Perfect on Paper by Sophie Gonzales

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 nice romance. I love the agony aunt angle, and the advice, given to us at the top of some chapters, was really good. I loved the different explanations Darcy had for different types of people.

I did get a little confused over Ainsley, but I sorted that out as it went on. She was so supportive of Darcy; it was really nice to see siblings getting on that well, as it's fairly uncommon in YA books. Or at least the YA books I read.

The writing was great. This section really spoke to me:

There was something special about being seen the way that Brougham seemed to see me. Maybe Ainsley understood me in a similar way, but that was different, because she was my sister. This was someone who was a total stranger to me only months ago, sizing me up and listening to what I said—and listening harder still to what I didn’t say—and somehow correctly piecing it all together to understand me. And maybe he could do that because in some ways, we mirrored each other. We shared cracks in complementary places.

Brougham made me see the best version of myself, the kinder, wiser, more empathetic version I’d always wanted to be. And that was a hell of a lot to gain, which made it a hell of a lot to lose. And I almost had. 

I was so scared to lose him again.

I really enjoyed reading this one, and I'm looking forward to more from Sophie.

Perfect on Paper publishes on the 9th March, 2021 in the US (top image) and on the 11th March, 2021 in the UK (lower image)