Perfect on Paper

A Novel

By: Sophie Gonzales

Narrated by: Barrie Kreinik

Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

"Not only is this queer rom-com audiobook PERFECT ON PAPER - it's also perfect on audio.... The wonderful writing coupled with [Barrie] Kreinik's execution makes this a spectacular audiobook." (AudioFile magazine, Earphones Award winner)

In Sophie Gonzales' 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?

A Macmillan Audio production from Wednesday Books

"Perfectly wonderful.” (Becky Albertalli, New York Times best-selling author of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda)

©2021 Sophie Gonzales (P)2021 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"Didn’t know it was possible to pack a book with this much charm, humor, sincerity, and wisdom, but then again, it’s Sophie Gonzales. Perfect on Paper is perfectly wonderful." (Becky Albertalli, New York Times best-selling author of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda)

“I devoured this book in one lovely day! Yet again Sophie has created an ensemble of empathetic characters led by a clever, relatable, sincere protagonist you’ll root for all the way through. Perfect on Paper is full of the kind of sharp wit, keen insight, and hilarious rom-com shenanigans that make it a heartfelt reminder that love may come in infinite and unexpected ways, but is still the one thing we all have in common.” (Emma Lord, author of Tweet Cute)

“Perfect on Paper is a perfectly-complicated love story in every way. Gonzales has gifted us with a well-intentioned and thoughtfully-complex protagonist in Darcy, whose advice is wonderfully applied not only to the questioning students she anonymously helps, but to readers as well! Full of swoons and angst and packaged carefully with heart, Perfect on Paper was a brilliant study on the complications of first loves.” (Erin Hahn, author of You’d Be Mine and More than Maybe)

What is not to love?

As a bi women who has always had to justify her queerness while in relationships with straight men this book made me feel seen. It was a cute coming of age story about a girl who thinks she is doing everything right until she isn’t. The characters have growth and really come to life. If you’re LGBTQIA+ I think this book has something for you. When I was in HS life wasn’t like this and I love seeing how times have changed for the better. Really good book.

A lovely listening experience with a great story

The MC Darcy was such a fantastic, flawed, but nice, strong and amazingly courageous person! I also loved Brougham and the diverse, supporting characters: Darcy's mum, her sister Ainsley, the members of the Q & Q Club.

The author managed to create a book with an interesting and challenging plot and some very valid moral questions about confidentiality, discretion, love, support and trust. She also successfully lead her characters through the complicated issues of how people can screw up despite the best of intentions, then face the music afterwards and grow in the process.

The romance was incredibly sweet in the best of sense and the friendships and the sisterly relationship were a joy (and sometimes sorrow) to read about.

Exactly what was needed

Story and narration was fantastic. But what stood out to me was the validation of bisexuality. I've actually been wanting to see a book with a bi character who expresses an actual interest in a gender other than their own. It's pretty hard to find. This book handled this so well, and is so necessary.

quite the love story

Definitely an entertaining listen and felt the emotion of the characters. had solid relationship advice and real life occurrences that may happen.

Perfect YA

Finn is right about the club name being changed to triple Q = Queer, Questioning, Qlub.

The character development for Darcy and Brougham was at the perfect pace. And the slow burn was 🙌🏾

I loved the discussions the Triple Q had during their meetings especially the last about biphobia.

This was my first read by Sophie and it won’t be my last!

Amazing 💕

My BFF recommended this book to me and I loved it!!! Definitely recommend it to anyone. It was great bc it contained real problems that us teenagers face. And it was a cute love story very good🥰✨

We stan an author that calls out biphobia in their reader base

This book came to me highly recommended by a good friend whose taste in books is impeccable. Somehow it took me too long to actually read, but now that I have I can’t get it out of my head. Perfect on Paper starts out like your typical queer high school romance, a girl is in love with her best friend but too afraid to tell her. However, this girl, Darcy, also happens to give anonymous love advice to her entire school. She has a fairly high success rate, so it’s no surprise that someone finally manages to suss out who exactly is behind locker 89 (the locker through which she runs her questionably legal advice business). Unfortunately for Darcy, it’s perfectly annoying Alexander Brougham that discovers her, and in exchange for his silence, she must agree to become his personal dating coach so he can win back his ex-girlfriend. The unexpected beauty of this book is the blatant discussion of biphobia and internalized-biphobia. As a bisexual reader, this meant a lot to me, because it’s so rare to see. Sophie Gonzales has even stated herself that “this book is a subtweet” to the backlash she received from a previous book featuring a bisexual character that ends up in a “straight-passing” (male/female) relationship.

It may not be common knowledge to general society or even common knowledge to monosexual queer folks (as is shown in the book), but bisexual folks experience phobic behaviors from all sides. From straight folks, from other queer folks, and from themselves, because it’s that deeply ingrained. I’m glad Gonzales took the opportunity to discuss it, and validate any bisexual reader that happens across this book because the relationship that you are currently in does not define your sexuality. Rather than being “half-gay” or “half-straight”, bisexuality on its own is a whole, valid identity. Also, worth mentioning: enemies-to-lovers storyline (more like begrudging-acquaintance-to-lovers), trans representation (side-character), and some cheesy relationship advice.

Great book - listened to it over 2 days

I usually prefer mm romances, but I enjoyed this. The main character here is a bi girl, but her story was very well written and interesting. Similar themes to Sex Education on Netflix.

Great for Adults Too

As a bi person, I lived the MC’s development and her speech about bi issues nailed the lived experience of many bi people of all ages. Alexander was an interesting character about whom I came to care as the story unfolded. Also excellent was the portrayal of the parents; some good and some not so good.

Good Background Listen

The writing is definitely meant for high schoolers and Y.A.s, but bonus points for smoothly integrating/talking about important bisexual issues. Happy the main character was bi and the word bisexual was used in the book.

Story is predictable and performance is average. Solid read, but nothing to write home about.