Mar 10

Mar 10 Perfect on Paper

2021 Best, Audiobooks, Best Audiobooks, Diverse Reads, Fiction, Five Star Books, Young Adult

Score: 5/5 Bookmarks

Thank you to Wednesday Books and Macmillan Audio for gifting me review copies of Perfect on Paper by Sophie Gonzales.

Darcy Phillips has been secretly answering her classmates’ relationship questions via notes left in Locker 89 for years. When she gets caught opening the locker, by Alexander Brougham she is blackmailed into helping him win his own ex-girlfriend back. Grudgingly Darcy helps him, despite thinking he’s a monumental jackass. All this time spent together leads them to form an unexpected friendship though and learn more about themselves in the process too.

First of all, this book was wonderful. It made me laugh, sigh, feel all the feels, and sit up in eager anticipation of what was going to happen next. I loved the characters so much and I felt that the author handled the topics of sexuality, identity, divorce, and so much more with elegance and thoughtfulness.

Secondly, I was 100% here for all the Australianisms. I’ve been feeling super homesick lately and this was exactly the book I needed to read right now. I even learned a new piece of slang I’d never come across in my 30+ years growing up in Australia, so that was fun. I’m now going to try and use the phrase “We’re not here to fuck spiders.” at every possible opportunity. And if you’ve read or listened to this book (or even if you haven’t yet) the following is required listening:

Ahh, brings back so many memories.

Anyway, back to the book at hand. The audio narration was fantastic, and combined with the story I just couldn’t stop listening! It comes in at just under nine hours and is performed by Barrie Kreinik, who you might recognize from The Mother-In-Law, The Silver Shooter, You Are Not Alone, and so many more! You can get a copy of the audiobook via the button below or click here for a physical copy.

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Synopsis:

In Perfect on Paper, Leah on the Offbeat meets To All the Boys I've Loved Before: a bisexual girl who gives anonymous love advice to her classmates is hired by the hot guy to help him get his ex back.

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

Darcy Phillips:
• Can give you the solution to any of your relationship woes―for a fee.
• Uses her power for good. Most of the time.
• Really cannot stand Alexander Brougham.
• Has maybe not the best judgement when it comes to her best friend, Brooke…who is in love with someone else.
• Does not appreciate being blackmailed.

However, when Brougham catches her in the act of collecting letters from locker 89―out of which she’s been running her questionably legal, anonymous relationship advice service―that’s exactly what happens. In exchange for keeping her secret, Darcy begrudgingly agrees to become his personal dating coach―at a generous hourly rate, at least. The goal? To help him win his ex-girlfriend back.

Darcy has a good reason to keep her identity secret. If word gets out that she’s behind the locker, some things she's not proud of will come to light, and there’s a good chance Brooke will never speak to her again.

Okay, so all she has to do is help an entitled, bratty, (annoyingly hot) guy win over a girl who’s already fallen for him once? What could go wrong?