This book was fantastic! Perfect for fans of the bachelor type reality shows (which I absolutely am). It was hilarious to see the "behind the scenes" of the contestants and how over produced and fake the show is. The two main characters frustrated me sometimes with the decisions they make, but by the end justice is served and everything is resolved. This was a unique take on the traditional "enemies to lovers" trope and it was an enjoyable, quick read.

Let me preface: I picked this book solely on the fact that the name reminded me of a Taylor Swift song... I never read the summary, so I initially thought that either Maya or Skye got back together with Jordy. However, I was shipping the two girls with the obvious chemistry. I loved this book - it was so cute and fluffy. I think that this was one of the best rom-com books that I have read so far.

I love this book! It was absolutely hilarious and I was never bored. I'm not sure if its because I'm just naturally drawn to Type A characters, but Maya was literally perfect to me, and her comebacks/one liners were so funny.

The plot of this book was a great idea and I loved it from the beginning. Sadly I wish it would have been used in a better way. The characters were honestly just not my cup of tea. Maya, the main character, is more focused on revenge than anything else. Skye struggle is kinda well pictured but JORDY omg! I HATED him, but also I guess that the reader is meant to hate him.
Overall the book was totally ok and a fun read for in between books. I just could not connect to the main characters and their behavior and their decision making.

3.25 stars
I was exciting going into this because I read The Charm Offensive and I loved that. I expected the romance to be more substantial. Maya and Skye were friends and then they were more. I wanted more of a buildup. I wanted sexual tension. I wanted them to have more sweet moments. We didn’t learn much about the contestants life. The characters didn’t feel 3 dimensional. It was hard to push through this book to finish it. I was annoyed by how focused Maya was on revenge. It’s not until the very end where she lets that go.

The humour, the twists, the teenage girls slowly falling in love, the REASLITIC REALITY TV ASPECTS??? It's safe to say this book had it all. Not to mention the Taylor Swift title reference which somehow managed to make it 10000x better.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the DCR of Never Ever Getting Back Together. I love a good twist on a reality television series as the main plot of romances I read. Sophie Gonzales did a fantastic job with this twist. We are introduced to Maya who is a spunky, fun recent high school graduate and to Skye a guarded, loving, free-spirit traveling on her gap year. They receives an opportunity that they just can't pass up, go on a reality dating show where they will compete with others for a second chance with their ex-boyfriend Jordy. Maya has a compelling motive for wanting a second chance and Sky has her reasons too. But, once they arrive will it be all that they hoped for or will they be thrown a curve ball? I do wish that the characters were a little older. I had a difficult time wrapping my head around the fact that many of the contestant on the reality show were under 20. I kept picturing the characters older while reading. If you want a fantastic book that just gives you queer representation, happy feels, and makes you laugh, I highly recommend this, also the title's ohmage to Taylor Swift doesn't hurt either.

thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press: Wednesday Books!

CW: gaslighting, manipulation (to protags)

This was my first Sophie Gonzales book, though it's been one i've been looking forward to for a while. I was very interested in the premise: two girls in a reality show competition, supposedly to get back with their cheating ex-- one joining to take him down, and then falling for the girl he cheated on her with? Gorgeous. My shallow sapphic heart wanted more.

And Jordy definitely paid off. Skeezy as all hell, he still knew the right things to say to play at the hearts of his exes-- yet blandly interesting enough that I could see why his stories might be brought. It's sort of funny to picture him as a young, male, dickish Pippa Middleton, for all that he was only eighteen and soared to apparently, boy-band fame.

I didn't mind the miscommunication, or the quicker-developing-- it's a YA romance, after all, and it was pretty explained why both were told to have little cause to like each other before-- but I did often forget how young the protagonists were. Often, it felt like they were college graduates (or that might have been my mind adjusting), but I liked the ways that their general youth came about: extremely dramatic planning, excitement about being able to legally drink, and being able to bond quickly with others.

I also really loved the twist at the end, and thought it really well done. I liked most of the other girls we met, and I wish that we could have a sequel, with new contestants-- and some that mention the fallout!

I really enjoyed this book! It hooked me from the first chapter and kept me glued to my seat to find out what happened next! It was funny and cute!

This book has the marking of the Bachelor, but instead of new random girls-the guy gets to bring back all of his exs to see if their was a missed opportunity and one that got away.

This book did not turn out how I expected it too, but is was an easy, quick read regardless.

I loved this book! I truly could not put it down. I have read a lot of books with a "bachelor-esque" show as the main premise, but I loved this new take on it. Between the layers added by all of the women being Jordy's exes, to the enemies to lovers plot line (with bi rep!!) I couldn't get enough. I can't wait to tell everyone I know to read this book when it comes out, and own a copy of my own!

I love Sophie Gonzales so much! Though this didn't quite hit the mark for me, the casual queerness Sophie writes in these characters made my heart so happy and I still had a pretty fun time.

I definitely loved the story more once Maya and Skye are able to move past their entangled relationships with Jordy and on to revenge and falling in love. As much as I loved them, the stakes were always very low and I didn't fully feel the trust that becomes central to their conflict is very developed. I didn't really care since this is YA and they don't always need to be so developed because teen emotions are messy, but since part of my brain wanted this to be NA on some level (mostly because I couldn't buy into the show otherwise), I wanted more regardless.

My biggest complaints are definitely that 1) this novel does not feel quite right for a YA audience, and 2) it leans heavily into the assumption that anyone reading this has watched dating shows to the point of production awareness. The entire concept being 18 year-old girls competing on a show themed around second chances felt odd, given how few high school relationships make it into the real world. But even disregarding that, the time spent on the dating show just believes too much that readers know the scheming that goes behind the scenes. I definitely do, but I can see how readers who don't care about dating shows but do like revenge might be confused. Also... this show is so tame that I even found my ability to suspend belief difficult here too lol.

I still adore Sophie and all her books. This is a 4 star read for a number of reasons, including positive dating show girl power! But this is definitely my least favorite so far and it's a bummer. How did a dating show revenge plot not land with me? We may never know.

This was a fun twist on a Bachelor-inspired rom-com. What if instead of the the Bachelor dating brand new women, he dates all his ex-girlfriends again? And what if he cheated on some ex-girlfriends with other ex-girlfriends? Maya still hasn't gotten over Jordy cheating on her with Skye, so when the opportunity to go on a reality TV show in which Jordy dates all his ex-girlfriends again in an attempt at a second chance at love, she can't wait to get her revenge. What Maya doesn't count on is actually liking Jordy's cheating partner, Skye, maybe even liking her a lot.

Absolutely PHENOMENAL book. I was concerned when I saw the ages of the main characters, but I was surprisingly in love with this story. Sophie Gonzales kills it, once again!

I don't believe I have ever read a book that takes the premise of a television series such as The Bachelor and turns it into a "Second Chance with Your Ex" competition, so this was a first for me. I really enjoyed reading this book. We are so used to getting the heteronormative romance story, that this was a delightful change from the norm. I really felt invested in the characters and their happiness, although I will say that one of them was overly concerned with the idea of revenge based on a romance that was less than a year old. That said, the revenge plot morphs into something else and becomes the impetus for the resolution of the story.

*I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

Oh...my...god. This was such a cute sapphic romance and I absolutely adored Skye and Maya's relationship! The writing was fun and I enjoyed that that MC's were in their early 20s and trying to figure things out in life. I think this book would have benefited if it had had a bit more female empowerment throughout the novel rather than at the end, parts of it felt very 'Mean Girls' early on but taking in the character's ages I think it made sense seeing as they aren't meant to be these mature adults who know what they want. I'm not a fan of reality TV but I would 1000% watch 'Second Chance Romance' if it was real!

Definitely one of the best romances I've read this year!

This was my first novel by Sophie Gonzalez and I requested an ARC on a whim because hello, T Swift inspired title? And I am so delighted I got the chance to read this. John Tucker Must Die meets the Bachelor (2 of my guilty pleasures) but make it sapphic. This story was adorable and fun and funny and the secondhand embarrassment Maya was giving me in the first few days of filming quickly turned into giddy excitement and Maya and Skye slowly started to fall for each other. I absolutely adored Maya and Skye and this was such a treat to read.

Thank you so much to St Martin's Press for the invitation to review Never Ever Getting Back Together via NetGalley.

This is such a fun book. It centers around a reality show in which a guy's exes come back to compete for another chance with him. The guy in question, Jordy, someone who is "royal adjacent" but not a royal, is not the nice "Prince Charming" type the public believes him to be. No one knows this better than Maya, who had her heart broken by him as a teenager. Maya sets out to expose Jordy for his duplicitous ways, and in the process, meets Skye, another contestant, who played a pivotal part in her (and Jordy's) past but might also be her future. Maya and Skye need to decide what to prioritize and what compromises are worth making for their chance at a happy ending.

The main character Maya was a bit much for me at times but I really enjoyed Skye and Perrie. I loved the reality show setting, and the way it allowed the development of a lot of characters. I thought the author did a good job of using tropes in a fun way without overdoing them. It was nice to read a sapphic romance in which the plot wasn't tragic or centered around coming out.

Overall a fun, quick, lighthearted read.

I am a big fan of Sophie Gonzales' work and this one did not disappoint at all! I am a big reality TV fan and so I thought the premise of the show was fascinating. The humor was on point throughout the novel and I loved the journey of all the contestants in the show, not just Maya and Skye.

"I suppose when you trust someone not to hurt you, red flags look heart-shaped."

Never Ever Getting Back Together follows two main characters: First, there is Maya, a girl who's about to go to med school, and whose cheating ex bf, Jordy, made her a laughingstock by lying about her when he cheated on her then dumped her. It's even worse when Jordy becomes famous when his sister marries royalty in a small fake european country and she has to see him everywhere. When she gets asked to go on a reality show where he has to re-date all his exes, she initially disagrees, but then realizes if she goes on she can break his heart in public! When she gets to the show she finds out she's roommates with:

Skye, the girl Jordy cheated on her with two years ago. Skye agreed to come on the show because she thought she might have fallen in love with Jordy if they'd been together longer, and because Jordy lies to her about Maya, she doesn't believe Maya when she insists she was with Jordy the same time Skye was.

Finally there's Jordy, who isn't a POV character, but the villain. He is a narcissist who agreed to go on the reality show because he's jealous of the attention his now-princess older sister is getting, and he wants the spotlight, and his family's attention, to be back on him. He also agreed because he had his heart broken by a girl he loved before the show.

Jordy is really charming, but when the girls start comparing notes, they realize he's a liar and uses the same lines on everyone. The only reason he hasn't been caught before now is his family moved countries all the time, and he'd always break up with one girl whenever he moved and date someone else for a few months in the new country, so none of them had ever met before. When Skye realizes Maya is telling the truth, they team up to take him down.

Things I liked:

1. I really related to Maya! She is impulsive, but smart, and really good at reading people and finding ways to make them feel better. But she really cares about what people think of her, so she's going to med school to look smarter, and to prove she can do it. It's also the reason she wants to come on the show, so she can prove to the people at home that Jordy is the liar, and not her. But trying to control how other people see her causes her more pain than anything, and I won't say how the plotline ends, but I really appreciated how this was handled.

2. I loved Maya and Skye together. Skye is a little bit meaner than Maya and is happier to throw some of the girls under the bus (but Maya stops her), and she is a free spirit who travels the world and gets rid of people when they hurt her so she can have fun etc. Maya helps Skye to understand that she can let people in, which Skye is scared to do after her mom left the family and Jordy broke her heart (twice), and Skye helps maya focus on the experiences she wants to have instead of the ones people will be impressed by. It's also a really slow burn that kicks off really early, and I loved that!

3. I love the concept, and think it's really unique. The story didn't go where I expected it to go, either (other than the obvious that Maya and Skye would have a happy ending together) and I thought Jordy's take down was really satisfying.

What I didn't like:

1. I saw a lot of people reviewing this saying the reality show is more of an adult concept, and at first I really agreed, but then about halfway through the book I changed my mind. I understand why people wouldn't like it, but my controversial opinion is a reality dating show with younger people would probably go off in real life (think about how obsessed we are with the dating lives of young celebrities). And no one is underage. Maya and Skye are eighteen, Jordy is twenty, and the other girls are said to have been in college for awhile, so I could see it! I think it would also work as NA (especially because I would have loved spicy scenes) but in the end I wasn't mad about it really. Also I did a buddy read with my friend who pointed out the hunger games is about much younger children killing each other and it was believable that people would watch that, and killing shouldn't be considered less adult than dating / kissing and I agree with her!!!!!

2. I loved Perrie and would have loved a few chapters from her point of view to see things the girls weren't able to be there for.

3. I would've loved the epilogue to be a little bit longer so we could see more of the fallout because that was the most satisfying part and we had to use our imaginations a bit!