“I can practically see a Pinterest board version of the reception coming together with fairy lights and mismatched vintage china settings and a simple white cake with berries dotted along one side for a pop of color.”
Genre: Young Adult
Actual Rating: 4 stars
Spicy Meter: N/A, it’s clean
Content Warnings: Discusses racism, queerphobia, and ace-phobia.
“Planning Perfect” follows Felicity (Fe) Becker, a high schooler who’s in the asexual spectrum, as she helps plan her mother’s wedding. Looking for a venue for a destination wedding, Felicity’s long distance friend, Nancy, offers up her house and adjacent apple orchard and so it’s set. But as they spend more time together, Felicity’s and Nancy’s friendship blossoms into something more… But what could that something be, given Felicity’s asexuality? Anyways, she doesn’t have time to date because one of the wedding guests is an event planner with a very competitive internship program so Felicity has no time for anything else but to plan the perfect wedding.
This book really resonated with me, as a new adult, because I am currently in the midst of planning my wedding and I now know all too well the hassles and stresses of planning such a particular event. It was also super interesting to listen to Felicity’s inner monologue. My brother is within the asexual spectrum and seeing how Felicity thought really gave me another perspective as to how that could feel and the struggles they can face.
I really enjoyed how these chapters were being separated, instead of just “Chapter One” etc. etc., they used chapter divisions to give context about when things were happening, life for example “Two hours and six minutes after the engagement” or “Twenty one days until the wedding” and so on and so forth. That made flashbacks and the timeline in general more understandable and I loved it.
This was such a unique YA read. I feel like it’s the perfect gift for young readers who are just starting to get into the world of reading and romance. With a very diverse set of characters that goes through extensive personal growth, we get to see a lovely story unfold in a beautiful forest-y setting.
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ARC provided by Holly Ruck and Bloomsbury YA through Edelweiss Plus in exchange for an honest review.
Publication Date: February 14, 2023
“Sure, Nancy knows that I’m on the ace-spectrum, but I don’t think she realizes what that means.
She wants intimacy; she wants passion. I can’t be the one to give those things to her.”
andrea's galley 