What a delightful read! It is hard to find romance books that are not full of eye-rolling moments where the plot is predictable and the characters formed by a cookie cutter. This book was easy to read, yet its ideas were not shallow. From the first few pages, I knew this would be a book I would enjoy. Just a warning though. Dont start it late at night or you might find yourself reading way past your bedtime (speaking from personal experience)

Content warning: mention + description of sexual assault

Well, this was quite a let-down. I wanted to like <i>This May End Badly</i> (I really did!), but it just didn't work for me. All my favorite tropes were present in the novel: rivals to lovers, fake-dating, a boarding school setting with a fierce rivalry, and strong familial relationships plus friendships. It really did seem like the <i>perfect</i> summer read.

At the time.

I've seen other reviews that have given the book 5 stars and you know what? You might like it. At the beginning, I certainly loved it. However, the second half of the book drastically changed, both in terms of pacing and the characterization. I found myself feeling bored by the main romance and highly (!) surprised at how the initial sub-plot of sexual harassment by a teacher became the main focus in the last few chapters. Although I appreciated how it contributed to the overall plot, I still felt like it was barely present at the beginning and it sprung up on me, which I wasn't really expecting. I would definitely recommend having a look at the trigger warnings before reading the novel.

I admit, I went into the novel because of the romance, however the friendships and family dynamics compelled me to keep reading. I didn't really like Wells and Doe's chemistry (shocker, I know) and overall relationship, thus keeping me disinterested about their relationship for the entirety of the book. I especially grew fond of the interactions between Doe and her friends. The scene where Jade confronted Doe and told her that she was in the wrong while knowing that she could take her own decisions and overall having a healthy discussion was so important to me. Not a lot of books have that and I really appreciated how the author designed Jade to be a fiercely loyal friend who was ready to call Doe out on her shortcomings.

I also liked the interactions between Doe and her family, which sadly, I didn't get as much as I wanted. Again, the later half of the book really switched the pacing and Doe's priorities and I started disliking her more than I should. I could see a character growth from her, but it just didn't excuse her past actions with Wells and her friends. I also found the last bit to be quite convenient for the plot and Doe to learn her "true" priorities.

I also liked each character's individuality and how they were able to enhance the narrative. They were complex and made me want to root for each of them! Again, they were side-lined towards the end and I found myself cringing with the abundant page time of Wells and Doe. It was a strong start with a weak finish imo.

In a nutshell, I need to stop glorifying a book to such an extent that it fails to deliver on said expectations. I do think this a good debut and the author has an interesting writing style. It's just that this novel didn't quite work for me like I thought it would.

This book is about an all girls boarding school which Doe attends and their rival with the all boys boarding school across the road. I was pleasantly surprised when I was wrong about where I thought things were going with Doe and Three. Sometimes books are predictable, and this one for the most part wasn't. Overall I really liked this book and would recommend it to other readers.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ any book that I read start to finish in one day gets 5 stars, that’s just the rule, and I am so pleased to be giving “This May End Badly” by Samantha Markum all 5 stars! This story centers around Doe, a boarding school senior who fiercely loves her school, and despises her rivals…the boys in the school across the street. So when the schools announce a merger, Doe takes it VERY personally. This is a really fun book with excellent pranks, important lessons, and great dialogue. I love YA books but I’ve found the dialogue and the subject matter is NOT what happens in actual real life high schools, but this one was spot on. Bad choices, fumbling conversations, fights between friends, Markum got it all correct!

“You shouldn’t learn to want girls to be safe when you get a sister. You should just want it. Because everyone deserves to be safe.” Thank you to @netgalley for providing me this eARC in exchange for this honest, unbiased feedback #bookstagram #netgalley #netgalleyreads #netgalleyreviewer #thismayendbadly #samanthamarkum #speedreader #bookworm

This book was a really great read! The fake dating relationship was well done, and I loved the characters. The writing style sucked me in and left me wanting to know what would happen to Doe and her friends. I loved the pranks and thought that the playfulness in them added a great dimension to the novel. I will say that this one ended up being a little “heavier” than I was expecting. For a book that began so lighthearted, I was surprised with some of the big topics that were tackled. The author wrote about them in way that really made me think , but the way the girls handled the problem in the book made me a little uncomfortable. Otherwise, I thought this was a great read! Thank you to Net Galley for the eARC of this book!

This book was adorable, empowering and relatable.

I absolutely loved the fake dating trope and the added enemies to lovers because honestly, who can resist that? Also pranks between rival boarding schools? Classic!

I absolutely loved the friendship that Doe’s friend group had. They were all so supportive of each other and completely honest. Even when it was hard. The women empowerment promoted by the students was heartwarming to see.

Doe and Wells were adorable together and I honestly can’t get enough. I do wish we would have gotten a more solid ending for their relationship.

I also loved the discussions about gender and identity and how people don’t fit in one box or the other when it comes to gender.

The characters were all frustrating at times but they are definitely lovable.


Thank you to Netgalley for sending me this ARC for an honest review! :)

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for providing me with an early copy of the book for review!

4.5/5

I ended up liking this book much more than I thought I would! Usually in contemporary books, I find that a lot of the characters can be very unlikeable, but not in this one.

I really like Doe as a main character, and even though she has her flaws, I loved seeing her development throughout the book and her actually learning from her mistakes instead of continuing to make them. I also surprisingly like the fake dating trope, and Doe and Wells were no exception. I've been finding that recently, a lot of the love interests in books similar to this one often aren't able to stand out on their own, but Wells does perfectly.

I always love when the love interest in a book also has their own problems outside of the relationship with the main character, and I think Samantha Markum does this exceptionally well, bit just with Wells, but with Doe too. Though Doe made some questionable choices in this book, I still really enjoyed her as a character, and found myself rooting for her at every turn.

This book had me laughing, crying, and sitting on the edge of my seat. Every emotion coursed through me while reading and as my first NetGalley ARC, it was such an amazing start. I can't wait to buy a physical copy when the book comes out in April!

A huge thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for providing me an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

This book was a ton of fun to read. I'm a sucker for the fake dating trope, and snarky Doe and swoony Wells had all my love from the get-go. Both characters were flawed but loveable; they acted like teenagers but weren't unbearably immature the way contemporary YA characters often are. I particularly liked Doe's group of friends, especially the way they held her accountable for her (increasingly) poor decisions. And the pranks, though they were clearly out of hand at times, were hilarious.

I also loved that this was set in the Midwest. I read so much stuff set in New York and LA, and as a Midwestern girl, it's fun to see my little (big) corner of the world in fiction. I knew right away that Doe was from St. Louis when she mentioned Provel cheese (I don't think anyone from anywhere else voluntarily eats that stuff), and the discussion with her aunt over Christmas about schools was so incredibly St. Louis that it had me laughing. Also, boarding school stories are a fave of mine, and having one that wasn't on the East Coast was pretty neat.

Overall, the romantic plotline and Doe's character arc are a solid 5 stars for me. The only thing I waffled on is the ultimate resolution of the sexual misconduct plot thread. I will not go into detail so as to avoid any spoilers, but I was not a huge fan of the way Doe and her friends chose to handle that. Then I remembered that they're teenagers. Whether or not it's a good model for other teens to follow (probably not), I think they did what they believed they had to do.

I'm looking forward to more from this author!

What's not to love! Boarding school rivalries, friendships, first loves and school wide sit ins.....cause you can put a girl in an all female school but you can't keep her from pouring gallons of oil in the boys dorm.

This was a great read. From the start, the book included diverse characters that were authentic and true to themselves. While there is Roman e in the book, this story was more about forgiveness—between friends, family, and for yourself. There are several positive messages throughout this book that would be uplifting to any young adult. I would recommend this for young adults everywhere.

3 Stars.

Doe, short for Dorothy, is a senior at Weston, an all-girls boarding school. Doe is the leader of her pack, and continues on with the century-long war of the school next-door, Winfield, which is an all-boys school. Both groups play pranks on one another. Lots of teenage drama and bubbling hormones.This all changes/vamps up though when the school board announces that next year the two schools will be merging.

This book was cute, but I wasn't a fan of the foul language and the repeated mentioning of a box of condoms. A little too immature for my taste.

I really enjoyed this young adulation novel. I loved the plot line and I also could connect to the characters. I highly recommend this book.

This began as a very lighthearted read that I was super interested in because I am a sucker for fake dating and rivalries but as the book went on I saw how much more there was to it! The cast of characters Markum creates is expansive and they all have such interesting personalities! Doe is a great leading lady with SO much development that I loved!!! Wells was also just the sweetest ever and I was rooting for him from the beginning!! Doe and Wells banter and chemistry just absolutely pulled me in!! I loved them both individually and while at the start the sparks were there I LOVED seeing them develop their feelings into a couple that I just absolutely adored. I do like how the author tackled many issues in todays society but, this can be a bit tricky regarding inappropriate behavior of a teacher. I see the reasoning with how the characters are and how this was used as a rallying event for the friend groups but I held my breath for a few moments as this played out.
Overall, I think this is a great read and a fantastic coming of age book that I can see a lot of YA readers relating to!!!

Special Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press / Wednesday Books for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange for my honest review!

This book was well plotted and the characterizations were spot on. Because of this skill, it basically hides the medicine in the candy quite well. The prank war and fake dating trope are fun ways to draw readers in to the serious issues that the writer addresses that girls coming-of-age in the 21st century need to consider. One of the main points involves a teacher who essentially abuses his position of trust. I got chills reading this arc of the book because of how realistically it played out with the teacher, students, and admin to the point I wondered if the author had connections at my school. The book also addresses how important it is to have men at the table for the discussion of women's opportunities and rights and boundaries. One of the ideas that has been experimented with recently is breaking classes up by gender (again) as a means of improving instruction. This book addresses the pros and cons of both.The main character, Dorothy nicknamed Doe, is VERY intense and dogged. It's her most endearing trait but also her most exhausting one. Also, her last name is Saltpeter, which is nicely symbolic because she is a firecracker and she does have a certain emasculating edge to her. But I just can't read "saltpeter" without giggling.

It has been a HOT SECOND since I read a YA contemporary I liked this much!!! Doe is the most delightful main character. She's funny and intelligent and strong and stubborn and the worst, sometimes. But when she's the worst this book holds her accountable which is awesome. Messy main characters are why we do fiction.

Something else that stuck out to me here is the amazing knack for teens Markum has. Doe's voice never feels weird or out of place or like an adult is writing her. She sounds like a teenager, and acts like one. Specifically the way the characters cursed and spoke about sex was just. Pretty great. And I point this out because it tends to be what authors struggle with the most. Markum never once falters.

This book also nails it with diversity! There are tons of LGBT characters (I specifically loved how Doe's dad is bi just because we never get that in any book!!!! It's awesome!!!), characters from a variety of backgrounds (Shawn is Jewish!!!!!! I feel seen!!!). And when issues of homophobia and racism come up, they're treated with real, deliberate care. I see a lot of authors who write contemporary and try to side step racism and homophobia and sexism etc in their work, because it's easier than facing them head on. Well, Markum wastes no time. We love to see it.

Besides the crafty stuff I mentioned above, TMEB is such a soulful book. At the heart of it is Doe's relationship with her friend group, which was so beautiful and so real. These girls really love each other, which isn't always perfect adoration. Sometimes it's telling your friend what they need to hear, even if they don't want to hear it.

And, as a final point, I'd be remiss not to mention Doe's relationship with Wells. These two--they're adorable. I was always rooting for them.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for letting me get my hands on this book! I can't wait to see what the author brings us next!

It’s a tragedy of our age: media just isn’t fun anymore. Teen movies and shows are dark and gritty, and YA books have followed in the same direction. Bestsellers like Six of Crows currently dominate the genre, and that isn’t to say Leigh Bardugo’s masterpiece didn’t deserve its success, only that teens’ priorities have changed. But I’d be lying through my teeth if I didn’t say I miss the heartwarming teen romcom days of the late 90s and early 00s.

This May End Badly feels like its skeleton was made from that era, with the bones of a boarding school setting, a bitter girls vs boys rivalry, a moving friend group, and a love interest who reads smutty romance novels for the girl he’s supposed to be fake-dating.

Doe is a senior at the Weston School, an all-girls institution that has been her safe haven since her parents’ divorce. She and her friends are the most notorious pranksters at Weston, frequently pulling one over Winfield Academy, the boys’ school across the street and Weston’s longtime rival. Doe’s world falls upside down when she learns Weston and Winfield are going to merge to become a single school, and she acts in desperation: she strikes a bargain with Wells, cousin of Winfield’s kingpin and her archenemy: they’ll pretend to be a couple so that Doe can irritate Three, Wells’s cousin, and in return she’ll help him recover a family heirloom. As their lie gets deeper and the schools get closer to merging, Doe has to cement her priorities in place once and for all: the school she’s given her heart to, or the future she’s been refusing to imagine.

This book was a ridiculous amount of fun. I finished it in the span of one day, adrenaline rushing through me as I sped to find out what happened next. Doe is a refreshing character, and one who is all too relatable to the high schooler of today in a world that wants us to grow up and figure it all out when it feels like we’re still kids. Her mistakes don’t feel like character flaws, but instead like lessons we learn along with her.

A pivotal moment in the story — and Doe’s realization as a character — comes when a freshman at Weston confides in her about the inappropriate behavior of their gym teacher. When this was first hinted at earlier in the book, I was a little concerned, fearing that it would be treated as a footnote or a punchline and then ignored for the rest of the novel. However, when this was instead presented as the climax, I could sit back and breathe. Obviously, I won’t go into detail (find out for yourself when the book comes out in April), but the way Doe and the characters around her react to this revelation was a satisfying culmination to both their individual development and the development of the bond between them.

After rereading my advanced copy as many times as I’m allowed, I’m going to run straight to Barnes & Noble to preorder a physical copy of This May End Badly, and if you haven’t done so yet, what on earth are you waiting for?

This book was okay. It was really hard for this book to keep my attention. Not the worst book I’ve read but definitely not the best. 2 stars from me, unfortunately.

this was such a cute book. i loved it so much, it had me in tears and laughing at the same time! definitely highly recommend

My thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review. Fake dating! Boarding school! Pranks! Samantha Markum weaves a delightful story of the girls at Weston trying to stop the merger with the boys school across the street. The pranks are fun, the banter wonderful, and the friendships strong, but it's not all light-hearted. Markum also addresses predatory behavior of adults in these teens lives in a very real and honest way.

This May End Badly is a very fun story about a war between private schools. One a men's only and one a women's only. The war is prompted by mostly two students (one on each side) and their friends help them out as well as a decades long feud. I loved the dynamics of this story, the men vs women aspect and the romance all bundled together.

There are some really great points made about segregation based on gender, feminist beliefs, and what it means to support other people regardless of anything specific aspect about them. Beyond the social aspects there are also some really epic pranks, great dialogue, funny moments, friendships that last a lift time, and heart.

I thought the story line was predictable, and seemed to follow a common outline. That being said it didn't interfere with my enjoyment of the story as I couldn't put this book down. I really enjoyed the romance and the building of the relationship as well as the aspect of the schools and students. I would like another story in this world in which more antics and pranks are played but maybe this time in college!

Solid characters + a fun plot + a hint of relevant social commentary = A great read.

I received an ARC from NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and the author and I am leaving an honest review.