Bubbling up with Helena

• Title: The Perfect Guy Doesn’t Exist
• Author: Sophie Gonzales
• Publisher: Wednesday Books
• Release Date: 3/26/24
• Genre: Romance
• Age Range: Young Adult
• Rating: ★★★★
• Publisher’s Summary: A fanfic writer brings her favorite TV character to life in this friends-to-enemies-to-lovers novel full of humor and heart. Ivy Winslow has the house to herself for a week while her parents are away. She’s planning to use this newfound freedom to binge-watch her favorite fantasy TV show, H-MAD, and hang out with her best friend, Henry. She’ll also have to avoid her former best friend-turned enemy (and neighbor), Mack. But things quickly go awry when Ivy wakes up to find Weston, the gorgeous, very fictional main character of H-MAD in her bedroom, claiming to be her soul mate. Ivy realizes that her fanfic writing has somehow brought Weston as she’s imagined him to life. But it turns out that the tropes she swoons over in her stories are slightly less romantic in reality, and her not-so-fictional crush is causing some real-world problems. To figure out why Weston is here and what to do with him, Ivy decides to team up with Henry and (against her better judgment) Mack. But with Mack back in her life, Ivy starts to wonder if Weston, her “perfect guy”, is the one who’s truly perfect for her . . . or if that was someone else all along.

The premise of The Perfect Guy Doesn’t Exist immediately intrigued me. I mean, what teenager wouldn’t want the chance to get to meet their favorite television character? It is just as fun as I hoped.

The Perfect Guy Doesn’t Exist is not just a run of the mill romance novel. One might expect it to go the way of Between the Lines by Jodie Picoult and have Ivy fall in love with a fictional character. Instead, Ivy is unsettled by Weston’s presence almost immediately. Gonzales sets up from the beginning that the real romance is between Ivy and her friend, Mack. The book opens with Ivy thinking about her crush on Mack. It is in this relationship where the reader will find the romance novel tropes – friends to enemies to lovers for example.

Gonzales does a great job creating the world of H-MAD. Of course, the television show doesn’t actually exist, but the reader gets enough detail to have a strong sense of the characters and major plot lines. Gonzales even brings in some typical fan debates into the story like whether Weston’s show girlfriend, Vanessa, is a worthwhile character. (Ivy is convinced she’s useless).

The Perfect Guy Doesn’t Exist has a very clear narrative voice, which I love. It is told in the first person from Ivy’s perspective and always feels like a teenager is speaking. The reader is fully in Ivy’s head, which makes it easy to empathize with her, even in the extraordinary circumstances. Ivy is dealing with such typical teenage problems – social drama, lies to her parents, romantic confusion. It feels so genuine and left me smiling.

I also appreciated the different kinds of LGBTQ+ representation present in this book. The main character is bisexual, and in fact, opens the book by saying that. Mack identifies herself as a lesbian. Henry, Ivy’s newer best friend, identifies as aromantic and asexual. There is certainly not enough aro or ace representation in books, and I was glad to see it here. Each of them has a totally different coming out experiences, which also feels very important to see represented.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Perfect Guy doesn’t exist, and I encourage you to check it out when it is published on March 26. I will also add that I loved Perfect on Paper by Gonzales as well and recommend you checking out her other work.