4 stars

This was a fun YA read. I’ve always enjoyed books with boarding school/academic settings, so this one appealed immediately, and the contemporary story was fun and interesting. The protagonist was kind of the worst at times, but I was glad to see (some) character growth by the end of the novel. The ultimate conclusion was a bit of a surprise as I didn’t anticipate the direction the ending of the book was headed in, but I did enjoy it. It’s one that I’ll probably get a copy of in the future for my classroom library.

This was the first book I've read from this author and I really enjoyed it. The story was different from anything I've read recently and really captured my attention. It was so well written and the characters were fantastic.

Ok, I loved this so much. The characters and plot were ridiculously fun, the romance was adorable, the fake dating was done SO well, I’m honestly just obsessed.

This book has it all – rival boarding schools, prank wars, the aforementioned BRILLIANT fake dating (is it ok that I’m still falling for fictional high school characters??), a hilarious and wonderful friend group, as well as touching on some more serious topics.

A fun ride from start to finish, this is such a great example of why I still read YA as an adult. I highly recommend it!

Thank you so much Wednesday Books and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This May End Badly by Samantha Markum checked all my YA bucket list items: boarding school setting and fake dating trope. Throw in a prank war, and this one was super cute.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for sharing this book with me. All thoughts are my own.

This book was slow at times, but I found the cast of characters and the setting to be very immersive. Wells is my favorite type- misunderstood “bad boy”. He’s a quiet, book loving, never-know-what-he’s-thinking pretty boy who you can always find in a big red chair in a local book store. I mean COME ON. It doesn’t get better than that. Doe is incredibly flawed but somehow never comes across as insufferable. Her friend group is fun, if a bit underdeveloped. They all blend together a bit. The pranks are fun to read about, but there’s plenty of heart to be found as well. Watching Doe absolutely train wreck her life in a matter of weeks is heartbreaking but believable. I LOVE the present and supportive parents, who aren’t stereotyped as out-of-touch authoritative figures, but also are hands-off besties. I feel like that’s a hard find in most YA novels. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC to review!

If you loved Lily Anderson’s The Only Thing Worse Than Me Is You, I think you’ll love this witty, hilarious private school rivalry. Described in multiple early reviews as a fun, entertaining read, you might want to save this one for your Spring vacay–whether you take some time at home or go away– as it’s a perfect light read.

This was a cute book. There’s alot of characters to keep track of, but it gets easier as you go. I wasn’t sure how I felt about this book, but overall I enjoyed it!

A cute and very fun YA book about a punk war between two same-sex schools. There is fake dating, college pressure, rivals, and a pretty good indictment on same-sex schools in today's world. I had fun reading!

I could not tolerate all the “dick pick” talk. I ended up DNFing because of it. I think there was a strong premise but I’m not here for teens acting super whiny and overly sexual.

I love a solid fake dating romance! Set in academies, this book made me want to go back to high school! It felt a bit young for me though, which it is a YA novel so this makes sense. Great characters and while some of the pranks were juvenile, it was still a quick and fun read!

Okay I have to admit, as a YA romance I wasn’t expecting much, silly me I know, but this book blew all my expectations away. I loved the banter, I love loved Doe and her friends so much and I even loved her fake boyfriend overall this was a really cute read.

In Samantha Markum’s This May End Badly, Weston girl, Doe, and Winfield boy, Wells, agree to fake a relationship to one-up their nemesis and Well’s cousin, Three. It’s a wonderfully written merger of the fake dating and enemies-to-lovers romance trope with a dash of friends-to-lovers thrown in. Doe and Wells inadvertently become friends and catch feelings for each other while pretending to date to get under Three’s skin. Markum’s dynamic writing style, vibrant and detailed description, vivacious and colorful dialogue, and deftly developed fascinating, complex, and imperfect but likable characters draw you in and keep you glued to the pages.

Doe’s gifted at creating pranks to pull with her BFFs/Weston Girls, with whom she’s determined to win the century-long war against their rival boy’s school Winfield Academy before their senior year ends. Unfortunately, plans for The Weston School to merge with their rival next year cause their longtime feud to go into warp speed, spiraling the school and their lives into chaos. So, Doe sets out to prove that Weston girls and Winfield boys don’t mix to protect her haven, starting with her nemesis Three, Winfield’s boy king. She makes a deal with Wells, Three’s cousin, that he will fake date Doe to get under Three’s skin, and she’ll help Wells get his rightful family heirloom back from Three. To keep up her end of their agreement, Doe lies to her friends and family to keep their relationship secret. And once the pranks between their two schools escalate, Doe’s feelings for her fake boyfriend, Wells, become genuine and intense. Ultimately, Doe must choose between winning the school rivalry or joining forces with their rivals when a teacher the Weston students have always suspected of inappropriate behavior hurts a younger Weston girl.

I love Three and Doe’s fiery, snarky, adversarial, cute, emotional relationship, which simmers with chemistry. Markum develops/displays Three and Doe’s fantastic chemistry with delightful, sweet, funny interactions and intimate conversations. Doe exudes disdain for the boys in the Wells family and the Winfield boys in general and fierce protectiveness for the Weston School and its student body. On the other hand, Wells presents a low-key, laid-back, aloof façade to the world that leads them to believe he doesn’t care much about anything. Intelligent, laser-focused, and obsessive, Doe can be self-centered and is all about the Weston School—her safe haven after her parents divorced. Unfortunately, she misses so much in life and what’s going on with the people in her life. She’s a frustrating character because she tramples on people’s feelings in pursuit of her objectives/goals, even though her motives may be good. A handsome, intelligent, brooding player, Wells is a fascinating, likable character who’s deeper than he appears, making you wonder what’s going on with him. This May End Badly is Does’ story, rightfully told in her first-person POV. However, Markum’s portrayal and development of Three make you want to hear from his POV and learn more about him.

A funny, angsty, sweet, and entertaining YA romance, This May End Badly is a multilayered story. It explores themes of friendship, anxiety, stress, found families, bullies, dysfunctional families, sexism, sexual predators, sexual harassment, school rivalries, falling in love, self-discovery, and taking risks. I highly recommend the novel for fake dating, enemies-to-lovers/unlikely allies, capers/pranks, and YA/Teen romance fans.

CW: Sexual harassment/assault, abuse of power

Advanced review copy provided by Wednesday Books via Netgalley for review.

For one, I definitely feel too old for this type of YA story with prank wars and school pride dialed up to 11. That's fair enough; I'm not the target audience and it's okay for this book to not be for me. What added to my discomfort with it though was the strict enforcement of the gender binary by the main character, whose feminism very much felt like a TERFy kind of "boys bad, girls good". As a non-binary person, this made me feel unsafe to continue the book, so I decided to DNF it.

a fake dating, boarding school rivalry romance? say less!

Doe is entering her senior year at her beloved girls boarding school, looking forward to continuing to prank the enemy boys school with her close group of friends. that plan goes slightly awry though as they all find out that the two schools plan to merge the following year. doe teams up with the enemy, aka pretty rich boy wells to irritate his cousin three and to try to ruin the chances of the merge happening. along the way she makes some discoveries about herself, her school, her friends, her family, and her “relationship” that flip the world as she knew it upside down.

this was simultaneously a great ya romance, a fun rivalry story, a commentary on generational wealth, a coming of age and reflection on friendships and familial relationships, and a peek into student-led social justice that really never slowed down. i thoroughly enjoyed every second of it!!

TW: sexual assault, sexual assault of a minor.

I was given the opportunity to read this book thanks to the publisher and netgalley!

Overall, I enjoyed this read. It was a quick wonderful escape from reality. Between the fake dating, the found family, the girl power, the teamwork .. .etc There was so much happening, but it wrapped up nicely. In the novel we follow Doe as she completes her last year at Weston School (which is an all-girls boarding school) and she deals with the changes coming ahead. The Weston she knows, and loves is subject to change in a massive way when it combines with the Winfield Academy (the all-boys school across the road) and her greatest enemy at the time! Because of this upcoming change her prank work against the boys (a student known as Three in particular) becomes much more intense and internally important for her to win. But after students come forwards about a particular teacher and the SA Doe must decide if her war with Three is what is truly important or if protecting those who come after her at the school should be her priority. Add in there a fake romance (turned real romance) that is started simply to get under Three's skin. The complications of real family as well as found family and the relationships that develop within ones life.

This May End Badly by Samantha Markum is a fun read about two rival high school academies and the lengths the students will go to prank each other. There's also a very well-written fake dating trope. And, just enough sentimentality to make this a heartwarming read as well. Highly recommend! Thanks to NetGalley for the free digital review copy. All opinions are my own.

I was entirely prepared for the ending of this book but that doesn’t mean I enjoyed it any less. It’s the fake dating trope at its finest. With lots of quippy banter and a little bit of light spice, This May End Badly is well written and a wonderful read. The book does a great job of showcasing close friendships and a blended family model, as well as background queer characters. There are fun pranks and a more serious note, especially towards the end. Overall, the book is very well rounded and majorly enjoyable!

There is a lot going on, admittedly. Winfield and Weston are merging to form a co-ed school. To protest the merger, Doe comes up with even more pranks than ever before, escalating the rivalry between the two schools. Not only that, but it’s her senior year. She needs to apply to colleges and keep her grades up. Integrated with the prank war, Doe wants to play the ultimate prank on Three, her main rival/archnemesis at Winfield. She begins to date his cousin, Wells, both of them knowing it’s fake dating. Along with all that, Doe struggles to stay close to her friends as the prank war escalates while they’re experiencing their own problems. Plus, one of the teachers is extremely creepy, keeping girls after class or calling them into his office, alone, and intimidating him. Doe soon must decide if this prank war and preventing the merger is really at the top of her priority list, especially when her fellow girls may be in trouble.

The dialogue was spot on. I found myself grinning at the quips and snappiness of various interactions, as well as being surprised at the maturity displayed by Doe, especially. She wasn’t overly mature, but a person who had experienced some degree of hardship while also still being a teenager. I really liked her as a person and as a well written character. I would have liked a bit more with Doe’s best friends. They didn’t get enough of the spotlight, in my opinion. I wanted more of them hanging out or doing homework together. Just mundane things because they sounded like a really great group of people who didn’t get enough page time for my liking.

The hint of queer issues was much appreciated. Doe’s Dad is bisexual. And one of her best friends is queer, as well. Plus, there comes a discussion later about how exclusionary an all girls school can be for trans or non-binary characters, and others struggling with their gender identity. It’s not all encapsulating but did show an awareness of queer issues that many other young adult books don’t unless the main character is also queer.

I recommend this book to people who are fans of enemies to lovers and the fake dating trope. Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for this ARC, though I read it much later than intended!

Weston’s school for girls and Winfield’s academy has been in a prank war for a long time!
Then of course insert a prank master and she is ready for the win! When Doe finds out about about the plan to merge the 2 schools the following year her and her friends team up to try and stop that from happening!
This is a cute read! Lots of content and extras going on as well as the prank war. Definitely a fun contemporary YA!

This book ended up being a DNF. Rating is based solely on the content I did read. I ultimately found the pacing and development of the story and/or characters not engaging enough to continue on and finish the complete book. This was one I DNFd also due to certain content.

I really enjoyed reading this book, but looking back it's been so incredibly forgettable. Every time I see it, I'm like "have I read this?" I know I really enjoyed the aspect of the all girl's school and what it means to foresee this merger to create a co-ed institution. Working in a women's college, this was a really interesting topic that made me think, but I can't remember much else about this book.