"The Perfect Guy Doesn't Exist" by Sophie Gonzales is a delightfully fun and engaging young adult contemporary romance that blends fantasy elements with real-world relationships. The story follows Ivy Winslow, a fanfiction writer who unexpectedly brings her favorite fictional character, Weston, to life. As Ivy navigates this surreal situation, she finds herself teaming up with her best friend Henry and her former friend-turned-enemy Mack.

Gonzales crafts a narrative that is both humorous and heartfelt, exploring themes of friendship, love, and self-discovery. The novel cleverly subverts romantic tropes, showing how idealized fictional relationships may not translate well to reality. This allows for genuine character growth and introspection, particularly for Ivy.

The book's strength lies in its ability to balance lighthearted, binge-worthy entertainment with more profound emotional moments. Gonzales' writing shines in creating diverse, relatable characters and maintaining an unserious tone that keeps readers engaged throughout.

While the premise of bringing a fictional character to life sets up comedic situations, the true heart of the story lies in the evolving relationships between Ivy, Mack, and Henry. The enemies-to-lovers dynamic between Ivy and Mack is particularly well-executed, providing depth to the romantic elements of the plot.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this eARC in exchange for an honest reviews. All opinions are my own.

This was a cute read! I can’t imagine a one of my high school fanfic characters coming to life.

What an incredibly fun book. The Perfect Guy Doesn't Exist follows high school student Ivy in two timelines: first, the past, where we see her best friendship with Mack, the girl who lives across the street who Ivy's secretly in love with, break down; and the present, where Weston, the man of her dreams and starring character of her favorite TV show, comes to life. It's a lovely story about the way reality and fiction collide.

My favorite subplot is that Ivy has the most extreme helicopter parents and doesn't have the fortitude to tell them to back off. In fact, she doesn't really want them to! Ivy likes living in a world where she's never alone, where someone always has her back. As you follow her story, you can see how Ivy copes when the most important thing—not being alone—comes back to bite her.

Another five-star read from Sophie Gonzales!

This one didn't work for me! It's the first Sophie Gonzales book I haven't enjoyed. I LOVE a homoerotic, codependent best friend, and I love that Gonzales plays with fanfic tropes (enemies to lovers does NOT work IRL!). Gonzales is fab at romantic banter/chemistry––the Mack and Ivy scenes are fun!––but this book has surprisingly few present-day scenes between the leads. Overall, TPGDE is a bit too heavy on the magical realism/fantasy elements, and wayyy too light on the romance itself!

All I know is I would die of embarrassment if any of the characters I wrote fanfics for came to life and were suddenly living in my house. This book was laugh out loud funny and I flew through it because I wanted to know what happened next. The different tropes, the fanfic character come to life, and the actual romance were all so perfect. Sophie Gonzales is one of the best YA contemporary authors out there!

I went into this book very much head empty ready for some ridiculousness and shenanigans. I grew up on fics and dreams, this book was meant for younger me. Little me would’ve given a thumbs up on the fixation of fictional characters and how people go through strong emotions for them.

I loved the silliness and the banter between Ivy and Henry. Their friendship was so wholesome and he’s just a little guy I wanted to put in my pocket. He is not who Ivy needed in a crisis but who she got anyway and I was here for it.

The romance aspect between Ivy and Mack was not my favorite. It felt more hostile than silly little miscommunications. I love miscommunication it rocks me to sleep at night but I felt like their problems rooted deeper than not talking about what happened between them in the past.

The fictional character appearing was hilarious and I was eating it up for the first half. The second half I felt like things weren’t as strong and it left me feeling like he kinda wasn’t necessary to be there at all.

Overall, really cute and sweet read. Henry was adorable and would’ve loved to have more of his friendship with Ivy present.

This was ridiculous, and so much fun. This was a love letter to fanfiction, through our main character Ivy, who brings a fictional character to life. This book was such a joy, and very funny. I really enjoyed watching the friendships of ivy and Henry and ivy and Mack. I liked watching ivy and Mack apologize and resolve their issues. I wish there was more romantic development but I still had a lot of fun with this.

While I'm usually a big fan of Sophie Gonzales and her books, this one just fell short for me. It honestly felt like a Disney Channel Original Movie. Ivy was also a very unlikeable character and came off as really immature compared to her friends. The ending left me feeling a bit uneasy, and I get that it was done for character growth, but such a supernatural element just felt out of place.

I received a Digital Reader Copy of this novel from St. Martin’s Press, Wednesday Books via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

This was an enjoyable novel that I read over one weekend. It is categorized as Young Adult, and I think it suits a much younger audience than me reading it as an adult. I did appreciate the friendship aspect of this novel, and how it is okay for friendships to change as new hobbies and interests are discovered. The main characters in this novel are sixteen years old.

I have loved every Sophie Gonzales book and this one was also enjoyable, however, my least favorite out of all of them. I always love the character development and plot but the plot of this one was just my vibe, but I still was entertained throughout.

The sudden appearance of Weston, a character from Ivy's favorite show, on a stormy night serves as the main plot point for this contemporary YA romance. It forces Ivy to reconnect with her crush and former best friend Mack. The book jumps back and forth between the present where they try to figure out what to do with Weston and the past events that led to their falling out.

I enjoy Gonzales's novels but this one did not quite hit the spot for me. I usually like when magical realism plays a role, but I would have enjoyed it more without it here. I understood Weston's purpose in the novel and what he stood for. Even then, I wanted the book to delve into Ivy and Mack's relationship without Weston's presence. I wanted something more realistic, which is strange for me to say because I love fantasy and magic. (3.5 stars rounded to 4 stars)

2.5 Rounded Up

I received an advanced copy of The Perfect Guy Doesn't Exist by Sophie Gonzales from the publisher St. Martin's Press Wednesday Books is a Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

What It’s About: Ivy Winslow has the house to herself for a week while her parents are away. She’s hoping to spend the time watching her favorite TV show, hanging out with her best friend, Henry, and avoid her neighbor Mack who happens to be her former best friend-crush turned enemy. However, plans go awry when she wakes up to her favorite character from her TV show, Weston, telling her she loves him. Ivy quickly realizes that somehow Weston has arrived as a figment from her fanfiction writing and adapted the personality, she gave him, and it turns out that the guy she swoons over in her story and the traits she gave him aren’t so perfect after all.

What I Loved: I really liked Mack and Ivy as a friends to lovers aspect in the flashback aspect of the book. I also liked Henry as a character and his friendship with Ivy.

What I Didn’t Like: This book is an example of YA fiction that reads very young. I found our main character quite annoying and immature to the point it was difficult to cheer for her or support her. I will say that Ivy does grow a bit at the end of the book. The reasons for the friendship break up was annoying. I found this book very goofy to the point it was difficult to finish, I think that if you like fanfiction of this type (I don’t love the inserting a Mary Sue in fanfiction), you might like it more. For me it was very, EH.

Who Should Read It: People who love fanfiction tropes.

Summary: When a character from her fanfiction comes alive, Ivy must figure out how to send him back.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Sophie Gonzales does it again with a fun YA magical realism romcom. This was silly and fun! As previous fangirl, this was humorous and affirming to read. I loved how each incident brought out a new Weston but also brought her closer to a long lost friend.

Thank you Netgalley, Sophie Gonzales, and Wednesday Books for sending me an eARC for my honest review. Also thank you Wednesday Books for sending me a physical ARC. 🥰🫶
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I thought this book had such a fun premise! This book has two parts - the past where MC Ivy and Mack were friends and the present where she and Mack aren’t friends anymore. It switches back and forth and throughout the story, we learn how Ivy and Mack went from being the best of friends to where they are now - ex-friends. Ivy is obsessed with this TV show that features a group of supermodels who get superpowers, her favorite character being Weston, who she writes fanfiction about. Ivy watches this show with her new best friend, Henry. One night she writes a self-insert fanfiction in which she is dating Weston and the next morning, Weston is alive and in her bed! Their first meeting is very comical! Weston believes himself to be real and Ivy’s boyfriend and throughout the book displays different personalities based on the different types of fanfiction Ivy wrote. I thought this was such a fun touch! It was especially funny to see Weston act as a romantic interest in enemies to lovers and a coffee shop AU. Ivy recruits the help of her best friend, Henry, and reluctantly agrees to work with her ex-friend, Mack to sort out the Weston situation. As they deal with Weston, Ivy and Mack become close again and apologize to each other for past mistakes. 🫶
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I really liked how the magic element was handled and how the reasoning behind how a fanfiction character came to life never really got answered. It's just something that happened! It definitely has the COM in rom-com! 😂 Even though this book is very funny, it also has two very important lessons - friends don’t always have to have everything in common and no romantic partner is perfect. Even your ideal perfect person isn't always who you truly want. Ivy had what she believed to be the “perfect partner” in Weston, someone she specifically wrote for herself, and yet given the choice she still chose the very real and imperfect, Mack. 🥹
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I loved reading this nerdy romcom with sapphic friends to ex-friends to sorta friends to lovers. There were so many fun nods to fanfics that anyone who read/writes fanfic will pick up on and it's so fun to see that in a published book!☺️
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🌈Rep: Bisexual MC, Black lesbian LI, main sapphic relationship, AroAce SC

Thank you Wednesday Books and NetGalley for the eARC of The Perfect Guy Doesn't Exist! All opinions in this review are my own.

I really like the concept of The Perfect Guy Doesn't Exist but I like the story between Ivy and Mack more than Weston coming to life. While his antics are funny at first, eventually it gets a little old when Ivy constantly has to worry about who will watch him. Ivy and Mack healing their friendship made for the much better storyline.

I love everything Sophie Gonzales, but this was not her strongest book. the references to fandom are nice, but it took too long for the MC to realize what's going on considering the reader understands immediately. Slow start that made the ending not as satisfying as it could have been.

3.0

Setting: Pennsylvania
Rep: bisexual protagonist; Black lesbian love interest

I sailed through this in a morning - it's a quick, easy read but it didn't feel like a Sophie Gonzales book to me. The characters felt underdeveloped, as did the plot. It was fine, but nothing more, and it really lacked the heart of her other books.

I gave up on this book the first time I tried it, but today it was calling my name. While this was a little bit out my normal comfort zone of surrealism, it was fun to read the story of Ivy & Mack. Gonzales helped the reader feel the teen angst and uncertainty of not knowing if the crush on your best friend is reciprocated or not, and the issues that go along with not feeling seen in high school. It was with the story the whole way up until that third act twist which was just a bit much for me.

Thanks to NetGalley for the digital advanced copy.

Thanks to Netgalley and Wednesday Books for providing me with an eARC of this title! If Natsu Dragneel came to life and started acting the way I write him in fanfic, I’d probably have a better time than Ivy did with fanon Weston Razorbrook (I only write fluff!) This book had some seriously funny moments and H-MAD sounds exactly like the kind of show that would have had a 16-year old me in an absolute chokehold. This one goes out to all the teenage girls who had a crippling fanfiction phase, and never really grew out of it. I, along with hundreds of other writers, always wondered what would happen if my favorite fictional character came to life. Would they act just like I expected them to or would their behavior be the same as canon? Sophie Gonzales makes these questions reality, proving that it is in fact stranger than fiction. I could have read hundreds of pages just dedicated to Weston’s magical outfit changing physics and daily attitude changes based on Ivy’s different fanfics. Weston leaving in the end felt a little anticlimactic, like he spent so much time convincing Ivy into accepting all the new changes he’d made and just decided to straight up leave? And with no outside intervention! Other than that, I gave this one a 4.1/5 because it was super light-hearted and entertaining, and made me rethink how I write some of my favorite characters the next time I add a new chapter to any of my fics.

"Lifesize" meets Fanfic

Ivy is home alone for an entire week and she's thrilled to binge-watch her favorite show and hang with her best friend Henry. While also avoiding her ex-bff neighbor, Mack, whose parents have made it her mission to keep an eye on Ivy while her parents are out of town. But when a surprise and impossible guest appears on night one her week quickly spirals. Weston is impossible. He is the swoony, real-life version of Ivy's fanfic based on her favorite TV show "H-Mad". Aside from his improbability, Ivy soon realizes the tropes he portrays are not as swoon-worthy in real life. To figure out why he appeared she teams up with Henry and begrudgingly, Mack. Soon she's wondering if her so-called perfect guy is really right for her after all or if maybe, just maybe, the right person has been right there all along.

Honestly, I haven't finished this book yet and it's going to take an embarrassing amount of time because I am just struggling to read right now. But as a new release, I wanted to put something out there, and after reading a little over a quarter of the book I feel like I can do that now. I love this author and will continue soaking up everything she puts out. I really like the pacing of this book, and as soon as I'm in a reading mood I'm going to fly through this book. The characters so far seem interesting, diverse, and dimensional and I can't wait to learn more about Mack and Henry. I am curious to see the importance of the 'past' chapters. It's one of the little reasons I know I will be coming back to this book.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author via Netgalley & Wednesday Books in exchange for an honest review.