I can see why everyone says that this book is hilarious—it is quite funny!! However, some of the characters and the storyline fell flat for me. I don't think the premise is a good fit for YA, and it would have been much more believable to me if the characters were adults. Thanks to Netgalley for sending me an advance copy in exchange for my honest review!

Thank you so much @WednesdayBooks & @NetGalley for giving me this ARC in exchange for my honest and unbiased review (Release Date | 29 November 2022)

SYNOPSIS | Jordy has been selected as the eligible bachelor for a second chance reality tv show where the goal is to rekindle the spark with his ex-girlfriends. Maya is one of those ex's & she was devastated when Jordy cheated on her with Skye. Skye thought they had broken up & also fell for Jordy, but he ghosted her. The girls are forced to room together & battle it out to win Jordy's affection again.

WHAT I LIKED:
- had very similar vibes to The Charm Offensive
- I'm a sucker for a reality tv romance show plot line (I'm currently binging Love Island & having the best time)

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
- Maya & Skye's relationship just didn't make sense to me. They have very little in common apart from both sharing the same ex-boyfriend & I didn't find myself rooting for them.
- it's also kind of odd that a teenage boy has so many ex-girlfriends (I think the characters should have been aged up to their mid 20s for the premise of this plot to make sense)
- there is a lot of girls hating on other girls which I could have done without
- Jordy is obviously cast as the villain but he truly had no redeeming qualities

I'm not at all a reality-tv watcher, but this behind the scenes look was really fun. The concept is fantastic - bringing the ex-girlfriends of one guy onto the show with him to see who can rekindle a romance, and then having two of them fall for each other is the love triangle resolution we all want to see (well, in addition to giving the jerk what he deserves). This is a laugh-out-loud drama-filled queer romance with an ending that made me want to cheer. Thanks to Netgalley and Wednesday Books for the advance digital copy!

This is a hard one. The story itself is cute, but the ages of the MCs threw me off a LOT. None of it seemed realistic for someone just out of high school. I think the book would have felt a LOT more natural if the characters were in their mid to late 20s.

This was a cute, fun quick paced romance book that I got through pretty quickly. Enemies to lovers/friends to lovers isn't really my typical trope but I really enjoyed this! It gave me "The Bachelor" vibes. Can't wait to read other novels by Sophie Gonzales.

Never Ever Getting Back Together mixed the best of the reality-tv dating show genre (a new trend in romcoms) and the second chance love story, with an amazing twist. It was fun, breezy, and the characters were great. I highly recommend it!

I really, really loved this book. I definitely didn't spend all of my free time reading this book today instead of being productive. I just couldn't put it down. Definitely one of my favorite reality show novels. And I do love me a good reality show novel so that's really saying something.
I loved how it was so different than other books in this genre. All the twists and turns, the character development, the relationships between the girls, it was all amazing.
I loved how the author wrote the relationships between the girls especially. The fact that the book started with all of them hating each other, all of the rumors that were spread around, what they thought happened that conflicted with what actually happened. It was all amazing, I'm 100% going to do a reread.
Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for an eARC copy of this novel.

4.25/5 stars

This was an absolute romp of a read. Super funny and had me laughing so much. I do this thing where I go into books knowing very little and this one surprised me! A really unique premise, loved the setting of a reality tv show. Great bisexual rep. Literally tho, the most disgusting man I’ve ever read Jordy - like you want to strangle him this entire book (that's the point tho). Taylor Swift song for this one (besides the obvious) is Vigilante Shit “picture me thick as thieves with your ex wife”

1.5/5 🌶️

Content Warnings: Misogyny, Infidelity, Alcohol, Sexism, and Gaslighting
If you don’t like reading about self centered asshole men, then you might wanna skip this one. This man is… woo yeah 🔪

If you like drama filled TV shows like Love is Blind and the Bachelor then you will seriously love this book. The dual POV of Maya and Skye create an interesting perspective and will have you laughing and feeling all warm and fuzzy throughout the whole thing! I'm also a sucker for the dating show aspect lol

Well, Sophie Gonzales has done it again. She's made me care about an admittedly pretty bland YA contemporary story full of privileged characters simply because she is THAT good of a writer and particularly because she writes bisexual teenagers VERY well.

Eighteen-year-old Maya and Skye go on a brand-new reality TV show called Second Chance Romance, supposedly to win back their ex, Jordy, who is now somewhat famous because his sister married a prince. Skye has fond memories of Jordy and actually thinks this might work. Maya is still furious at Jordy for cheating on her (with Skye, no less) and plans to reject and humiliate him on TV. Nothing goes quite the way anyone expects after Maya and Skye are forced to sleep in the same room and start bonding.

If you enjoy reality TV show stories, sapphics getting revenge on their horrible exes, and well-written bisexual teenagers on the upper end of YA, I definitely recommend this one.

I do wish some of the side characters had been more developed and that Maya and Skye had been given more distinct aesthetics. I'm really sick of how many sapphic couples are two thin feminine cis white women with different hair colors. Sophie Gonzales please write some trans and/or gender nonconforming sapphics!

Content warnings: toxic relationship, gaslighting, cheating, misogyny, biphobia, car accident

Never Ever Getting Back Together follows Maya and Skye, ex-girlfriends of Jordy - a now semi famous guy due to the fact that his sister married a royal. Maya, who dated Jordy for two years, agreed to join with only one thing in mind: revenge. The flaw in her plan? She didn't expect to meet Skye, the girl that Jordy cheated on her with, and to find that not only did Skye not know she was the other woman, but that also - sparks would fly between them when Maya met her. This is a story of love and friendship and how far you're willing to go - or not - for someone you love.

From the perfect Taylor homage in the title to the Bachelor references, I was hooked right from the start. This is a hysterical take on the Bachelor and it me laugh AND pulled at my heartstrings - two things I love to see in a book. This is my favorite of Goncalves' books so far! The love story between Maya and Skye and watching their relationship grow made it impossible to put this one down. I loved the conversations about bisexuality and the Queer rep and I can always trust Goncalves to delve into the subject in a real and honest way.

A huge thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for this eARC in exchange for my honest review!!

Maya wasn’t expecting her ex to contact her since they haven’t been together for two years, or that it would be a dating show for a second chance at love.

She plans on going to seek revenge and show the world the kind of cheating womanizer he is. When he orchestrates her to room with the woman he cheated on her with Skye she was angry. However the more they get to know each other the more their feelings start to grow.

The reality show was a fun setting, the antics and dates were hilarious, the cheating ex was a total jerk and deserved so much more revenge, and the relationship with Maya and Skye was sweet.

My only criticism is that the age was a little off for me. Being 18 I just couldn’t believe the romances being that deep especially Maya since she was 16 when they dated. I wish there were more mid 20’s for it to be a bit more believable. Otherwise it was a fun, closed door romance with bi-representation.

This was a fantastic, fun read that I swept right through. I love a good growing up story, and this fits into that category (at least in my mind). A fun read to share with others!

I'm usually not a fan of Sophie Gonzalez, but when I received this ARC, I knew I had to read it. I love the Swift references, and loved the plot, but it wasn't anything special in the rom-com scene. Poor publishing time too, because I feel like there are so many good queer holiday rom-com books coming out recently.

I loved the premise of the story (contestants on a reality dating show falling for each other), but I just found the age of the characters to be implausible. It seems unlikely that a show would cast teenagers for a "second chance romance" show, and their decisions and actions seemed too mature for people just out of high school. It was enjoyable enough, I just had a really hard time getting past that fact.

This was such a cute, fun and refreshing young adult romance.

Maya was humiliated years ago by her high profile ex boyfriend when he cheated on her and then made it appear as if she was a crazy ex girlfriend. She's finally moving forward when she's contacted to participate in a show where her ex, Jordy is meeting many of his former girlfriends to see if he missed something along the way with one of them. Basically it's like The Bachelor only the contestants are former girlfriends. Maya agrees to it because she believes she can prove to the public that Jordy isn't the nice guy everyone believes. What Maya doesn't count on is having to share the show with another of Jordy's girlfriends - - Skye - - the one he cheated on her with. She can't stand Skye at first and then she finds that she's drawn to her.

There are many twists and turns as Maya tries to salvage her image along the way. She makes friends and enemies. It's a fun storyline and an easy read.

AUDIOBOOK: The narration was wonderful. I thought it lent itself to the story and made it even more enjoyable for me. Some stories work better in audio that others. This one definitely works well. 4 stars

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. I voluntarily chose to read and review it and the opinions contained within are my own.

Thanks NetGalley!

I was really excited for this book, i loved the cover and the story was great though it could have been more developed. Overall an enjoyable read.

Rounded up from 3.5-3.75 stars

I love books that have a dating show premise and the premise of this one is one that I would absolutely watch! Exes coming on a show to date their ex for a second chance romance, but they fall in love with one another instead!

Maya and Skye were great MCs and I did enjoy seeing their respective arcs. The rest of the girls were great, but I wish we got to know them more outside of being Jordy's exes. But Jordy was the perfect villain throughout. And I wish we would have gotten a bit more at the end with the fallout Jordy had to face and more of Maya and Skye figuring things out.

I want to preface this by saying that I love YA but it was hard to envision the characters barely being 18+ and wish they would have been even just a few years older.

This was an absolutely delightful take on the reality-TV dating show. I love a good Hallmark-movie style faux-European country too. I think all of the female characters had distinct personalities and I enjoyed that they weren't "perfect". Perfect for rom-com fans, and anyone who has ever binge-watched "The Bachelor".

I received an ARC copy from St Martins Press and Wednesday books. Thank you! All thought are my own.

This book right here sucked me in. I was half way through the book in a day. Maya and Skye are the main characters that have a point of view in this book. Maya and Skye are both ex's to the Jordy Miller. Who has become popular due to his sister dating royalty. A realty tv series called Second-Chance Romance which is essentially like the bachelor only the "bachelor" has like 6 of their ex's come on the show and they try to rekindle the love they once had. Maya decides she is only going on the show to get revenge. She knows that Jordy cheated on her with Skye (another contestant). They both are enemies at the beginning because each of them believe the other is in the wrong. However, just as men sometimes do...they forget that women talk. They were able to understand where their miscommunication was at, now they just want to bring revenge on Jordy. Will they succeed? Will someone still find love? This is must read for those who love the realty tv drama. I mostly just loved the girl power.

Read if you enjoy:
Enemies to lovers
LGBTQ+ Representation
Girl Power
The Bachelor/bachelorette

Content: heavy profanity, heavy make outs, gaslighting, cheating, lies