eARC Review – The Flipside of Perfect by Liz Reinhardt

Title: The Flipside of Perfect

Author: Liz Reinhardt

Publisher: Inkyard Press

Publication date: April 6th, 2021

432 pages

4/5 stars

Goodreads Synopsis

A heartfelt, fun, and romantic novel about balancing who we are with who we’re expected to be, perfect for fans of Jenna Evans Welch, Morgan Matson and Jenn Bennett!

What happens when her two worlds collide?

AJ is a buttoned-up, responsible student attending a high-achieving high school in Michigan. She lives with her mother, stepfather, and two younger half sisters.

Della spends every summer with her father in Florida. A free-spirited wild child, she spends as much time as possible on the beach with her friends and older siblings.

But there’s a catch: AJ and Della are the same person. Adelaide Beloise Jepsen to be exact, and she does everything she can to keep her school and summer lives separate.

When her middle sister crashes her carefree summer getaway, Adelaide’s plans fall apart. In order to help her sister, save her unexpected friendship with a guy who might just be perfect for her, and discover the truth about her own past, Adelaide will have to reconcile the two sides of herself…and face the fact that it’s perfectly okay not to be perfect all the time.

Review

The Flipside of Perfect features a main character, Adelaide, who spends the school year with her mom, stepdad, and two younger sisters before spending every summer with her dad and two older siblings. Pretty normal divorced parents situation, except that Adelaide is a completely different person in both places. In Michigan with her mom she is AJ, the buttoned up, type A, super popular girl but in Florida with her dad she is Della, the chill, beach going, party girl. She loves her split life, but when her younger sister joins her summer with her dad – her two worlds collide in unexpected ways.

I loved the concept behind this book as I completely understand what it’s like to want to be a completely different person in different situations. I related a lot to AJ/Della in these feelings and enjoyed reading about how she handled both worlds. I loved the supporting casts, especially the Della side of the family in Florida. Don’t get me started on Lex vs. Jude either.

I wasn’t a hug fan of the switching timelines. I normally don’t mind that style in books but for some reason it didn’t work in this book. The scenes in the past certainly provided needed context, I just wish it had been provided in a different way as I had a hard time keeping up with what was happening in which time line. There was also a lot going on in this book, I think it tried to do too much with the plot and didn’t quite swing it.

Overall I think The Flipside of Perfect is a charming YA Contemporary about growing up, the power of family and sisters, and is an interesting taking on split families.

Thank you to Inkyard Press and Netgalley for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

Happy reading, folks!