treasure hunting with Duke.i liked the characters and tone.

“But pain isn’t equal for everyone, and we haven’t lived the mixed blessing/curse of a heartache that puts everything else into stark perspective.”

Beautifully written and convincing account of a teen struggling with two different lives she lives due to her divorced parents. AJ/Della are one in the same, but couldn’t be more different. In one summer, everything shifts and collides, and she must figure out how her two seemingly incompatible lives must fit together.

Highly recommend this read! I haven’t read many books from this perspective, and I know this book would speak to so many of my students who might be in a divorced family situation.

This is the story of AJ/Della, a teenager who has spent her life split between her families. Summers in Florida with her dad and older siblings, she is Della, free spirited and relaxed. During the rest of the year she is AJ, older sister in a private school, living in a world with a lot of rules and structures. When one of her younger sisters has to come spend the summer with her, her worlds collide. Add in the enemies to lovers trope and family drama and this is your book! I found it sweet at some points and loved some of the characters (Jude, Belo) but I struggled with AJ and how she kept such a big part of her life hidden from all of her friends in Michigan. Overall, this was a good read and I will check out more by this author.

Did not finish.. I gave up at 15% read. Could not get into the book and didn’t like the characters.

Commentary on IRL versus digital life using the dual lives of AJ/Della. AJ attempts to be a perfectionist under the influence of her blogger/influencer mom who heads up a family of girls. She goes to private school, has a carefully curated wardrobe, friends, and far too many activities at which she'd like to excel. Della is AJ during the summer when she stays with her biological dad in the Florida Keys. This all needs to be said because it is murky to navigate why we have this weird say nothing about who you are during the summer alter ego type situation . . . because it isn't really all that believable. Seriously, your little sisters aren't saying anything about that, AJ? Not buying it after the Marnie drama. But Flipside of Perfect is a fun read, just a bit too melodramatic with some unacceptable digs at Catholicism. A lot happens in the story . . . no one's life is perfect is the subtext and the moral is be yourself. You just need Marie Kondo the details to get to the message.

Adelaide feels split into two; she spends part of her year in Florida and part of her year in Michegan due to her parents' divorce. She has taken on two very different personalities and only wishes the real her could be revealed. Students will like this realistic version of one girl's struggle to find herself.

When I requested this book on NetGalley, I expected something completely different. That’s not to say it was a bad-different, just that I was pleasantly surprised.

This was a coming of age story about Adelaide, who’s family is very much the complicated blended family so many people are familiar with now. She splits her time between her mother and her father, who live in different States. To cope, she chooses to have two personalities that help her compartmentalize. Until they don’t. And that story is beautiful.

Reading about her as she grows from a teenager to an adult, makes difficult choices and learns hard truths, was amazing. This story is well plotted and it’s all underscored by an optimism that keeps it from being depressing. The teenage years are hard and this novel doesn’t shy away from that

The ending and some of the story were a bit cliched, but I still enjoyed it. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers. I devoured this one and definitely recommend it.

This was appalling. The premise is strange and, I would at least hope, highly unrealistic. AJ/Della decision that the best way to live with two families as the child of a divorce is be creating two entirely separate identities and failing to inform her friends or schoolmates about the existence of her other siblings is concerning, atypical, and an incredible overreaction to her mother's suggestion that HS might mean busier summers. The focus on sex, breast size, and essentially being a personality-free lemming was unappealing. I did not finish this book, so it's possible it improved over the length of the narrative, but frankly I have a hard time imagining how this novel could be successfully concluded AJ/Della engaging in intensive personal/psychological counseling.

Such a fun coming of age teen rom-com. Lots of laughs. Loved this one!

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

This is a story about a young lady named Della that also goes by the name of AJ. We follow AJ and her sisters as they help each other out through some of their toughest times. AJ is figuring out through all of this that life is The Flipside of Perfect. Which I think is a good reminder to us all who are perfectionists. It is also a good lesson to remember.

Every family has their secrets. At the end, there is a very big secret revealed which I cannot wrap my brain around of how the sister kept this secret from everyone. One of the sisters is also a lesbian and having a hard time trying to find where she fits in. To top things off, the family business is in trouble. Can this family come together and fight for one another?

For the most part I enjoyed the book. However, the start of the story is kind of slow. I couldn't figure out for the longest time if AJ was a girl or guy. It also took me awhile to figure out that Della and AJ were the same person. I read this on the kindle app so I don't know if this is an app feature issue. I noticed every time I came across a word with the letter f there was always a space in between the f and the word. For example, a couple of times influence would look like inf luence. Another example, flip would look like f lip. It only happened with f words. The other issue I found sometimes the paragraphs would have spaces in between them and sometimes they didn't. It made for quite the distraction with these two issues.

The story had a cute sappy ending. Maybe too sappy for me but I feel like it could be a good ending for someone else to enjoy. It kind of reminded me of a Full House ending when we learn that just because things don't work out the way we would like it happens for a good reason and everything will be ok. Therefore I still recommend this to all ages.

A really lovely and charming romantic comedy. Could use some tightening up here and there but otherwise, thoroughly enjoyable.

Received from NetGalley in exchange for feedback.

I went through most of this book not being a fan of Della/AJ/Adelaide. She wasn't true to herself or the people she cares about. Her Michigan home life was too stressful because of her overbearing mother who thought she knew best for everybody and overrode their objections, wants and desires to fit the mold she wanted to present the world as an influencer. It wasn't until a few less-than-perfect moments caused Della to open her eyes and take a good hard look around her. Once she did this, I started liking her more and by the end of the book I really liked how things turned out. Taking a character I didn't like and turning her into someone I did, shows how good the writing was.

Through no fault of the author, the typesetting on this eBook wasn't good. There were gaps in words that started with f so flip was f lip, etc. It made reading this more difficult than it should have been.

I loved this book! It was a coming of age story of a young woman pulled in two different direction.s. Wanting so badly to be her authentic self, but struggling in the face of immense pressure. I adored Jude in this story, and felt that is was honest, raw, but all’s round sweet. Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book!