Perfect on Paper

5/5 stars

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Darcy Phillips gives anonymous love advice to the students at her high school. Operating out of an abandoned locker, she has been collecting letters (and money) while emailing replies for years. Her secret has been safe until she is caught by a fellow student and suddenly she is agreeing to be his personal dating coach. What could go wrong?

This book was a perfect mixture of To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before and The Half Of It. At first, I was concerned that the plot would be too similar to The Half Of It, but was pleasantly surprised when it took turns I hadn’t expected.

While Darcy has her moments that made me question her as a lovable character, I couldn’t help but root for her the whole way. The plot was creative and kept me turning the pages. This was supplemented with strong characters that each had their own complexities and challenges to work through. There wasn’t anyone I truly disliked as a character. Sometimes, I found the advice Darcy gave to be a bit unrealistic of a high schooler (but when you consider the author works as a psychologist).

While I am not a member of the LGBTQA community, I really loved the representation in this book. It was well thought out and not tokenizing characters just for the sake of more representation. The emotions and struggles were raw and gave me a glimpse into the marginalized community.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and encourage everyone to check it out when it’s released in March 2021!