Review: Perfect on Paper by Sophie Gonzales

Perfect on Paper by Sophie Gonzales

Published: 11th March 2021 | Publisher: Hodder Children's Books | Source: Bought
Sophie Gonzales's Website

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? From The StoryGraph

Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features .

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Review: A New Dawn: Your Favourite Authors on Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Series

A New Dawn: Your Favourite Authors on Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Series, edited by Ellen Hopkins - A New Dawn invites readers to join some of their favourite YA authors as they look at the phenomenal Twilight series with fresh eyes. Edited by bestselling author Ellen Hopkins, it is packed with the debates readers engage in with their friends: Should Bella have chosen Edward or Jacob? This collection also goes further to compare the Quileute werewolves with Native American wolf myths, the Twilight series with Shakespeare. With contributions from Megan McCafferty, Cassandra Clare and many more, this is a clever, fresh perspective on the popular series. From Amazon UK

I don't normally review non-fiction, but seeing as it's full of essays by YA writers, talking about a YA novel, I thought a review made sense.

Back in 2008, I took a course at uni called Young Adult Fictions. It was pretty much English Lit, but for YA fictions (which included movies, TV, etc, but mostly books). It was in this class that I first read Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. Not only did I fall in love with that book, but YA in general. I picked up New Moon. Then I picked up Eclipse. And when I wasn't reading other books for my class, I started them again. And again. I just loved them. As you can guess, I ended up writing my essay on the series. In the same year, A New Dawn was originally published - I say originally because it was an exclusive for Borders. In America. Which meant I couldn't buy it, even though it would have been FANTASTIC for my essay. A few weeks ago I discovered that the book had been re-released in this form when on the Smart Pop's website. Finally I could buy it! Although I enjoyed reading the series, I enjoyed having to look at the books analytically for my essay, which made this book a must buy for me.

It's just so good! It's so interesting to see what other people got from a book you've read, and the different topics that can be - and have been - discussed. There are essays that discuss whether or not Edward is a sociopath, using the seven official criteria used to diagnose Antisocial Personality Disorder, why girls fall for the bad guy, comparisons to the classics mentioned in the books. There are two really fun essays I want to mention in particular.

Dear Aunt Charlotte is an essay by Cassandra Clare, where she acts as agony aunt and replies to a "fangirl's letter" asking who is the better choice for Bella, Edward or Jacob. She answers by looking at the vampires and werewolves in movies over several decades. Then there's The Great Debate by Rachel Caine where she discusses the argument that vampire-themed fiction represents thinly veiled sexuality and violence - ergo, vampire fiction, specifically the Twilight series, which has brought vampire-themed young adult fiction to the forefront, is not suitable for young adults. What's brilliant about this essay is that she writes it as a transcript to a TV programme called The Great Debate, where two professors of literature argue against two fangirl bloggers - and she writes with the brilliant skill of capturing the teen voice like she does in her Morganville Vampires series. Not only is it detailed with theories on both sides, it's also very funny!

There are also brilliant essays that look into Native American wolf myths, and compare the Quileute beliefs and wolves to them, one that looks into the history of vampires in literature, and another that explores real life Forks. There is a wealth of interesting things to read for both those who are fans of the series, and those who like reading with their analytical hat on.

However, being someone who has read the books numerous times, I did spot a few errors, like the reason behind why Edward feels he's lost his soul, and confusing the meadow for where they play baseball. They're not overly major errors, but they are there, and there are around five, if not more. This may bug some hardcore fans, but it doesn't change or effect the points the authors are trying to make.

A really interesting read, one I would really recommend. The authors that contribute to this unauthorised anthology are Ellen Hopkins (editor), Susan Vaught, Megan Mc/cafferty, Rosemary Clement-Moore, Anne Ursu, Linda Gerba, Ellen Steiber, K. A. Nuzum, Cara Lockwood, Cassandra Clare, James A. Owen, Robin Brande, Janette Rallison and Rachel Caine.



Published: 29th September 2009
Publisher: Smart Pop
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Review: The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han

The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han - Everything that happened this past summer, and every summer before it, has all led up to this. To now. Every year Isabel - Belly - spends a perfect summer at her family friends’ house. There’s the swimming pool at night, the private stretch of sandy beach... and the two boys. Unavailable, aloof Conrad – who she’s been in love with forever – and friendly, relaxed Jeremiah, the only one who’s ever really paid her any attention. But this year something is different. They seem to have noticed her for the first time. It’s going to be an amazing summer – and one she’ll never forget... From Amazon UK

With all the freezing cold weather we've been having in the UK recently, I fancied reading something that would make me feel warm - so what better than a holiday, summer read? I picked this book up half expecting to enjoy it - a love triangle is always enjoyable - but half expecting not to be wowed that much - light, summer reads are normally quick and enjoyable, but not much to write home about. How wrong I was! This book is just brilliant!

At first, I thought I was going to end up disliking it. It's not clear for a while exactly how old Belly is, and she felt quite young. I'm not really the best fan of novels for those at the beginning of the teenage spectrum. Although I'm a big kid, I've matured past that level, and find their interests - or at least the interests teens that age are pretrayed to have - well, uninteresting. And Belly seemed to be one of these young girls who worried about and liked things that just aren't me. But after a few chapters, I realised these were only small things, and she started to seem older. I came to really like her.

One of the things I really liked about this book was how every now and then, a chapter would be dedicated to a summer at the beach house from the past, and would say under chapter number how old Belly was at the time. They're not necessarily in chronological order, but they're linked to things that happen this summer, things that remind Belly of past holidays. It was great to see all the characters at various ages, to see their individual personalities stay pretty much the same, but see them mature.

This is more than just a light read, though. Serious issues are covered, like divorce and betrayal of friendship. It's not always smiles and laughter, there are a fair few sad moments, both in Belly's romantic situation, but also in the much bigger picture. There were so many times when I wanted to hug pretty much all the main characters, and even some of the side characters. For such a quick read, a lot of heart-string tugging moments are packed in, without it being depressing. Though I was close to tears at some points.

This really is a brilliant book! Sad and sweet and lovely all at the same time. A really, really good book, I can't recommend it enough. I'm really looking forward to reading the sequel, It's Not Summer Without You, which will be released in summer 2011. It's going to be awesome!

Thank you to Puffin for sending me a review copy.

Published: 3rd June 2010
Publisher: Razorbill UK
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Jenny Han's Website

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