OMG YES. This book was so good and I just can’t recommend it enough. The perfect book to publish during Pride Month. I think this will be great for LGBTQ youth.

This was the queer, boarding school, gossip girl-like, story of my dreams. I fell in love with each of the characters instantly. I loved so many little details, the varying queer identities, the co-ed sports teams, the incredibly accepting and supportive adults, so much more. So incredible, definitely recommend.

Never Kiss Your Roommate has a strong premise. What's not to like with two gay main character friends and their love interests in a boarding school setting? Adding to the stakes is an anonymous blogger who seems to aim to create tension as the story progresses. This book was hard to outright like or dislike. On one hand, there are so many things to like: the premise, the characters, the setting. There's a lot of potential here. Unfortunately, I think the execution could be cleaned up. Some parts of the story are hard to follow and some elements seem to come completely out of left field. I think this book could benefit from some stricter editing.

3.5 STARS

This follows the perspective of two characters who are new at a boarding school and soon become friends.

I liked seeing both of their romances develop. There’s some great LGBTQ representation, some drama and a wholesome ending. Also loved seeing one of the main characters teaching someone else self defence!

I definitely enjoyed the first half more than the second because of the thriller aspect later on in the book which was quite a different vibe to the the first half. Parts of it definitely felt unnecessary.

But overall a cute quick read with a dash of mystery.

The writing of this book was all over the place. I didn't know what was happening or where things were going which ultimately made me really confused. However, I was still able to make out what was trying to be said and what was meant to be happening. The characters were slightly underdeveloped but I still felt connected to them.

This book was good. I really enjoyed Never Kiss Your Roommate, and it's even more impressive given how young the writer is!

This book follows the dual narrators of Evelyn and Seth as they are both starting at a new school in England after respective disasters in their personal lives a their old schools. They become fast friends, and once at school they find new things they will have to deal with, like jerk roommates and unavailable hearthrobes.

I actually really liked the dual point of view in this book. Usually when books have dual POV, it is both main characters gearing up to be in a relationship with each other. But that isn't the case here. This book tells very intertwined but separate stories and love interests in the two main characters. And I really liked how that worked. It gave an even bigger perspective on all of the characters involved as well as the setting. To be honest, as a lesbian I was a tad more emotionally invested in Evelyn's story than Seth's but I really enjoyed both.

Jasper and Noelle are really great love interests respectively- but especially Noelle. She always carried this air of mystery about her and kept you wanting to learn more about this enigmatic roommate of Evelyn's. And once they open up to each other about more of their lives they become so adorable. They so fawn over each other and they made me very happy to read. It's odd to think of the love interests in books as the secondary characters, I tend to think of them as mains- but with the interesting format of this book- that's how it goes.

I also really liked the setting of this book boarding school in England. It gave me a Hogwarts vibe except with more technology and less transphobia.

What I didn't love about the book was the huge tonal shift the book took regarding the final conflict. I guess in hindsight you could see it foreshadowed, with the mystery and self defense elements weaved in from earlier in the story, but once the events happened I felt a cute story start to go pretty sideways. I did still enjoy the story but it was pretty jarring. There was also a bit of miscommunication but it is what it is.

I did like this book overall. It was a fun and cute story and told in a interesting manner. 3.75/5

<i> Thank you to Wattpad and NetGalley for providing me and ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review</i>

Never Kiss Your Roommate is about Evelyn and Seth who meet on the way to Seven Hills Boarding School and the adventures they have their first year there, from falling in love to unraveling some of the mysteries of the school. The story is told through the dual POVs of both Evelyn and Seth which is one of the things I liked the most about the book. The dual POV lets the reader to get a better understanding of each character and allows you to witness them falling in love with their respective partners first hand. I also really how unique each of the characters were and how even though boarding school love stories are very popular I did not feel as though I had read this book before. The only thing I did not really like about the book was that the big events toward the ending kind of caught me off guard. It changed the book to end on a totally different darker tone which did not match with the light, cherry tone of the rest of the book. It seemed like the first three fourths of the book were written for the much younger audience the book is marketed to which really clashed with the more mature themes of the ending. I wish it had either stuck to being a cheesy rom-com or a mystery/thriller. However, overall, I found the book enjoyable and found myself really rooting for both couples in the book!

Special thanks to NetGalley and Wattpad books for the allowing me the chance to read the ARC!

(CW: Kidnapping, Outing, Homophobia, Panic Attacks, Sexual Assault, Violence, Underage Drinking, Smoking)

“𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔: 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒓𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒔𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒎𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒊𝒏 𝒓𝒆𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒈𝒆𝒕 𝒂 𝒌𝒊𝒔𝒔 𝒂𝒇𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒄𝒐𝒓𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒔𝒘𝒆𝒓. 𝑫𝒆𝒂𝒍?”
“𝑫𝒆𝒂𝒍, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒊𝒇 𝑰 𝒈𝒆𝒕 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒘𝒓𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒏𝒔𝒘𝒆𝒓 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒈𝒊𝒗𝒆.”

Set in a prestigious boarding school in England, Never Kiss Your Roommate follows Evelyn and Seth, the two newest students, as they become friends, make memories and find love - Evelyn with Noelle and Seth with Jasper. When Evelyn meets Noelle, her roommate, Noelle is initially cold and standoffish, but eventually Noelle warms up to her, and they grow closer. Seth, on the other hand, has his eyes on the French boy named Jasper, who has a love for the arts and all things queer.

Evelyn is literally the sweetest. She has eyes for Noelle and Noelle only, even though Noelle seems pretty intent on pretending she doesn't exist. She can be a bit naïve at times, and she definitely doesn't always think things through, but I love her all the same. Noelle, ugh ! Angsty characters just have a special place in my heart. It's like oh you hate everyone? I'm in love with you now, thanks. She's definitely a bit harsh with Evelyn in the beginning, but it's really the way she is with everyone so it's not like Evelyn's singled out. I love the interactions between the two of them, especially once Noelle starts to open up. It's cute. It's funny. Pure fucking fluff, and it makes my gay heart sing ballads.

“𝘐𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘺 𝘬𝘪𝘵𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘬𝘯𝘪𝘧𝘦?”
“𝘞𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘵’𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘺 𝘺𝘦𝘵.”

Seth and Jasper might just be the complete opposite of Evelyn and Noelle. Seth is sarcastic with a dry sense of humor. He loves mysteries and true crimes, and his perspective was really enjoyable. Watching him pine for Jasper from a distance was adorable, and the little moments they had when they were alone... my beating heart be still. Their banter is freaking hilarious. And Seth's gay panic moments... so accurate.

I really liked that the story was told in two POVs. Even though there were more Evelyn POVs, it was nice to be able to see the progress with Seth and Jasper, as well as whatever would happen when Seth wasn't with Evelyn. I absolutely love all the characters, which doesn't always happen. I usually find at least one of them annoying, but it wasn't like that with this book.

What I didn't like:
- Miscommunication Trope: I hate it with a passion. Nothing annoys me more. Like I get that with their age (17/18), it happens, and it was resolved fairly quickly if not dramatically, but it still grinds my gears. Like please if you're supposed to like and trust the person, take all of the five seconds needed to have a conversation instead of jumping to conclusions.
- The pacing towards the end of the book was relatively fast. Everything escalated in the final few chapters, and though it was set up from the beginning of the book, I do wish that it was fleshed out more - since it was such a drastic change from the cute, fluffy tone that the book had already set. If there were more hints dropped through out the book, it would've better set up the SVU turn that it took at the end, and a few more chapters to allow it to play out would've eliminated the abrupt, "wow why are we going so fast" feeling.

Overall I really did enjoy this book. I've already preordered it, and I'm excited to get the physical copy. It'll probably become one of my comfort reads. The recommended age is 14-17, but I personally wouldn't recommend it to anyone below 16, specifically because the ending does lean more towards darker content that no 14 year old needs to read. All in all, I loved it!

Thank you to NetGalley and Wattpad Books for the ARC.

Final Rating: 4.5 stars

Rep:
Noelle - black, bisexual
Evelyn - lesbian
Seth - bisexual
Jasper - pansexual

Content warning
Major: kidnapping, stabbing, blood, recount of abusive relationship incl. assault - physical and sexual
Moderate: bullying, slutshaming, panic attacks
Minor: outing (mentioned), homophobia, sexual content, claustrophobia

Content warnings at end of review.
Thank you to Netgalley and Wattpad Books for the arc of this book!

When Evelyn and and Seth meet on a train while reluctantly heading to the boarding school they've both been sent to, they instantly know they are going to be friends. What they don't know is that they will build memories and friendships they'll never forget while there, fall in love (but not with each other because Evelyn is definitely a lesbian), learn more about themselves and unveil multiple mysteries about the school.

I was immediately connected to these two nerdy, adorable, queer characters! Between Evelyn's love of classic books and escapism, and Seth's thirst for solving mysteries and dry sense of humor, I knew I would be in for a ride. Then we met Noelle and Jasper, two breathtakingly gorgeous and popular kids at the school with soft underbellies and secret nerdiness, and I was like...yup, this is love.

This book is so funny at times. I loved how sardonic Seth was and his jokes about being queer were absolutely perfect. I loved how upfront this book was with queerness and otherness and that it wasn't afraid to get right in your face with labels!

About 70% into the book it took a turn from more of a contemporary romance to more of an actiony/mystery/thriller and I'm not sure I really vibed with that turn. The situations the characters found themselves in started feeling kind of contrived and rushed, and the last chunk of the book didn't feel as polished and natural as the rest.

That being said, I am happy with the way this book wrapped up and I will not forget it!

Pub Date: June 1, 2021

Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping and Panic attacks/disorders
Moderate: Bullying and Homophobia
Minor: Confinement, Vomit, Toxic relationship, and Sexual content

thank you so much NetGallery for providing me with an ARC of this book!

never kiss your roommate is the epitome of a romcom on pages. told from the pov of two different characters who are best friends, you get to see the way they each gradually fall for their love interests, and you also read two different experiences with coming to terms with sexuality.

the plot is extremely cliche, but even so, the book still works! its such a quick and cute read you can't help but not want to put it down. the events in the book carry out nicely, with non-rushed progression of relationship building and friendship dynamics.

all in all, my favorite part of this book was 100% the found family. the friendship that you see between the core four characters is just EVERYTHING and, in my opinion, the highlight of the book.

despite the recycled tropes and the slight obsecureness of certain events in the book, i can see "never kiss your roommate" becoming a big comfort book and quick read for many people. 4/5 stars.

tws: outing, assault & kidnapping

Oh. My. Goodness. This book. I'm on Cloud Nine after finishing it. It was so unapologetically Queer and beautiful. And it was fun to read about the book's journey from the Wattpad website to becoming published in the acknowledgments section.

Never Kiss Your Roommate is a boarding school story full of Queer friendship and Queer romance. That's literally the book. Besides the minor Law and Order SVU side plot. It was kind of dark after all the fluff. But, unfortunately, terrible things do happen in reality. Hopefully, the author meant for it to be viewed that way and that they didn't use Queer pain for the drama.

(quote)On a sudden moment of clarity, I thought if I could have shown my younger self any glimpse into the future it would have been this one; I would have wiped her tears away, kissed her on the forehead, and told her Look how much better it’ll get. You’ll find people you won’t have to hide from, and you’ll fall in love. With her, and with yourself too. Just hold on a little longer.(quote)

I CAN NOT wait to buy a physical copy of this book in June. I laughed and cried so much while reading. I already want to reread it.

***Thank you so much to Wattpad Books and Netgalley for allowing me to read an early review copy.***

I loved this book, It plays with my emotions, and seems to have exactly what I needed. Here are a few notes I jotted down:

- While Evelyn and Noelle clearly have a bad start, they soon get close simply because Eve decided to defend Noelle.
- When the author added the self-defense scene, I LOVED IT. They got closer by the minute and were just simply adorable. I loved seeing them get closer together.
- I enjoy how Noelle was tough before but became really soft after getting close to Evelyn.
- I love how the author adds a different point of view, and that OTHER point of view also falling in love. It's really sweet.
- The play was great, and it added more sexuality in the book, I could feel Seth and Jasper getting closer by the minute.
- I love how there are certain points where you HAVE to take the book seriously.
- I enjoy how she added stress into the book, something a few people don't do.
- The ending escalated very quickly.

I Loved this book, a five-star from me. I am DEFINITELY recommending this to my friends, and this is now one of my favorites.

Never Kiss Your Roommate is a gay romance following Noelle, Evelyn, Seth, and Jasper, as they navigate the dramas of a prestigious boarding school. I was invested from the start, while I do think the romance was a bit insta-lovey, I still enjoyed it. I had such a good time following the characters and the relationships they found themselves in. I was rooting for both couples the whole time. And the LGBT representation was amazing.

LOVED this adorable queer YA romance!

Noelle and Evelyn gave me all the feels!! The feelings of having a crush, the butterflies in your stomach and swooning- glorious! I feel like it was authentically portrayed, and it touched on issues of staying in the closet and fear of coming out. I love the respect and support Noelle and Evelyn had for each other, even before they were going out.

I also love that they started dating and we actually got to see dates!! Queer dates and queer kisses and more that faded to black and it was magical!! Loved the queer rep, including Evelyn's friends Seth and Jasper. I loved them as well, but kind of wish the whole book had only been from Evelyn's perspective? Have the chapters from Seth's perspective was a little jarring and I feel like we could have had their story through Evelyn's eyes. Also, the truth of a character's past felt a bit dark for this book? And the climactic ending when that dark past catches up to the present also felt a bit dark.

Content warnings: homophobic bullying in the past, forced outing, brief description of past abusive relationship with rape, kidnapping, brief violence

Overall I super loved the main relationship in all it's beautiful ups and downs, the queer rep was phenomenal, and I would recommend it to all my YA romance lovers, while being aware of the content warnings.

Thank you Wattpad books for this book in exchange for an honest review.

Never Kiss Your Roommate was honestly such an utter delight to read. I think I found a new comfort read. I’ve recently been struggling with YA in general but I loved this book. It’s rare for me to love all of the main characters in a book but I really did with this one. There is absolutely nothing worse than an annoying YA protagonist, so I was so relieved to find that NKYR’s mc Evelyn was so loveable and highly relatable for me. Reading about her past struggles with her sexuality was so touching and felt so sincere. I wish I had this book when I was seventeen going through the same things and I love that this book will be there for other young girls with similar struggles. Evelyn and Noelle are adorable, I loved the growth of their relationship from nothing into friendship into more and the whole roommates to lovers trope is one of my favourites. It was just everything I think most sapphic YA readers would look for. Another aspect of this book that I loved was the alternating POVs between Evelyn and Seth. They both have my heart and Seth’s romance was really cute. The hogwarts-esque castle boarding school life is also just so fun to read about, I think Philline Harms’ writing is wonderful and reading this made me so excited to read any possible future works she puts out. This was just so FUN and comforting and I will be buying a physical copy so that it can sit proudly on my shelf (also the cover is just so pretty). I have already demanded that my girlfriend read it, and I genuinely recommend it to everyone. If you’re looking for a sweet sapphic romance, really loveable characters, a great setting, a mystery !!, and just an overall really great time - look no further.

The only two minor issues I had with this book are that the British characters use ‘mom’ instead of ‘mum’ and also they are all supposed to be in year 12/13 (17/18) but are working towards their GCSEs (which end in year 11). Like I said these are really small context issues which didn’t affect my rating.

rep: lesbian mc, bi li, pan, bi & lesbian side characters

cw: panic attacks, kidnapping, past sexual assault, violence, past homophobia

Thank you to Netgalley and Wattpad Books for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

CW: Abuse, Blood, Cyber-bullying/bullying, Divorce, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Outing, Panic attacks, Sex, Sexual assault, Swearing, Underage Drinking and Smoking, Violence

This book was definitely something. While heartfelt and authentic at times, at other times it felt overwhelming and confusing.

The book follows Evelyn and Seth, two new students at Seven Hills, a prestigious boarding school in England. Evelyn is paired with a mysterious girl named Noelle for her room and Seth starts falling for the prettiest boy in school when he joins the tech crew for the play.

I went into this book expecting a lighthearted romance and the first 65% or so of the book was exactly that. The book had some flaws up to that point but most were minor and the characters were sweet enough to keep me interested.

But then the plot got more and more confusing. The book seemed to want to go every possible way. It became hard to follow. The book also deals with a lot. I can’t speak on how it deals with all of these since I haven’t experienced many of them. It definitely isn’t lighthearted and the book shouldn’t be recommended without warning.

I wouldn’t say this book is a bad read, I enjoyed myself but it’s not something i will go around recommending.

TWs: Internalized homophobia, public outing (off screen), bullying (off screen), cyberbullying, alcohol, kidnapping, gaslighting and abusive romantic relationship, kidnapping, stabbing, rape (off page).

I'm going to be honest, if you're an adult looking for a queer YA romance to read, this book probably isn't for you. Unlike a lot of the YA being published right now, Never Kiss Your Roommate actually felt like it was from a teenager's perspective, and written for teens, rather than the adult audience reading the category. While it was definitely a refreshing change of pace for me, I'm going to try to make sure I don't really complain about stuff that could be related back to it being aimed at a younger audience.

Never Kiss Your Roommate follows Evelyn and Seth, both new transplants at their boarding school, Seven Hills. Evelyn gets stuck rooming with Noelle, the beautiful and intimidating basketball star, who seems to hate her right off the bat, and isn't doing anything to help her awkwardness of accepting her sexuality. Meanwhile Seth is falling for Noelle's cute French BFF, the popular theater kid, while grappling with his parent's divorce. Both best friends have chapter POVs, as they fall for their classmates, and keep up with the school's anonymously run gossip blog.

I was surprised by how much I liked parts of this, to be honest. I was a bit hesitant to request Never Kiss Your Roommate, since it was originally a Wattpad story written when Harms was a teenager, but that cover made me change my mind. I liked Evelyn, Seth, Noelle and Jasper, each of them had unique personalities, and their own charms. I'd honestly would've loved to see Jasper get more page time than he did, just so the squad was a little more filled out (and I just enjoy characters with a flair of drama lol). The writing and plot were a bit clunky and unfinished in some places, but I honestly think that it probably has to do with it being written by an actual teen, who hasn't had the time and experience to write as many novels before getting published as a lot of authors. The way the gossip blog, Chitter Chatter, was used lowkey reminded me of Creekwood Secrets from Simon Vs. the Homosapiens Agenda, and it had the same softer queer contemp YA vibe to it (well, for most of the book anyway, things pick up a lot at the end).

I did want to mention that Never Kiss Your Roommate falls into the category of having a primarily white cast and then a POC as the love interest, and that it also could potentially be seen as having the angry Black woman stereotype when it comes to Noelle at the start. I'm not the right person to really make a judgement about the last part, but I thought I'd mention it.

If you're looking for a (mostly) cute queer romance, especially if you like rivals to lovers, this is the book for you! You might have to ignore some questionable writing at times, and a somewhat predictable plot, but if you're just looking for some entertainment, it's a fun story. Just don't go into it with the expectation that it's going to read like upper YA, because it isn't and you'll end up disappointed.

Honestly I'm so proud of this author for producing such an adorable sapphic read that we all knew we needed. The girls are so cute together and I'm honestly so happy to get some well written and heartwarming representation

~Never Kiss Your Roommate Review~
•
3/5
•
I’m pretty sure i requested this one on netgalley because of a combination of the cover and sapphic boarding school shenanigans. I’m excited to see how it plays out!
•
Pros
+idk why i find the idea of boarding schools so fun
+we love queer characters! especially cause of the surprise dual perspective!
+not insta love which is always a plus
+it’s always nice when the characters in books like to read!!
+some very cute scenes!
•
Cons
-just a little too cliche for my liking. it’s trashy but not in an overly horrible way
-i get irrationally mad whenever wuthering heights is mentioned in books (i really do not like that book and i had to read it TWICE for school)
-unnecessary girl on girl hate
-a tad repetitive
-i’m so so so tired of the miscommunication trope
-got kind of wild there for a second. i think it would have been better if it just stuck to being a cute rom com type book and didn’t try to do too much
•
Overall I think this book was a fast read! It isn’t too deep or serious and is nice for if you want a trashy read. It felt like a wattpad story so if you like that thing then you’ll like this book.

This book was such a fun read, and I thoroughly enjoyed it! The story follows two main characters and their romantic interests. I love how they included Bi and Pan in the book, as well as Lesbian and straight. Just a CW, there are some heavy and potentially triggering topics discussed in this book such as SA, slut shaming, and homophobia. These parts were however, written very well, and in a sensitive and real way, so that it was actually really moving for me. I thought that this book stayed relatively light even when discussing these heavier topics which made it feel like a fun and relaxed read for me. I personally found this book very similar to Her royal highness (Not that I'm complaining I absolutely loved that book) so if you enjoyed that book or Red White &Royal Blue you will probably love this book. I really enjoyed the relationships in this book, but I loved the depth of the characters, particularly with Noelle. She was written so beautifully, I felt like she was a real person who I can understand and empathize with rather than a "character in a book". I am certainly going to be looking out for any new books by Philline Harms in the future! Thank you for writing this book!