Audiobook Review: Perfect on Paper by Sophie Gonzales

Synopsis:

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?

Review:

I was actually pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed listening to Perfect on Paper. Usually, I struggle with single narration audiobooks as my focus isn’t great, but this was very entertaining.

The narrator, Barrie Kreinik, was absolutely brilliant. I actually liked the voices they did, which is rare for me. I usually find put on voices really cringey, but Barrie did a great job with both high and low pitched voices. Even if Brougham’s accent was a little dodgy.

I loved the premise of this book, it felt a lot like Sex Education (I’m assuming it was an inspiration for Perfect on Paper, but I could be wrong) but instead of giving sex advice, Darcy gives out relationship advice. I honestly think that that whole scheme she had going is quite realistic, I could imagine something like that happening in a high school.

It was so interesting to read a book about a bi character that ends up with someone of the opposite gender, I feel like this doesn’t happen often. I especially appreciate the whole talk about being with the opposite gender doesn’t make you straight, if you identify as bi, you are. It’s so refreshing to see. Perfect on Paper has excellent LGBTQIA+ representation in general.

One of the only negatives I have to say about this book is that it was very slow to get going. The pacing would have benefitted a lot from shorter opening chapters, but overall this listen flew by. Once you get invested in the story the hours feel like minutes.

There are some very sweet moments in Perfect on Paper and also juicy drama. It’s a good old fashioned ‘high schoolers make stupid mistakes’ type of story and I’m here for it. These characters are flawed, but that’s part of their charm.

If you are looking for a fun contemporary YA read I’d definitely recommend Perfect on Paper.