The Not Quite Perfect Boyfriend

Girlfriend Fiction #5

by Lili Wilkinson

'I did meet a boy,' Midge snaps. 'He has wavy brown hair, and he's English. I met him at the Library. We had romantic picnics by the river and we kissed. A lot.'

Midge has never had a boyfriend - so she makes one up. Then she is paired for the Major Project with George, the New Boy, who doodles dragons, tucks in his shirt, has a mysterious past and an unseemly interest in secrets. Soon Midge's white lie turns into a web of deceit as she fabricates emails from her imaginary boyfriend, and even a MySpace page.

Then one day, Midge comes face-to-face with her imaginary boyfriend in the school corridor. Tall, brown wavy hair, English accent - he's exactly as she'd described him - right down to his name. Ben catches on quickly and rescues her from certain humiliation - kissing her in front of all her friends. He seems the answer to her prayers. A dream come true. The Perfect Boyfriend! But he turns out to be not quite perfect after all, and before long Midge finds herself in all sorts of trouble.

Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance, Fiction, High School, Young Adult Contemporary, Chick Lit

192 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2008

About the author

Lili Wilkinson is the award-winning author of eighteen books for young people, including The Erasure Initiative and After the Lights Go Out. Lili has a PhD from the University of Melbourne, and is a passionate advocate for YA and the young people who read it, establishing the Inky Awards at the Centre for Youth Literature, State Library of Victoria. Her latest book is A Hunger of Thorns.

Reviews

[Shweta Padma Das · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute. Easy read. 3.5. Could have explored the friendship between the two best friends. Found it odd that the lead Midge didn't even miss calling up her best friend since kinder to talk about all the "boy action/trouble" she was having.

[Ellyse Moore · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Not Quite Perfect Boyfriend was definitely an easy read. It gave me particular feelings that I was unfamiliar with when first reading it in my adolescence, as I now reflect, it had some very important life skills.

1. No, boys aren’t mean to you because they like you. They’re mean because they’re assholes.
2. Coincidences shouldn’t happen frequently, it’s a set up for a major downfall.
3. Be resilient in who you allow to be in your life. In the end, they’re all there to remind you what you deserve to achieve in life.

And lastly (4), sometimes your dreams/ fantasies aren’t what they’re crack up to be.

[Isabelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was intriguing and drew you into the book the more you read.
The main characters of this book are Midge, Ben, and Tahni. Ben is a real person who impersonates Midge’s imaginary boyfriend. Midge is an only child with an imagination. Tahni is Midge’s best friend and Midge wants to impress her.
Midge feels left out of the boy craziness. She feels this way because she has never actually had a boyfriend and Tahni has had many. Midge comes back to school after the summer and tells Tahni that she has met the perfect boyfriend over break. Midge makes up some lies and false MySpace pages to act like Ben (the imaginary boyfriend) is real. Tahni was taking Midge seriously and wanted to know when she would be able to meet. At first Tahni thought that Midge was just lying, but soon started to believe her. One day at school, Tahni told Midge that "Ben" was here at their school. Tahni takes Midge to his locker and starts to talk up a storm about what Midge has told her about Ben. Midge looks embarrassed, knowing that the Ben that is standing in front of her, is not the imaginary Ben she created. Ben then gets the hints and acts like he is the boyfriend of Midge.
They have been "dating" for a couple of weeks now when something big happens.

This book shows you what can happen when you lie and/or make things up because everything will spiral out of control.

I recommend reading this book.

[Dyanne Kuin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really hate reading her exagg thoughts uggggh 🙄🙄

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

*read back in the day when I was about 14 years old

[Jamison Kennedy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kinda boring but nice quick read

[Meg Mirza · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cliques, dating, and the school social scene are the focus of this Australian import. Midge, 16, is embarrassed to be lagging behind her friend Tahni in the boyfriend department, so she invents one on the spot. Her imaginary guy is an Englishman named Ben and before she realizes what she's doing, she's created a whole backstory for him. By complete chance, a transfer student matching this description arrives at school. The real Ben agrees to play along, blackmailing Midge in exchange for homework help. Midge is lovably nerdy - each chapter opens with a dictionary definition, and she obsesses about proper grammar. Über-geek George might seem to be a better match for her, but even she can't lower her standards enough to date a live-action role-player. Her parents' possible divorce amps up the stress before everything is pleasantly resolved. This is a surprisingly lighthearted, funny book, peppered with Australian slang. Teen drinking (legal in Australia) is handled as routine. Fans of Louise Rennison's Confessions of Georgia Nicolson series or Carolyn Mackler's The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things will find a lot to like in this frothy offering.

[Alisha Brook · Rating 3 out of 5]

Title: The (Not Quite) Perfect Boyfriend
Series: Girlfriend Fiction (#5)
Author: Lili Wilkinson
Genre: Teen Fiction
Rating: 3 stars

One of those books with a little message behind the text. Gotta love 'em right?

Anyway, Midge gets herself in some strife when she lies about an imaginary romance while on school holidays. She is saved when the new guy (who seems much like her made up boyfriend) goes along with her lie, and for a while everything seems perfect. But then things start to go wrong...

Not a bad read.

[Seairra Mortellaro · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun and light read, despite being somewhat predictable. I figured out what would happen very early on as I was reading, but the writing still made me chuckle every now and then. I like how the ending wasn't perfect, and the characters had flaws. Midge doesn't have a fairy tale ending, but it shows how perfection doesn't equal happiness. Also, this may be somewhat of a Pride and Prejudice copycat, but I may be wrong. (???) Give this a go if you want a quick, (mostly) lighthearted read.

[Miquaelia · Rating 4 out of 5]

To be honest, i only read this book because Lili was coming to visit my old school. I had to read one of her books to be able to see her as part of my schools book club. I thought it would be a boring old love story but it really wasnt. it just shows that what you imagine to be a perfect guy, could turn out to be your worst nightmare.

i met Lili on my birthday last year and loved asking her questions about this book.

[Ch · Rating 2 out of 5]

That's what I need to figure outI need to figure out who I am. What I want.

A very short read if you're really bored. I really didn't get the point of this book, other than the mom's story which actually made sense and gave a lesson, there was none. The ending confused me there was no chemistry, no formula, she just jumped from one guy to another. This started as great but left me clueless and unfulfilled in the end.

[Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought it was really interesting, and I thought that when I bought it, it might be interesting, and it was! The book is about a girl that makes up an imaginary boyfriend, and he ends up coming to school. He is not who she was talking about, but everyone else thinks so. So she gets herself into allsorts of trouble.

[Rita · Rating 5 out of 5]

LA STORIA PIÙ VECCHIA BELLA DEL MONDO

"Il tuo profilo su internet era perfetto", ovvero Quando scopriamo che il ragazzo dei nostri sogni non è davvero quello che vogliamo e c'innamoriamo dello sfigato della classe.
Sì, lo so, è la storia più vecchia del mondo. Ma per me, appena tredicenne, era anche la più bella.

[Emma · Rating 2 out of 5]

this was a classic story. it made me laugh. great.

[Nan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like this book. It put a smile on my face and well I learnt something when I read this book!

[Sienna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good read- just one of thise books you'd probably pick up if you were bpred and needed to take your mind of things. Really funny, and Lili Wilkinson wrote this book exceptionally well.

[Tahlia · Rating 3 out of 5]

the book was okay

[Crowinator · Rating 3 out of 5]

Predictable but hilarious. Review to come, just so I can include some of my favorite quotations.

[Tash · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short nice book to read, I enjoyed it and made me smile and laugh at points.

I would recommend it, being something simple but also fun to read!

[Kluv · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like this book a lot. I found Ben as a bit of an ass and a user. I loved the ending with George and Midge and. A really good short read. :)

[Drea]

This was a short, fast read. While not as good as Pink, I think it hit on the difficulties of being "perfect" and how everything is not as it seems.

[Krystal Moy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I LOVE this book!!! The story line is great and the characters are amazing. I would recommend all teenagers have to read this!

[Courtney · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't really like this book but I liked the ending. The book was well written but I just didn't particularly like the main character...

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read my review here! https://dearbibliophiles.wordpress.co...

[Robyne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short story about a girl who makes up a boyfriend so that her friends won't make fun of her anymore.

[Kaysbookshelf · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was my first Girlfriend Fiction book and I loved them ever since.

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this book, I loved reading this book so much that I finished it in three days.

[Tianna✸loves books✸]

This book is too kiddish. No for me.