Thank you to Netgalley and Wattpad Books for this e-arc.
Lots of LGBTQ readers were excited about this release. I'm a lesbian who LOVES reading sapphic romance, so even if I'm not a huge fan of YA, I happily requested "Never Kiss Your Roommate" on Netgalley a couple of weeks ago.
However, the reality of this novel is disappointing and offensive. I don't see how anyone can recommend it or rate it highly in good consciousness. The author uses blatantly racist stereotypes in her characterization of Noelle, the Black girl who serves as a love interest to the white protagonist, Evelyn. We are supposed to perceive Evelyn as shy, bookish, and innocent; while Noelle is oversexualized, aggressive, and rude. The latter is one of the only Black characters in "Never Kiss Your Roommate" (the other Black character is only mentioned briefly). Harms, a non-black author, applies the 'angry black woman' trope to Noelle. People on Goodreads and other platforms have expressed concern about the racism, poor writing, and two-dimensional characterization, but I don't really see any similar reviews on Netgalley. I hope my review will deter people from engaging with this text, it's not worth reading.

honestly, i did really want to read this book and i really wanted to like this book, but seeing all the thing the author put in this book, i'm not going to finish this book or read anything by the author ever again.

- the whole school is white kids and the only two Black people are the headmaster, which was just on for like half a page and then the girl on the cover.
- and then the Black girl, who has all the stereotypes of being the school bully, she’s said to be aggressive and violent and mean to everyone for no reason.
- and also she was over sexualized by literally everyone. like all of her classmates over sexualized her and also like even some of the teachers did.
- there was also this online gossip column that made these super sexual and rude comments towards Noelle.
- then they had these stereotypes towards Noelle that her dad was like absent, and she’s a smoker, and that she doesn’t really care to much about school or like becoming friends with people. and there was this really weird part about how she plays basketball and ofc she should.
- and also there was this kidnapping, and it was like so odd. like she got kidnapped by her old boyfriend cause he was obsessed with her and like super toxic, so he had to kidnap her for like three pages.

First LGBTQ+ book of Pride Month 2021✔

I found Never Kiss Your Roommate extremely heartfelt. I enjoyed the writing, the plot, the characters, the ending...

The book is a coming of age story set against an English boarding school backdrop that follows Evelyn, Seth, Noelle, and Jasper. Each are part of the LGBTQ+ community (E-lesbian, S-bi, N-bi, J-pan) and I loved the representation. Though it was corny at times (what YA romance isnt?), it dealt with themes of accepting yourself for who you are, and opening yourself up to love. One thing I REALLY appreciated in the book was characters asking for consent.

This is Philline Harms' debut novel, and I'm so excited to see what she comes up with next!

(Contains spoilers)
TW - internalized homophobia/biphobia, bullying, mention of sexual assault, PTSD (nightmares), divorce, character coming out stories, kidnapping, mild violence, pedophilia (15f + 19m), mention of abusive/controlling relationship, mention of being outed, homophobia

While the story of this book was decent and I did have a good time with this book I cannot recommend it to anyone.

This book plays on a lot of harmful stereotypes against black women, and multiple own voices reviewers have pointed out these racist stereotypes many times.
Because of this I cannot with good conscience actually recommend this to anyone.

The book was okay, seeing all these queer characters were great, but that doesn't change the fact that aspects of this book is blatantly racist and therefore I cannot say I would recommend it to anyone.

Thank you to Wattpad for the ARC.

I did not finish this book, but I do not plan to. I am not interested in a book written by a white woman where the love interest is an aggressive, hostile, mean Black girl in a school of mostly white people. I think that was a poor decision on the part of the author, and I am disappointed.

I was really looking forward to a fun, sapphic enemies to lovers book, but I couldn't enjoy it when one of the few Black characters is made up purely of harmful stereotypes.

From the first paragraph, I knew this book would be a good one. I immersed myself into the book from the first chapter and I cannot say enough good things about this book! Honestly amazing! The writing is incredible and the plot is just one to die for. I am absolutely obsessed with this book. My favorite part would have to be the character development throughout the book. Character development is something I look forward to and this book did not disappoint.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc of Never Kiss Your Roommate by Philline Harms.

I adored this book, the characters, the setting, the way that Harms handled what could have been a cliché plot, I just didn't want to put this book down and devoured it in an evening.

Evelyn is heading to Seven Hills International School for Boys and Girls for a new start. Seth is heading there as his home life implodes as his parents get divorced. What they don't expect is to find both friendship that comes with no strings, no awkwardness, friendship that is easy. Nor do they expect to be accepted as they are but here they manage to meet people who they don't have to hide from and they fall in love.
The way that Harms handled what could have very easily turned into very cliché misunderstanding leading to heartbreak by inserting some action made this book end on a better note than expected. It was fun, it held important representation, I fell in love with these characters, and I think most importantly that representation wasn't perfect but it felt real.

As other reviewers have shared, this book tries—and fails—to hit a number of serious topics and tropes without confronting the fact that the “diversity” is really not diversity at all and falls into the same old stereotypes Black writers and readers have worked hard to point out as incredibly racist and small-minded. As a Black reader, I had a hard time buying into Evelyn and Noelle’s romance for these reasons, and it sort of soured the rest of the book for me as well. There are many other actually diverse and magic based books to look into besides this one, and I recommend that the author either hire a sensitivity writer or re-evaluate what a diverse community looks like, instead of adding token characters of color and writing them as white-coded still.

1/5

While Seven Hills boarding school may be advertised as a place for only the best and brightest students, the real person holding all the cards is The Watcher, the anonymous person running Chitter Chatter, a blog created for exposing all the secrets and drama on campus. New Students Evelyn and Seth arrive fresh off the train for the semester utterly unprepared for the realities of life away from home and form a fast friendship as they are flung headfirst into the melee. Evelyn herself quickly encounters drama of her own with her distant roommate Noelle, who seems determined to keep her at arm's length. As the school year progresses the person behind Chitter Chatter becomes even more cutthroat, threatening new relationships and those trying to escape the past.

At first glance Never Kiss Your Roommate seems to have all the characteristics of a good contemporary, with strong characters, compelling romances, and a gossip girl inspired storyline. The plot summary attracted my attention enough to submit a request for an early copy through NetGalley, and while I thought the premise was executed fairly well, there were severe issues that upon reflection make me unwilling to recommend it or promote it any further. I am of course talking about the characterization of Noelle, the love interest and roommate of Evelyn. Not only is Noelle described throughout the book as being aggressive and rude, she was constantly oversexualized and the center of many negative stereotypes associated specifically with Black women. There was definitely the potential for this to be a look into a Black student’s experience attending a predominantly white boarding school, but instead, it was just incredibly harmful representation on the author's part. With the differing opinions surrounding the character later being revealed as rumors, and never reexamined, that was even more clear. From the glaring stereotypes to the racist depictions and character backgrounds, this book was just all-around a huge problem. The small parts of the story that I did enjoy, like the friendships and queer characters, were let down by the decision to represent the character of Noelle in such a way. Many reviewers of color have already touched on this book in more depth and I encourage everyone to seek those out to learn more. The negative parts of this book are rather blatant and definitely aren't worth even sparing this a read for the queer representation.

Trigger Warnings: blood, violence, bullying, homophobia, kidnapping, outing (off-page), panic attacks, trauma, alcohol consumption, sexual assault (off-page).

Editing this review as many fellow POC have pointed out how this book is racist and falls into many stereotypes.

There is a total of 1 black character in the whole school other than the headmistress that is seen once. This could've been a great opportunity to show how this effects her throughout the novel. She is categorized as a "mean bully" type character, who plays basketball, and has an absent father, so do with that what you will.

The overall plot line was fine I suppose but nothing special. Throughout about 4/5 of the book was very predictable. The last 20℅ was odd since it just picked up rapidly for no reason. The companion mlm romance wasn't fleshed out much at all, making the secondary mc not needed.

There's plenty of other reviews that go through some of the things that I said more in detail so I suggest looking for those as well.

Overall, I definitely don't recommend this. Please don't read it.

I will not be finishing this book based on a review I read in which a character was described to play into harmful racial stereotypes.

I enjoyed reading both POVs but was much more invested in Evelyn’s but still liked both. Evelyn’s and Noelle’s romance was so cute and the things that Noelle did in order to help Evelyn with her nightmares were so adorable.

I also loved how it was a queer version of gossip girl. This book is fast paced and such a quick and easy read. It is unapologetically queer and is an adorable ya contemporary.

The ending felt a bit fast paced for it felt like it was just thrown in there even through it was foreshadowed throughout the book, but still was on the edge of my seat when reading it.

** Thank you Wattpad Books and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange of an honest review **

I really enjoyed the premise of the book, however the execution fell flat for me. The book tried too many ways of delivering tropes that were not executed very well. I tried to love it, but the characterization felt a bit flat and stereotypical, particularly Noelle’s character. Her character felt oversexualized and her mean persona fell into a stereotype many black women face daily. Frankly, while the storyline was promising, such enforcement of stereotypes makes the book not worth it.

Unfortunately had to dnf this because of the racist undertones and stereotyping of the only black character mentioned in the whole book. The premise was so interesting and the writing itself wasn't even that bad but I can't in good conscience support this.

This book was so exciting to here about. A sapphic boarding school romance, hate to love, multiple queer characters, however this book did not deliver what i wanted. The main character was the "perfect" shy blonde girl that really annoyed me. I did enjoy her relationship with her friends and i liked the pining between her and Noelle. The relationship between Evelyn and Noelle moved to fast in my opinion and I would have enjoyed another 50 pages or more to build up the characters.
Since Im white I'm speaking from what I've seen others say...
...and that is the depiction of Noelle is racist. Her character feeds on harmful black stereotypes and is not good representation for the world.
Now besides the characters I really didn't like the writing style. There were too many descriptions that were needless and i couldn't get lost in the story.
There were some cute scenes that I enjoyed.
I would say I was quite literally disappointed in this book but some people I think would enjoy it especially since it isn't very long.

Characters: 1/5
Plot: 1/5
Setting: 1/5
Themes: 1/5
Writing: 1/5

Edit: I've edited my review based on the new outlook on this book in regards to the racism and extreme stereotypes that play within it. I've spent some time contemplating how I felt about this book. In general, it was ok. I had a few positive things to say about this book at first, but no. This book was filled with stereotypes. Everyone in this story is white except for the headmistress (who we never see) and one of our main characters, Noelle but of course, Noelle is the bully that everyone is scared of, she’s sexualized, mean, has an absent father, plays basketball and is violent. Then we get a little white-savior complex happening when Evelyn (who is white) changes Noelle for the better……….

I saw the cover for this book on NetGalley and was immediately interested (I mean, wlw boarding school romance? Yes!). However, once I saw that it was published by Wattpad Books- and originally a Wattpad story at that- I was hesitant. I have not had a great experience with Wattpad. I hate to judge entire genres of stories based on stereotypes- for instance, I have read some great fanfiction. Seeing that something is associated with Wattpad, though, always gives me pause. I decided to push through any prejudice and request the ARC anyway. After all, not all Wattpad stories are bad. Right?

I should have trusted my initial instincts with this one.

Never Kiss Your Roommate can only be described as shallow. The characters are incredibly two-dimensional: we have the innocent book nerd, the mean basketball player (who is also Black, which rubbed me the wrong way. I'm white and cannot speak on racism whatsoever, but having the Black girl be a mean basketball player felt... not good), the shy boy who likes detective novels and is magically great with electronics, and the flirty French boy. Jasper, who was from France, was such a caricature. He would randomly throw in French words into the conversation in a way that felt very unnatural. There was also an Italian man who ran a pizza shop and... well, you get the idea.

The two POV characters, Evelyn and Seth, become best friends instantly. The romance in this book was also too sudden for me. One minute Noelle, Evelyn's roommate and love interest, is at her throat, and the next she's comforting Evelyn after she has a nightmare. I regret saying that they reminded me of Simon and Baz. Simon and Baz were roommates as well, yes, but they had build-up. Tension. Chemistry. Things that Evelyn and Noelle did not.

Seth and Jasper, our other couple, bored me as well. Seth got noticeably less POV chapters than Evelyn, which did not help with the build-up to his relationship with Jasper. They fell in 'love' much too quickly and we barely saw any progression in their relationship. Some stupid drama was thrown in that could have been solved with a two minute conversation, but of course nothing is that easy.

This book also tried to throw in a mystery, but failed spectacularly. The Gossip Girl rip-off website that the school had was just ridiculous, and I guessed who was behind it from the get-go. This plot was thrown into the last 70% or so of the book and was resolved in the dumbest way possible.

There was also a random kidnapping thrown in near the end, in true Wattpad fashion. At that point, I was just laughing. I felt like I was 12 again reading Victorious fan fiction on FF.Net. Even some of the dialogue and sentence structure reminded me of bad fan fiction. And this is a published work!

Never Kiss Your Roommate tries to be a cute romance novel that tackles important themes such as sexual assault and internalized homophobia. The keyword here is tries. While these themes are incredibly important, this book does not handle them- or its characters- with as much depth as they deserve.

I received an ARC of Never Kiss Your Roommate by Philline Harms thanks to the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Review:
Never Kiss Your Roommate is about a group of teens who live in at a boarding school for various reasons. The story POV alternates between two main characters, Seth and Evelyn. Both are fun characters, although Evelyn feels a bit forgettable. She doesn't have something that makes her 'unique'. Coming out is major, but (I hate saying this but) when every other character is out, her struggle feels less genuine. I know it totally is and her history explains her reasoning but I just wanted something else to define her. Yes, she is likable and I enjoyed her interactions with others, but... I don't know... I prefer the other characters.

I did really enjoy watching the relationships develop, both friendships and romance. The writing was fantastic and all of the LGBTQ+ rep is amazing. I like the 'unknown' antagonist of The Watcher and how that unfolded. However, I wish there was more. I guess most of my complaints come down to wanting more depth, even if it resulted in a longer book.

There was no doubt that I was going to finish, even if it was only to see more of Jasper and Elle and watching the romance build.

Overall, I enjoyed the story. It reminds me of She Drives Me Crazy, which might be part of why this review is hard to write (I sound like I'm repeating myself a bit). However, if you enjoyed She Drives Me Crazy, I highly recommend Never Kiss Your Roommate but put a few weeks between them.

The second I finished reading NEVER KISS YOUR ROOMMATE, I came here and left a fairly positive review. I tend to do that—let the high of finishing a book cloud my critical judgment of the actual content. I should’ve waited. I couldn’t stop thinking of all the problematic aspects of this book as I went about my day. Ultimately, I decided I couldn’t leave my 3 star review with such glaring issues staring me in the face.

I was apprehensive going into this book, as I haven’t quite enjoyed any of the releases coming from Wattpad Books. Still, I was willing to give this enemies-to-lovers boarding school slash Gossip Girl-style book a try simply for the wlw and mlm relationships.

Boy, was I wrong.

The fact that the one (1) single Black character, Noelle, who doubles as the innocent and perfect (white) Evelyn’s love interest/roommate, was repeatedly referred to as intimidating, rude, standoffish, and a “slut” (yes, we’re really calling girls sluts in the year 2021 as if we haven’t learned any better)—it was all off-putting. There was one other Black woman in the story, but the headmistress played such a minor role that it doesn’t even matter. Pair all of that with the complete and utter lack of any other non-white characters (and the weird, caricaturized portrayals of French and Italian people), and it’s pretty clear that not a single sensitivity reader laid eyes on this book.

Beyond the harmful racial stereotypes, the genre was pretty confusing (romance meets mystery meets thriller), the pacing was all over the place, the school gossip blog didn’t make much sense in the way it was used, and I’m still not sure why or how the title was chosen.

There are too many beautiful, actually diverse sapphic books already out there or soon to be published to be settling like this.

This book is riddled with racial strerotyping and constantly perpetuates harmful representation of Black women. The Black girl in this story goes to an all white school (like, literally no other diversity in this cast) and is type casted as the bully. She's aggressive, violent, rude, father-less, over sexualized, and a smoker. Then the white girl comes along to save the day by "fixing" her personality. Absolutely not recommending this to anybody, I can't believe this book wasn't put through sensitivity readers. It's 2021, the publishing and writing industry needs to do better than putting out garbage like this.