This book is the title of a Taylor Swift song that I rock to all the time and this book is something that I am absolutely rocking aka loving! Taylor Swift’s song is a pretty perfect fit for the start of this book and if I had a song to choose of hers to continue on after, it would be Lover and London Boy. Maya and Skye (and all the others girls) were really hot, smart, cool girl vibes and the friendship that grew into a relationship between Maya and Skye really played a big part in making this book fabulous! Sophie Gonzales is now one of my favorite authors in the rom-com area! Bottoms up to her and Never Ever Getting Back Together!

Maya is invited to go on a bachelor-style dating show where her and a group of other girls will compete for the affection of one man: their shared ex-boyfriend. She decides to go, not to find love, but to destroy his reputation from the inside. When she meets Skye, the girl Jordy cheated on her with, they get off to an understandably rocky start. This book shows, however, that love can bloom in unlikely places.

As much as I liked this book, it was definitely a bit young for me. I went into this not knowing it was a YA novel, and that's on me! I thought that the characters were going to be in their 20s and 30s, when in reality they are all under 20 years old. So, if teen romances are a no-go for you, keep that in mind! Nevertheless, I do truly recommend this book; it was light, fluffy, and sweet, and played directly into my desire for bachelor-style rom com plots. There is a pretty minor eleventh-hour conflict between the main couple, and while it feels trite, it is absolutely something that I could see a couple of 18-year-olds having a spat about. I loved the character development we see in both Maya and Skye (who both get turns narrating), but found that their relationship moved extremely fast and got WAY too serious at a pace that I felt was unrealistic. I would have liked it to have been a bit more drawn out, but I guess things do move fast when you're sharing a room and have no connection with outside society!

This absolutely isn't a problem with the book, but Maya talking about the University of Connecticut like it is some kind of prestigious stuffy Ivy League university made me crack up. I'm a UConn alumna, and while it IS an amazing school, it is ALSO absolutely a party school (which Maya claims that it is not). Again, absolutely not a problem or critique, just something I found funny considering my personal knowledge on the school.

Overall, I gave this book 4/5 stars. I love the recent surge of queer rom coms, especially YA queer rom coms, as it it a genre I feel like gets relatively under-published and under-marketed. Queer youth deserve to have their cute and cheesy romances as much as their straight peers do, and I know I would have LOVED seeing myself represented like this when I was in middle- or high school. I took a star off for pacing reasons, but still truly did love the plot and the characters in it. To be perfectly honest, it reminded me of what could have been in The Selection if America and Marlee got together instead of the plot focusing on silly love triangle with the two boys (and also if it wasn't a dystopian fiction LOL). I would recommend this book to anyone that likes The Bachelor and cotton-candy-sweet queer romances.

Thank you to Sophie, Wednesday Books, and Netgalley for an advance copy of Never Ever Getting Back Together.

Jordy is practically royalty thanks to his sister marrying a European prince, and oh, does he know it. He’s attractive and always knows the right things to say. But he has a string of failed romances under his belt and when an opportunity arises to bring his exes onto a reality show where he re-dates them all to see if there is a potential second chance romance, he jumps at the chance.

Maya had her heart broken by Jordy, cheated on by him and left in the dust as he found a new girlfriend to flaunt on his social media. Skye, the next girl up let her guard down and gave Jordy a chance only to be ghosted by him a few months later. Both girls agree to come onto the show - one for revenge, one for answers and the potential for a rekindled romance - and neither expects the outcome they get.

This was a cute and fun YA romcom. I love a reality show setting and I love a social media influence in books and this had both. If it wasn’t right in the blurb that the girls end up falling for each other, I don’t know that I would’ve seen that coming. But this ending up being a queer enemies to lovers with a male exboyfriend as the springboard to get us to that point. It was quite honestly an enemies to frenemies, enemies to friends, enemies to friends to enemies story. A little bit of everything, no matter your trope preference.

Maya and Skye were both likable despite being very different people. Both a little guarded in their own way, different personalities but both big personalities, it was fun to watch their dynamic and the changes they went through together. The supporting characters were a lot of fun, and of course the whole setting was created in a way to keep the plot moving even when our MC’s were not interacting with each other or Jordy. I loved the scenes of being in the house in between dates and competing; the girls with their niceties and performing even when cameras weren’t around, it was very realistic to what we’ve seen on TV in these types of shows..

Anyone who has read a YA Contemporary/RomCom review from me before will know that I can be very critical of the characters, but I have no significant complaints about this one - super enjoyable!

This took me back to The Charm Offensive, but only in the sense that it happens during a reality TV show too, all else was quite different.

Maya and Skye are two of Jordy’s six ex-girlfriends invited to the Second-Chance Romance show where they are supposed to compete for Jordy’s affection while the world watches. Skye is there to try and reconnect with Jordy and perhaps find their lost spark that felt so real at the time. Maya is there for a completely different reason, revenge. She wants to expose the true Jordy, not the famous sweetheart the media knows, but the cheating condescending piece of sh*t that he is.

Maya and Skye’s animosity starts even before they meet. Well, it’s mostly Maya’s animosity towards Skye, in the beginning. The thing is, Jordy got together with Skye after Maya (at least that’s the public version), but the truth is that they were still together for a couple of months there and Maya knows the truth, while Skye doesn’t. What is worst? They have to share a room (I’m sensing a forced proximity trope lurking in here, besides the obvious enemies to lovers). Eventually, they start getting close and join forces towards a common goal.

I really enjoyed seeing the girls having a good time together. With the exception of Maya and Skye having their conflicts in the beginning, which decided the group a bit, the girls were trying to know each other and being friendly. It’s nice not having the stereotype of women b*tching about each other just to be mean or making themselves feel better.

I will be honest that some of the plot choices were somewhat confusing to me. Like, what were the reasons behind the choice of the winner? I don’t really get it, but it makes sense when it comes to the romance part of the book.

I loved the bi representation here. It always makes me happy to see bi characters, and this book gave us not one but two bisexual MCs.

I enjoyed the sass, banter, looks, the fun, kisses, and much more. I liked how some issues, like abandonment issues, were brought up and dealt with. Moreover, I also enjoyed how the MCs were brought together in the end. All in all, a great time!

I enjoyed the sass, banter, looks, the fun, kisses, and much more. I liked how some issues, like abandonment issues, were brought up and dealt with. Moreover, I also enjoyed how the MCs were brought together in the end. All in all, a great time!

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing this eARC.

I adore Sophie Gonzales romcoms, and this latest book is no exception! She writes characters that are likable and relatable, I found myself rooting for both Maya AND Skye as they enter this unusual reality show competition to win back their mutual ex-boyfriend Jordy. I loved the dialogue throughout, and I found myself laughing out loud quite a bit.

This is a really fun read combining a lot of common romcom themes - will they or won't they, enemies-to-lovers, second chances, and the potential for many different love triangles with the reality TV setting.

This might sound like a lot, but she makes it all work! The book is full of humor as the competing women work to make themselves stand out in the competition, while they also find themselves supporting each other in their quest.

This is a great read out just in time for the holidays! Highly recommend if you enjoy contemporary reads, romcoms, feel-good books, LGBTQ, or strong female characters.

2.5 out of 5 stars

Thank you to Wednesday Books abd Netgalley an eARC to review!

I’m gonna be honest here: this was a miss for me. The premise is great and I was really hoping to be wow’ed by the fresh concept, but unfortunately, I wasn’t the target audience. It’s not so much a “this book was not good”, but rather, “I didn’t personally like this book.” I think it’ll hit more for younger audiences, and maybe people who like reality TV a bit more.

The characters were fine, if a little unmemorable, but I didn’t feel like the main couple had any chemistry, and I felt like they were a tad bit insta-lovey.

You win some, you lose some. 🤷‍♀️ If you like reality TV, such as Love Island, and are a fan of cheesy rom-coms, though, you might really like this book and it would be worth it to give it a try!

Never Ever Getting Back Together is super witty and laugh-out-loud funny. The writing of Gonzales is engaging, and it was a breeze to get through. Although the premise was what hooked me in, I definitely enjoyed the novel due to the writing style.

As mentioned, the premise is what hooked me in initially - one guy's two ex-girlfriends meet up as contestants on a reality dating show and fall in love. Although the premise is great, I thought the execution was a tad off-base. Firstly, Skye and Maya's romance stems heavily from their shared dislike of the ex - Jordy - which I found slightly off-putting. They barely talk of anything but the ex for the duration of this novel. Due to this, I couldn't feel the romantic connection between them. Another contributing factor to the lack of connection felt was the way they initially hook up. It all happened super quickly - to the point where I wondered how I missed the romantic build up between them. It felt a bit too quick to form and contrived, which was a shame as I think a bit more flirting and engagement without mentioning Jordy would've cemented their romance.

All in all, it's a fun and funny read. Definitely recommended if you like your YA with an intriguing and crazy premise.

Many thanks to Netgalley, St. Martin's Press and Wednesday Books for a copy of this novel. ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

While this is labeled YA, it kind of feels as though it should be changed to NA, and the ages of the characters adjusted up slightly.

I had a hard time with the first part of this book, Maya comes off as very unlikable. And the amount of wine seemed very excessive.

Overall it fell mostly flat for me, the timeline of the book was over 6ish weeks, but we kept jumping ahead one week at a time, which felt a little disjointed.

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for an eArc of Never Ever Getting Back Together by Sophie Gonzales.

Let's be real - this is the love story many of us queer people want to see on a dating show. Maya has been burned by her ex, Jordy. He cheated on her for two months then spun the story to make her look like a crazy, jealous ex-girlfriend who couldn't accept when he moved on. So when she gets a call asking her to be on a reality TV show designed for Jordy to reconnect with his exes and see which is the "one the got away," Maya obviously wants nothing to do with it. At least until she realizes that this is her chance to tell her side of the story.

Skye knows all about Maya. But what she doesn't know is that Jordy was cheating on Maya with Skye. Skye thinks Jordy can do no wrong and believes him when he says that Maya is a woman scorned. She's invited on the show and jumps at the chance to reconnect with Jordy.

Naturally, the two of them end up rooming together. Things are off to a rough start when the other girls start picking sides. However, soon enough, the truth about Jordy comes out. Each girl has their reason for being there and not surprisingly, most of them are not there for Jordy.

Both girls have so much to bond over and both identify as not straight, so it's no surprise that a romance blooms between the two of them. They make it to the final round and a difficult decision has to be made by one of the girls: the woman she loves or revenge on Jordy.

This book kept me hooked most of the read and I would definitely recommend it. The only reason it doesn't get 5 stars from me is because the characters are just so young. I would've appreciated characters even just a little bit older. I just couldn't get behind the whole idea of these girls who dated Jordy when they were like 16 going on a show at 20 to find true love.

This book was okay but I really hoped it was adult books. I think this story would've been better with adult women and men and more adult conversations. The love story was cute and the plot was wonderfully unique.

This story is told in first person dual point of view from Maya and Skye. While I normally don’t care for revenge themes or reality dating shows, I’ve enjoyed this author’s novels in the past and thought I would give this one a try. The story immediately pulled me in. I enjoyed hearing about the “dates” and the backstage reasoning behind most of the choices being made by the production team. The backstage stuff was fascinating from the way they twisted all the girls’ original dating stories to the competitions that supposedly played to a particular competitor’s strength.

The characters were fun, snarky and emotional. Jordy’s self-absorption and manipulations were both humorous and unpleasant. I loved the comradery that most of the contestants settled into once the initial cattiness was out of the way. There was female strength and character growth flying all over the place. If I had a quibble, it was that there were only 6 contestants and while that seems like it would make a rather limited series, it also seemed like a lot considering their age. Fun and entertaining!

Thank you to Netgalley and Wednesday Books for a copy provided for an honest review.

I highly recommend this to fans of rom-coms and trashy reality shows! There were some inside jokes that continued throughout the story that had me laughing so hard. The premise of the story is a bit silly, but the characters are very real and fully fleshed out. I also think it was a perfectly paced contemporary romance with gradual character development - I was never annoyed at possible regressions and supported 98% of Maya and Skye’s choices.

One thing I love about authors is when they can really make me hate a character. Like yank them out of the pages and punch them square in the face type of hate. And boy do I hate Jordy Miller. I think we’ve all known a Jordy, a misogynistic, emotionally abusive, well spoken prick. The way he is written is remarkably terrible and I commend Sophie Gonzales for making me clench my teeth so many times.

Maya and Skye on the other hand are leads you can get behind. Their voices are so unique and their motives and choice make sense. I didn’t feel like anything they did was added for the sake of it and the book’s profession felt very natural to me. I definitely want a physical copy of this book, it seems like it’ll be a great and cozy reread.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this lovely eARC!

This was everything I expected and more! I'm not a big fan of reality tv but when it's portrayed in books, I cannot get enough. I have read a few this year but none compare to the sheer girl power revenge that this book has.

What I loved:

The drama! Reality tv has a lot of it, but this touches upon the out-of-context clips they love to show just to create said drama. The women are aware of this and they tip-toe accordingly.

The social media aspects. I recently watch a reality show with my friend and after we finished I immediately went on Instagram to check up on the cast members I wasn't shocked to find out all the awful things they've had to deal with after being on the show. This book touches upon lies and bullying.

Maya and Skye's relationship. Once they got the hurdle out of the way, their attraction bloomed and it was so nice to see

The manipulative, cheating bastard gets what he deserves. You can take that fake accent and step off a pier, my friend.

The revenge. It is oh so sweet.

That's all I have to say about this book. I don't have any qualms at all because I loved every moment. Happy reading!

Thoughts and Themes: So I was prolonging reading this one because here I was thinking it was some straight romance. Don't let that part fool you and just keep reading through the book, trust me this isn't straight at all. I kept thinking oh no this is going to be a second chance romance and I just am not a big fan of those especially when the guy didn't even redeem himself. I was quite surprised how wrong I was in thinking this and loved the way things ended up for all of our characters.

Something that I really enjoyed about this book was how their is almost no character growth for Jordy and for a while you are led to believe it will be the same case for Maya. You hope that she gets her act together and just lets this feud with Jordy go because as Skye points out, he really is living rent-free in her mind so technically he is winning. I love the character growth that we get to see with Maya from the start of the book to the end so don't worry if you don't like her too much immediately.

Characters: In this book you get introduced to the the two main characters, Maya and Skye along with several others that they interact with. You get to meet Jordy who is the star of the reality TV show that all the girls are starring in, you get to meet some of Maya and Skye's friends from back home, and their family members.

I love so many of the relationships in this book even the ones that Jordy is involved with but that isn't because of him but because of the girls. I really liked the relationship that develops between all of the girls who are staying together for the sake of the filming of the reality TV show. I like how their dynamics shift throughout the book and how we see competition changing their attitudes towards each other but then how they join together when truth is revealed.

The other great thing about this book is watching as the relationship between Maya and Skye develops. I really love an enemies to friends to lovers trope when its done well. I also liked that the miscommunication piece in this was all due to lies that were pushed by Jordy and the messaging that it sent across when this was revealed.

Writing Style: This book is told through dual point of views going back and forth between Maya and Skye's perspectives. I really liked that we get to be inside both of their heads as this story unravels and this becomes a huge part of the story as time goes on. Something that I did keep forgetting while reading this book was the age of the characters but I do not think this matters much beyond knowing that they are young adults.

This was such a good time! Very fun premise and well executed. I love Sophie Gonzales's bi rep and this was no exception.

I absolutely loved this book! I have been a fan of Sophie Gonzales other books, so I was excited to see if this book lived up to her other books and it did! I especially liked the enemies to friends to lovers,. I would definitely recommend!

This was a big disappointment DNF. I know the characters are 18 but I just can't get behind the premise of a young adult dating show. It should have just been aged up to be older characters. I honestly didn't know the book was categorized as YA when I requested it, which I probably should have considering all of Sophie Gonzales's books are YA. But after the major disappointment of If This Gets Out and now this, I think she may have been a one hit wonder for me (Perfect on Paper is an absolute 5 star).

I really enjoyed this sapphic rom com!

Maya and Skye both dated Jordy and are not being asked to date him again on a reality TV show called Second Chance Romance. For Maya, this is her opportunity for revenge after Jordy cheated on her and them embarrassed her publicly. For Skye, This is her chance to find out why Jordy ghosted her and if the spark between them could be rekindled. Little does either girl know that they will fall for each other as they spend more time with Jordy and the true extent of his grossness becomes clear.

I was really into this story. I appreciated the relationship arc between Maya and Skye - from enemies to friends to something more. I was into the big conflict within Maya, to focus on revenge or to focus on her relationship with Skye. It kept me guessing and I was honestly into both outcomes too, so I was curious how she would handle it in the end.

I will definitely add this book to my collection and my teen readers will love it!

Maya and Skye are invited to join their mutual ex boyfriend’s reality TV dating show where he tries to reconnect with his past girlfriends. Maya and Skye join the show for different reasons, but they end up working together to secretively control the narrative of the show and may start to develop feelings for one another…

I absolutely adored this book! I love dating shows and the fact that this story has a queer twist is so satisfying to me, especially as someone who wishes there was more LGBTQ representation on reality TV (even if it’s accidental). I thought the bisexual representation was very well done because both Skye and Maya were confident in their sexuality and no one made a big deal out of them being queer in a heterosexual setting. I also appreciated how the other female contestants formed strong friendships despite “competing” against each other.

This book is basically like reading a season of the bachelor, but from the inside, so you get all of the insider information and secrets. I love the “man-hating” energy and the revenge plot line - it was so entertaining watching them scheme because I live for the drama in reality TV. I had such a fun time reading this book and I would recommend to anyone who loves dating shows, watching men get played, and sapphic romance.

Super cute. Maybe a bit predictable but sometimes those are needed. I enjoyed reading it even knowing where it was going. The teens will enjoy this for sure. Just waiting for the library to receive its copy so I can start recommending it.