This book certainly feels like an updated Sarah Dessen - in a good way!

Juniper is our main character, a teen who is definitely going through it.

"Didn't you two ever want sisters?" Tallulah looks equally horrified. Sisters. (100)

Injuries - physical and emotional - ensue. Mistakes are made, on all sides. Because there's never just two sides to a story.

Oh, and did I mention a little Midsummer Shakespeare?

Definitely a great teen choice.

While not an OMG amazing, everyone needs to purchase it kind of a book, it definitely tugged some strings. A second round purchase for most libraries.

4.5/5⭐️

While this is billed as a YA romance (and yes, there’s a complicated romance to set right), I’d argue that it’s the family/friendships that shine equally, if not more, in this one.

The story revolves around four teenagers, lifetime friends (Junie, Graham, Lucy and Milo) and their quirky, hilarious and lovely friendship. While helping with a summer community theater production, they grapple with on-again off-again romance, jealousy, parental absences, betrayal, divorce, new family dynamics, and future life changes (both of geographical locations and of relationship statuses).

Lots to delve into here (and I’ll mention personally that there was some language that I found to be unnecessarily included). Yes, the romance is sweet and hard-won, but it’s the closeness and love of these four for each other that glues this book together. It’s a story touting that it’s those who show up and have your back in life (especially during the hard stuff) that are your true family, biological or not.

My sincere thanks to the author, NetGalley and Wednesday Books for providing the free early arc of You Wouldn’t Dare for review. The opinions are strictly my own.

For the record, I loved Markum's debut "This May End Badly." But her sophomore effort just never blossoms. It lacks the edge of "Badly," and the dialogue just isn't as clever this time around. It's certainly not a bad book, but there's not much to recommend, either.

WHAT A CUTE, SUMMERY READ!! this book made me so so excited for summer and it had the cutest romance as well! i absolutely adored this book :)

read this book for:
amazing friendships
allll the summery vibes
cute small town vibes
theater kids!
a summer play
witty sharp dialogue
THE CUTEST ROMANCE EVER
emotional momentss

EEK I loved this so so much! everything i love in a book truly!

thank u so so much for this ARC!!

I tried reading the first couple of chapters and I just don't have any interest in this book or any of the characters in it.

You Wouldn't Dare, by Samantha Markum, is a fun, YA novel about moving from friends to something more. A soft romance with all the feels. I loved all the characters and found the story to move quickly until suddenly it was over. I'm looking forward to reading more from this author. Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher, for providing me with an ARC ebook in exchange for my honest review.

A great beach read for fans of Long Story Short and Sarah Dessen...and YA shenanigans in general!

Junie and Graham kept me guessing, and the whole group of friends were charming, albeit flawed and relatable. My one gripe is I felt like Junie was unfairly blamed for a lot and always expected to be the bigger person! Give the poor girl a break!

Thank you to Netgalley, Wednesday, and the author for the eARC in exchange for my review.

A great YA beach read for fans of The Summer I Turned Pretty and Every Summer After! I loved Markum’s debut This May End Badly, and this has the same chaotic vibes that I was so fond of in her debut. This is not just a romance; You Wouldn’t Dare focuses on parental relationships, friendships, responsibilities as a teenager, and other general coming of age topics. I liked that this didn’t completely focus on the relationship between Junie and Graham, but I also didn’t get super invested until they started interacting one on one more. However, the She’s the Man-esque play and family drama did keep me entertained until we got to more of the relationship aspect. I would definitely add a physical copy of this to my shelf and might reread it in the summer where it would feel more applicable.

Overall, I still enjoyed this one, it just didn’t feel as strong as This May End Badly to me. This could be a huge book for the summer!

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher, and Samantha Markum for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

Samantha Markum has quickly become one of my favorite YA romance authors! YOU WOULDN’T DARE is such a sweet and heartfelt summer book that I can see myself reading over and over again just to feel something. Because let me tell you: Samantha knows how to make you feel things.

The yearning and love just lept off the page in this one! If anyone is looking for a truly amazing YA about messy teenagers exploring messy feelings… you really can’t miss this one!

I loved this book! Which will sound weird because I gave it 3.5 stars. The only thing keeping it from being 4 for me, is I found Junie sort of annoying in a lot of scenes through the book.

Everything else was good. I enjoyed watching the friendship between Junie and Graham turn into something more. I also loved the setting! It really gave me The Summer I Turned Pretty vibes and I loved that.

This is such a cute read and I definitely recommend picking this one up!

Thank you to St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books for this advanced copy.

You Wouldn't Dare is a heartwarming summer rom-com to take to the pool! I got big Sarah Dessen vibes from this sweet story. Kissing people shouldn't be complicated right? Unfortunately, Juniper Nash learns the hard way that sometime it can lead to big changes. After she kisses Graham Isham everything changes for her. They keep their romance a secret only for it blow in their face and then they have to try to be friends in the aftermath. To add to the complications Junipers mom is marrying her boyfriend and they are moving in with him and his Daughter Tallulah. The two girls don't see eye to eye and Juniper is trying desperately to hold on to her own life, only to realize maybe change isn't the worst thing. You Wouldn't Dare is charming, full of heart and will put you in the mood for summer!

I have mixed views about this book.
I like the author's writing style and the book's pace. The story's characters (especially the secondary characters) were unique and had solid voices.
I found the references to the play Midsummer Madness and the use of the play somewhat contrived and awkward.
The relationships between the 4 main characters also seemed a bit off. I had trouble believing the loyalty and devotion to each other. Even the problems they had with each other were solved too easily.
There were a lot of good points to recommend this book but also some things that didn't work for me.
So I'm mixed.

Honestly I should have just dnf'd this. But I stuck it through. Oh well.
I'll start with good things:
- The writing wasn't bad (except for transitions...which I will expand upon later)
- There were some parts and lines that made me laugh
- There was at least some character development

That be about all I can think of.

Bad things:
- Content, content, content! A lot of it. How is this even a YA book I don't know. It shouldn't be.
Content included but was not limited to: co-habitation before marriage, adultery and helping to hide someone's affair with a married man, lying casually, so much language, underage drinking and smoking, and taking the Lord's name in vain (many times), and lots of making out.
That wasn't the half of it.
- Basically all of the characters, especially Juniper. So immature, dramatic, disrespectful, and irresponsible. At least there were a few parts where apologies happened.
- This stereotype: "even though Tallulah was back in White Coral, she was homeschooled and rarely seen in public."
How many times do I have to say that the majority of homeschoolers are very social, and can you believe it, have friends!! I despise this stereotype about homeschoolers so. much.
- The transitions between chapters and in chapters were not coherent sometimes. It was like things happened 'off screen' at times. Very weird.

Anyways. That'll be it.
Also, all of these are -opinions- of mine, so if you don't agree, that is perfectly fine. We are all unique humans with differing opinions and that's what makes life fun.

1 star

Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for providing me with an ARC.

I found that I didn’t like this at all. It was a lot of teen melodrama. It was written well but it’s not really for someone outside of the YA scene.

Juniper Nash has her mom, her friend group, and community theater. It’s too bad she puts those things on the line with her chronic tardiness, her animosity towards her almost step-sister Tallulah, and the big thing she did to Graham last summer. She and Graham were starting to be more than friends when she ruined it, and now she’s trying to get things back to normal, with Graham, with Tallulah, and becoming drama club President. Samantha Markum has done it again with this novel; her first novel, “This May End Badly,” was superb in its characterization and portrayal of friendship, and “You Wouldn’t Dare” is just as good. The small town vibes of neighbors helping each other and the friendships in this book make the story. Highly recommend!

As a girl who spent her summers vacationing in Florida, this book perfectly captured what it is like to be carefree in the sunshine state. I could feel the sun shining down on my face, the humidity that makes breathing in the summer air hard, and the hits of coconut that seems to permeate the air. The way this author set the scene made me feel like I was in Florida.

The beginning of this book was a slow start. There was a lot of emphasis on Junies history with each character and it became too wordy. A whole page could have been said in one paragraph. There also were times that I would slowly lose interest because the story lagged and it didn't seem like the story was progressing.

I can see why other readers would enjoy this book, but for me it might have been the wrong reader for this book. I wanted more than what this book had offered and I wanted more from Junie than the book gave. The side characters had more of a character arc than the Junie did. Though this book didn’t resonate with me like it did with other readers, I think others may enjoy it more than I did.

Thank you NetGalley and Wednesday Books for this ARC.

This book feels like summer. Like Sarah Dessen meets Jenny Han.
It took me awhile to get into this book, but once I finally got sat down and reading- I couldn’t stop. All of the characters are so developed, and have so much chemistry which makes some really really fun and lighthearted dynamics.
This book is more than you would expect, it shows so much of teen life during the summer- everything from summer jobs, days at the beach, bonfires, and some really sweet romance.
Junie is the main character, she’s an overdramatic teen just trying to make this a great summer, balancing the community Theatre, trying to fix and maintain some friendships and cope with moving into her mom’s boyfriends house. This book has so many different subplots and tropes, which I absolutely loved.

Juniper Nash made a bad decision that’s left her pining after the boy she kissed last summer—her friend Graham Isham. Good thing she quashed all feelings she had for him. Now, they spend their days avoiding being alone or talking about what happened as she tries to mend their friendship. But when Junie ropes her friends—and their friends by extension—into the community musical, she realizes she still has lingering feelings for Graham. But she already ruined his life. He’s off limits if she wants to fix things between them and not make things weirder for their friends. But the more time they spend together—especially as she deals with her new prickly likely-soon-to-be-stepsister, moving from her home, jealous girlfriends and mean peers—the closer they get… and the harder it is to fight their feelings for each other.

This book was so sweet. Juniper is messy and chaotic and quirky. I loved her. The whole time I was reading, I just kept thinking about how the town and the characters reminded me of Gilmore Girls. The friend group was absolutely perfect, and I loved Tallulah. While the book was fun and had great summer vibes, it also had characters dealing with the aftermath of their heavier backstories. Graham was the perfect love interest, and Milo and Lucy were the perfect best friends. And let's face it, friends to lovers is my favorite trope! This was a very cute book!

Summer YA beach read. Teen drama, angst, and friendship all on a Florida Key. Nothing over the top but enough to keep you interested and rooting for everyone. A few twists and turns to keep you reading.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC