This book was absolutely hilarious! I loved it and will be reading it again and again. It was a bit of an easy read, so I recommend to high school freshmen for sure. But overall, I loved the character development and the world building. The reader will fall in love with and alongside these characters on this hilarious ride through a long standing rivalry.

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫/5

This May End Badly checked all the boxes of a YA book I love getting caught up in. A tight night girl group, a “rival” group of boys that the girls have a love/hate relationship with, an elite boarding school, drama, and secret romances.

As I was reading this book, I kept getting Gossip Girl vibes with a hint of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before vibes 💎

This May End Badly is set to come out in 2022 & you’ll want to add this to your TBR pile! 📖 Thank you Net Galley for the advanced copy!

P.S. I was *very* close to giving this a solid 4/5, but I felt like I wanted more in certain parts of the story with a few relationships and plot lines.

At first I really didn’t like Doe, she came off as immature and childish. She didn’t care who she hurt in the process of her pranks. She made terrible choices, burned a lot of bridges and had her careless, carefree attitude came off as rude to her friends. I get that her life was challenging but it made me think that she was using her pranks as a defense mechanism and I wanted to see so much more depth from her character. Fortunately, I got that character development I craved in the second half of the book.

At first, I didn’t like her and Wells being together because it seemed unfair to him to be used as a pawn in her fake relationship revenge prank. He was a good guy and I didn’t like seeing him get caught up in her schemes. Eventually, as she matured through the book it seemed to be a better fit as she started realizing life isn’t one big joke.

Trigger warnings, there is sexual assault by a teacher. I enjoyed the concept of being able to put aside past disagreements and look past differences to come together when it really matters to help someone in need. Unfortunately, I found it a little problematic that the teens didn’t tell authorities or even other adults like their parents about the sexual assault because they didn’t think they would be believed. I get the point the author was making for the sake of the plot and also that often times in real life assault survivors aren’t believed or taken seriously but it still is a tricky message to send to young readers.

In all it was a lighthearted read at first then got a bit darker and deeper in the end. It was a story about personal growth and friendship and is one many young readers will enjoy.

First I want to say thank you so much to the publisher -St. Martin’s/Wednesday books & NetGalley for an advanced ecopy! My first ever ARC! I’m still so excited.

This book was a pretty good read honestly not as light hearted as I thought it was going to be. Of course it had it’s moments which were very fun and sweet. I really liked that Doe was such a strong character even if she was single minded at times and that got her in trouble. She was passionate about what she believed in. I also enjoyed the fake dating scheme though I didn’t really understand why it’d make Three so mad, the entire rivalry between Doe & Three I found to be poorly explained beyond just the school rivalry. I did really like the relationship Doe & Wells ended up building i found myself awwing out loud at some of their cute moments and really liked the circle of friends and other side characters. I wasn’t fully expecting the storyline involving Mr. Tully and I’m not sure I love how it was handled however it makes sense given who Doe is. Overall I enjoyed the ending and thought that it was well written. It’s a good read if you want something easy.

This was kind of a mixed bag for me. From the blurb I guess I was expecting a bit more from the romance and rivalry and although the characters were relatable I also didn’t connect with them fully but understood some of their actions.

Doe is the main character and only one that has a point-of-view in the book. Her life is a bit messy when it comes to friends and the rivalry between schools. The book does a great job of showing how a person can take something and let it consume them while other parts of their life like relationships get burned because of it. Although it was hard for me to connect with her I could still see why she would make certain choices even if she was being selfish in the process. We all do that at some point but Doe’s journey also shows what it’s like to reevaluate and grow as well.

Wells was a good guy and I do kind of wish he had his own point-of-view because of the rivalry even though he wasn’t big on it. There are many side characters and some shine more than others. It was good to see the friendships that Doe had be a big part of the book. The Three was interesting and definitely gave us the petty drama we needed.

The romance between Doe and Wells was good but it also didn’t have me rooting for them or anything. I think that a lot of the other plot points overshadowed the development between them. I did think the fake dating was interesting touch though and I’m glad that it worked out by the end.

(Trigger Warning: Sexual Assault)

The one major thing I didn’t like about the book was the plot point that involved sexual assault by a teacher/advisor. I actually wasn’t expecting this when starting the book because it just seemed like a fun read. However, in the beginning this specific teacher, Tully, is mentioned and then doesn’t reappear until later to start the big climax of the book where both schools students come together to get him fired. I really don’t think that this specific plot point was needed and the book could have focused on the other aspects a bit more like the romance. The students also didn’t go to the authorities or headmaster right away in fear that they wouldn’t be believed. I know that things like this do happen and I feel like accusations like this are taken more seriously now than a few years ago. I don’t really agree with how the students went about it but it is what it is. Like I said, it’s not a very big plot point.

Overall, this was a good book for the most part. I can see a lot of teens being able to relate to the characters and enjoying the humor the book has to offer.

I'm honestly completely mixed on this books. It has excellent characterization, with a romance and story that I couldn't put down. But there's also a things that I think promote some problematic ideas to it's young audience, something that is multiplied due to the setting and the seriousness of a lot of the themes.

Starting from the plot/characters themselves, I hate but also appreciate the character of Doe. One of my favorite moments in the book is where she makes up and apologizes to a girl who she had vilified before because of her stance on the merger. I think that in a book like this, villifying other girls within the school or attempting to reduce. character to an antagonist completely out for the MC just because she wants boys to merge with the schools. I adore the character's actual motivations and the commentaries that they created about the pros and cons of gendered schools, especially for girls, as they do create opportunities and have female-exclusive funding and programs to help girls, but also the way that it can exclude trans-girls who come out after the deadline, non-binary or gender-fluid folks, or trans boys who come out while enrolled. It leads to larger questions on the inclusivity of feminism and feminist institutions. Anyways, Dee also has many of my least favorite moments in the stories,
"Doe, you're making a lot of bad decisions, and it hurts to watch"
This book gave me so much second-hand embarrassment for this girl and I also screamed a lot because the decisions she was making... they were selfish, they were wrong, and I hated them. But at the same time, I could also understand where she was coming from. Doe isn't a bad person, let me say that, she has understandable motivations and in theory, I can understand how she came to a lot of the conclusions that she did. The thing I appreciate though is that she receives serious consequences and the people around her react negatively AS THEY SHOULD. However, we don't actually get to read about her experience with these consequences, and the people around her, especially her friends forgive right after the consequences occur (I do appreciate that the author acknowledges it takes time though, I believe the time skip period was a couple of months.)


Her friends forgive her because of the seriousness of a problem they're facing in the school. One that takes all of them to fix... which brings me to my other problem with the book. The self-help sexual assault plot line. Now, this is a bit of a spoiler, but the climax of the book deals with a teacher who has sexually assaulted or manipulated several of the female students at this all-girl school. Now, while I kind of appreciated the way how the girls realized they should put aside their grudges or personal problems in order to deal with a serious problem within their school, I think the portrayal of their solution and of those involved is problematic. The book makes it seem as if it is impossible to approach the administration or the teachers as they will either brush it aside or ignore the severity of the problem. For the majority of schools, this isn't true. A portrayal of schools or adults as people unwilling to help and the idea that students must take it upon themselves to solve problems like this is unrealistic and sets terrible expectations or ideas. While there are exceptions, children should be proactive but they aren't responsible and shouldn't take problems like these upon themselves, by themselves. Also there is a figure in the administration who seemed to have covered it up, but uh why? Like this would just grow into a bigger problem, both within the school and PR-wise.

But this book is an adorable romance and it's fun, fast, and the writing is incredible. I also really loved the characterization and the girl on girl relationships portrayed in this book.

“ʏᴏᴜ’ʀᴇ ᴍᴀᴋɪɴɢ ʙᴀᴅ ᴅᴇᴄɪꜱɪᴏɴꜱ, ᴅᴏᴇ. ɪᴛ’ꜱ ʜᴀʀᴅ ᴛᴏ ᴡᴀᴛᴄʜ.”

If ever a quote summed up my feelings about a book, it's this one.

Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Faking dating? Enemies to lovers? Boarding school drama? I was sold at first description and the cover was super cute, however this was not my cup of tea. 3/5 stars.

Full disclosure time- I was the lone Jew in my Catholic high school, which I attended because I was being bullied at public school. This inevitably lead to a strange relationship with several teachers, though thankfully not of the type that caused one teacher to be fired and have a public breakdown. 2 teachers were later charged with sexual misconduct and as recently as last year there was a sexual abuse charge against the Hockey coach, so perhaps the story lines hit too close to home and I didn't like it?
Overall I found the main character to be a pathological liar who hurts those around her and doesn't care because all of her priorities were wrong. I COULDN'T ROOT FOR HER.
Some 11th hour action saved the book and brought it from 2 to 3 stars.
Wells is a precious cinnamon roll who not only deserved better, he deserved more. I wish he, and Shawn, and Christian got more to do. I felt we barely knew them, though I liked what we got. The side characters who were not Virginia, Beth, Doe, or anyone in authority were fun and interesting. For a book about friendship it would've been nice to see more of that. I really didn't understand how Doe had friends at all. It just wasn't for me this time.

This book single-handedly reignited my love for YA romance. For something that I picked up on a whim, I am surprised, but ecstatic that I enjoyed it so much.

This May End Badly follows Doe, a boarding school girl who loves to pull pranks with her friends. Their main target: the male boarding school next door. When Doe begins to realize it is her senior year, and the Weston School that she has dedicated her past four years to may be facing some drastic changes, she decides to hit the her nemesis and prank war adversary where it hurts, with his own family. But when a fake dating plan with his cousin begins to spark real feelings, Doe finds herself over her head.

This book has so many buzzwords that I love in a good YA. Faking dating - check. Boarding schools - check. A strong friendship group - check. While it follows in the footsteps of many stories before it, it remains unique in the humor and complicity of relationships. Not only romantic, but familial relationships and friendships as well. Every character felt flushed out and different from one another. The friends especially were their own people apart from Doe, which I loved. Wells was also a great character. If you're looking for a bookish, but cheeky book boyfriend to fawn over, look no further. That being said, Doe was easily my favorite character. She reminded me a lot of myself when I was graduating college, and I think a lot of young readers will be able to relate or learn from her.

This book was so much fun, but there are also some serious topics that readers should be aware of before reading. Anyone sensitive to abuse, sexual harassment, and grooming should do some more research before picking this up. But if you are a reader who is comfortable with these topics, I highly recommend you pick it up when it releases.

(TW for mentions of sexual harassment)

I received access to this book through NetGalley for an honest review. And in a nutshell? I really enjoyed this book! I would give it either 3.5 or 4/5 stars. I love a cute romance and, even more, when it includes a little bit of conflict (also? girl power!). I also love genuine representations of humans. We make mistakes and bad decisions and have to learn from them. It was definitely worth the read for me (I read it in about one day).

Doe has been a student at The Weston School (an all-girls school) since her parents' divorce left her making some questionable choices at her previous school. Weston took her in, gave her a place to grow, and let her make new friends while finding new opportunities. However, there's a prank war that's been going on between their rival (and all-boys) school, Winfield Academy, for years. Doe has made it her mission to end and win the prank war against Winfield, specifically against her nemesis, Three.

But when she finds out that The Weston School and Winfield Academy are merging next year, things escalate a little farther than their innocent prank war. She cares about nothing else but making sure that The Weston School doesn't merge with the academy. Her final plan (as she's a senior) to end the war and make sure she wins includes Three's cousin, Wells. Wells has some family drama of his own, and together they create a plan to fake date to get under Three's skin for Doe, and to get a family heirloom back for Wells.

In the midst of the prank war drama and trying to figure out if Three liked Doe or was just agitated by her entire existence or not, the reader learns of a teacher who makes the majority of The Weston School uncomfortable. While this book is a pretty light read, humorous, and a YA romance, it also has that mention of sexual harassment (even if not super directly). When "This May End Badly" dives into the part of the book about the teacher's inappropriate behavior (and a brief conflict with a fellow Weston Girl), I got major "Moxie" by Jennifer Mathieu vibes. This isn't a bad thing, though! I think it was relatively well done and got the message across by the end.

My only criticism for this book (that will probably be solved with a reread) is I don't really know when the relationship between Wells and Doe became genuine. I think that we could have used more of Doe talking about how she was beginning to like him and how that complicated things.

"This May End Badly" discusses coping with change, advocating for what's right and for yourself, the importance of asking for help, and working together, and it does it all with a cute romance added in. It's definitely on my list to buy a physical copy of when it's released next year!

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for letting me read a copy for a review.

I couldn't finish this one. I think this book is definitely a good fit for some people. If you like game dating, prep school environment, you may really like this. I couldn't get into it

Boarding school rivalries and fake dating trope... winning combination! I really enjoyed this story and the flawed main characters. The story had a lot of differen layers and I enjoyed the way the romance and antagonistic behaviors progressed throughout. Quick wit and challenging moments made this a fast read for me and I'll be looking for more by this author. Thank you netgalley for this arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

***Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review***
An all-girls school faces off against the rival all-boys school until they realize they're going to be merging. Can they set their differences aside to join forces against a predator among the staff?

Boarding school rivalries and romance make this a fun read. The characters are interesting, the dialogue is snappy, and the issues addressed are timely.

My thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

This YA novel, set in an historic prep school is by turns charming AND alarming. The pranks that the students of the rival schools pull are indeed hilarious. However, one of the side stories - a teacher who is preying on vulnerable young female students - greatly perturbed me. In fact, this part of the story evaded and thwarted any attempts I could ever possibly make to suspend my disbelief and support the decisions and actions of the student ringleaders. In short, the female students eventually band together with the male students of the opposing school to expose this teacher's evil doings.

Spoiler alert - which I am not going to hide because this is a very serious issue. When the parents of these girls asked their daughters REPEATEDLY why they hadn't come to them for help about this "sexual predator," I was right there with them, totally dumbfounded and appalled. This "self-help" story line is a very bad precedent to set for young teens. No teen should EVER feel or believe that their concerns about sexual misconduct by a teacher will not be heard. This is criminal behaviour on the part of a teacher, and a gross breach of trust. This is a matter for a police investigation. The flimsy - in my opinion - excuse for not involving their parents or the police (that they girls didn't want the parents to "over-react" and pull the girls from the school and endanger its existence) just horrified me.

Yes, great, their actions unified the majority of the warring female and male students (solidarity forever!) and there was hell to pay, but I am not comfortable with ANY of this. I also couldn't help thinking that soliciting all those letters from past students could actually hurt a police investigation. These letters could be attacked by a defense attorney as attention-seeking attempts to join the crazy, mixed up protest that would go viral when, or if, it aired on the internet. So many things were just so wrong with this part of the story.

Despite the excellent writing and characterization, I'm only rating this YA novel a 2.95 out of 5.

It has a great hook in the beginning of the book, its interesting, and I overall liked this book. Its fast pasted, has amazing tropes, and so much more. I would most definitely recommend this book to anyone and everyone, though its a great book it does not compare to my favorite books of which get 5 stars which is the only reason of why this was given 4. I can not wait to buy the physical copy when it is to come out.

If there was any way to pre-order a million copies of this book or camp out at the bookstore until the release day I would. It was that good! This May End Badly is the spectacular debut novel by Samantha Markum about The Weston School- an all-girls boarding school- and its epic prank war with its rival, the Winfield School for Boys. But when it is revealed that a male teacher is sexually harassing girls on Weston’s campus, the Weston Girls and Winfield Boys must put aside their rivalry to protect both their schools and their fellow students. This May End Badly tackles themes of identity, sexual assault, and sexual harassment, all while providing an exuberant and entertaining story. Markum balances heavier topics with fast-paced humor in a delicate balance that most writers fail to achieve. Readers of any demographic will leave feeling empowered by Doe and her friends’ accomplishments. I enjoyed the setting of boarding school, I think it’s every kid’s dream to be whisked away to a boarding school and plan shenanigans like these. My only critiques of the novel are that some character introductions felt too rushed. It was difficult to keep up with who’s who for a while. Also, I wished there had been more emphasis on acknowledging the privilege these characters have, especially in their pranking. While these characters are pranking experts who never get caught, they do hold major wealth and racial privilege that allows them to get away with most of their pranks. All in all, This May End Badly was a fantastic read and I can’t wait for its release in April. Book? Pre-Ordered.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It was fast paced and contained most of my favorite tropes and I also adored the author’s writing. If you’re looking for a easy and fast paced book to get you out of a reading slump this book is perfect for it. I give it a solid 4/5 stars. I would have liked this book even more if we had gotten more backstories on three and his family.
Overall I really liked this book and I’m definitely looking forward to purchasing a physical copy!

arc provided by netgalley. wow, when i started the book i really didn’t expect it to be this good. i thought it would just be a cute romance but it was so much more!! fake dating? rivalry between schools? boarding school? light academia? it has so many good tropes. you should definitely check the trigger warnings before reading it tho. but overall it was really great and i really loved how it has a touch of comedy! i also really enjoyed the writing.

I thought that overall this book was really great! It had some of my favorite tropes- fake dating, enemies to lovers, found family, etc. I also loved the boarding school/prank wars vibe! It felt pretty realistic and reminiscent of my high school experience to a degree. I also thought the characters were really great- they were all flawed, including the narrator, so at times you were really frustrated with her but understood that she is a high school girl that is learning and growing. I also LOVED Wells!!! I did find myself skimming some parts but I liked how it touched on some serious and difficult topics. This was a nice easy read- will make a great beach book!

Doe is a senior at the Weston Academy, an all-girls boarding school. Doe and her group of friends have been working hard to keep the prank war going with the all-boys boarding school across the street, Winfield Academy. Things start off with the traditional pranks and fun until the headmistress announces that Weston and Winfield will be merging into one school starting the following school year. This breaks Doe's heart since she has come to see Weston as her safe place after her parents' difficult divorce. Now even more determined to win the century-long prank war, Doe decides to strike back at her nemesis, Three, by acting like she is dating his cousin, Wells. Pretty soon, Doe finds that her "fake" feelings for Wells are turning into real ones. She also starts to see how her desire to win at all costs is starting to cost her more than she realizes, including her close group of friends. When a freshman reaches out to Doe for help, Doe comes to realize that there are more important things in life than simply winning a prank war and she decides to use the skills she gained from pulling pranks to help all the students, both past and future, find a safe place at Weston. Such a well written and fun novel!