A wonderful summer read, with romance and beach paired together. Add in some real life exchanges, and it's a perfect book to burn through in a day.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/ Wednesday Books for sharing this ARC with me in exchange my honest opinions.

Samantha Markham is an auto-buy author for me now. Loved this contemporary story and the angst of the love story. The reasons keeping them apart felt real and important. The play quotes were fun as well with all of the fun rehearsal stuff. Tallulah and Graham were probably my fave characters behind Junie.

This was such an enjoyable book to read! You Wouldn’t Dare is set on a small island during the summer vacation following Juniper's life throughout her friendships, passion for drama, and love life (!!!). It is the kind of book to read when you want something happy cute, but with some depth in it!

I must confess that I started the book without reading the synopsis, so, for a brief moment, I shipped the wrong couple. Lucky me, once I actually read what the book was about, I started liking the real main couple too. Junie and Graham had an exciting and complicated past, but after a whole year, their feelings still are there, and they were so adorable while dealing with the tensions between them. Graham was loving and caring, and I really liked how the author managed to show his growth and feelings after all that happened.

Tallulah was another character that grew on me. She started as a complicated girl, but the development of her relationship with Junie was heartwarming. Besides this, the book is full of diverse characters without being forced.

I also received her debut novel to review, and I really liked it, so my expectations for this book were considerably high, and the author did not disappoint!

I don't want a "man written by a woman"; I want a guy written by Samantha Markum. She got me with Wells & Three from This May End Badly, and she KNOCKED IT OUT OF THE PARK with Graham Isham (and Milo!!!) from this one.
The book definitely took a hot second for me to get into, but once I got into its rhythm, I didn't want to put it down. It had:

x fwb (sort of?)
x best friends to lovers (ughh love that)
x diverse cast (important important)
x and all around compelling characters. (The things I would do for a Graham Isham in my life...)

The story centers on a dramatic and maybe a little self-centered main character, Juniper Nash, as she navigates the summer before her senior year of high school. She works part-time at her mom's diner and spends the rest of her summer watching cheesy tv, practicing for community theater, and hanging out with her three friends: her childhood bestie Milo, her bubbly female friend Lucy, and of course, the only boy to match her energy and rival her when it comes to dares--Graham.

Her and Graham had a thing last summer, but they had a falling out, and all she wants is to make things less weird between them. She just wants things to go back to normal and to have her old friend back. Unfortunately, much more is about to change, and all because of her mom's boyfriend Paul and his no-sugar-coating-things daughter, Tallulah.

This story was a bright and entertaining summer read indulgent in teenage drama, friendship, and love. There's something about the way Markum writes romantic relationships that legit gets me every time. I'm obsessed.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately, this book just didn't do it for me. I liked the beginning, but then it got tedious. The story starts out talking about dares and has dare in the name, yet it never seems to carry the theme throughout or circle back to it in the end. What was really tough for me was how much of the book revolved around a summer play the kids were doing. Every chapter had quotes from the script and I just didn't relate to or care about them. They certainly didn't add to the story for me. So much of the dialogue got caught up in the minutiae of the play that it was not only hard to follow, but cumbersome and unnecessary.

I loved the premise of the book as described in the blurb, but really feel like too much time was allotted to the theatre production and not enough time creating believable angst between the main characters and over all character development.

The author writes well, but this book just wasn't for me.

When I read that this was reminiscent of Gilmore Girls and the description deemed this book as a cute little summer romance I was all over it to start. However, the book was lacking and the main character was too self-involved and whiney for my liking.
I read a lot of ya books, but this one just wasn't one I really enjoyed.

The cover of You Wouldn't Dare stood out to me in the best way, and the description teasing that change is inevitable had me very excited to read this book before it's released.

As with all my reviews I will be keeping notes of my thoughts as I read. Feel free to scroll to the bottom to find out my overall review 😊

I know it says Junie and Tallulah are a year a part, but is Junie older? - answered a few pages later.

First change: Paul and her mom moving in together.

I'm getting the feeling that Junie thinks she's better than Tallulah.. their parents have been together 2 years and they never tried to create a friendship?

Are the excerpts from A Midsummer Night's Dream at the start of each chapter because the story takes place in the summer?

What's so awkward about him having a baby half-brother?

I'm guessing the answer to my midsummer question was answered by the fact that they plan on putting it on with their drama department..

So, if her dad is coming to work there, wouldn't he have a place lined up to stay and not need to stay with them?

I'm a Florida girl myself, so reading about some of this is nice. Except I'm a Gator fan, so the fact that she wants to go to FSU... well, we'll see if that sways my rating... I kid, I kid..

I like how they trade favors. Very original.

FCAT 😂 is that still a thing? I thought they got rid of that name?

I don't like how Junie is being so mean to Lucy for not hating Tallulah. Very immature.. I know she's still in high school, but it's very immature.

Does Graham think Junie and Milo will eventually get together like everyone else thinks?

It kind of made me upset that Junie's mom wouldn't let her take a call from her dad at dinner. You never know if it's an emergency and you shouldn't keep your child from speaking to their other parent..

Them fighting over the donut was very sexual 😂 I'm just picturing Lucy and Tallulah observing what happened there.

Are Tallulah and Lucy interested in each other?

Junie is aggravating me but I can't exactly explain why. Maybe I'm getting too old to be reading about high schoolers because it might be the immaturity? - no fault in the authors writing, it's my own problem.

The way Samantha wrote the sunscreen scene was wonderful. I could feel the emotions she felt as he was applying sunscreen to her back and arm. The feeling of being touched by someone you have a crush on.

It's about time someone stood up to Junie. Yes it's important to not lose your friendships because of being in a relationship, but when you are in a relationship, your friends should understand you're in a relationship and shouldn't make you feel like you should be picked first.

I love that Tallulah is trying to create a less hostile relationship between herself and Junie.

😂😂 I love the reality of her sniffing her armpit and cringing after being in the Florida heat.

I'm very upset that Will jumped ship on the musical. His chemistry with Junie was good for Benedict.

Tallulah and Lucy!!!

Derek and Vanessa are cute.

"Peeling an orange with my feet in the ocean"... Interesting expression..

It infuriates me when parents don't let their children follow their dreams. If Graham wants to go to art school his parents should support his dream and encourage him.

Ugh! Junie is so immature it kills me! She got pissed because he didn't want to kiss her because some middle school boys said to?? Ah!

I am irritated for Junie about her dad. I can relate to having a flaky parent and it sucks when you expect them to do better each time.

I am so proud of Junie for standing up to her dad. And I'm so pissed he thought he would be able to stay at his exes house with his new girlfriend and then expect Junie to want to spend the week doing what he wants... AND he tired to play the victim?? No. Absolutely not.

Great ending! I love that Junie and her mom were able to help Graham and his mom stay.



** Final thoughts. I enjoyed this book, but not as much as I wish I did. I hold no fault to the author, I think it's well written, but I think I'm growing too old for this age of stories. 😭 I'm 30, so reading about high schoolers hooking up isn't as interesting to me as it once was. Do I think the chemistry is written really well, yes. Do I enjoy the romance, also yes. Does it make me cringe a little reading about high schoolers talking about hooking up, very much so. With that being said, I encourage you to read it if that doesn't make you feel awkward and slightly uncomfortable.

Another thing I enjoyed about this book, it wasn't solely focused on the couple relationships, it was also about family and friendship. It was about Junie realizing that her true family and friends are going to be there for her no matter what.

Junie is a little naive, a little dramatic but has a loyal, full, optimistic heart. She wears it on her sleeve and her 3 best friends love her for it. She's juggling a lot this final summer before her senior year of high school - summer theater, working for her mom at their restaurant, learning to get along with her almost-step-sister, hoping that her absent father shows up like he promises, rebuilding a tenuous relationship with a friend/almost-boyfriend. It's all A LOT. All that being said, I really liked Junie. Her friends are THE BEST. The are loyal, they see her, they nurture her and they care. They care about each other so much. It is absolutely lovely. So of course, when she and Graham work to overcome their hurts and their insecurities I am fully on board. This book has a really great HEA.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press/Wednesday Books for an advance review copy in exchange for my honest review.

Samantha Markum’s second YA novel is a delight from cover to cover. Kudos to the team at Wednesday Books for proving that you truly can judge a book by its cover: this one perfectly evokes summer, freedom, and two people who, despite what holds them apart, are moving in perfect tandem.

Fifteen-year-old Junie is best friends with Milo, Lucy, and Graham – or maybe not anymore, after a secret relationship in the group ended badly and almost took their friendship with it. She just wants to spend summer with her friends, and maybe pull off an ambitious community theater project, while dodging her annoying almost-stepsister Tallulah. But just as she thinks she might win back the love she gave up, and win her tumbleweed father’s approval into the bargain, her secrets threaten to come back and bite her in the butt.

Markum has a gift for simply and cleanly evoking the truest of true emotions. I think if I opened my diary from my own teen years, I’d see the same archaeological slice of adolescence she’s polished to a high shine in this sparkling book. The banter is whip-smart and always on point; the complex, shifting dynamics of a teenage friend group are rendered in perfect detail; and the feeling of being torn away from the thing you love above all by forces outside of your control is deeply poignant. Special mention to Markum’s portrayal of Junie and her single mother hustling to make ends meet, and Junie’s painful hope that one day her unreliable father will become the parent he’s repeatedly promised to be. Your heart will ache, and break, and Markum will put it back together again better than before.

This book was a fun YA. I found myself not interested in the all the play stuff - it just seemed thrown in to me and I didn't fully understand it. I loved the second chance romance and the beachy vibes. The conflict frustrated me- it seemed really forced and childish, it was kind of chaotic but I liked the ending!

This was very cute! I love when YA strikes a good balance between romance and strong friendship/found family bonds, and this one definitely hit that sweet spot. Thanks very much to St Martin's Press for the ARC :)

Being dramatic can be a cover for evading the realest of feels as Junie's journey showed us. This was a pleasant, fast read with a satisfying ending.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books, and NetGalley for providing an eARC for my honest review.

Another super cute and heartfelt book by Samantha Markum. I really enjoyed how there's an ideal balance of contemporary coming-of-age storyline and romance in the book. Juniper has a lot going on in her life with her mom panning to move in with her boyfriend (which means moving away from Junie's childhood home), a friendship that's been pretty rocky for the past year, a community theatre production that might be in danger, and Junie's mom's boyfrined's teenage daughter, Tallulah, that Junie doesn't really get along with.
Even though they might've hated it in the beginning, I enjoyed seeing Junie and Tallulah spend more and more time together as the summer went on and slowly opening up to one another bit by bit. Their friendship, while maybe not absolutely perfect is one that I loved by the end of the story.
For Junie and Graham there were definitely a lot of unresolved feelings from the way they left their last fight. I liked that the two ended up stopping running away from each other and managed to sit down and have a real conversation, even better that it wasn't something they were forced by anyone to do they just had a heart to heart on their own time. It was also super obvious (and super cute) that Graham still had major feelings for Junie and didn't seem to have ever tried to suppress them. It definitely took Junie a bit of time to realize her feeling were just suppressed and not gone like she'd originally though. I love that everything ultimately came full circle with Junie's part in Graham's life, both romantically and withGraham's home life.
The ending couldn't have been cute and I absolutely love how everything worked out for everyone.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Wednesday Books for the arc.

So I am giving this one 4 stars… it might be closer to 4.5 but there were a few very tiny aspects of the book that I couldn’t bring myself to go to the 5.

First, what I liked! Graham. God. Graham. Every single word that came out of that boy’s mouth just made me want to squeal or cry. He had so many fabulous lines. I loved him so much.

Then the nod to single moms. I am a child of a single mom. And there is a line in this book that says, single moms full all the space left behind by a missing father. And I don’t know if everyone would understand what that means but I do. I never felt, at anytime in my life, that I was less loved because my father wasn’t nearby. My mom filled all of that for me; she was my mom and dad.

The combining of families and the step-sister. I enjoyed this and thought it had big Sarah Dessen vibes - like Along for the Ride. SO much of this book felt inspired by Dessen and her summer vibe.

There were only a few things I didn’t like. Junie
was a good protagonist BUT god, she was so judgmental at times. It was hard to like her; it was hard to see what Graham saw in her. She grew during the book and I appreciated that but for the first half, I was pretty confused why she was so well liked.

The other thing was the whole Milo situation. I won’t say much but I didn’t really like how her friendship with him was handled for most of the book. It felt really weird and tense and awkward? I’m not sure that plot line was even needed in this particular book. I didn’t hate how it ended up but just some routes it took on the way there.

Overall, this was a very solid and adorable rom com. I enjoyed it a lot; and the last third of the book was definitely 5-star worthy. I just think the beginning was a bit lacking.

I will 100% read more from Markum!

You Wouldn’t Dare

Such a cute summer into fall, young adult rom-com/coming of age read. It gives Gilmore Girl type vibes. In You Wouldn’t Dare, Juniper Nash is in the summer before her senior year. She works at her family’s cafe, is involved in making sure the summer theater performance is a success and is trying to repair and piece back together her friend group who has been trying to come back from an unforgivable mistake. When her mom decides they are going to be moving in with her boyfriend and his daughter Tallulah, and adding in some absentee father drama, Juniper is at her wits end. Juniper does not always make the best choices, is somewhat selfish and rash but this was so well written and put together you can’t help but feel for her and root for her. Such a great book, highly recommend.

this was a cute YA romance book, that really captured that feeling well. It was well written and I was invested in the story.

thank you to the author and publisher for providing this ARC on netgalley for me to review

It took some time to get into this book. Junie was a little immature at the start of the book and a bit whiny, and there was a lot of angst going on in the beginning. But, around halfway through I started to get more interested in what happened.

I enjoyed seeing Junie in her theater club and seeing their play scenes acted out. I also enjoyed Junie's interactions with her friends, and especially enjoyed the scenes between Junie and Tallulah and liked seeing them work through their differences and start to become friends.

Overall, this was a good read that had some fun and cute scenes.

There aren't words for how much I loved this book. It is phenomenally written and so heartfelt.

This was the perfect summer coming of age novel. It's the book I wish I had when I was a teenager. You're immediately transported to Florida and feel as if you're actually there. You immediately fall in love with the characters and the setting -- and you can't help but to root for each and every one of her characters. It's enemies to lovers -- but don't be fooled, it's all about the found family along the way. I loved this book and highly recommend it to everyone. 10000/5 stars, would recommend.

Samantha Markum is an instant author buy for me and I can't wait to have this book in my hands.

"You Wouldn't Dare" was a decent story, but not as good as I had hoped. The main character, Junie, is somewhat self-absorbed and selfish, and can be rather oblivious to things around her, including events that involve her friends. That being said, there are some rather enjoyable characters in the book -- especially Tallulah, Lucy, Milo, and Graham -- and some rather good, and often amusing, interactions among the characters. There are some very poignant moments in the story. The reader will witness the personal growth of several of the characters, including some surprising actions or decisions.

My favorite part of the story is the excerpts from Midsummer Madness, the summer theater production that is being staged (and which is of extreme importance to Junie), and which is a mashup of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, and Romeo and Juliet.

I received a copy of the e-book via NetGalley in exchange for a review.

"You Wouldn't Dare" was a wonderful young adult romance that was more than what I bargained for. Great read.