Almost Perfect

by Tagan Shepard

Olivia Duran has made being a TV fangirl her life. Creating fan art sure beats her job as a parking lot attendant, and immersing herself in fictional worlds where girl gets girl helps her cope with her less-than-happy reality. If anyone deserves a little escapism, it’s Olivia.

Queer entertainment influencer Riley St. James has a huge following and an even bigger secret that could tank her career. Somewhere along the way her love for TV turned into a job that pays the bills. She’s never told anyone she sometimes has to fake it.

When Riley and Olivia attend QueerCon, Olivia gifts her favorite actress one of her drawings and goes from unknown to overnight sensation, while devoted fans flock to Riley, who only has eyes for Olivia. Navigating the world of long-distance dating, career crisis, and family obligations, Olivia and Riley begin to Can their real-life love ever be as perfect as those they see on-screen?

Genres: Romance, Lesbian, Queer

288 pages, Paperback

Published November 15, 2022

About the author

Tagan Shepard has always spent quiet moments weaving stories in her head. It didn't occur to her until recently to take the time to write them down. Now that she's started, she can't seem to stop. When not writing, she makes her living in a hospital laboratory.
She is a cardio junkie, history buff, and unrepentant nerd, happily wasting countless hours of her life on video games and science fiction/fantasy of every stripe. She lives in Richmond, Virginia with her very patient wife and two rather surly cats.

Reviews

[Della B · Rating 3 out of 5]

Almost Perfect brings you into the fangirl world of a popular television show which includes a lesbian superhero couple. Olivia, as well as being a fangirl, is an amazing artist who creates impressive fan art. Riley writes popular summaries of episodes, heavy on the snark, for different social media platforms and a gay entertainment zine. The two meet at a convention for gay positive entertainment, QueerCon. 

Reading the book blurb I imagined that I was in for a cute and light hearted romance. What I was handed was a hard knocks and angst driven love story. Although this included an insta love attraction, it left plenty of room for deep introspection and personal growth for both main characters. 

The secondary characters of two twelve year olds brought a strong spotlight onto gay bullying, at school and at home. The kids added humour and insight well beyond their years. Riley’s best friend Dani though detracted from the overall good vibes of the novel and should have been an insight into the true selfish character of Riley. By the end I was not a fan girl for either of them and because of this my rating fell from four to three stars.

I received an advance review copy from Bold Strokes Books and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[MZ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25 stars. Talk about queer entertainment fandom. When I read the blurb of this book I was torn in two. I noticed the word influencer, and that is a topic that does not resonate with me. But I also saw the word fan art and as some of you might know I like to dabble in some fan art myself every once in a while, so I was curious. In the end, this book was quite different from what I expected, it is full of queer entertainment references which was fun even though it was a bit much for me, and there was also a more serious note on bullying.

Riley is an influencer, or as she prefers it, a journalist of queer entertainment and Olivia is a huge fan of the TV shows Riley recaps, and of Riley herself. Olivia loves making fan art and when Riley and Olivia meet at a Con they are immediately drawn to each other. Riley is on some of the panels and Olivia is there as a fan but her fan art becomes a big hit which opens up some possibilities for her future too.

The romance between the two starts rather light and is largely based on lust. I liked Olivia as a character who’s sweet and caring for her family and it seemed as if she was a bit shy at the start of the book, but it turned out she’s not at all afraid to ask for what she wants. Riley, I found more difficult to like, she’s portrayed as awkward, but I found her very condescending which clashed with her “endearing” awkwardness. This was where I also struggled with the romance. Why date somebody and even fall in love with somebody (which happened rather fast btw) if you can’t respect their choices and what they are passionate about?

At the dark moment the book makes a huge turn from light to very angsty and heavy. I liked this turn, I thought it brought some depth to the story and the characters which saved the romance for me although Riley was so stubborn and one sighted for a long time that I still wasn’t the biggest fan of her in the end. This turn is also connected to their future and I would have liked to see how their careers turned out in the epilogue.

Olivia’s family was nice to read about, the grumpy but loving grandpa, a flighty but sweet mom and her little sister and her gay best friend, which were fun although perhaps a bit too smart for their age. Riley has a best friend, Dani, whom I unfortunately didn’t like at all. She’s a huge player and was only interested in “nailing” the next woman, and she was a pretty bad friend if you ask me.

All in all, the romance in this book didn’t completely work for me, but as someone who likes her queer TV shows and movies, I liked seeing several of the queer entertainment references. The whole fandom around it was a bit much for me, but I could understand this very deliberate choice.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[pipsqueakreviews · Rating 3 out of 5]

Queer entertainment.

My feelings about this book are mixed so let's talk about the positives first. One of the characters, Olivia, is nice. She's the type of person who believes that family comes first and has over the years, assumed the caregiver role for every family member, and to an extent, I think that trait is sweet (though overdoing it isn't healthy). Olivia is also a fan of the other character, Riley, who is some sort of celebrity but I like how she doesn't act like a fangirl around Riley when they meet at QueerCon and after. In fact, she's attractive and exudes a certain charm and Riley is instead, besotted by her.

Many readers had issues with Riley and I agree with most of the comments but I found that Riley's personality didn't bother me that much. Riley sees herself as a queer entertainment journalist but in reality, she's just an influencer who made a name for herself from recapping one particular Queer show - a show that she secretly wants to disassociates herself with, but can't, without consequences so she ends up "quiet quitting" while also trying her luck getting better jobs, and becomes really bitter when things don't work out. But as much as I find this negative and unappealing, I also find it common to be jaded in real life like that so to an extent, I understand how Riley feels. That being said, it doesn't mean I agree with how she lashes out.

The problem I had with the story was more that I thought the chemistry between Olivia and Riley wasn't quite there. They are entirely different people whose priorities are different and it was hard for me to visualise how they would work out in the long run.

This book might appeal to fans of queer entertainment, I think, but the romance part isn't quite there.

I received an ARC from Bold Strokes Books through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoy Shepard’s crime writing, I don’t think her romance writing is for me.

Shepard’s first book with BSB and there are too many things about it I just don’t like. Let’s start with Riley, her job, influencer, hate it. Her personality, even worse, she’s a class A condensing asshole and her friend Dani is even worse. I think Riley is supposed to be a bit a bumbling awkward character, as is described a couple of times as well, but her actions and thoughts are condescending all the time and she just seems jaded for no good reason. Very unlikable character for me. Furthermore there are two twelve year olds who are just too wise for their age. I’m sorry but I can’t deal with twelve year olds hinting/ joking about sex. Olivia is fine, seemingly a little insecure, but who isn’t?
For the romance, it starts out nice and light, flirty, all about the physical appearance. For Riley it seems to be all she focusses on because she has zero respect or appreciation for the other things going on in Olivia’s life. Meanwhile Olivia isn’t as superficial, but not 100% either. Honestly, after their hookup it should have just been over for, to me they don’t fit.
When I was about 30% I thought I must have been at least half way in, sadly I wasn’t. If this weren’t an ARC read for me I would have probably stopped reading around that point. Nothing is really bad about this story, aside from Riley, but it just isn’t a book for me.

Please read other reviews as well.

*I received an ARC from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

[queer_aussie_reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

Almost Perfect was my first Tagan Shepard book, and it left me curious to see what else she has on offer.

Riley is an influencer who has become internet famous for her blogs and TV recaps. Her ambition goes further than that though, and she is struggling to be taken seriously. Olivia spends her days taking care of her family, working a job that bores her and drawing fan art. When she takes her little sister and her best friend to QueerCon, she finds herself being hit on by Riley St James.

There is instant chemistry between them, and instead of feeling star-struck, she flirts back, and quickly they are inseparable. The weekend of QueerCon ends and Riley must return home, but Olivia is never far from her thoughts. They begin a relationship, and the hard work of maintaining it begins.

Almost Perfect began quite lightly, introducing both characters slowly, and then blowing up when they decide to date. I liked Riley and Olivia, and although they had the typical miscommunication arguments, they still seemed to work as a couple for me. I didn’t like Dani, Riley’s best friend, but I’m not sure we were meant to. Olivia’s little sister, Chelsea and her best friend Lewis were a cute addition to the story, though they seemed a little too worldly to be pre-teens.

Tagan’s ability to create the world Riley and Olivia live in, with fan art, conventions and fandoms made the book all that more enjoyable for me. I was given enough information to understand something which I know very little about and didn’t need to pause my reading to google something that confused me. Almost Perfect was fast-paced, sweet and angsty, and it all worked to create a relevant and beautiful story.

I received an ARC from Bold Strokes Books via NetGalley for my honest review

[Ashlee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Riley is a popular entertainment blogger at her first queercon as a panelist. When she runs into Olivia on the convention floor sparks immediately fly with the aspiring artist. Olivia and Riley both get noticed at the convention in ways that will further their respective careers but they run into problems with their expectations of each other after several months of dating.
I enjoyed this book set in the world of fan fiction and tv with gay representation. The characters really seem to connect well with each other before their assumptions start wreaking havoc and those parts seemed very genuine. I see some others had issues with likability of the MCs and I do see their point in some ways but I felt like their reactions made them seem more human. Dani was annoying in the couple scenes she was in and I think I got my fill of her character pretty quickly. I also do see some of Riley's behavior as a bit less than endearing as well but I did still like her character overall. Olivia is in a tough situation overall and her family definitely depends on her a lot. I did like their relationship and overall plot, it wasn't quite the light read I was expecting from the blurb but I I definitely enjoyed it and would love to pick up the next release by Tagan Shepard.

[currentlyreadingbynat · Rating 3 out of 5]

The premise is cute - two women meeting at QueerCon. However, this is an angst driven story which took the sweetness out of it. Although I was engaged throughout, I found it hard to connect to the characters, and therefore the story itself.

Olivia and Riley are drawn towards each other quickly, but have very different priorities in life. This causes some tension throughout the novel which is where I was kept engaged, but eventually I wondered if they were the right fit for each other. Probably not a great thought when reading a romance.

All in all, a well written book but unfortunately the romance just didn't work for me.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Bold Strokes Books for a copy of this novel. ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was excited to have the opportunity to read this e-ARC, and give my thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author.

More QueerLit will never, ever be a bad thing, and I was so happy to see two openly queer main characters (one of whom was bisexual). Often in literature, sapphic relationships don't get as much of a spotlight as the alternative. This book starts off strong and is heavy on the representation. Following 'Gayntertainment' writer and journalist, Riley St James, and a far lesser known fan artist, Olivia Duran, we are first introduced to both at 'QueerCon'; a convention for all aspects of queer media, where fans can meet and greet some of their favourite stars.

There is plenty to like about this book, and not just the representation (that is done well). Olivia is a sweet but headstrong character who knows what she wants, and has sacrificed a lot to be the main caregiver for her grandfather, younger sister, mother (and her younger sisters best friend, by all accounts; a gay twelve year old from a less than accepting household). Even though, as the reader learns, she's not quite as needed as she thinks she is, due to years of being the one in control of things. She's incredibly likeable and unapologetic about who she is, what she likes, and what she wants. A refreshing depiction of a femme, androgynous-loving bi woman, who isn't pandering, nor subservient.

The characters are a lot of what is good about this. Chelsea and Lewis (the aforementioned sister and her BFF) are precocious twelve year olds who are smarter than their years, both intellectually and emotionally. Their excitement about QueerCon and their favourite show ('The Midtown Avengers') is infectious, and it's so great to see younger characters involved so heavily in the LGBTQ+ community. Dani, Riley St James' best friend, is raw, comical, and unafraid to call people out on their bullshit. Olivia's mother is forgetful, spirited, and deserves more credit than her daughter gives her. Her grandfather (Poppa) is your typical stubborn but loving old man.

The writing is pleasant and easy to read in the best kind of way. No overly difficult or pretentious language here: just simple, but well written, and accessible to most readers.

I really wanted to love this book, but I guess my biggest issue was the main character of Riley St James. In comparison to Olivia, I found her too hard to like at times. On more than a handful of occasions, she's dismissive of her fans due to the content they like (that she doesn't), selfish, rude, and fairly pretentious. Even at the end, when she's screwed up massively, she still tries to find a way to blame other people, and to lessen the blow of what she's done and said. Admittedly, she gets her ass handed to and realises what an idiot she's been, and has a redemption arc; but it comes too little too late for me. A few parts surrounding Olivia's family really irritated me; this whole idea of 'why am I not as important as them?' was difficult for me to swallow.

A few times, I really did find myself talking at the pages, because she annoyed me so much! I guess that definitely says something about the skill of the writing!

My only other main irk was the fast pace of the romance. To some extent, I get it; it makes sense. The main characters meet at a convention, one of them is from out of town, so they have to have that moment of attraction to lead to a date to ensure they get anywhere at all! But it still felt a little too rushed for me, as someone who much prefers more of a slow build.

All in all, I'm giving this one 3 out of 5 stars. Not the worst, but not my favourite, either. I'd definitely read more by the author, though - and hopefully next time I'll like the main character(s) more!

[Stacy! · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book provided a sweet, nerdy, queer romance! I ADORED the representation in this book, not only the queer and fandom ones, but also the inclusion of MCs that were imperfect and still figuring their shit out.

Both MCs really resonated with me, as they were truly well written characters with REAL flaws and struggles. Olivia’s fear of failure and desire to be needed hit SO close to home for me, as did Riley’s desire to appear perfect and her desire to be more. These characters were so wonderfully crafted and their relationship was just a beautiful ride. The story was unexpectedly spicy (which is never a bad thing), and I adored that the MCs made each other better and that the relationship inspired such growth.

The story was an emotional roller coaster, but in the best possible way.

I was given an ARC by NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books. All opinions are my own.

[Kaye · Rating 3 out of 5]

Olivia Duran is an artist who interrupts her art education to help out at home with her family situation. She loves drawing fan art and is invested in shows where she can see queer representation. While taking her younger sister and her friend to QueerCon Olivia meets entertainment influencer Riley St. James. Riley is a blogger and free lance journalist focusing on Queer entertainment. She is snarky and writes with wit. Her dream is to become a script writer for one of the tv shows that she writes about.

The two meet at the conference and and because they are the each others “type” they accept the instant attraction. Living four hours apart they start a relationship working around work and family demands. Settling for the phone and texting when they can’t be together. I like Olivia and her motivations. She takes on much of the care taking role in her household which includes grandfather, mom and half sister Chelsea. I thought the 12 year olds were more precocious than realistic.

I wasn’t as big of fan of Riley. Even though she is nerdy and attentive she is also egocentric. She comes off unsympathetic to Olivia and is dismissive of her dreams. I really disliked her BF too until she gives Riley some very honest feedback. In fact, I’m addicted to those online Reddit questions of, Am I the A**hole? I was delighted when the questioned got asked and Riley wasn’t expecting answer she received.

I liked the story but I’m not a huge fan convention person. My daughter has attended for years so I understand them but it wasn’t as interesting to me as the characters and the relationships in the story. The epilogue was sweet but I was left wondering what the couples plans for the future professionally. Thank you to NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Almost Perfect’ feels like a love letter to the entire sapphic fangirl community and I am here for it.
Olivia has a lot going on in her personal life and has a lot of responsibilities on her young shoulders, her main escape is to draw fanart from her favourite tropes. Riley is a queer influencer who has built a career on analysing shows and is now a celeb in her own right. I liked the contrasts between the two women and also how they supported one another in terms of where their careers could go and both of them are so relatable and flawed.
As with the way of romances, opposites attract and their relationship moves quickly and although I liked their dynamic and the clash of two completely different worlds I wasn’t one hundred per cent sold on the ending. No spoilers but I think maybe Riley’s defensiveness was a little bit too aggressive when put against the caregiver character of Olivia and felt their resolution was a little rushed for me. I did really enjoy the supporting characters, especially Olivia’s little sister and best friend and I loved the sheer amount of media references as I have always been a fangirl myself and appreciate the communities that I have encountered.
Great debut for Shepard with BSB and a fun and flirty read.

[Kip · Rating 5 out of 5]

Where do I even begin without giving any spoilers?

I guess I'll start with, I was pleasantly surprised, like....REALLY surprised. I'm usually a fence sitter that sits at '3 star' for pretty good and '4 star' for exceptional...but this one is a solid 5!

I've read other books based on some 'meet-cute at a -Con of some sort' a few times, usually, it's hard for me to get into it because perhaps I'm a bit too-old or... not brave enough to have strong feelings towards anything in pop culture-y to attend any conventions. I'd usually have a hard time engaging with the story and care about what the story/character is about to keep reading, I think a lot of my DNFs come from '-con related books'. (There must be a technical term for this type of stories? Please feel free to educate me.)

BUT!! Almost Perfect, or I should say Tagan Shepard, had delivered an amazing gem. The story is cute, with a higher than average amount of time and effort going through the flirtation phase of the setup. The characters are vibrant and the 'sexy' parts are fun!

The book has a good cadence to it and the side characters are not annoying (thanks Tagan Shepard!). I think this is a solid, entertaining, sometimes thought provoking read with just the right amount of stary-eye connection, interesting character development (that isn't completely far fetched) and like....just enough heart warming bits without being super cheesy.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books for the digital advance copy. I enjoyed this thoroughly and hope that others will too.

[Vita L. Licari · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. Having missed the Buffy craze and not following fanfic art, or bloggers, this introduced me to that world. I love the two MCs and the growth they went through for love. The side characters are wonderful too! I give it 5 stars!

[Diana Nolen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this book enough to read it again later. I was surprised it didn’t have a higher rating because it was fun to delve into queer pop culture around TV representation over the years and learn how much that queer representation affects/affected a generation after mine. My generation had hardly any at all.
I thought the character development was well done. Unlike some others, I liked Riley’s character who has some growth to go through, as does Olivia’s character. I didn’t care for Riley’s friend, Dani, much, but she does somewhat redeem herself to me in the end with some much needed insight.
All around, I think this is a good story that flowed very well and made sense. Not too shabby in the area of sexual chemistry, either, which I was surprised happened the way it did. It was written very well and the characters were not predictable as to how it was done. (Don’t want to give any spoilers, here.)

[Ru · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a lovely romance, that spoke not just of the individual love of Olivia and Riley, but also of the power of random (especially queer fando, the bravery of being sincere and owning your cringe, and The Mortifying Ordeal of Being Known.

Riley and Olivia worked really well for me, as people who are attempting to hide their insecurities through a shield of blasé irony (Riley) and the protection of family responsibilities (Olivia), and who both eventually learn the benefits of dropping those shields. This is a favourite trope of mine, and it was done well here. There were a few times where I wondered if certain issues would be addressed, and I was a little fearful even about whether the HEA would definitely feel right, but in the end I was convinced and happy!

I would have liked some more togetherness after the Big Gesture though, as I felt that a lot of their issues had been exacerbated by bad communication, and while they did address that, I would have liked to have seen if more on page too. I also wanted more on page talking and actions between Olivia and her mother; they had had this long going codependent relationship, with Olivia infantalising her mother, and Alison relying on her, and I wanted again to see more of them working that through.

Also, related to the communication issues, there were a couple of times when I felt a bit uneasy. For example Riley made a big thing about them having separate beds when Olivia first stated over. We saw from Riley's perspective that she was nervous but aiming for making Olivia feel as unpressured as possible. Olivia however didn't know that, and as far as she knew it was because Riley wasn't comfortable going further. Yet she came in the night to her room, and yep we see that Riley was nervous but OK, but I felt Olivia needed to address this later, that she didn't respect this boundary and didn't talk about it properly. Again a better amount of discussing their communication mishaps at the end would have countered that, and I wish we had had a couple more chapters of Olivia understanding this.

Overall this was a happy and warming romance for all fandom, ex-fandom, and fandom adjacent readers!

*Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the free ARC*

[Bookista · Rating 3 out of 5]

Riley is a popular blogger / recapper of LGBTQI shows online but her real dream is breaking into writing for TV and she’s hoping her stint at a popular queer convention will help give her career a jump start. But the only thing jumping is her heart as she bumps into Olivia a talented artist who draws fanart.

This was quite the angsty romance with the first half being a lot of push / pull between the main MCs as they slowly orbit each other. Riley’s character was probably more fleshed out but her character was a strange mix of vulnerability (low self esteem) and cockiness / selfishness and I’m not sure I was really won over in the end.
The second half of the book is where the real angsty tension hits and there are a few unforgivable things said by Riley, that really made me question how these two could even come back together.
There is a lot of focus on the evolution of their relationship which was nice, but I also thought the pace of the story dipped a few times which made it a challenge to keep reading.

This is a well written book, but the MC not being very likeable and the slower pace didn’t quite work for me in the end.

Thank you NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books for an eARC in exchange for an honest review

[Domi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Almost Perfect gives us a glimpse into the fan community with cons, influencers and fan art. At a queer convention Riley and Olivia meet, feel an attraction and that's the start of their romance. The book was not really what I was expecting after reading the blurb, but I had a good enough time with it.
The biggest discrepancy was how Riley was described as adorably awkward, but her actions and inner musings made her more a condescending a-hole, so much so that I was almost wishing Olivia would meet someone more deserving of her caring and sweet nature. I like Tagan Shepard more action packed / thrillers books and while this was a good try to do something new and different, it wasn't on the same level as her earlier work.

***Thank you Netgalley and Bold Stroke Books for giving me the chance to read and review this book ***

[Kirian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought I will read some nice easy-go romance - which I did too - but it also resonated with me on a deeper level. On the one side we have a fangirl turned blogger turned journalist, who lost to be a fun fan since the fun became work. On the other side we have a fangirl finding solace in the fandom, but too afraid to fail on the road to follow her own dream.

The book is not only about how these two sights of the same world crash together, but also about to look back to able to look forward. And since it is so happy-go-around, this part of the story looks like a silly drama in the 3rd act.

So, there is still this silly drama in the 3rd act, and the book is a easy-go romance too, but as such a book it is a good one.

[Chelles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Almost Perfect

This was super cute...I love geeky, fan-girl romances🥰

Riley and Olivia are quite the pair! When they first meet and start to get to know each other, the connection and chemistry are just WOW! But I think their third act breakup is where the story (writing) is brilliant. The author made me want their split - like I believed they're not suited for each other. Both of them needed to do some soul searching. Then, when they get back together... I actually was rooting for them again! Talk about roller-coaster!

[Red Dragon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was lucky enough to win a signed copy of this book and being a Whovian - the concept of the book was really enjoyable and fun as were all the characters, especially Chelsea and Lewis. There was a little angst and at one point I have to confess I didn’t think much of Riley but the way the story was crafted turned that around.
A really fun and enjoyable read, well written and it flowed really nicely.

[KP · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to love this book. It started so cute and so fun. Chelsea and Lewis are exceptional characters. Olivia is such an incredible human being. All of the Family dynamics were beautiful. Then about 2/3 of the way through, the book took a total shift and became very angsty and the relationship turned extremely toxic. After that shift, I was very much rooting against the couple. Olivia deserved better.