Thank you to Wednesday Books for this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I was not expecting This May End Badly. I'm not sure what I originally thought about this book when I requested it, but I ended up being pleasantly surprised. This book is FUN.

It's coming of age, with school rivalries, a prank war, fake dating, found family, mental health rep + awareness, fight the patriarchy and more.

Also A+ for all the Midwestern rep in this!

I loved this prank-filled YA story of rival boarding schools! The characters felt real and there wasn't drama for drama's sake. Markum writes great banter and the romance was perfect appropriate for my young teens to read as well. (They also adored the book!)

Thanks to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for the copy to review.

CW: sexual assault, predatory behavior, underage drinking,

A rivalry between Weston School and Winfield Academy has been going on for some time. As their senior year winds down, Doe and her friends are determined to end the war, to win the war. But, when their headmistresses announces that the rival schools are going to merge next year everything gets out of control. Doe forms a plan to make sure that everyone sees how they don't mix, therefore can't merge that makes things even more complicated.

When this first started, I didn't know if this was going to be for me. While the pranks were a little humorous, it really was reading like a younger YA novel. Eventually, there was a turn that made it read a little older and I had a lot better time. In the end, I did end up enjoying this.

Doe is truly a disaster. She’s incredibly focused on the prank war and really nothing else. This is part of the struggle I had for a long time. She’s so focused on the prank war that it seemed like there was nothing else to her. But, she’s a determined character and she really had the chance to grow through the story. I loved watching her battle with what people told her and reflecting on it to see what she did need to do better.

Part of what made Doe so great were her friends. They are loyal to one another and really look out for one another. The best thing about their relationship is that they aren’t afraid to call one another out. If they saw one of them doing something shitty, they took the time to call them out. They encouraged one another to grow and be better and I loved seeing that.

The romance was good. There was certainly some tension that budded up between them. It’s not the romance I was suspecting when there was such tension with another character, but this turned out to be sweet. They were good together. He was good for Doe and really helped balance her out as well just as she did for him. They were pretty complimentary towards one another.

Now, what I struggled with in this book was the amount of topics that it was trying to hit and talk about. There are the conversations about the struggles that a kid could go through with divorce and one of their parents coming out. There is the coming of age discussions as well as friendship and fake dating drama. A couple of talks about inclusion and how maybe they aren’t being inclusive and need to think about it. That alone is a lot to process and talk about.

But, then there is another plot point that comes in. It had been hinted at the whole time, but I didn’t think anything would come of it, but it did. It felt way out of place. This plot alone could have been an entirely different novel and I think it should have been. I think it would have allowed it the proper space to breathe and be fleshed out to where it didn’t feel so rushed.

While the ending did put a little bit of a damper on things, I do think this was an entertaining novel. There is a lot of character throughout it and fun.

Thank you to St Martin's Press, Wednesday Books, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
This May End Badly takes place at an all-girls boarding school, across the street from a longstanding rival all-boys boarding school - I love a good school setting for a YA book! The schools announce their upcoming merger once students are back on campus, and students from both sides of the rivalry are up in arms. There is a fun fake-dating piece to the plot which I enjoyed. While that sounds light and fluffy, there are some serious topics that are handled, such as family drama and an inappropriate teacher. I thought it was well done, and I will be recommending this one to my students to check out!

This May End Badly takes place at two boarding schools: both gender specific, both filled with rivals. Doe and her female friends plan some outlandish pranks on the boys school, including dating Wes: her nemesis's cousin. Dorothy is set on making sure that the schools DO NOT merge. But is merging schools the worst thing they could happen to her?

Samantha Markum's debut is a well written take on young female empowerment, taking a stand and fighting for what you want. She crafts her characters to connect, even the side characters. While This May End Badly may not seem like a love story, it has a romantic subplot. I would recommend this story to anyone who enjoys young adult books set in boarding schools or books with a cast of characters.

A very cool plot and well executed! I will say there were somethings that could have been omitted and the story would still have been just as good!

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review!

If you're a fan of enemies to lovers and fake romance tropes, but you also want to read about teen romance, this one might be for you. There is also a subplot of banding together for the greater good that I enjoyed. The dynamics between the characters seemed a bit off to me throughout this book, as I couldn't really reconcile the age of the characters with the language and interactions. I suppose it might be because they are at a boarding school, so take on a more adult lifestyle. I don't know. This book was ok but it wasn't particularly impactful.

Give me all of the boarding school drama. Prank wars? Check. Fake dating? Check. Witty banter? Check. But teacher and harassment? Gah. I get it. Authority figures do wrong. They do. It’s in the news a sickening amount, but… argh. I hate that it was all so quickly rectified by the kids. In reality, that’s *not* reality. At all. It’s probably as realistic as the witty repartee is between adolescents, but I hare seeing the myth of swift execution of justice perpetuated.

This book! It made me laugh, it made me tear up, it made me swoon. I just wanted to give Doe a big hug the whole time I was reading, The way she was attached to the school and how it played into her understanding of herself was so relatable and I loved her journey. And Wells! And Three! I also loved the emphasis on friendship in this book. It’s just a delightful story with a whole lot of heart and some excellent pranks.

I grabbed this YA read from Net Galley because I need to chase away my winter (New England) doldrums. I loved this story - part romance - and the someimtes hilarious things that ensued. YA novels are really for all ages! Thanks for sharing this one with me.

The blurb for this book had me intrigued but after reading this book I was left with too many questions.
There was too many storylines going on in this book and I felt it confused the reader on what was going on.
A good idea but wish it was more contained to one plot line.

Thank you to netgalley for providing an e-galley for review. This May End Badly was a cute introduction to some of the issues that same gendered schools deal with and how things could possibly change, some for the better and some for the worse. Doe and her group of friends from Weston Academy are in a prank war with a group of boys from Winfield Academy and have been since freshman year. As she finds out, some things are more important than pranks as her friendships grow and change senior year. While the characters names were a bit on the nose, this was a light hearted book that dealt with very heavy subjects.

In this fun YA romance, the girls of Weston School are constantly at war with the Winfield Academy boys. Their prank war is put to a halt though, when the schools find out they are merging at the end of the school year. Doe wants nothing to do with Winfield and is determined to keep the school open at any cost.

This was a fun book! Fake dating plus prank wars was right up my alley. The book was well written and I loved Doe's set of friends. The dynamic between the two schools was cutthroat, with places in town marked as Winfield territory or Weston territory. I loved watching the romance between Doe and Wells develop and there were some twists and turns along the way that I didn't see coming! The book also had a great tone of acceptance and inclusion, which is important, especially in YA books.

Who doesn’t love a good prank war? This story is funny. The pranks are good. The main character, she was hard to like. A little obsessive, self involved, and at times unlikeable. There are some redeeming qualities as she finds herself but the story fell short.

I went into this book expecting a fun lighthearted romp and was pleasantly surprised to find quite a lot of depth.

I love how messy Doe was. People, especially teenagers, are incredibly messy and I feel like it’s rare for a writer to strike the right balance of a character being realistically flawed and still being someone you want to read about and root for but Samantha Markum did that incredibly well here with Doe. Doe was selfish and oblivious and stubborn and I loved her for it.

The highlight of this book was definitely the relationship. I went back to look at my bookmarks and highlighted passages when writing this review and almost all of my bookmarks were interactions between Doe and Wells.

I loved so many things about this: Doe’s father being bisexual, that Doe has anger issues and they aren’t demonized, the close knit friendship group between the girls. One thing I really loved was that Doe was called out on her privilege and she recognizes it. She’s so desperate to keep the school as it is because it’s always been such a safe haven for her but that doesn’t mean it always has been for everyone else. And a character rightfully calls her out for this privileged way of thinking.

I’ve seen a few people say that they felt the predatory teacher storyline was out of place but personally I disagree. The seeds of this teacher being predatory were planted early on in the novel and a full realization/expose happened as the book progressed.

When I was in high school an alumni started a Facebook page called “You Know You Go To [Name of School] When…” and one of the most popular posts on that page was one talking about how an assistant principal used to always demand to read girl’s shirts to make sure they were appropriate. We joked about it, and similar things, like it, because it was better than facing the scarier reality: that he might actually harm us or was already harming other girls. The predatory teacher storyline felt all too accurate in my experience and didn’t feel out of place at all to me.

I also saw some criticism of the girls not going to their parents about the predatory teacher and I’d like to gently remind everyone that these girls are in a boarding school almost all year round. The people they’re closest to are each other and many of them likely don’t spend very much time with their families. It’s natural for them to feel more comfortable sharing these experiences with their classmates rather than parental figures. Especially when it’s sadly all too likely that some parents would blame the girls and not the teacher.

There were just a few things that kept me from giving this five stars.

The first was that there was definitely some sexual tension between Doe and Three. Multiple people comment on it, including Doe’s friends and Wells, but nothing ever comes of it. I’m not sure if the author really planned for this to have a love triangle and then decided against it but it felt like an odd choice.

The second was Wells. While we got a lot of him and Doe’s relationship (which I loved!) I feel like we didn’t really get to know much about him. We know everything about Doe but by the end of the book I could still only tell you the same things I knew about Wells at the beginning of the novel: he’s pretty and he likes books. There is one instance where we get a little bit of insight into Wells (and Three’s) character and relationship but it’s mainly just one paragraph of vaguely info-dumpy exposition.

But overall this was a highly enjoyable read and one I can definitely see myself not only recommending but reading again, which is something I rarely do, so it’s quite the compliment! I’ll definitely be picking up the next thing Samantha Markum comes out with!

Fans of fake dating tropes will adore this one I certainly didi! A fun, witty, charming story that takes on serious topics such as bulling & sexual assault,
It also has it's light fun and laugh out loud moments.
There has been a long standing rivalry between the boys and girls boarding schools which will be merging as you can imagine this setup for a brilliant story that's excellently written.
Doe and Wells are both characters that are worth reading about.

Seriously, I’m gushing over how great this story is! The boarding school setting, prank wars, fake dating, and the witty banter! Yes and yes! Highly recommend. Doe & Wells 4 eva!

Sincere thanks to NetGalley, St Martins Press and Wednesday Books for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

TW: SA and Predator teacher.
I didn't get the hype around this initially, but after reading this, I SEE IT!

Okay, please bare with me. I know this is in America, and they are seniors, but I got a less intense St. Trinian's! So if you've seen that film, you'll like this; add the accents in your mind, lol.

Doe, you are a mess. I love it, but damn she was a mess with decision making and not being a hypocrite a lot of the time. She was too dependent on the school rivalry and winning and keeping her safe space the EXCAT same she didn't take into account other feelings and used her friends. I saw how she got like that, and I liked her getting called out and having to grovel.

I saw the clue and the lead-up, and I wish it hadn't gone that route, but it was the path the writer chose. I know it was resolved at the end, but with everything we had in the story, it was a shock wave and held it in a pause from a cute fake dating book to a serious matter. But I get it as it tied the school together and got them to work together.

Overall I liked the book, and I mainly chose to remove that part from the book to enjoy it more fully.

SIDE NOTE, WHY DID I SEE THE PULL BETWEEN DOE AND THREE JUST AS MUCH! Couldn't there have been something there? I saw something, and I wanted that explore more!

I have very mixed feelings about this book. If I could I would rate this book at 3.5 stars instead of a flat 3. In the end, I did end up enjoying and the lessons that Doe learned were so valuable and good for most people to hear. On the other hand, the start was very slow for me and I had a hard to time feeling connected to Doe and some of her actions early on. All in all it was a good read but definitely not a book I will go back to read.

THIS MAY END BADLY is one of my new all-time favorite YA contemporary novels.

First, the romance and characters. I loved the strong characters in this story. Everyone felt so unique and well developed and it created for a story that was anything but plain. Doe's squad of friends were amazing characters, and I also loved the entire family behind Wells (well, not as people, but as developed characters). The author did amazing at making everyone distinct and to make the side characters feel real. One thing I hate in books is when the side characters only exist to be around the main character. However, that was not the case at all here! It felt truly authentic and real.

And the romance? AMAZING. The romance between Wells and Doe gave me butterflies throughout the entire novel. Their will they / won't they chemistry was off the pages. There was also a scene where Doe drew on his arm and I was almost in tears - it was so sweet and cute. I was cheering for them to get together the entire book!

This book has fantastic boarding school and small town vibes. If you're a fan of books being set at schools, then this is one you definitely don't want to miss out on!

The last thing that really impressed me with this novel was the pranks. I've read plenty of books before that featured a prank war, and sometimes I'm not sure how new or fresh that idea will be. However, Samantha Markum did an amazing job thinking of unique pranks to feature in this book. I was never able to guess their ideas and loved how original it felt!

Anyways, I loved this book a lot and am so excited to keep reading books by Samantha Markum in the future!