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 suspense 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!

The moment I heard bisexual bachelor, I was for sure in, and I loved this even more than I could imagine! This book was everything, sapphic John Tucker Must Die meets the Bachelor meets Do Revenge. I loved every part of this book, the tension was beautiful, the enemies/rivals to lovers was perfection. Maya and Skye were both loveably flawed and you couldn't not root for them.
Loved the girl power in this book, it was laugh out loud funny, real, and emotionally raw and I loved every minute of this book.

This was my most anticipated read of the year, thank you so much to NetGalley for the ARC! I'll for sure be buying a physical copy as soon as they're available!

When her cheating ex boyfriend asks her to appear with him on new reality show, Second Chance Love, the only thing on Maya’s mind is revenge. The fact that she has to live with Skye, the girl he cheated with, makes her blood boil - but when they actually talk things out, Maya and Skye get along pretty well. Things are about to heat up on set, no bachelor in sight.

I need to tell you a secret - I don’t watch reality tv. Actually watching the show? Not for me. But when I tell you that EVERY TIME there’s a romance set during a reality dating show, I’M IN. I love the idea of a narrative being spun on the show as we see the behind the scenes actual reality, and this book did a great job of breaking down the repetitive and fake nature of it all. (And can I just say that I love Isaac so much??)

Maya and Skye are so sweet together, and I love the camaraderie of all the girls as they settle into filming and realize that Jordy is an absolute dick.

The fact that they are both 18 felt way too young for a dating show, but I appreciate that this is for a teen audience, because we all deserve a peek behind the curtain. If you’re looking for spicy, you won’t find it here - some sweet kisses though!

Overall, this was a great read, and I would definitely recommend!

Trigger Warnings: Alcohol, bar, underage drinking, past cheating/break-up, parental abandonment, off-page car crash, classism, sex, vomit, toxic relationship

Representation: Bisexual, Gay

Never Ever Getting Back Together is a YA contemporary romance about a second chance romance reality tv show. Both Maya and Skye have previously dated Jordy. When Jordy is chosen as the next participant for the show, all of his exes are gathered and must share a house while competing to get back with him. Throughout the filming process, Maya and Skye grow closer than ever expected.

I was hoping for a lot more from this book to be honest. The premise of two girls falling in love while on a tv show about dating a man sounded so amazing to me. Unfortunately Maya and Skye did not have a lot of depth for me. I also thought the book read as much older than young adult. When they would reference only being 18, I kept being surprised. I’m not sure exactly what it was but this just wasn’t the book for me. I think people should definitely give this book a shot and form their own opinion.

This was very cute! It was a fun story of love and revenge, all set on a reality dating show.

I enjoyed the whole ensemble cast but Maya and Skye especially were adorable and I loved their friendship turned romance once they got past their initial issues. More hate to Jordy for being responsible for those problems.

Jordy was a great antagonist. You could see the charm but were still actively rooting against him.

All the girls becoming friends was such a great touch. It would have made sense for not every single person to feel buddy buddy by the end, especially with the varying personalities, but their common ground (and enemy) served them all well.

The characters also felt very true to their ages (in a good way) and their decisions definitely made sense in the context of their respective life experiences. It was very nice seeing Maya and Skye start to work at overcoming some of their respective past traumas together.

For someone who doesn't like reality dating shows, I do seem to like books that feature them. In this dating show, the guy (who is semi-famous because his sister is dating a royal) gets a second chance with six women he's dated in the past, from a childhood romance to a more recent hookup. But the two key characters are Maya and Skye. Maya was dating Jordy, who moved to another country though they were still together long distance; he cheated on her with Skye, who he then dated, but he told everyone that he and Maya had broken up long before that and she was lying (and mentally unstable) for calling him a cheater.

Skye believes Jordy and thinks that Maya is being unreasonable. Maya thinks Skye knew about her and dated Jordy anyway and is determined to hate Skye and get revenge of Jordy (hoping to expose him for who he is on the show). But then the women exchange notes and find out Jordy is a charming liar. And they realize that they get along quite well together...really, really well.

I had a great time reading this book. I loved the setup and the twist (this is not a spoiler; it's in the book description) of the two women on the reality show falling for each other. I liked the characters (though some of them, especially the other women, felt a little cliche) and I liked the takedown of the guy who seems oh so charming on the surface but is really just a selfish jerk. I was smiling all through the ending.

I loved this book. I'd heard about it on Twitter and the premise sounded pretty dang delightful. Is there a word beyond delightful? Besides witty and genuinely surprising. I loved Maya and Skye's relationship and the romcoms I like are pretty much DC's Venom.

I loved the premise where a reality tv show is the jumping off point for two people who would otherwise never have met.

It's a great read

I was so excited to receive this ARC because it was such an interesting concept. A guy's ex girlfriends are all brought together to compete for his love again, but it obviously doesn't end up that way. Maya and Skye's relationship started rocky but as the book progressed I loved them together. Each of the characters develops nicely and the build up is really well written.

Okay, this has officially semented Sophie Gonzales as a new favourite author for me. This was one of my most anticepated releases for the year and it ended up blowing me out of the water still. I was completely addicted to it while reading. I just did not want to stop and I really could not stop. The beginning was a bit furstrating (but in a good way). Just to know all sides to the story and then see both protagonists argue with each other over things that weren't actually true and was just Jordy gaslighting them was a bit frustrating to read. However, the fact that I got so frustrated shows how immediately invested in these characters I was. I just wanted to yell at them to properly talk things out, which they did and once they did this just turned into a dream. I really love a reality TV show setting, we know that, and I really love how it was done in this book. I really loved seeing Skye and Maya becoming friends and then finally slowly falling for each other. Their relationship was so cute and I adore how they just opened up to each other so recently. I also really loved all the different side characters, from the producers to the other girls competing (not Jordy though, he can choke to death). I also like that even though we know from the beginning Jordy is a dick you can also understand how all these amazing girls ended up falling for him at some point. The different twists and turns in this book were also amazing and you don't want to know how many times I ended up saying OUT LOUD "Oh, he's such a dick" while reading this book. God, I could just gush about this forever. It's such a fun book with an amazing romance but also some great heartfelt moments and character developement.

This book is an absolute delight! A nice medium-burn build-up and minimal angst, which is a nice break from angst being shoved at you from all angles, normally. You really see the characters grow and learn. Well, aside from one. I really enjoyed this! Definitely recommendingL

Thank you to netgalley for providing me with an e-arc of this novel.

I loved this book so much! It was smart, romantic, and made great comments on the world of dating reality television today. I read it all in one sitting.

I loved the initial dislike/misunderstanding of Maya and Skye, it was cute knowing something they didn’t know (that they’d like each other). Their misunderstanding was cleared up pretty quickly which was nice, as it didn’t fester and it allowed the characters to grow and start falling for each other romantically.

Jordy was a shmuck and an asshole which we knew from that beginning, and I was glad to see all the girls were friends and saw that side of him by the end of the novel.

I loved that it was a big deal that the two mc’s were bi, and it wasn’t really the central part of the story because they were both already comfortable in their identities. The positivity also surrounding this was great to see.

Really enjoyed this one, can’t wait to see what Sophie will write next!

While YA books are not usually the genre I ever towards, I found this one to be enjoyable. It felt like a lot was going on, but in a good way. Would recommend to YA lovers for sure.

This was such a fun and easy read! I totally binged it and enjoyed every second! As someone who has watched trashy reality tv in the past this book was exactly that in book form but also make it LGBTQ+! I enjoyed this book a lot and will definitely be recommending it! 3.5/5

Really cute. I liked switching from Maya's viewpoint to Skye's and felt like I got to know each of them. I would have liked more build-up to them liking each other before they acted on it because it felt like a sudden switch from really disliking each other to making out. I liked the focus on developing friendships (after some initial hiccups), and especially loved Perrie.

This was a cute read. I love a good revenge story (especially relatively innocent ones like this one) and enemies-to-lovers is one of my favourite tropes. There’s something so magical about Sophie Gonzales’s writing that it seems almost effortless.

The characters in this book are not the most complex—they kind of seem a bit like personas on a page instead of fully developed characters, but because of the tone of the story, it didn’t really bother me. We do get bits about both Maya’s and Skye’s home lives outside of the dating show, but no more than we would normally get if we were watching a similar TV show at home, which I think is why it worked here. And whether we knew anything about Jordy other than how he treated the women wasn’t important either—though I wish we got to see a bit more about his sister.

I had a really hard time with the fact that these were basically teenagers who were being exploited like adults on television. Maybe I’m just getting old, but in my mind, there’s a big difference between a producer or a network taking advantage of a twenty-five-year-old who is making silly decisions or saying stupid things on TV, but it feels wrong when it’s a bunch of people who are basically just out of high school. For some reason, I couldn’t suspend the reality of that. So any of the made-for-TV parts that were twisty near the end I was just kind of mad about. It didn’t take away from the rest of the story enough for me to penalize it, though.

I loved seeing the way the girls interacted with each other and how they banded together more than any group of adults would. There was something empowering about a group of young women working together toward a common goal—even if this book doesn’t really pass the Bechdel test much in that regard (other than with Skye and Maya).

Despite the shortcomings I’ve mentioned, I will still read whatever Gonzales puts out next because her style and tone is exactly what I want when I’m reading a lighter book like this. If you like YA, if you like reality TV or if you like sapphic stories (that are VERY PG-13), you won’t be disappointed.

4 STARS

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Tried to get into this one, but unfortunately, I just didn’t buy it for these characters. Really liked the premise and set up with a strong opener. Wasn’t my favorite, but I know for sure other people are going to love this one!

This was such a fun read! I love any romance set in dating reality television, and this was such a fun twist on that! I wasn't sure how I would like it because of the premise of the show - dating exes. I assumed it would be too messy and potentially lean into negative stereotypes about friendships among women - but that was never the case which I loved.
I also love both main characters- they were so human and flawed - very realistic characters that grew and matured. I thought the characters being so young would make the story immature in ways - but there was a perfect balance of realistic 18 year old immaturity and serious emotions/ situations. i think that's what made it so fun!
I would definitely recommend this!
Thank you netgalley for an e-arc

Never Ever Getting Back Together was an anticipated YA release for me, but unfortunately this book wasn’t a fit for me. I think I’m just over The Bachelor-type books since I can’t stand to watch the show anymore, and that was the downfall for me with this book. I do think people will love it and will say give it a try if you are a reality TV fan.

Ok, I can understand wanting to get back at an ex-boyfriend for cheating on you - but letting it consume your life for nearly two years and then going onto a reality TV show, pretend to like him (but not do a very good job at that part), just so you can can be the one to dump him during the finale?
Despite being an unrealistic plot line, the book was fun. Mostly because of the bonding between the girls in the story and they realize what a lying, manipulating jerk Jordy is. He is definitely not something to like about in this story - I could have actually done with less of him. The best part is Skye and Maya coming together. Skye was a delightfully pleasant character, even when Maya was giving her a hard time (being quite awful, actually) at the beginning. Maya, on the other hand, was quite difficult for me to like. Even in the end, it was hard to sympathize with her since she maintains her stance to destroy Jordy, despite the potential losses to her. Would you throw everything away for revenge?
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for proving me with an electronic copy of the book. The opinions above are my honest opinions of the book.

Grateful thanks as always to NetGalley and the publisher for the Arc in exchange for an honest review.
So much I loved about this one, especially for its ambitious combination of multiple YA tropes........the frenzy of lives lived on social media, the scourge of reality shows with their calculated, fake reality, enemies-to-lovers and to top it off, queer romance rendered with equal amounts of tenderness, adorability and genuine heat.
And even better.....the whole package is seasoned with a razor sharp sense of humor that keeps things bubbling all the way to the end.
The girls we're rooting for, Maya and Skye, find themselves deliberately pitted against one another while contestants in a 'Bachelor' ripoff, a second chance romance' reality show Like the other girls on the show, they're exes of the falsely charming Jordy, a lying duplicitous snake now freshly famous since his sister married into a royal family.
Maya's joined the show strictly on a secret revenge quest, hoping to re-win Jordy for the sole purpose of exposing him in public as a manipulative, sociopathic creep. And Jordy, scheming for drama to pump up the ratings, throws Maya and Skye together as room mates, the two girls he cheated on......simultaneously.no less.
While the showrunners, arrange the usual contests and dates designed to woo back the loathsome Jordy, Maya and Skye's initial rivalry and animosity begins to. turn to........well, hardly need to describe anything more., do I? Other than praising Sophie Gonzales's skill at making you root for (and sigh for) the two girls, hope and pray for Jordy's crushing comeuppance, and laugh at some devastating, witty lines.
While I've read any number of romcoms that try to keep a lot of stuff up in the air at the same time, "Never Ever" does it right, does it funny, does it sexy and delivers a 4 star entertaining read. (And you can never, ever ever have enough stories that feature a well deserved evisceration of reality shows....., so, bravo!)