I unfortunately chose to DNF this book after reading other reviews and comments regarding the stereotypes and tropes used.

I wish I could say more about this book.
My first one-star for a netgalley arc.
I was excited about this reading and was truly upset and disappointed.

Please, read the content warnings written by the authors.
Read as well the reviews by fellow BIPOC reviewers.
That's all I have to say.

When I originally heard about this book on wattpad my heart swelled with joy, a queer story with a POC main character? I knew right away that “Never Kiss Your Roommate” was going to be a masterpiece. I started reading this story the morning and I didn’t stop until I was completely finished the next day. I found myself escaping into the reality Philline Harms so awe-inspiringly wrote and created; I myself almost felt like I was attending Seven Hills Academy as a fly on the wall, that’s how well written this story was.
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Evelyn Greene, a seventeen year old whom has just gotten sent to Seven Hills Academy, finds it hard to get along with her new, standoffish roommate. Everything she did seemed to not please her roommate, Noelle. Although it doesn’t take long for Evelyn to realize she’s finding her roommate Noelle more attractive day by day. Luckily, she had her new friend, Seth, who she met on the train ride to the school to help her figure out the new ways of this castle they called a school.
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Meanwhile everything else is going on, you also get to see Seth, Evelyn's best friend’s story as well as he finds himself growing heart eyes for Noelle’s best friend, Jasper. But, students of Seven Hills Academy have to be careful because in the shadows a cyber-bullying blogger, who goes by the name of “The Watcher” is constantly lurking and gossiping about the students on a website called “Chitter Chatter”
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There are so many plot twists within this story that I never saw coming. At first I thought I was getting myself into a ethereal love story about two couples when in reality that is one of the many main topics of the story.
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What one might not know going into this story is that it’s also a mystery thriller. Now if I were to go any farther into the details I would probably spoil it and ruin the ending for everyone, so for now I’m going to keep my mouth shut.
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5 stars! Congratulations Philline Harms for being such a young and bright author and a personal thank you to Philline for writing such a phenomenal book.
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*This book review is written in conjunction with Nerd Girl Official Book Blog.

I really enjoyed this one the romance was sweet and the characters were really well written and interesting I even found the supporting characters memorable which isn't always the case. I loved the school setting and just the overall vibe of the book. I will definitely be keeping an eye out for more from this author!

Sadly I really did not enjoy this, I think more editing should’ve been taken to make sure this didn’t fall into specific tropes; especially tropes surrounding the characters of color in this book. It ended up leaving a bitter taste in my mouth and as a result I never fully connected with the story.

This book wasn't necessarily bad, but its POC representation was truly lacking and there was a huge opportunity missed. All in all, I was overly disappointed with this book. Wouldn't recommend this one.

I was pretty excited about this book but it fell kind of flat for me. It could be because I’m above the intended age range, which is perfectly fine. Overall, I didn’t love it and I didn’t hate it.

You can tell this was a Wattpad book—it read very much like fanfiction written by a middle schooler. The writing was meh, the story was meh. I didn’t love the attempts to cross genres, it got way too confusing at times. I struggled getting into this book.

I really tried my best to like this book, but I really didn't. At first I did, a fun sweet queer contemporary? I'm always up for that. But the writing style was just really not good in my opinion. I started to get more and more annoyed by it to the point where I just couldn't read any further. So I skimmed the last 30% of the book.

The plot also didn't make any sense. There wasn't really one? It also tried to be a lot of different genres in one book, and that just didn't work. Besides that, the book has to narrators: Jesper and Evelyn. But Jesper's storyline is way less fleshed out than Evelyn's which makes his chapters just annoying and it looks like Evelyn is the 'real' main character; Jesper is just the side main character (?).

And after all of that, I read a few reviews by POC of this book and it was brought to my attention that the love interest of one of the main characters, Noelle, was written around the stereotype associated with black women. She was the only black girl in the school, extremely oversexualised, she was the token bully of the school, mean to everyone. The author obviously didn't do any research and it shows. I wouldn't ever recommend this book to anyone.

I really enjoyed this book, I think it talked about a lot of different serious topics, but was not too heavy. It’s set in a boarding school so I really liked that aspect it reminded me of Her Royal Highness by Rachel Hawkins and the tv show Young Royals, which I loved both! I liked the main character Evelyn a lot, she dealt with being outed as gay and having trauma from that at her old school. Noelle, the love interest/roomate, has a lot of depth to her. She dealt with a lot of trauma too back where she lived, she is very spiky after first and no one really likes her. Swell besides her best friend Jasper, I think Jasper is one of my favorite, if not favorite, side character! He’s just so fun and has a cool sense of style and is just overall nice to most people, he’s also french and sometimes that slips when he’s speaking. Seth is Evelyn’s best friend, he’s super nice and likes mystery books. He also had dealt with some stuff at home and that’s why he’s at the boarding school, his parents got divorced and they didn’t know what to do with him. Now he doesn’t “believe” in love and has a hard time letting people in. Seth was the first friend Evelyn had at school and Jasper was the first person he thought he might be able to let in. Overall, I really enjoyed this book, it had some flaws, but they were not huge. If you want a boarding school, mystery, queer romance, and with book talk definitely pick this one up!

rep: gay mc, bi sc, bi li, pan sc, poc li
tw: sexual assault, kidnapping, knife, cyber bullying, outing, homophobia (past), stalking

This is such an adorable story! I'm a huge sucker for boarding school stories and this one was just as good as I hoped. It had a little bit of a Gossip Girl vibe to it with the Chitter Chatter blog being written by the mysterious Watcher. I loved the friendship between Evelyn and Seth and Noelle and Jasper. I loved that this book is so inclusive to all aspects of the LGTBQ community and shows teens how it's ok to admit to and be who you are and that you shouldn't have to hide it. The romances and relationships that develop are so sweet. And the adventure at the end was exciting. For a debut novel by such a young author this was absolutely amazing.

Unapologetically queer through and through, Never Kiss Your Roommate is a really fun contemporary YA which I enjoyed from start to finish. This is also quite a humourous book.

The book is set in the UK however some of the things didn't quite match up with the UK schooling system (referring to Public school when they mean State school, the exam years not quite matching) but if you are willing to suspend your disbelief a little, it is okay.

The only thing I wasn't a massive of fan of really was the random kidnapping subplot as it felt like a complete tonal shift but was also resolved quite quickly.

I liked it. I liked the Gossip Girl vibes! Also when reading this book make sure to check trigger warnings. The pacing of the story was just right and overall is pretty enjoyable. All the characters were interesting. I liked Evelyn and Noelle's relationship. Also, did I mention the mlm couple?! HOWEVER, there are some racist character depictions, which is very problematic. 2 stars

ARC • Never Kiss Your Roommate by Philline Harms

Of four major characters, writing three as white squishy babies and then the only Black character as mean, aggressive, and hyper-promiscuous is a really, really bad take.

[Goodreads Link]
Published by Wattpad Books

Content Warnings:
Underage drinking; trauma/references to homophobic bullying; divorce; descriptions of minor injuries (twisted ankle); references to past sexual assault; references to abusive relationships, kidnapping; descriptions of knife violence and blood.

The Good
– The bare bones of the concept are good
– Attempt at mental health rep
– Some moments of genuine humour

The Bad
– The choice to portray the main Black character as excessively mean and promiscuous
– Characters’ “voices” are chaotic and cringey
– Seth’s anxiety dream sounds fake AF
– It’s not about anything, you know?
– Allllll the telling over showing

Of four major characters, writing three as white squishy babies and then the only Black character as mean, aggressive, and hyper-promiscuous is a really, really bad take.

Story—★★☆☆☆
Evelyn and Seth are both new students at the posh boarding school, Seven Hills. Seven Hills’s most notorious feature is the ridiculously named Chitter Chatter, a gossip blog about the students. Evelyn develops a crush on her unfriendly roommate, Noelle, whose aggressive personality drove off every other roommate. Seth develops a crush on Noelle’s best friend, Jasper. They all get to know each other better and hangout.

Never Kiss Your Roommate‘s biggest problem is its structural issue. Between the set-up and the ridiculously dramatic turn near the end, there’s a meandering middle section taking up about 70% of the book, and this middle section is basically cuddles and sharing deep, dark (mediocre) secrets. The sequence of events could easily be switched around or replaced entirely, to no ill effect, and honestly? That sequence of events is largely forgettable. This book will be 99% gone from my brain in less than three days.

However, I don’t think Harms is without talent or that Roommate is a complete failure. Roommate certainly has good bones: a story about new student recovering from trauma falling in love with her mysterious and abrasive roommate is brimming with potential. Harms also has an excellent eye for turning out enjoyable interactions between characters.

There’s also the setting, which was… big time meh. Harms’ descriptions were generic: take out place names, and Roommate could be set almost anywhere.

Characters—★★☆☆☆
Never Kiss Your Roommate has two main point of view characters—Evelyn and Seth—and two main supporting characters—Jasper and Noelle. Evelyn, Seth, and Jasper are all kind of the same bland-nice, do-no-wrong type characters, except Harms spiced Jasper up with a bad French accent. Noelle is ALSO secretly one of these characters underneath her “meanest person ever” exterior. If I deleted their the names (and the bad French accent), I would not be able to tell them apart. They are essentially all the same character with a different bit of trauma assigned to them (necessary so they can spill their deep dark secrets and cuddle when sad.) They’re empathetic in the sort of way you can’t hate something because it’s technically never done anything wrong besides be irredeemably boring.

Maybe I’m cranky, but when it comes to what the characters have endured, I found everyone but Noelle to honestly be a bit spoiled. I’m a bit sympathetic for Evelyn because being bullied sucks, but also, it was only a few fucking months. Seth’s emo because his parents have been on the verge of divorce for a decade. Jasper’s ex cheated on him. Maybe if they were more compelling characters, I’d feel a bit more for them. Mostly, I want them to pack up their milquetoast issues and take them far away from me. (Also, why is the Black character the only one who’s gone through something actually REALLY HORRIBLE?)

Honestly, I found “The Watcher” character who runs the blog to be the most interesting character. They were genuinely complex and emotionally compelling, even if some of their stunts were cringeworthy. Unfortunately, their secret identity is also REALLY OBVIOUS.

Also, some characters, like Seth’s roommate, who are 100% useless and could be cut completely.

Writing Style—★★★☆☆ (2.75 Stars)
Never Kiss Your Roommate is narrated by Evelyn and Seth in first person, past tense.

I cannot even begin to describe whatever (weirdness) is happening our protagonists’ “voices”/Harms’ style. It’s stylistically similar to what you’ll find a mediocre North American book, except Harms has thrown in a bunch of British phrases. I’m unsure if Harms is an American (or Canadian?) trying to sound British, or worse: a Brit who’s read too much bad American literature and now sounds entirely fake. Regardless, it’s a mess. Roommate is much too long for what scant plot it contains, characters slip into long and unnecessary inner monologues, every single thing is made obvious, character traits are awkwardly stated instead: it’s a big telling over showing mess. Harms uses only weak and filter words, an abundance of adverbs and when it came to the narration, the only distinguishing feature between Evelyn and Seth is that Seth uses more forced-sounding British terms.

I do think, however, that Harms did a really great job with conversations. The flow of conversations in general was solid and Harms truly funny interactions between characters.

Themes and Representation—★★☆☆☆
Evelyn is a lesbian; Jasper is pansexual; Noelle and Seth are bisexual; Amelia is unspecified sapphic, implied to be a lesbian.

Seth has an anxiety disorder; Jasper has panic attacks related to claustrophobia; both Evelyn and Noelle struggle with nightmares.

Noelle is Black; Mrs. Whitworth, the headmistress, is Black; Sammy, Jasper’s fling early on, is described as having dark skin and dark curls.

The thing is, and this is such a big thing: of the core four characters, Evelyn, Seth, and Jasper are white, and they’re portrayed as friendly and sweet. While Noelle, Black and bisexual, is portrayed as mean, aggressive, and promiscuous. Even if she’s secretly a “giant softie” underneath, this is still a choice Harms made, and it’s really messed up.

Overall—★★☆☆☆

Recommended For…
Readers who really, really want f/f or m/m YA romances set in British boarding schools.

I really wanted to like this one; but the plot really drags, the characters seem one-dimensional, almost everyone is queer and rather than feeling inclusive, it feels trope-y. Conversation is stilted, and events feel forced. I felt like the author could have dragged out and dramatized the conflict between the main character and her roommate a bit more, but it barely seemed relevant to the story by a quarter of the way through the book. Also, basketball? At an English boarding school? Even if there really are English schools with basketball teams it just doesn’t feel right. It felt like the author wanted the story to be set in the US, but wanted everyone to be European for some reason.

This book was one of my most anticipated releases of this month which is why I'm so disappointed by it. There were so many instances for the author to build depth and create outstanding characters and plots, but they were all left flat. If that was the only problem, this would get 3 stars, but the characterization of Noelle was absolutely horrid and just riddled with racist stereotypes. If you are going to write a pic character, you have to put the work in and make sure you are avoiding any of these negative stereotypes, but this author seemed to embrace them instead.

Never Kiss Your Roommate by Philline Harms tells the story of Evelyn, Noelle, Seth and Jasper - all students at Seven Hills, an exclusive boarding school.

Evelyn and Seth meet on the train taking them to Seven Hills. Both of them transferring there after turmoil in their personal lives. Evelyn moves in with Noelle, who has the reputation of driving out her roommates.

The rumour mill at Seven Hills is driven by the anonymous Chitter Chatter Blog, run by someone only known as The Watcher.

From there, the predictable happens. Evelyn and Noelle are drawn to each other. Seth falls in love with French student Jasper and The Watcher reveals all - including a secret Noelle has kept hidden from everyone. Throw in a kidnapping at the end and what you are left with is a story that tries to be too many things at once.


Thanks to NetGally and SourceFire Books for a review copy of this book for an honest review.

I received this book for free for an honest review from netgalley #netgalley

Sexy and sweet a great LGBTQ read that I will be reading more than once I wish more authors wrote like this!

This was a really enjoyable story. It was exactly what I was looking for, as in it included a ton of diversity. My only issue with it was the writing. The writing style was a little repetitive, some words where used twice in the same sentence which can be a bother. Overall I think the story being portrayed itself drowns out the fact that the writing isn't the best. I love the fact that theres a relationship between two boys, one pansexual and one bisexual. Most relationships are portrayed as one character being gay and the other being Bi. You can really see that the author is bringing her story to life and making many kids feel valid.

There were armful racist stereotypes in this book that a lot of people have expressed concern over and I really agree. This book could’ve been good if it weren’t for the racism though.