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paragraphsandpages 's review for:
Perfect on Paper
by Sophie Gonzales
Overall, while I really wanted to enjoy this book, it just wasn't really my thing. While the concept itself was interesting, and I like the bi rep and other queer rep we had in this book, I didn't care for the MC much at all, and it ruined my reading experience a bit.
Darcy gives anonymous love advice to her classmates, but it all goes wrong when things start to come out and her identity is revealed. While I did think Darcy was giving good advice, there were definitely some good points brought up about her qualifications/possible negative impact she could be having on romantic relationships that made for an interesting discussion. These were very present in the story, yet I don't think they led to a satisfying ending necessarily, since Darcy just sort of claimed she learned from the experience and would do a better job with her online blog. My biggest issue wasn't with this though, I mainly was just frustrated early on with how Darcy acted and sometimes abused her advice system, and I had a hard time forgiving her. On the other hand, I also had a hard time forgiving her best friend for some of the shitty things she did too, especially when she suddenly got a new girlfriend and they both treated Darcy pretty badly. It just overall was uncomfortable to read and I don't think it was resolved well enough for me to fully like either character again.
I did think the main romance of this story was cute though, and I really liked that this story dived into bisexual women dating men and how some parts of the LGBTQ+ community see them as less queer when they're in a straight-passing relationship. It's an important conversation, and I was glad this book featured it so strongly.
Overall, I don't think this book has necessarily put me off other books by Sophie Gonzales, since I do like what she was trying to accomplish here and really like the representation, but this particular book just didn't quite work for me.
Darcy gives anonymous love advice to her classmates, but it all goes wrong when things start to come out and her identity is revealed. While I did think Darcy was giving good advice, there were definitely some good points brought up about her qualifications/possible negative impact she could be having on romantic relationships that made for an interesting discussion. These were very present in the story, yet I don't think they led to a satisfying ending necessarily, since Darcy just sort of claimed she learned from the experience and would do a better job with her online blog. My biggest issue wasn't with this though, I mainly was just frustrated early on with how Darcy acted and sometimes abused her advice system, and I had a hard time forgiving her. On the other hand, I also had a hard time forgiving her best friend for some of the shitty things she did too, especially when she suddenly got a new girlfriend and they both treated Darcy pretty badly. It just overall was uncomfortable to read and I don't think it was resolved well enough for me to fully like either character again.
I did think the main romance of this story was cute though, and I really liked that this story dived into bisexual women dating men and how some parts of the LGBTQ+ community see them as less queer when they're in a straight-passing relationship. It's an important conversation, and I was glad this book featured it so strongly.
Overall, I don't think this book has necessarily put me off other books by Sophie Gonzales, since I do like what she was trying to accomplish here and really like the representation, but this particular book just didn't quite work for me.