When Ivy’s parents leave on a business trip across the country, all she’s looking forward to is spending some time with her best friend Henry and watching their favourite television show, H-MAD (Hot, Magical and Deadly). Her plans go up in flames though when she wakes up to find her favourite fictional character, Weston come to life…and in her bed. Somehow, her favourite character has become part of her reality—but he’s not acting like the Weston she devotes multiple fanfics to. As Weston causes trouble, Ivy will have to rely on her best friend Henry and nemesis Mack – her ex-best friend and also ex-crush who broke off their friendship—to figure out what to do with Weston and perhaps how to get him back into his own universe.
Another fun rom-com by Sophie Gonzales to add to your TBRs immediately!
One huge bonus of this book is how self-aware it is. From the title of the show Weston jumps out from to all the AO3 references and excerpts from fanfics, this book is filled to the brim with nods to writers who make canon what we want to be canon in our favourite books, shows and movies.
I definitely went into this with too high expectations (my fault) so that is why the fanfic storyline left me a bit disappointed. I loved the premise, but it felt like we jumped over the excitement of finding your favourite character brought to life way too quickly and straight into sombreness and trying to figure out how to get rid of Weston. While I get that this is sort of expected because he is causing more trouble than he’s worth, I would have loved to spend a bit more time with him and how he would fit into Ivy’s world.
Similarly, I wasn’t too big a fan of the romance (a very subjective opinion here, I just think that Mack should have had to do more grovelling after how she treated Ivy and Henry and all the hurt she caused not to mention how inattentive she was whenever Ivy talked about something that meant a lot to her), but I know that readers will adore Mack and Ivy’s friends-to-enemies-to-allies-to-lovers romance. And Ivy is one of those characters you’ll relate to immediately with her messy vibes, her unbridled humour, and sassy snark. Huge shout out to Henry as well, who was an absolute gem and who deserves an entire book of his own.
Besides that though, I really enjoyed the commentary on the tropes we love to read in fiction about but which do not translate well into real life. What we think might be super swoonworthy comes across as creepy when you actually experience it and I loved Gonzales ruminating on that through her characters. Lest you think this is solely satire, it also reminds readers why we find so much comfort in fictional characters and their journeys and why escapism is such a sorely needed thing in our lives.
Sure to be a hit with anyone who’s ever wanted their favourite fictional character to come to life, The Perfect Guy Doesn’t Exist is a heartwarming yet hilarious love letter to fanfics and their writers.
The Perfect Guy Doesn’t Exist is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of March 26th 2024.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
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.
