4,5/5 stars. Perfect on Paper is the bi-rep, Charlie Bartlett (minus the prescription pills) romcom that 2021 needs! I really enjoyed Sophie Gonzales' Only Mostly Devastated, and this story has the same humor, cute queer characters, and engaging dialogue. It follows Darcy Phillips, who runs a secret romance/relationship advice business through locker 89 at her high school. She is discovered by swim hottie Alexander Brougham, who is desperate for advice, and she begrudgingly agrees to help him.

I really enjoyed watching this story develop, including a very cute date scene at Disneyland, all of the nuggets of really good relationship advice that are sprinkled throughout the book (you can learn about attachment styles!), supportive friendships, and a description of a horror movie that would scare my socks off!

The book slows down for me in the last third, and it started to feel bogged down by the consequences of Darcy's actions. This reminded me slightly of Sex Education, although much cleaner and with fewer bad decisions on the part of the teenagers included. I was rooting for these characters all the way through, and it has cemented my interest in reading all future books written by Gonzales. Thanks to NetGalley for the early review copy, all opinions are my own.

I will give a full review of this book on www.pluckyreader.com, but I cannot say enough good things about PERFECT ON PAPER. The premise is lovely, the storytelling is masterful, the characters are relatable and perfect in their imperfection. This is a book I will definitely recommend to my students and readers at every opportunity. It deals with important conversations, like bi erasure and how complex and complicated sexuality really is. It was a book I had trouble recovering from once it was over.

A very enjoyable read. Darcy is a smart and caring lead character. She never backs down, and she doesn't change herself to make Brougham like her. And she helps him with his issues. I also loved the supportive parents in this book as a support for Darcy, and in opposition to Brougham's very flawed (and realistically so) parents. There's a lot of humor and realistic teen talk in this book. I would recommend to my students.

Relationship advice for the YA set .... impressively compiled and realistically applied. But the LGBTQ+ dialogue was on point! You don't often get to discuss the 'B', but the voice lent to that conversation is needed and appreciated. What starts out as advice on dating for high school students turns into a tale of trusting how a person makes you feel about yourself.

Review won't be available on my blog, The Reading Fairy until March 8th, 2021

Actual Rating: 3.5 stars!

TW: biphoba, blackmail, ableist language, divorce, description of sex, drug use, mention of vomit, cheating, use of alcohol, breakup, doxxing
Rep: Bisexual MC, Queer (Ace/Aro, bi, gay, trans, pansexual, enby) side characters, Black side character

Disclaimer: I received an ARC from the publicist via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion.

“Love makes people softer”

I’ve been eyeing this book for a little bit, mostly because I adored Only Mostly Devastated and the bisexual representation in the book. This is one of the very few books that I could think about right now, especially with the bisexual representation in it, and how much it tackled.

Probably might be thinking that bisexual rep. is a little common in books? But honestly, this book felt special-mostly because it tackled internalized biphobia from both society and from the queer community. It brought tears to my eyes, because even though I may be a-spec, I still identify as bisexual. And I have thought that I couldn’t be queer if I was attracted to the opposite gender multiple times.

But what also makes this book special, is that it has a m/f relationship in it. Most books that have a bisexual protagonists only do sapphic romances in them.

But also, can we just talk about the queer rep in particularly? We have an a-spec side character in it and it just makes me feel seen. There was was quite a bit of other queer characters in which they created their own space and club where they talk about all things queer and stuff. And the diversity is just chef’s kiss.

This book felt like 3 stars for a while, but after that Disney chapter-I may have gave upped my original rating. It was adorable, and honestly it was such an original idea that I really liked it.

Locker 89 is a locker that sends out advice from the letters they get, and money. And Darcy is behind it, giving advice from friendships, relationships and consent until someone-Alexander Brougham, finds out who the person running Locker 89 is. And now, Darcy is stuck helping him unless he tells everyone who really is behind Locker 89.

It almost reminds me of The Half of It on Netflix, a film I really adore. I got those kinda vibes from it, but those vibes helped me enjoy this book a lot more. It was really good, and how the romance was developed.

I loved it quite a bit. I loved the way Sophie Gonzales wrote Brougham and Darcy. The romance was so believable, and I adored every second of it.

An anonymous love advice locker and two people who run into each other at the exact wrong time, what could go wrong? The story follows Darcy Phillips, a highschooler who runs a side business of giving love advice to anyone for just $10 and it all has to be done anonymously through a letter in a defunct locker. Too bad for Darcy, she gets caught by Alexander Brougham, who is willing to blackmail and pay Darcy to help coach him get his ex back. And so begins one very quirky and very cute love story. Darcy has been in love with her best friend Brooke since forever and can’t seem to ever make it work. Brougham challenges Darcy and she finds herself really looking at what she’s doing and maybe seeing that Brougham isn’t as cold and rude as he seems. I adored the enemies to friends to maybe something else that was between Darcy and Brougham. They had so much chemistry and they had adorable and such sweet bonding moments. Darcy is part of the LGBTAQ club at her school and her feelings and fears on biphobia really touched me. I had so much fun reading this book and watching the bond between Darcy and Brougham grow was just the best! I would highly recommend this for anyone looking for a fun and great romance story!

I received an early e-arc of Perfect on Paper by Sophie Gonzales from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
I requested this title as it was blurbed by Becky Albertalli and is compared to her novel Leah on the Offbeat, and I wasn't disappointed by this comparison. I think that if you like any of Becky Albertalli's books then you will also like this story.
Perfect on Paper was a fun queer contemporary story about a bisexual girl giving anonymous love and relationship advice to her classmates via Locker 89, she then gets caught opening the locker by a popular guy who then hires her to help him win his ex-girlfriend back.
I liked the addition of the Queer and Questioning club that Darcy and her friends were apart of as well as the conversations that Darcy had by talking about her experience being bisexual and feeling as though this identity was erased based on who she had crushes on/was dating. There were many LGBT+ characters throughout the novel and the Queer and Questioning club provided a safe space for most of the LGBT+ characters.
I also thought Darcy's sister, Ainsley's, YouTube channel, thrift shop hauls and tailoring was an interesting part of the story.
Overall I gave Perfect on Paper 3 out of 5 stars, I would definitely recommend if you liked Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda or any of Becky Albertalli's books.

This book was interesting to read, not at all what I was expecting. I found it to be quite mature, the subject matter and things that were being dealt with, I would not recommend it for a young audience, but the characters were quite immature in how they handled things, so that was confusing to me.

I am apologizing right off because this turned into an essay but:

I'm giving this baby—⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ !

Perfect On Paper by Sophie Gonzales is an unapologetic, queer YA rom-com where the endgame pairing is m/f.

Yes. You heard me RIGHT.

We follow Darcy Phillips, a bisexual high-school girl who is in love with her best friend Brooke, supports the hell out of her trans sister Ainsley—oh, and she has been running an anonymous relationship advice business out of the mysterious Locker 89 for two years now. Normal stuff.

When Darcy is approached (completely out of Locker 89 protocol) by Alexander Brougham, they come to an accord: Darcy will help the aloof, sarcastic, emotionally stunted Brougham win back his ex-girlfriend and Brougham will keep Darcy's secret. A simple case of equivalent exchange.

Of course, love is never simple.

OKAY SO.

This book took me through an absolute slew of emotions. Darcy made me crazy for the first two chapters until I, with utter clarity, realized I was annoyed because I saw myself in her. (You know what they say about being friends with yourself? Yeah.)

She is a loving person. Witty, sarcastic, a hyperactive chaos gremlin. But as a secret advice-giver she struggles with both her ego and the pressure she puts on herself to make sure all of her advice is absolutely 100% perfect. Her love for Brooke makes her completely blind to her own bullshit (and I feel like many of us can relate to that) often mistaken protectiveness for petty jealousy. I vividly remember being in a similar situation in school and wondering where all of these conflicting feelings were coming from. (Hello, bi awakening) But the way she took charge of herself, the growth we see from her—it was fantastic to watch an MC make HUGE mistakes, suffer for them, and make amends FOR the people they hurt and not just for themselves.

Alexander genuinely made me laugh out loud. *Oh* do I know what it's like to fall for a smart-mouthed boy on complete and total accident. He was layered. Every glimpse we got of his personality, his likes/dislikes, how he saw the world, I was a little more charmed and just as annoyed about it as Darcy was. Their communication styles were so entirely different and I was rooting for them SO HARD by act two. The misunderstandings were almost torturous.

INTERVENTION: Ainsley is the best sister ever and no one can tell me otherwise. We need to scream about this beautiful, sweet, completely FERAL girl forever because YES.

Ahem, moving on.

I also need to say that this book made me cry. Darcy struggles, as a bi girl who's queer identity has been such a big part of her, with her crush on a straight boy. She struggles with the internalized bi-phobia that I think many of us have gone through or do go through. It comes down to the question: Are we queer enough if we date the opposite gender? Does falling in love with this person really erase us? Does it exclude us from the community we love and identify with?

And the answer should be a resounding NO. But for many of us who find ourselves in relationships with the opposite-presenting gender (or who haven't been in a relationship at all, or never dated someone of the same gender, etc) this haunts us. Even within the community we are told we are "straight-passing* and maybe we do pass, but that doesn't erase the fact that we are still queer. And Darcy confronting this very real fear, these true anxieties and being supported and loved and reaffirmed in her queer identity—yeah, I cried about it.

I felt seen. I felt heard. I felt understood. And I believe that others will too. This isn't just a love story, this is a love *letter* to all people in the queer community that think they aren't enough. And also an acknowledgment that none of us are perfect, or free from our own bias, but that we can learn and grow and come out better as long as we open ourselves to that change.

I cannot recommend this book enough. When it hits the shelves 09 March 2021 you BET that I will be sliding it in right next to Only Mostly Devastated and going back to it with fondness.

I was really happy that the main character was bisexual, it's great that that's expanding. I love how they handled her feelings that she bi anymore if she dated a guy. I'm straight (and not a teen), so I really have no say, but I think all teens should read this.
The main character Darcy sends advice anonymously through a lockers to her fellow classmates, mostly about relationship advice. She starts helping Brougham try and get back with his ex, when he catches her there. Hijinks continue..

I think I liked this more than ONLY MOSTLY DEVASTATED, and definitely eager to pick up whatever Sophie Gonzales has next.

The treatment of bisexuality was SO. DARN. GOOD. We need more of this. Bisexual characters tend to only appear in same-sex relationships in literature, so it's refreshing to see the problems that come up (Also! The ace rep! Yes please, thank you, absolutely perfect, don't change a thing. I was ready to be up in arms if it went sideways, but it was just what every book needs. Yes, every book.)

This was compulsively readable. Darcy's commentary on relationships and the research she had done was absolutely fascinating, and I of course loved that a lot of it boiled into my theory of "just communicate, darn it!" It's always easier to psychoanalyse someone else than yourself, which was fun to see happening to her.

Loved the evolution of her relationship with Brooke most of all, and the way she was able to realise her feelings.

This was a slow start for me, but I ended up loving it. Gonzales writes so wonderfully about being bi and dealing with biphobia, the wrapping of a fun, messily complicated rom-com. All of the characters are flawed, but never fully vilified and I loved all of them. There's a lot of gender and sexuality diversity that is handled with elegant ease. The whole book is funny, sweet, and satisfying. Great for fans of Becky Albertalli, Amy Spaulding, Emma Mills, and Netflix's Sex Education.

PERFECT ON PAPER by Sophie Gonzales

Solid 4.5 stars!

This was the perfect, light, with just enough seriousness contemporary that I needed right now. I requested this as soon as I saw it as I adored Sophie’s previous novel, Only Mostly Devastated.

Perfect on Paper centres on Darcy, a girl in high school who has been anonymously giving out relationship advice through letters sent to “Locker 89”. When we meet Darcy, she is in love with her best friend and perfectly confident in giving advice to everyone in her school. But when she is enlisted by the guy who catches her taking the letters out of the locker, she begins to question what she thought she knew.

This book felt so real compared to many contemporaries I’ve read. The characters were three-dimensional; they were messy, they were complicated and at times, did not make the best decisions. There was also great LGBTQ+ representation with Darcy herself being bi and many of the side characters being a part of the community as well. On top of all that, this was genuinely funny. The dialogue did not feel stilted at all and I could see myself, as a teen in highschool, having those conversations. This also included just the right amount of pop culture references to make it relatable but not overdone.

The relationships in this, from the friendships to the romantic relationships, felt organic and were not forced at all. Darcy and Brougham’s development throughout the book, and the respect they had for one another was so heartwarming to read. As well, Sophie’s emphasis on the importance of just having a good friendship to count on was so important!

Ainsley was probably my favourite side character and I loved that her and Darcy had such a supportive and dependable sibling bond.

All in all, this was super enjoyable and I definitely would recommend this to anyone who is looking for a heartfelt contemporary that has a perfect balance of discussing realistic issues, humour, and deep characters.

Thanks again to NetGalley for providing me a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I actually read this book in an afternoon. It was very cute. I quite liked the relationship between Darcy and Brougham and found the lesbian relationships very nuanced as well. I typically don't read LGBTQ+ stories, but I liked this one.

It was a little uneven, but it was a good quick read. I liked Darcy's relationships with everyone and I liked the twist that she was the relationship guru behind Locker 89.

Her advice, spot on. Her love life, way off.

This was a very well written book.
Just the whole story behind this book was amazing.
It was diverse, enjoyable, amazing.

I enjoyed this from n start to finish

Thank you NetGalley publisher and author for this gifted ebook!

3.5*

This was my first Sophie Gonzales book but the cover and the synopsis have made me want to read this book. I own but haven't read Simon Vs the Homosapiens or Leah on the Offbeat but I have read and adore To All the Boys I've Loved Before series and Perfect on Paper did give me vibes of that. I'm also not a huge reader of LGBTQ+ centered books but I do have some and enjoyed them quite a lot.

Meet Darcy Phillips, bisexual high school student with an anonymous side job of giving relationship advice to fellow students by way of locker 89. One day, she gets caught by Alexander Brougham, a senior that Darcy doesn't like at all and, to keep her secret, well, secret, she helps him get his ex back.

This book is very well written and I was engrossed in it from the beginning to about halfway when I started feeling like it was too long and a little bit predictable. It was really refreshing to have a relation advice person that isn't straight and to give us details as to what Darcy was doing behind the scene to be able to give such advice was really awesome. Really well thought out. The interactions between Darcy and Alexander... sorry, Brougham is really fun to read and they definitely have chemistry. But, it was also really predictable. The diversity in sexuality in this book is mind blowing, to me and it was really fun to read about it all. We need more like that.

One thing I am dancing around my feelings about with is Brooke and her friendship with Darcy. She's either really oblivious or just a big fat tease and she doesn't really treat her friend properly. Sure, Darcy hurt Brooke's feelings with her side job but to read how Darcy is fishing at anything to get back the friendship with her. I wasn't too comfortable with that.

So, I loved this book but because of a few things, I can't rate it perfectly but I would recommend this book to anyone for sure.

In Perfect on Paper, Darcy Phillips has a secret that nobody (except for her sister, Ainsley) knows—she’s the mysterious relationship advice columnist behind the notorious Locker 89 at her high school. Until one afternoon when another student, the popular and attractive swim team star Alexander Brougham, catches her in the act of checking the locker for new letters. Instead of telling her secret to the school, however, Brougham requests her services as a private relationship coach to help him win back his girlfriend.

I admit I’ve never read any of Sophie Gonzales’s work before, but I was definitely pleasantly surprised by this book. In many ways, I expected a run-of-the-mill young adult rom-com from Perfect on Paper. And although the book definitely fits the “young adult rom-com” mold, it’s a bit more than just that, with refreshing representation of a bisexual teen learning to navigate her own personal romantic relationships while at the same time posing as a “relationship expert” for her school. The book deals with some of the more subtle aspects of human relationships and the sometimes confusing experience of figuring out one’s own identity, as Darcy is forced to examine her crush on her best friend, Brooke, and consider her reasons for this crush while also exploring her new feelings for Brougham. This book also stands out as a book about a bisexual teenager who has to confront this part of their identity and consider its implications and validity—in a moving scene, Darcy confesses her confused feelings regarding her romantic feelings to her fellow Queer and Questioning Club members, who reassure her that her feelings are normal and that she is “queer enough,” even if she chooses to be with a partner of a different gender. Although Perfect on Paper appears light and fluffy at first glance, it is a book with real depth and emotion that is sure to hit home with many teenagers struggling to find their place in the world.

This was a rare 5/5 ⭐s! I wish I'd had this book when I was in high school.

Perfect on Paper has everything I love in a YA novel: romance, some drama, friendships built to last, and characters in unique situations. Darcy is certainly in a unique situation having been giving her classmates anonymous relationship advice secretly through an empty locker for a couple years!

Then she meets Brougham, who wants her advice in person. She doubts she can do it, but takes on the task...and finds herself falling for him? But what about her best friend, Brooke, she's been quietly in love with for years?

With Darcy as a "relationship expert," this book gets to address sex and relationships in an incredibly healthy way, still through the lens of a teenager. Gonzalez uses the school's Queer and Questioning Club as a device to permit deeper discussions around queer identity and gender, and it's just perfect.

This is a book I'd buy for any young adult reader in my life, and wish I could go back and read at age 15! Highly recommend. I know it's out in March but...is it too early to ask for a movie version?! Thank you to @netgalley
And @macmillanusa for the chance to read in exchange for an honest review! Really enjoyed the author's ability to present inclusive material from an entirely genuine standpoint. This makes me want to read the rest of Sophie's books!

I absolutely adored this. The representation, the characters, the plot...I loved everything about this and can't wait to force every single one of my friends to read and gush over it with me!

Thanks, NetGalley, for the DRC. How hard is it to tell a story about a bisexual? You have to work in love interests from the two primary sexes and not make it a competition between them as if the teenage protag's happily ever choice is a forever statement about their preference.

Regardless, Sophie Gonzales, can write a fun romance. Darcy Phillips has two secrets: a crush on her best friend, Brooke and a thriving romantic advice business that she's only abused twice, so far, both times to manipulate Brooke. What could go wrong?!?

The Locker 89 conceit is a good one. Darcy, whose mom works at her fancy private high school, which enables her lower middle class self to attend, has taken over a locker (found the combo and taken it out of circulation due to Darcy's borrowed admin access). Students slip a letter and $10 into the locker, describing their romantic woes, and Darcy emails back from an anonymized email address. If her advice doesn't pan out, she refunds the money, but that doesn't happen often. Darcy's success rate is 95%. I was please do see that her advice is warm and wise, never dismissing. Darcy does a lot of relationship theory research, even if she doesn't need it anymore. She's never like, "dump that needy brat." Instead she advises clients to understand the real issue. Why does the lover think they require so many text messages; what is it they actually need?

I don't think it's too spoilerish to say that the things you think are going to happen, happen, and that's fine. Along with way we have a well-adjusted trans woman sister, Ainsley, whose existence is just a fact, a supportive Queer and Questioning club where lots of genders and sexualities are represented, students of color, divorcing and divorced parents, class differences, and sort of regular high school life.

I'll be glad to hear corrections or conflicting interpretations of Ainsley's role and experience.