This was really cute. Skye and Maya were the two co-conspirators to lovers I was looking for when first reading this book. I loved how all of the girls even as secondary characters felt well rounded and like they could be real. Also I love when I can just hate a character so freely and Jordy was a fantastic character to hate.

The only problem I had with the story is it was slow to start and there was some slower parts in the middle of the story, so overall just pacing issues.

I would definitely recommend this to anyone who loves to hate-watch the bachelor or just likes the bachelor. Also for anyone looking for some girls taking down a really annoying shared ex.

Thank you to netgalley for this arc.

The cover and title were enough to draw me in, and the story did not disappoint. Sapphic Enemies to lovers within the setting of a reality tv competition show. Super fun and sweet.

A huge thank you to Wednesday Books, St. Martins Press, and NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book!
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I have loved everything I’ve read from Sophie Gonzales, so when this widget hit my inbox I wasted no time in downloading it! Not going to lie, I started singing the Taylor Swift song in my head every single time I saw the title or told someone what I was currently reading; you’ll never be in danger of forgetting the name. Jordy is basically the worst love interest on the face of the planet, so when he is cast as the lead of a reality show to find love with one of his ex’s, Maya is ready to get her revenge. What she doesn’t account for is falling for her nemesis Skye, who is also one of Jordy’s ex’s. Gonzales really leans into the Bachelor-style drama populating the book with characters all there for their own personal reasons…or vendetta.
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I do wish that this was a New Adult book, rather than sitting in the Young Adult category. It seemed so unrealistic that a dating show would be filled with a bunch of eighteen and nineteen year olds just out of high school, especially since these are all supposed to be girls that Jordy has been in a relationship with. Some of the tasks they were asked to do just didn’t seem all that plausible. Yet, on the other hand, it was fun watching Maya navigate alcohol for the first time as the country they were filming in has a lower drinking age, and the characters were all trying to figure out where they fit in the world and the expectations thrust upon them with high school graduation behind them. If you’re looking for a bi-rep, sapphic romance this one is filled with angst and rage and a slow-burn romance, set against a beautiful backdrop.

As an avid romance reality TV binger and a lover of all books queer and feisty, this rivals to lovers book HIT!! The rivals to friends to lovers arc was totally believable, and the moments with the ex boyfriend love interest were clever and engaging without being too heavy handed. My only complaint was that this book wasn’t longer! I loved it so much.

I am not a reality TV watcher and I was worried I wouldn't know what I was reading or what was going on at first I thought it was going to be a bust but then I decided to pick it up again. I was finally drawn into the story. It was easy to follow and I liked how it all came together. I highly recommend if you do like reality shows. Fair warning the MC Jordy sucks!!




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

🎵 We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together 🎵

The love story your didn't know your needed! This was SUCH a fun read! Do you like laughing? Do you like strong women? Do you like when women band together, and get that r e v e n g e they so desperately deserve? Then you will love Sophie Gonzales' upcoming novel Never Getting Back Together! And yes, I too have had Taylor Swift stuck in my head while reading this.

In this story, our main characters Skye and Maya have both dated Jordy, and reluctantly decide to go on his new reality show called Second Chance Romance. They end up having to room together and quickly learn that they have WAY more in common than just being Jordy's exes. This book was perfection! I loved every part of it.

📖 𝙍𝙚𝙖𝙙 𝙞𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙚𝙣𝙟𝙤𝙮:
• enemies to lovers
• ya queer romcoms
• drama
• reality tv shows
• r e v e n g e

"Is this who I've become, someone who gleefully smuggles contraband electronics, and isn't automatically nice to bad people just because they're nice to me, and who plans and executes an international revenge plot? It's a slippery slope between rule fudger and world domination, and baby I'm already enjoying the ride a little too much."

✍🏼 𝘼𝙪𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙧: Sophie Gonzales
🗓️ 𝙋𝙪𝙗 𝘿𝙖𝙮: November 29th
📚 𝙂𝙚𝙣𝙧𝙚: YA RomCom LGBTQ+

Thank you Wednesday Books for this e-ARC! I definitely recommend this cute book!!

This one just felt very meh to me. I LOVEDDD the premise and found it to be an overall fun romance. I feel like other than her seething need for revenge against someone she dated when she was 16, I didn't feel a lot of character development out of Maya. I also could decide if this was meant to be a YA romance or an adult romance based on ages.

Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book; my thoughts are my own.

I really enjoyed Sophie Gonzales's debut novel and so when I saw the premise of this book I was hooked.
I was so excited for this that I couldn't wait to read it.
Unfortunately, it was a letdown. I don't know why (probably because the full description wasn't available when I first learned about the book) but I believed it would be a NA or Adult novel because of the reality Bachelor-esque premise of the book.
Instead, they were 18? It felt weird to read adult conversations about relationship's they had as children and the lack of life experience for them to be looking to settle down and get married...
I feel like this premise would've been better if the characters had been older, not super old but older than "I just became an adult" (in most of the world since in the US it's like 21 to drink and all that)
I liked the "I want revenge" premise, unfortunately the romance wasn't really interesting. None of them are likable enough for me to care about their romance, one was rude and the other just hard to care about.

I think the romance is so unbelievable because we don't spend enough time on it, there is too much of the book spent on Jordan and on the other contestant which meant we did not have enough time to see interactions and moments that made the romance realistic. I felt like they barely knew each other, but I did enjoy the small interactions they had.

Jordan didn't make a lot of sense, for someone we are meant to hate, it just didn't feel that way and his choices (who to keep etc) seemed inconsequential and made little to no sense with the information we were getting while reading the book which made the book seems slightly dumb/silly.

I was just disappointed, great concept and an unfortunately bad/poor execution.
2.5/5 stars

Fun does not even begin to describe how wonderful a time I had reading this book. I should have known better with a title like that.

This book had it all. A sapphic pairing, a villian you love to hate, and a ridiculous setting. The reality show provided a whole host of possibilities which really paid off.

Sometimes all you need is a truly entertaining plot to make a good book and this is a perfect example.

Thank you NetGalley, Wednesday Books and St. Martin’s Press for providing an eARC for my sincere review.

Based on the premise, I expected to really enjoy this. Ultimately though I was disappointed. I think this had the potential to be great, but it fell short.

For me the pacing was a little off. I also thought that maybe this premise would have worked better with an older set of characters.

I did enjoy each of the main characters and their growth throughout the novel.

I would still probably recommend this book to fans of reality tv romances and young adult lovers.

Imagine the Bachelor and MTV's Ex on the Beach had a crossover this book would be it! Maya and a host of other ex-girlfriends who once "dated" this terrible womanizer Jordy. After Maya begrudgingly agrees to go on the show to reveal the cheating ways of the adored Jordy only to have each of her plans ruined. In a cute twist of fate, she didn't expect is to fall in love with the other woman she once despised.

My thoughts: I loved the plot and most of the characters but it would have made more sense for the characters to be in their 20s rather than YA. Maya's need for revenge getting foiled one too many times could have been cut shorter but fit the Bachelor vibes so overall it was a cute rom-com that I'm sure many will enjoy!

My Rating: 3.5⭐'s

Thank you, NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a highly entertaining book but I wish the blurb hasn’t given away so much. I love the script flip though.

Because I’m a sucker for trashy reality TV (Especially The Bachelor) I’m giving this book 2.5 stars (rounding to a 3)

I thought the concept was pretty cool and it definitely felt like I was watching an episode of The Bachelor however, each and every character was extremely insufferable.

I was really hoping I’d come love Maya and Skye but truthfully, I hated both of them so much. They were just so awful to each other and their “love” story kind of came out of left field and didn’t feel real at all. Not to mention how awful Jordy was. I almost couldn’t even continue he annoyed me so much.

That aside, I did genuinely enjoy the reality TV aspect and thought it was very entertaining. I just could have done without all the manipulative and awful characters.

Thank you to Netgalley for a copy of this title in exchange for an honest review

Thank you to Netgalley for an e-ARC copy in exchange for an honest review!

“They don’t call it gently cascading for someone. You don’t gracefully descend for someone. You fall. Head over heels, right? And either someone catches you, or they don’t, and you don’t have any control over how badly bruised you are at the bottom of it.” -Never Ever Getting Back Together, Sophie Gonzales

“Never Ever Getting Back Together” by Sophie Gonzales boasts a Taylor Swift-esque title but urges readers to stay for its decadent blend of fluttery, lighthearted romance, quick-witted banter, and brilliantly crafted comedic diction. While well-versed reality television viewers are familiar with the typical tropes of vapid and self-absorbed displays of its more grandiose characters, Gonzales portrays a stark contrast to this normality. The author does a wonderful job of turning these preconceived notions on their head and instead supplying readers with lovable, well-fleshed out depictions of realistic people. This novel successfully combines the addictive binge-ability of reality TV with a surprisingly sapphic plotline that will make even the most cynical of skeptics swoon.
Within this captivating snapshot into the real lives of a plethora of mediocre main-man, Jordy’s ‘ones that got away’, readers follow dual perspectives of his two most memorable exes. Greatly misunderstood protagonist, Maya, faces her worst nightmare when she is paired with Jordy’s “other woman”, Skye, whom he cheated on her with during their relationship. Maya and Skye are bound to begrudgingly combat their mutual loathing for each other in the forced proximity of their shared hotel room but discover their unlikely similarities along the way.
Maya, Skye, and the multitude of Jordy’s former lovers begin to uncover unprecedented cracks in his manipulation-driven stories realizing that he is not quite the charming dreamboat that he was previously portrayed as. I loved witnessing the women diverting expectations by banding together in the ultimate feminist takedown agenda instead of giving into catty stereotypes of tearing each other down instead. This novel revealed a refreshing take on female friendships and the importance of platonic love + mutual support, especially within the capsule of abusive and toxic relationships.
At times I did feel as if the storyline took a bit of a predictable approach, as I accurately guessed where the story was going from the get-go. I think this could have been partially due to the sheer amount of foreshadowing that Gonzales employed which thankfully did have ample follow-through. I will say I absolutely adored the progression and pacing of Maya and Skye’s relationship as opposed to their respective rekindlings with Jordy. I loved that they seamlessly transitioned from hateful roommates butting heads, to unlikely friends, and then to something a bit more. I found it very realistic that they faced struggles within their relationship such as abandonment issues, their fair share of gay panic towards each other, and trouble defining what their relationship was within their unique experience during the show. Their unwavering love and admiration for one another really drove the story forward and perfectly juxtaposed the harsh tones of fragile masculinity’s #1 posterchild, Jordy.
For me this came at the perfect time, as I have been craving something fluffy and fun similar to the reality shows I’ve found myself overly invested in as of late. This book really delivered all that and more, with a heaping side of girl power, timely verbiage that will make its target audience laugh out loud, and a women-loving-women story that veers from the sole focus being homophobia/coming out plotlines. I would really recommend this book to any reader who loves low-stake entertainment and sappy sapphic relationships between lovable characters!

I’m not a big reality dating show person, but honestly if one like this existed, I’d watch the hell out of it. This was a really fun and sweet book. I liked that we got both Maya and Skye’s POVs, but Maya took a little while to grow on me. She was a brat and a half in the beginning. Which, I’ll cut her some slack with the situation she was in, but still. Jordy was an absolute MONSTER and I loved it. He was written so well and so infuriatingly. I felt like I was saying “THAT BASTARD” every time he spoke! You can’t help but root for his destruction literally the second you meet him. As far as the romance goes, it did feel a little abrupt, but I thought Skye and Maya were very sweet together. There was just A LOT of miscommunication in this book that it got a little frustrating. The ending was a little lackluster for me, I would have liked to have seen Jordy really get what’s coming to him instead of just hearing about it. But there were a lot of funny moments that I think fans of reality TV will really enjoy. Overall, this was an enjoyable read!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advanced digital reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an ARC copy of this book

This was a fun, light, enjoyable read. I love the "game show" type setting, and this book provided extra details about what it might be like to be on a reality show that I found really interesting. I liked how the characters all had different personalities, and I enjoyed that it was kind of a smaller group so that way we could really get to know who was who. Some "game show" type books introduce so many people, and it's hard to know what's going on. I also genuinely thought there were parts that were funny, and I found myself giggling on multiple occasions.

I only had a few small complaints, and I think they reflect on my personal opinions and not on the story itself. I personally felt like I didn't really connect to Skye or Maya, and there were definitely times where I forgot who's P.O.V I was reading, or times where I felt they were just being dramatic. In the end I really enjoyed the growth both characters had, but there were times in the middle that I found them annoying. There were also times in the story where I was a little confused about the exact setup of the show, and I felt that the rules could've been better explained so that I wasn't wondering what was going on. These were small things though that didn't take away from the story.

Overall, I'd recommend this book to anyone looking for a light, fun, quick romantic comedy.

This book was one of the funniest books I have ever read. Following Maya and then Skye’s journey of revenge on their shitty Fuckboy ex Jordy was so satisfying especially since it was all done on a reality dating show where they had to pretend to be still in love with the guy on national television.
The witty dialogue, hilarious inner thoughts, and wonderful friendship building was perfect but Sophie went even further to create one of the most satisfying “why don’t we just date each other?” cheater tropes I have ever seen.
Because we all have thought, “why fight over a cheater when y’all could just date each other?”
Well, at least I have.
If you want to read all the spilt tea, laugh your ass off, and watch two bi girls fall in love, read this book.
Even if you don’t, just read it. It’s so good.

I couldn't get enough of this queer New Adult rom com!! Such a fun premise: a Bacherlor type reality show that sees Jordy, an obscure royal seeing if he can rekindle romance with a cast of his exes. If you can suspend belief on the plausibility of a show like this ever happening, it worked for me because the main protagonists were the women, in particular Skye and Maya who end up roommates on the show and reluctant partners trying to expose Jordy for the jerk they know him to be.

Great on audio narrated by Natalie Naudus and Barrie Kreinik (two of my fav narrators). This book gave me lots of I kissed Shara Wheeler vibes, had great bisexual rep and was able to tow the line between sweet enemies to lovers romance and entertaining over the top reality show revenge drama. Highly recommended! Much thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for early digital copies of this book in exchange for my honest review!

This book is really cute and I think it’ll be perfect for younger audiences, and for people who like low stakes rom coms and reality shows.

It’s well written and even though a few of the chapters felt unnecessary — I could’ve done without an entire chapter about royalty training — I think those details will be really enjoyable for readers who love bachelor-style reality shows.

I loved the bi representation and that the contestants didn’t lean into the petty and vicious backstabbing we see among women on these types shows, but I think it couldn’t used some more character development. The book is almost 400 pages but I never felt like I knew much about Maya or Skye — other than their mutual hatred for one another and then Jordy — and it was hard telling them apart for most of the book.

Regardless, that wasn’t a total deal breaker and I’d still recommend this anyone looking for a light and fun story to get lost in.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of "Never Ever Getting Back Together" in exchange for an honest review. Fun concept and I would encourage others to pick it up. It wasn't as much my cup of tea as I thought it was going to be. I felt myself not being consumed by the characters and plot in ways that I would have expected to. I didn't feel myself buying into the characters and felt like they could have been more developed. Ultimately a fun read.