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.

The perfect YA book concept doesn’t exi–

Okay, that doesn’t quite roll off the tongue, but you get my point. The premise for The Perfect Guy Doesn’t Exist sounded so wild and fun, I had to check it out. Protagonist Ivy finds that her favorite fictional hero Weston Razorbrook has come to life — but something’s off. It’s not just the character but the fanfic version of the character Ivy wrote. He’s literally made for Ivy, yet it doesn’t take too long for Ivy to realize he may not be exactly what she wants.

Needless to say, having a character like Weston in the house isn’t easy, and Ivy recruits her best friend Henry and ex-best friend/crush Mack to help. In the TV show Weston’s from, he has magical powers (think Avatar: The Last Airbender mixed with The Mortal Instruments), but Ivy’s Weston is magical in how freaking hilarious he is. I mean, he’s written by a teenage girl, so he’s ridiculously cringey. And I loved it. What I loved even more, though, was how the trio of friends reacted to the cringiness and how they scrambled to take care of him.

Meanwhile, Ivy’s feelings for Mack resurface, making for a sweet mended friendship and cute sapphic romance. There actually isn’t too much romance going on, which I was fine with, since the book is more about Ivy and her journey. She’s a super flawed protagonist, and she knows it. I related to her anxiety and insecurities so much, and I understood how it made her sink into fantasy. It’s comfortable in fantasy, but as she learns, her reality is the place to be.

Sophie Gonzales has done it again. I shouldn't be surprised because this did sound right up my alley, but it definitely delivered. I had so much fun reading this book, I can't even begin to describe it. This book was also just such an addicting read, and I had a hard time putting this book down.
I really liked the main story. I thought having the fanfic version of your favourite character coming to live is just such a fun concept, and I LOVE how Sophie Gonzales decided to execute it. It felt very realistic, and I also love how it's obvious throughout the book that the main character used fanfic solely as an espcape from her biggest insecurities. Ivy's character growth throughout this book was also just really well done, and I loved reading from her perspective.
Although I do have to say that Henry absolutely stole the show in this book for me. He's Ivy's best friend, and he so fucking funny and relatable. Every scene he was in was an instant favourite. I also really loved the friendship between him and Ivy. They just had this sweet connection, and I truly think they were the definition of platonic soulmates.
That brings us to Mack, and that aspect on this book has left me with some mixed emotions. I do love a friends to enemies to lovers storyline, but I just had a hard time understanding their friendship. We do get some flashbacks to the past, and I really liked those aspects of the book. However, all I could see in those parts is that this was just such a toxic friendship. Ivy had such an unhealthy codependency on Mack, and Mack barely seemd to tolerate Ivy until she became friends with Henry, and all of the sudden Mack gets really possesive over her. So yeah, it's extremely toxic, and I just didn't understand why they were friends to begin with. That connection just didn't seem there, and it was even more obvious because there is just such a strong connection between Ivy and Henry. It also annoyed me so much because it doesn't actually get adressed in the book. So yeah, I never understood their friendship. However, I do think the hate to love aspect was decently done in the story. It isn't the main focus of the book, and I do wish we got a little more of it in the book just for me to be completely sold on it, but I didn't completely hate it.
So yeah, I did thouroughly enjoy this book. I do think the main focus of this book was extremely well done, but it's just the romance I guess that I just don't know how to feel about it. I would definitely recommend this though because it was just so much fun, and also just extremely funny.

I recently finished reading this book and it had me laughing out loud. I thought the character development was well done and enjoyable, and the plot was cute and heartwarming. The fanfiction character coming to life was a unique concept, and the execution was fantastic. The book accurately demonstrates how romantic storylines in media are not always accurate portrayals of real life, but with a humorous tone. In general, the book was well-written and entertaining. It was the perfect mix of humor, emotions, satire, and silliness, and definitely lifted my spirits. Reading this book was a delightful and fun palate cleanser from some of the darker material I've been reading lately.

The Perfect Guy Doesn’t exist is a cute story of Ivy writing fan-fic of her favorite guy & realizing that sometimes reality is better than fiction.

I love Sophie Gonzales' books and am always thrilled to read a new one. The Perfect Guy Doesn't Exist is funny, charming, and effortlessly queer, as Gonzales' work always is, but goes in a quirky new direction with a fantastical element: lead character Ivy is a fanfiction writer who finds the subject of her fics, teen fantasy drama love interest Weston, has magically appeared in her bed. As someone who grew up in online fandom and has read fanfiction for years, I love the fanfiction focus and the unique way Gonzales utilized it, and overall this is a really fun book.

However, this wasn't my favorite Sophie Gonzales book, largely because I usually find her work to have a more realistic level of teenage maturity and emotional intelligence than many YA writers, which I found missing here. The voice felt sillier and more immature, which put me off the book a bit, especially in the beginning. I love how her voice usually captures how sharp and smart teenagers can be, and how her characters usually feel like very real teens.

Absolutely loved this book! I read it in one sitting! Thus has become a one click author for me! Thanks to the publisher

3.5 stars

Transparently, it took me a little bit to get into this one, but staying the course paid off. This has some great messaging in the end.

Ivy, the m.c., is home alone for a week, which is super convenient when Weston, the focus of her fanfic!, appears in her bed one morning. There's clearly something magical happening in terms of the sudden appearance of a whole person (and shocking disappearance/reappearance of his new outfits, not to mention his intriguing use of mind control), but the romantic possibilities between them? Well, those are anything but magical. The shocking changes in Ivy's environment give her a great opportunity to assess her relationships - platonic and otherwise - and to come to the titular conclusion that 'the perfect guy doesn't exist,' even when you create him yourself!

I have mixed feelings about this one. While I loved the fanfic element and the messaging toward the end, this had - for me - a slow burn in the beginning and some generally creepy stuff relating to a guy suddenly appearing in Ivy's space. Readers really need to suspend disbelief - that's a central theme - and I had a hard time doing that at certain points.

Overall, this wasn't my favorite, but I enjoyed the read (listen) enough. I will recommend it to students who are looking for a nice fanfic infusion in their YA!

I am withholding my review until the SMP boycott is resolved.

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

3.5 rounded up.

A fun YA queer romcom with a paranormal twist. Bisexual fanfic writer Ivy is home alone and lonely while her parents are on vacation, somehow one night she manifests one of her favorite fictional characters who suddenly becomes a big headache in her life. With the help of her best friend Henry and her ex-friend and former love interest, Mack, Ivy has to figure out how to get rid of this unwanted and increasingly troublesome 'guest.' Full of antics and a bit of second chance romance, this was an entertaining read and great on audio too. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital and audio copy in exchange for my honest review!

This is a book for fan fiction lovers. Such a good idea. It was a quick cheese romcom. It wasn’t my favorite by the author but I was still entertained.

i'm definitely too old to be reading this book, the characters felt very immature. lack of communication is prevalent

This is a YA romance where a young fanfic writer somehow writes her favorite tv character into real life. The story alternates between the past, showing how Ivy and her best friend and neighbor (and crush) Mack fell out, and then the present, where Ivy is dealing with a magical entity who is living out Ivy's fanfic plots. As you might be able to guess, Mack is roped into helping Ivy and Ivy's (new) bestie Henry figure out what is going on, and it turns out that Ivy and Mack might not hate each other as much as they thought... This was definitely a fun, light-hearted romp, but I didn't feel like there was much substance to the main characters or credible ties between any of them. I have a feeling this is one of those YA novels that I would have enjoyed more as a young adult than I did as a 50-year-old. Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Wednesday Books for a digital review copy.

I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press, Wednesday Books in exchange for my honest review.

As a queer, coming-of-age, friends-to enemies-to-lovers story this works pretty well. As a fanfic fantasy, not so much. I found myself invested in Ivy and Mack and Henry’s dynamic and totally checked out for most of the stuff involving Weston and anything to do with H-MAD. It felt more juvenile than I was expecting, and a lot of the humor missed the mark for me. My biggest issue was with the alternating flashback chapters, which gave me some major emotional whiplash — I think there is a way to integrate dual timelines while still allowing the falling out and re-building of this friendship to feel less jarring. Still a fun, original, and quick read that will probably work well for its target audience.

What I liked: I enjoyed the stark difference between the two lead characters. I thought the twist of Weston’s personality and storyline changing by the day was a fun addition! I wasn’t sure that this premise would have enough meat on its bones for a whole book but I was pleasantly surprised!

What I didn’t like: I found myself distracted quite a bit. This was written on the younger side of even YA and I had a hard time becoming fully invested due to some of the extra-teenage emotional processing.