I have a growing love for books about reality TV and this one really delivered! The next book in this vein that I read will have really big shoes to fill.

Maya and Skye are going on the reality show Second-Chance Romance for various reasons. The show centers on Jordy--a "royal" by a few degrees thanks to his sister marrying a prince--who is going to reunite with his exes on television. Maya is hurting since she and Jordy dated; he went to Canada and cheated on her with Skye. Skye, a worldly traveler who is typically cautious with her own heart, had no idea about Maya, but still feels pain from her own breakup with Jordy.

This was a strange one. I always want to get behind any sort of LGBTQIAP+ story, for sure. This is billed as a teen/YA story, but it focuses on a bunch of girls on a reality show trying to win back their ex--all of which seemed a little old for YA, even if these girls were fairly young. There's already the ick factor of a bunch of women trying to win back a vapid guy who clearly has a bunch of exes and who doesn't seem like a particularly good person.

I wanted to root for Skye and Maya to get together, of course--who doesn't love the idea of the women falling for each other on the show instead of the featured cad? Sadly, there isn't a lot of character development in how the two develop their relationship. At first, they hate each other due to misunderstandings. Then they are together due to proximity. Then, viola, a relationship? Maya is tough to empathize with due to her focused hatred on Jordy and desire for revenge; I liked Skye a bit more. Jordy came across as almost too much of a 1-D villain. There wasn't a lot to work with here. The other girls competing had their moments, but it was hard to tell them apart sometimes. There was so much drama about Jordy that I found myself rolling my eyes.

I am a huge sap, so I liked the ending, which is why my rating is bumped up a little. Still, I wished I had seen more growth in Maya throughout the story.

A YA reality dating romcom about exes sounds really good, right? Yes! This book was cute but left a little bit to be desired. I liked Maya and Skye and the revenge plot line was great, I mean taking down your ex only to fall in love with the person you are doing it with? Love it. The negatives were that this felt like it wanted to be an adult book so bad, but the author is holed into only writing YA. That might not be the case at all, but it sure felt like it. Overall I would give this 3 stars! Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy of thi

See below for Goodreads synopsis:

It’s been two years since Maya's ex-boyfriend cheated on her, and she still can’t escape him: his sister married the crown prince of a minor European country and he captured hearts as her charming younger brother. If the world only knew the real Jordy, the manipulative liar who broke Maya’s heart.

Skye Kaplan was always cautious with her heart until Jordy said all the right things and earned her trust. Now his face is all over the media and Skye is still wondering why he stopped calling.

When Maya and Skye are invited to star on the reality dating show Second-Chance Romance, they’re whisked away to a beautiful mansion—along with four more of Jordy’s exes— to compete for his affections while the whole world watches. Skye wonders if she and Jordy can recapture the spark she knows they had, but Maya has other plans: exposing Jordy and getting revenge. As they navigate the competition, Skye and Maya discover that their real happily ever after is nothing they could have scripted.

I really liked that both of the povs were able to have their actions justifiable/understandable in whatever they doing (except a few things) and also that I could completely understand where they were coming from. I didn’t once think ‘oh my gosh why would they ever think to do that’ even if it was something I didn’t agree with. I also liked the reality tv aspect as I find media/fame books really fascinating. I didn’t like some of the miscommunication that went on towards the beginning of the book (though I understand why it needed to be drug out a little) I just wanted everyone to be friends right away which wasn’t that realistic. After the miscommunication got resolved I like that it became the two against the one. I also liked how in tune Maya was to one of the characters gaslighting or manipulation tactics and how Skye was still learning or coming to terms with it, it was nice to see both sides. I don’t love reading about manipulative people but when the people who are being manipulated realize it and fight back it’s a lot more enjoyable than the alternative.

Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced E-arc in exchange for a fair review!

"I don't want us to be nothing, because you're not nothing. You're a lot. You're a surprisingly large fraction of everything."

Sophie Gonzales has a way of twisting glamour like a knife. We first saw it in If This Gets Out, a dazzling mlm romance between two members of an internationally acclaimed boyband. In ITGO (a book I'm proud to have been part of the street team for), the main characters are exposed to the dark, manipulative underbelly of fame when their romance is crushed and stifled by a sinister management team. But where ITGO went big, Never Ever Getting Back Together goes even bigger — and in my opinion, better.

On the reality show Second-Chance Romance, Maya and Skye are under many thumbs at once: the two-faced producers, the other girls on set, even the show's prince charming (hell, especially the shows prince charming). But as the adage goes, pressure makes diamonds. Their relationship goes from fraught to fiercely loyal in a classic enemies-to-lovers arc, but it doesn't lose any of its luster to cliche or overfamiliarity. Really, it wields them — the book channels reality television in such an incredible way that it butts heads with the real thing in terms of jaw-dropping, gasp-inducing, armrest-grabbing drama. But oaring above all is these girls' unexpected devotion to each other, with a healthy dose of well-deserved character assassination on those who might raise their misogynist tongues against them. Revenge is a dish best made with love, after all.

If there's any romance you read from Gonzales, I'd choose this one. I already know a reality-television-obsessed bisexual l'm going to recommend this book to (Hi, Kristin!). And many thanks to Wednesday for reaching out to provide me an early copy via NetGalley.

I was really looking forward to this book after reading the description because I thought the premise had a lot of potential, but in the end, the characters were a bit flat for me, the young adult genre didn’t work well for the plot and I thought a lot of it was overdramatized despite the fact that the book focuses on a reality TV show.

I will acknowledge first that I don’t generally watch reality TV which could contribute to my difficulty suspending disbelief during so much of the novel, but I was really intrigued by the idea of two exes of the same guy ending up together. I also thought the book was well-structured, though the pace in the first half was very slow for me and I had to push myself to keep going until the story picked up in the second half.

I thought it was understandable that most of the conflict between Maya and Skye was contingent on Jordy's gaslighting and the fact that Maya and Skye never actually tried to talk it out, since you probably would not want to talk to someone your boyfriend cheated on you with, but Maya was so immature that after a while I started to get annoyed by it. While Maya’s focus on revenge was part of her character growth and something she eventually got past, I thought it just overshadowed everything else in the book too much and took away from my enjoyment of the story and her POV. I did like Skye’s POV more than Maya’s, but I thought that she also lacked personality, though I think that could also be in part because we just didn’t get as many Skye chapters. I didn’t think there was enough emotional depth to their backstories outside of their past with Jordy and I didn’t feel particularly drawn to care about them. I thought the way they communicated and interacted did feel like it fit the young adult genre because there was a base level of immaturity, but considering all of the contestants on the show were 18-20 years old, it didn’t feel right.

I also wanted to add as a side point that while the creation of Chalonne was creative, I don’t think it was necessary to make up a new country, language, food, customs, etc. I thought it was a distraction from the story and took up space that could have been dedicated to developing the characters better instead.

Thank you for the early copy in the exchange for an honest review!

This one didn’t quite work for me. I didn’t connect with the characters and I didn’t feel any chemistry between them. The story was predictable. I ended up skimming a lot. I was expecting more from the ending.

Sophie Gonzales was one of those authors who I was delighted to discover this year and I am so excited to see where she goes from here. Never Ever Getting Back Together is a fun sapphic enemies-to-lovers story that keeps readers entertained from the first page to the last.

Maya's ex-boyfriend cheated on her two years ago, then went on to charm the world when his sister married the crown prince of some European country or another. She's over him, but she wouldn't turn down the opportunity for revenge. Skye, meanwhile, never got over the boy who ghosted her after working his way past all of the walls she keeps around her heart. So when both of them are invited to compete on the reality dating show Second-Chance Romance for the opportunity to win back Jordy's heart, they jump at the opportunity - for very different reasons. Along the way, they'll find out that maybe a relationship with Jordy isn't the real prize, after all.

Gonzalez can absolutely write a delightful story. Maya is so witty and sharp (sometimes to her detriment) but so open with her heart, while Skye is her perfect counterpoint, kind and loving and so afraid to let people get too close. Their enemies-to-lovers story is perfect. Jordy, meanwhile, is the intolerable, insufferable asshole we all expect him to be. The setting of some random rented mansion surrounded by production for a TV show is delightfully hilarious to read about.

Genuinely the only downside for this story is that it felt like it could have been written as an NA book instead of YA. The idea of a bunch of teenagers in a mansion filming a Bachelor-esque reality show, but with all of the naughty bits only hinted at, just felt a little off.

I have enjoyed every single one of Sophie Gonzales’ books, this one being no exception. I love the character-building in her stories and the LGBTQ themes without shoving it down your throat. They are simply characters in the story. I eagerly anticipate each new book and have been thoroughly satisfied each time.

As a thank you to Wednesday Books, and Netgalley I’m sharing my thoughts on Sophie Gonzales' latest novel, Never Ever Getting Back Together. I reviewed the audiobook as well and listened to the novel while following along .The novel follows (Natalie Naudus and Barrie Kreinik) Maya and Skye and their path to rekindle a prior romance in a reality based television show. However, love is not a linear path and finds love for each other during the process. During the novel it often was difficult to distinguish them as their individual voices did not stand out. If the characters were to be aged a little perhaps in their late twenties would have been the premise of them returning to each other that much more captivating. The characters were teenagers when they met and does not allow enough time to have past for they to have grown as people. The novel was enjoyable but not one I would re-read like Gonzales past works. I gave this novel a 3 star on goodreads.

DNF at 50%. Thank you to Wednesday books and Netgalley for the advance reading copy. I loved the premise - two women competing for a man on a dating show but fall for each other instead. However, the execution just didn’t work for me and I wasn’t feeling connected. I would set it down and forget that I was reading it.

Thank you NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the ARC!

This one was a rollercoaster for me. A lot of ups and downs.

It wasn’t a bad book by any means, I think I’ll call it “user error” in that I’m definitely not in the demographic this story is meant for.

I enjoyed Skye, she was much more realistic and interesting. Maya was a bit cringey for the first half of the book. I just have a very difficult time imagining 18 year olds in this situation and even handling it how they did.

I adore Sophie Gonzales’ books, but this one was a bit of a miss for me.

If you love dating shows and drama this book is for you!

This was a cute love triangle story is was what would happen if the love triangle ditched the guy. This book is filled with that reality show style drama that so many people can’t get enough of. It’s your weekly guilty pleasure in book form.

A really well done enemies to lovers/romance novel. I really enjoyed the plot line and the reality show element of it. It was also a really fast read.

I really enjoyed this! It was an interesting idea, that a guy whose SISTER is with a prince is somehow this huge celebrity (sort of like Pippa Middleton) and he’s deserving of a reality show. And of course he’s not the picture that’s painted! I love the idea of this book. Some of it felt a little too fast and easy, but I still enjoyed it!

I really wanted to love this. Dating shows and LGBT representation, sign me up! Not to mention the title is a Taylor Swift song. Swoon. My main problem with the book is I couldnt tell if this was YA or new adult, the writing felt stilted and it just didn't work for me. I didn't really like any of the characters. I did like the dating show premise and thought the author did a great job at explaining how dating shows work. How they are toxic, isolating and .. fake. Although this wasnt a favorite I will look out for more by Sophie

I’m conflicted.. I really wanted to love this book, but I have some serious problems with it, is it YA? Is it Adult? 18 and has enough women to have a Bachelor type show? I just don’t buy into it, make them 28 and we have a different story, at least something I can believe, I like enjoy YA, but I guess I’m not ready for The Teenage Bachelor. All of that aside, I thought the characters were underdeveloped, and the story felt a little disjointed.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley which I voluntarily reviewed.

Girls getting revenge on their crappy ex and finding love?! What more can you ask for?? Never Ever Getting Back Together is a fun reality dating show story. Maya and Skye (told from both of their perspectives) are both ex’s of Jordy - the royal princess by marriage brother. They both decide to go on the show with different ideas on what they want/need from Jordy. Things go a bit crazy and feelings get tangled and you just fall in love with these characters ! So much fun and banter. Highly recommend

I adored this book!! This was a cover pick so I had no idea what it was about. My first thought was that it was Maya and Jordy rekindling their romance— then I met Jordy and was like ‘no way’. Skye was a fantastic character and I loved her dynamic with Maya, and their subsequent relationship. The characters really showed growth throughout this novel, which allowed them to start a healthy relationship together, free of the past.

And as I’m sure every reader does, I really liked how Jordy got what he deserved in the end.

3.75 stars ☆ The Taylor Swift reference <3. I don't have a lot to say about this book other than that I had so much fun reading this. Definitely recommend if you liked watching The Bachelor but make it sapphic. Skye and Maya are so so cute.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the ARC !!