Have you ever been stuck in a house with you ex and all of his ex girlfriends? What about being stuck in a house with your ex, all of his ex girlfriends, and a tv crew? This is the issue Maya faces when she decides to be a contestant in a bachelor type tv show, the catch is that all of the contestants are the suitors exes. Maya has a heated pasted with her suitor, who cheated and lied, even if he doesnt see it that way. To make it worse, maya gets roomed with Skye, the girl he cheated on her with. How much worse can it really get?

This book was great. Watching Maya get her revenge and make friends with exes in the process was priceless. Please read this book.

I had not read any previous books by Sophie Gonzales, but I'd heard great things about Perfect on Paper. Which is why I was so excited to read this one. Never Ever Getting Back Together features a reality dating show front & center in its plot. I think fans of The Charm Offensive, or the Bachelor / Bachelorette shows will really enjoy this one. My only complaint is that I think the characters are too young to really carry this story. The main character, Maya, is only 18 & was only 16 when she first dated the male lead. I don't know about you, but at 18 I definitely didn't care about a guy I dated at 16, nor was I worried (or even thinking about) finding "the one". I just don't think a dating show about finding lasting love is very believable when all the contestants are under 21. In my opinion this would have worked much better if all the characters were in their mid / late twenties with more life experience other than petty high school drama. Other than that, I really enjoyed the love story & all the behind-the-scenes of the dating show. Is it worth reading? Yes, it's a really fun book if you can suspend belief in some scenarios. Could it have been better? 100% yes.

Thank you to Netgalley & St. Martin's Press for the ARC!

✨never ever getting back together review ✨

A YA queer romance based on reality TV like The Bachelor? Yum! This sweet read was a slow burn and a serious enemies to lovers situation.

Maya and Skye both enter into a reality show where exes get a second chance to rekindle with their former flame. They both go on the show to date their shared ex Jordy.

A little miscommunication, a little shared revenge story, a little romance, sweet friendships and coming of age. This was a very light, quick read and I recommend for any lovers of YA and queer romance.

Thank you to @netgalley for the ARC and to the author @sgonzalesauthor for this beautiful story. This book is out 12/6/2022.

#booksbooksbooks #bookstagram #booklovers #neverevergettingbacktogether #netgalley #arcbook #yaromance #queerromance #yalgbtqread #bookstagrammer

Love triangles and not my favorite trope. The description intrigued me though. I feel like the author did a good job with the triangle. I was expecting more drama.

I truly enjoyed the way this novel was written and the connection between a past relationship and a sort of look behind the scenes of how a dating reality show probably looks. The characters were much younger than I pictured so it was hard for me to move past some of the plot line when it came to age and relationship experience. I did enjoy the progress of making a snap judgment about someone to loving the person as they are in that moment.

This was such a romp! I was really into the whole thing--the fake dating show! destroying the jerk ex-bf! building girl solidarity! sapphic romance! Sophie Gonzales is very consistently a 4-star author for me--nothing ever reaches 5-star, lifechanging, i will think about this for a really long time heights, but also i always really enjoy her plots, characters, and dialogue. I think this would be great in a high school library.

NetGalley Advance Readers Copy, unbiased, etc.

NetGalley ARC Educator 550974

What if you had the opportunity to get back at a cheating ex on live television? Well the fast paced, edge of your seat, one sitting read will answer that question. The characters are young, so their decisions might not make sense to mature readers. It is a fun read that allows one to live vicariously through the characters.

Never Ever Getting Back together is a fun, fast-paced book — great as a beach or pool read. I think it has an excellent premise (The Bachelor-like reality show, two of the contestants falling in love with each other) that it executes mostly well.

I have a few criticisms, but before I mention them I would like to say that I am not the YA target audience for this book. I feel like teens and people in their early 20s will really love it and my quibbles may not bother them at all.

I loved Maya and her attitude, particularly at the beginning of the book. I think during the first third or so of the book, Maya and Skye had really distinct POV chapters. However, once they started getting along, their voices blended together and it was difficult to distinguish them. I often forgot whose chapter I was reading and had to flip back to the beginning of the chapter. Their lives as individuals and personalities were touched on, but not enough to make them seem like fully realized characters to me.

I appreciate the author not wanting to go the route of girl-hate, but the other four girls were quite bland. Kim was the love-sick one, Perrie the influencer, and the other two were a bit forgettable.

When reading the summary, I was very interested in the behind-the-scenes reality show premise. There are so many opportunities for drama and tension and while some of that was certainly present here, I feel like the author didn’t take full advantage of the setup. What’s the point of putting them up in such a nice place if they weren’t also going to film there? I think it would have added tension, and also the draw of a reality show setting is not the contest aspect, but more the relationship drama between the contestants, which we would have seen more had the cameras been with them in the house as well. And it would have been fun to see Maya and Skye dodging cameras and crew to find little nooks and crannies around the mansion to make out.

That all said, I would absolutely recommend this book to others as a light, fun sapphic romcom! The author clearly has a great wit and I’m very much willing to give her past books and any future ones a try.

Thank you very much to St Martins Press and Netgalley for the e-arc!

Have you ever gone through a truly heinous breakup? The kind where you not only never want to see the other person again, but you also want to expose every single awful thing they ever did to you so that the whole world knows what a piece of crap they really are? We all know that we're supposed to be mature and let things go and blah blah blah, but let's face it. Sometimes getting revenge is just more satisfying than taking the high road.

Never Ever Getting Back Together by Sophie Gonzalez is a story for anyone who has ever had a fairytale romance go bad. It's for anyone who has been wronged by someone who gets away with bad behavior without repercussions over and over again. In this story we meet Maya, who had her heart broken by her cheating high school sweetheart Jordy two years earlier. Since their breakup, Jordy has gone on to become famous for being the charming, good-looking younger brother to the new princess-by-marriage to a small fictional country. When a reality tv producers reach out to Maya to see if she's interested in reconnecting with Jordy via a new show, Second Chance Romance, she reluctantly agrees, plotting to expose Jordy (and the girl he cheated with) to the world. Of course, shenanigans ensue.

I actually hate reality tv shows like the one portrayed in this book but I love books and tv shows about the behind the scenes stuff. If you liked the tv show UnReal, you will like this book. It's fun, it's funny, it's got great bi representation. All in all, it's a fun, silly read about the scars relationships can leave on us - especially when they're with scumbags - and the value of learning to let go.

My only gripe with the book is that the characters are too young! The relationships that caused so much pain and heartache were literally only months long and among teenagers. I think the story would have hung together a lot better and been more relatable if everyone was in their twenties. But maybe I'm just old. Give it a read when it comes out and let me know what you think.

Never Ever Getting Back Together will be released November 29, 2022. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this! Watching Maya and Skye get to know each other, plot together, and fall in love was so much fun, and Gonzales' pacing was perfect throughout. I was honestly at the edge of my seat at the end, having no idea what Jordy would pull to save his own face. A face that I really wanted to punch! I do wish we spent more time exploring the characters' emotions and motivations outside of the competition — I was left wanting to know more about Maya's college plans, Skye's feelings about her mom, and the secondary characters in general. Maya's voice was also so strong from the very first page, and I didn't get that same energy from Skye. All in all though, this is such a fun, joyful read!

*This ARC was provided to me via NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion*

The premise of this story was a great idea and I was super excited for a dating show setting to have a queer storyline, however, for me this book fell flat. Specifically, I struggled differentiating the two female POVs from one another as their characters were not fleshed out and their narratives sounded very similar. I was really craving more background and detail on who Skye and Maya were outside of being Jordy’s ex-girlfriends. Unfortunately, it seemed as though that part of them was the only information the reader was given which made it hard to connect with the characters as it was difficult to sense their personalities. Additionally, Maya and Skye’s chemistry was just non-existent and I found myself confused during their first romantic scene as it felt neither of the women had really voiced their interest in each other before the initial kiss.

Thanks to Netgalley for the eARC!

What a fun read! I had a blast, and it gave me Princess Diaries vibes (ok, maybe just because of the fictional royals thing and the fictional country names) meets every exploitative reality dating show where a man gets to choose from a cast full of women--except it's YA and it's not the man we're rooting for. Definitely a fun sapphic romcom where the dude gets what he's owed. Thank, you to the publisher for the eARC!

This book was so good. This reality show setting is something I don't usually enjoy watching on TV, but reading about it is something so different. Seeing behind the scenes of filming and the way things get edited was insightful. Plus, the dual POV lets us see into Maya and Skye's head throughout the process of not only competing against each other, but becoming friends...and possibly even more. From Maya's anger/frustration still showing and Skye's intent not to let most people close, it was great to see these girls balance each other out and help them through some stressful times.

All around, this was a great YA novel with some excellent LGBTQ+ representation. I thoroughly enjoy and recommend!

So he calls me up and he's like "I still love you" and I'm like...I'm just...I mean, this is exhausting, you know? Like we are never getting back together. Like ever.

Never Ever Getting Back Together is another well-done book by Sophie Gonzales. The book is told in alternating POVs between Skye and Maya, two women sent to be part of a reality second-chance dating show. The book reads like a dose of pop culture, playing into and poking fun at reality TV and the people who join the casts. I absolutely love the twist on the trope. Without giving anything away--this is a must-add to any collection.

I was so intrigued by the premise of this book - so much potential for drama, twists and scandals! Plus queer rep as a bonus - how could I not?

A shame that this ended up being a disappointment for me. The girls' personalities are so bland I forgot who's who since they're all written so similarly (and ends up not really mattering if you get them mixed up anyway) - any chemistry just isn't believable and seems forced. The fake country and language ended up being cringey rather than cute - it was fine in the Princess Diaries when reading as a child, but seems so out of place in an adult romance book. And the relations of characters to royalty is needlessly confusing, unless there's a mistake in the book - is he or isn't he a prince?!

I've heard great things about Sophie Gonzales' books and I like her sense of humour, but this one truly wasn't for me.

I loved this one! A bisexual girl enters a dating reality show to get revenge on her ex, but she falls in love with another girl on the show and that's literally it. Maya and Skye were both interesting and very well developed MCs. Their love story was lovely, refreshing and wonderful and it caressed my ass. Whenever Sophie Gonzales writes another book, I want to read it in an instant.I can't express how much I love this sapphic YA-rom-com, how highly recommend it!

This novel literally includes my two favorite things: a wlw storyline and a reality competition tv show. What could be better! I especially loved the fact that the two main characters are bi and it’s not a big deal. While I have nothing against books that feature coming out storylines, sometimes it’s just nice a read a book where the characters are comfortable with being queer and no one around them bats an eye.

My only criticism with this book is that the main characters are only 18/19 years old and it feels like it would have made a bit more sense if they were in their early twenties because it reads more as an adult book than a YA book. That being said, it’s easy to forget the ages of the characters, so it didn’t really impact my enjoyment.

I loved the premise of this book, but unfortunately, I did not love the delivery. Skye and Maya both sounded like the same character, and I often forgot whose POV I was reading. This made it hard to see the chemistry between them, and honestly the scenes with Jordy were the most interesting ones if only because he was such a god awful person it was like when you can’t look away from a car wreck every time he started talking.

SPOILER:
I also felt very uncomfortable with Maya outing Skye on live TV. in some grand gesture to earn her forgiveness. That’s some Jordy-level manipulation in my opinion.

Thank you to Sophie Gonzales, St.Martins Press and NetGalley for giving me an eARC in exchange for a honest review. Never Ever Getting Back Together comes out November 29, 2022.

Never Ever Getting Back Together stars Maya as she goes on Second Chance Romance, a reality dating show where her cheating ex, Jordy, re-dates her and 5 other ex-girlfriends to see if there is still a spark. One of the other exs, Skye, happens to be the girl that Jordy cheated on Maya with two years ago. Even though their first impressions of each other are poor(which has alot to do with the manipulations of the Jordy), soon both girls start to form a friendship and start to plan how to expose the Jody to the world for the scum bag he is. Over late night scheming and general forced proximity Maya nd Skye start to realize that their friendship is growing into so much more.

I did enjoy reading this book, I like the premise and separately I like both female characters. The only thing that I could say negatively is that I didn't feel the chemistry between both characters. For me it matters that by the end of a romance you truly believe the love interests are going to stick together past the epilogue and I did not get that feeling while reading. Otherwise it was a story filled with humor, friendship and sticking it to the man (okay one man but honestly Jordy was the worst).