2.5 stars

*** ARC received in exchange of an honest opinion***

Unfortunately book didn’t grab my attention, just the opposite, in fact. It bored me.

There were a LOT of cliches and they weren’t made in a way that made me like them.

There were also some “fresh” subjects, like Jude’s father scandal. But that was handled so superficially that instead of adding angst to the story and some good drama, it made it boring and unreal. I expected at least some resolving after the whole book, some closure.

Maybe Never was an unbelievable story for me and nothing in it felt real, unfortunately.

The writing wasn’t that bad, but I feel like that waa the wrong plotting for this book.

I really liked this book. Poor Judd. The main male character has had a terrible few months: trouble with his parents (both for different reasons) and being treated like an outcast where he was once super popular with a beautiful (yet snobby) girlfriend--he has been the town golden boy all of his life. Now he is on the bottom and he is miserable just waiting for graduation so he can move on to college. Sunny is in his Home Ec class and he has known her forever but they don't KNOW each other until they get teamed up on a project where he finds out that she is an amazing cook. Sunny is really smart, organized and knows where she is going with no help or support from her drunk father. As Sunny and Judd get to know each other better, their relationship progresses and he starts to draw strength from her positivity and boldness, and he opens up to her and trusts her more than anyone. Very emotional and touching story of two lost and lonely souls finding each other in spite of many obstacles. I loved it. Highly recommend this one! Thanks NetGalley!!!

Maybe Never was a beautiful story that unfolded really nicely. From the beginning it caught my attention and asked for more each chapter. This was well written and had me laughing and crying. How well done

Wow, this novel was something else. I was expecting a sweet, summer love story and was met with something deep, psychological and dark.
That being said, watching "Judd's" Character grow was very uplifting and moving.
The writing feels very young, as do some of the scenes, that doesn't take anything away from the novel, as they are 18 year olds.
A great novel, fast paced and easy to read. I admit it reduced me to tears on more than one occasion!

Received from NetGalley

Maybe Never is beautiful contemporary romance about two people, who have it really rough. Judd Jackson went from having it all. He was the most popular guy, with friends, hot girlfriend, and scholarship to college. After his father came out as transgender, he became the most bullied guy in the school. His mom turn to alcohol and he is left alone with his anger. Through all the bulling no one stood up for him, accept form .

Sunny is daughter of local drunk. Since her grana died, she lives alone in the trailer, working every day after school. She has an amazing hearth. When Judd ex-girlfriends is mean to him, she has to say something, no matter the consequences.

It seem that the whole world is against them. But all is not lost. There is such a beautiful message in the story. Even when all sees lost, when you are beaten down to pulp, the is light on the other end. When you are on the bottom, you can only rise.

I was pulled into the story and was crying by the end. The writing is very good. :)
All in all a lovely book, that will leave a lasting imprint :)

I liked the friendship-first, romance-second aspect of Sunny and Judd's relationship. It was nice to see two level-headed YA characters together that dealt with their problems like rational people should. And seeing the antagonists get what they had coming instead of dealing with small town corruption was very satisfying.

I think that my own expectations got in the way for the rest of the book though. I was really expecting to see more from the situations that Sunny and Judd were dealing with since their respective problems are so under-represented. I thought there was going to be a larger focus on that than on their relationship, that wasn't really the case.

It was still an enjoyable book and I wouldn't tell anyone to not read it, I just didn't love it as much as I wanted to.

I am a bit conflicted in writing this review because on one hand I really enjoyed this book, Sunny and Judd were really cute together and they make a really strong couple.
But on the other hand some points in the book was cringy-cliche and some of the characters words or actions made me roll my eyes.
If I could I would give this a 3.5 rating.

If you’re looking for something cute and quick to read I would recommend picking this one up.

And thank you netgalley and thank you to the author for letting me read this book and getting to review it

This was fine. The story is particularly good for the romance that the two protagonists, Sunny and Judd shared, especially the way it gradually went uphill and wasn't instant. Other than that, the story fell flat to me for most of the parts.

Both, Sunny and Judd, are outcasts with their own problems to tackle. However, they find their best support in one another and often in themselves, which I definitely liked. Sunny had a granny who passed away, a mother who died at the time of her birth, and a drunkard of a father who gets violent with her. Judd, though, was the star of the school—popular and handsome—but the one decision his father made, to be a transgender, changed his life. The two plot lines were interesting, no doubt, but the way it was all dragged with a bit too much drama, made it annoying.

Also, while the entire world around Judd is judging his father for running away from his house, he also does the same. Like why? I mean, the story started off on the wrong foot for me when even Judd looks down upon his father's choice and blames him for the embarrassment that he and his mother has to go through. I would've preferred a protagonist who would've not judged his Dad and instead stood up for himself.

This ARC was given to me by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
3 ½ stars
There is nothing sweeter than a good love story mixed with some personal growth. This story follows Judd the all encompassing jock as he goes through some tough times and falls from grace and Sunny the girl from the other side of the social ladder. This novel touched upon some heavy subjects, but the subjects were woven into the story just right. The only thing that kept this book from a higher star rating for me was there could have been a little more background knowledge for the characters, and some more details of the town. Also I love me some drama and some angst but I think there was a little too much drama in this book that took it from realistic to slightly soap opera-ish. All in all a good read. I would definitely recommend this book.

I'm thinking 2.5 stars on this... Okay so here's the thing before anyone thinks I hated this book. I did not. I hated the editor. Silly me, I thought this book was going to be released soon, so I let the errors fly, hoping they would be fixed in final editing. But then I realized, Oh shit, this book is already out. The editing of this book is unacceptable for a final product. Crimeny, I could and would have done a better job. I was rewriting in my head through the whole book!

Editing (or lack thereof) aside, I did like the story for what it was. I was interested from the start and I found this book really hard to put down as I was always ready to see what happened next. I thought that the romance was extremely believable and I thought that Sunny and Judd made a great pair. The book started with a Jessica Lange quote (yes, my queen!) and ended with a fantastic epilogue. The cover is what snagged me right away. I LOVE this book cover! I actually read Maybe Never in one day, which I always love.

But now for the bad bits. I'm not even going to talk about how bad the editor was anymore. They're just bad, okay? Fire them. On the actual writing, I feel that Sadie Allen has lots of potential in the YA community, but I think that she needs to write more and find her own style and voice. A lot of times the characters felt like stock material, and through the whole book, I didn't feel any connection with the author. I didn't hear her in her writing. It felt impersonal in a way. There was a nice story under the bad editing, but I feel Allen needed that good editor to help get her thoughts across more clearly. Many times the words were a bit jumbled or overwritten, and had she had some help arranging her thoughts this book could have been much more enjoyable.

Maybe Never focuses on many heavy issues, though I didn't necessarily feel that they were all resolved or faced head-on.

I would be willing to read more by Sadie Allen in the future as I have hopes for her talent and its development. I think that I would recommend this book to friends. Overall I thought it was a very cute and easy to read story.

Maybe Never by Sadie Allen

This book was hella melodramatic “to the nth degree”—the amount of drama in this book could have kept a teenage soap/drama from The CW spoon-fed for a complete season.

Through the main (Judd and Sunny) and minor (Molly) characters, Sadie Allen wove themes of death, loneliness, and daddy issues all through the book. Allen tied all of these characters together very well so that both the characters and reader could bond over this cross-hatch.
Judd also needed more development as you only see his persona while he is a social pariah. If the reader was provided with a flashback from when he was the Golden Boy, it would have given insight as to how drastic his personality had changed from before to after. When Judd was the ‘Golden Boy’ he had tunnel vision when he was with his girlfriend and their friend group, never seeing the mean and horrible things they all did to people who weren’t part of their clique. Then when Judd is ostracized from his social circle he begins to grasp how hateful they were to people, but as soon as he sets his (romantic) sights on Sunny, he goes back to only having eyes for her and not seeing the larger picture.

Sunny was definitely the winner in this novel: she was strong, focused and compassionate to a fault. She had goals in place and come hell or high water she was going to surpass them, leave this Podunk town and never glance back. She was in the midst of bearing her own grief from loss, yet still independent and making it on her own. Which is why when set up with her foil Judd, I thought that he was not strong enough for her. He was not used to being cast aside and was visibly struggling with maintaining the weight of his own ostracism.

I also felt like poor Sunny needed a break. It seemed that after one tragedy befell her, kapow! another one follows shortly thereafter.

The romance between Sunny and Judd was sweet at times, but for the most part was very fast and felt almost forced. I felt that there needed to be a better developed friendship/relationship between Sunny and Molly. There needed to be more support all around for everyone. There were too many loose ends in regards to the minor characters regarding parents, teachers, bullies, etc that the story lacked a foundation. The setting was also underdeveloped;I have no idea what the industry is for this town. How are super wealthy kids going to school with poor(er) kids? Why aren’t the wealthy kids going to a private school? Something that also confused me and provided me with a head scratching moment was: how can an only child not afford college to an in-state university when both parents are not only working full-time jobs, but have jobs with pensions? An accountant (C.P.A) and a high school athletics director really cannot afford to send their ONLY child to school? I don’t think so.

While the consistency of themes was enticing, the lack of background knowledge of characters and town took away from my overall enjoyment of the novel.