Perfect on Paper by Sophie Gonzales Book Review

Title: Perfect on Paper
Author: Sophie Gonzales
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Release Date: March 9, 2021
Pages: 304

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?

Pre-order it on Barnes & Noble or Amazon 

My Thoughts

**Thank you so much to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for sending me an Advanced Reader's Copy in exchange for an honest review!**

Whenever someone needs relationship advice, they know where to get it. They slip a note along with an email address into locker 89 where they then receive an email giving them a more detailed explanation for their problem. If it doesn't go well, they get a refund but that doesn't happen much. Darcy's advice has a success rate of 95%!

Because even though it's unassigned, locker eighty-nine ends most days housing several envelopes with almost identical contents: ten dollars, often in the form of a bill, sometimes made up of whatever loose change the sender can gather; a letter, sometimes typed, sometimes handwritten, sometimes adorned with the telltale smudge of a tearstain; and at the bottom of the letter, an email address. 

The person behind locker 89 at school has always been a mystery until Alexander Brougham sees Darcy Phillips opening the locker and taking its contents out. To risk her secret being exposed, she reluctantly agrees to be Brougham's relationship coach to help him get his ex-girlfriend back.

He looked at me. I looked at him. Yeah. He wasn't buying this for a second. 

The diversity of the characters was done very well. Darcy herself was bisexual and is in love with her best friend Brooke Nguyen, who is lesbian. Problem is, Brooke doesn't know that Darcy has a crush on her. The inclusion of the Queer and Questioning Club provided a safe place at school for students to share whatever they felt comfortable without being judged and I loved that about this book.  

Star Rating: ★★★★★ (5) 

I love how the author started some chapters with a letter addressed to Darcy for Locker 89 and a response following it. I thought that letting the reader see how Darcy responded to the letters added to the character itself. 

I've been wanting to read this book since I came across it and I'm so glad I got the chance to read it! The pages flew by and I finished the book in no time. Go read it yourself and you'll know what I mean. I can't wait to read what else the author has written! 

About the Author

Sophie Gonzales is a YA contemporary author. She graduated from the University of Adelaide and lives in Melbourne, Australia, where she currently works as a psychologist. When she isn’t writing, she can be found ice skating, performing in musical theater, and practicing the piano. She is also the author of Only Mostly Devastated and The Law of Inertia. Visit her website at https://www.sophiegonzalesbooks.com.