4.5 stars! This was such a fun and cute read. I loved Maya and Skye, they were really great characters to follow throughout the novel. Plus the other girls who are all on the show were really fun and added so much to the story. I loved the drama of this book, I can't help but be enthralled in a book filled with the perfect drama that comes with realty shows. I will also say the narrators did a great job!

Jordy was a douche and I don't understand how either Maya or Skye would want to get back together with him. I'm glad Skye got with the program (Maya's program that is) and I'm very happy with the book's resolution.

Sorry it took so long for feedback. One of my favorite books of last year. This beautiful bisexual take on the Bachelor is a can't miss Thank you to the publisher for the ALC.

This was a super cute, fun YA rom-com. I'm not a big reader of YA but this was a really cute twist on a revenge plotline. I really enjoyed the dual narration. While this isn't my typical read, I'm glad I took a chance on it. I love good enemies to lovers romances.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publishers for allowing me the Audio Arc of this title!
I really enjoyed this book. The not really royalty Beau and the group of girls he had wronged in the past fighting for another shot at dating!! The reality TV show aspects were great and kept the plot interesting!! I would definitely read another book like this or even a sequel to this book following the same group of girls!!

This book was delicious and delightful from start to finish. Strong characters, strong story, plenty of fun. I found it believable and age-appropriate but also fun for grownups to read. Love the "behind the scenes" peek at reality TV!

as a fan of sophie gonzales’ previous works, i was impatiently waiting for this new release. a sapphic romance formed by planning revenge on an ex-boyfriend? sign me up!

i found the two main characters very interesting but as a couple, i didn’t believe in their love story. i felt like they didn’t have much chemistry, which is a shame because the premise of this book sounded so good!

sapphic stories are so important so i do recommend picking this up if you want a quick young adult romance to read!

thank you macmillan audio and netgalley for providing me of an audiobook arc in exchange for an honest review

If you are a fan of the Bachelor/Bachelorette you will love this book. It has all the drama and romance that you could ask for!

This was such a fun, unique storyline. I loved Maya and Skye; they could’ve easily been annoying but Sophie Gonzales wrote the characters so well - hilarious and relatable. My only minor complaint was that I could hardly tell the narrators apart; I kept getting confused between Maya and Skye. If you are a fan of enemies to lovers, revenge plots and LGBTQ+ rep, I highly recommend this one! And bonus points for the Taylor Swift-esque title!

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for
the ALC!

A fresh and fun take on second chances and enemies to lovers! A combination of The Bachelor and The Selection, but with and edge and including LGBTQ+ characters and themes. Will definitely recommend to fans of Gonzales' other work as well as fans of Emma Lord and Casey McQuiston.

Never Ever Getting Back Together is if the Batchelor met Bisexual vengeance. It was everything,

I was not expecting to enjoy this as much as I did. I highly recommend it to fans of the traditional reality dating shows. It gives all the juicy goods while also making you fall for both of our main characters.

I also listened to this as an audio arc courtesy of NetGalley/Macmillan. The narrators were everything. At this point, I will pretty much listen to anything Natalie narrates.

2.5 This was... not great. The only thing that sort of redeemed this for me was that I got to listen to the audiobook. It’s my first time and I'm pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it! The narrator is superb, her voice acting is stellar, and she actually made me laugh quite a few times throughout the story, so props to her for making this a relatively enjoyable experience.

That being said, I hated these characters. Maya is immature and unnecessarily mean. I get that she’s just 18 and her anger is sort of justified in a sense, but she targeted Skye for the first part of this story so directly even though, as per her own admission, Jordy is the one who’s at fault. And even if I could understand her anger towards Skye, it made it completely unrealistic for these two women to get together. I am of the opinion that enemies-to-lovers works best in fantasy, and while I think a rivals-to-lovers arc or a sarcastic-banter-to-romantic-feelings dynamic between characters can work in contemporary novels, these girls started off as actual enemies and the fact that I’m supposed to accept them falling in love is ridiculous. They could date literally anyone else in the world, i.e.: people who haven’t caused them all this distress and drama, accused them of being a bad person, or who have absolutely nothing to do with this clusterfuck of a situation, and yet they insist on dating each other? Ouch.

Skye is genuinely boring and naïve. I get that sometimes women can be jealous and I get that love can make you blind, but if your ex-boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend is telling you they were still together when you started dating him, I think it’s reasonable to at least be a little suspicious. Why would you just take everything this man says at face value without ever questioning his morals or intentions? Maybe I'm just biased and cynical when it comes to men, but why a woman would be so intent on believing every single thing her ex-boyfriend tells her is beyond me. It wasn’t until about 40% of the novel that they finally have an honest conversation about what happened. Both of the women just bothered me so much, and this entire book was pretty much only driven by the miscommunication trope, it made it really difficult for me to care about their eventual romantic feelings for one another.

Also, all the age math I had to do was such a distraction to me. It would have been so helpful if Gonzales had given us an actual, clear rundown of when Jordy dated each of these women, because then I could have understood the context of their feelings a lot earlier on and I wouldn't have spent so much time wondering if this guy dated a bunch of minors when he was already an adult.

Furthermore, if I understood correctly, he started dating his first girlfriend when he was about 14-15 years old, and now he's maybe around 21. I’m sorry but I refuse to believe any of these relationships were serious enough to get me to care about them. This whole premise would have made a lot more sense had the characters been in their late 20s / early 30s because then I could believe that some of these relationships were serious enough to explain and justify all this romantic and emotional baggage. I would have been a lot more invested, I would have understood the characters a lot more, the entire show would make much more sense, and I would not have spent a considerable amount of time doing a bunch of mental math to make sure this man wasn't a criminal. I mean come on, I'm about the same age as these characters and I haven't thought about my high school boyfriend in years, let alone would I ever consider rekindling some second chance romance with him. The entire time I was just wondering “why?”, especially considering the fact that Jordy has the personality of a cardboard box. Why am I here? What is this story? What is the point of any of this?

And I know that this is just a detail, but it did throw me off a bit that we start the book in a bar with Maya, but then later in the story we find out she’s never drank wine? There’s a whole scene about how she feels out of place because all the other girls are either older or European so they’ve tasted wine before. And maybe it’s because I’m not American but is that… realistic? It took me a while to wrap my head around the fact that she was 18 because this entire story, from the set up to the minor details, would have made so much more sense if she was at least in her mid 20s. There's no reason these characters had to be so young, and I think it would have made so much more sense had this book been an adult novel instead of YA.

I'll also say that the writing in this wasn't great. If I had to heard the phrase “it feels like I’m 16 again” one more time I would've lost it. The writing got really corny, especially when the characters were expressing their feelings, either to one another or in their internal dialogue. Once again, had it not been for the audiobook I think I would have DNFed this.

I really wanted to like this, and sure some of the affectionate and vulnerable moments between the two main characters were sweet, but overall I was just getting really annoyed. Sadly, I will not be adding this book to any of my recommendations lists.

I wanted to love this one, I did. I'm a sucker for a bachelor-esqe setting

I enjoyed the revenge storyline, but I didn't buy-in to the romance storyline. I felt no chemistry between Maya and Skye. They seemed like friends with a common goal, not lovers.

I did love the narration too.

4.5 I really enjoyed this one! I loved the whole bachelor feel with the two main characters one fighting for revenge and one learning the truth about what happened those few years ago! Mya and Skye where both such fun characters and the narrators did a great job of bringing their characters to life! Jordy was such an ass and I hated him from the beginning my favourite side character was Perry! She was a great addition to the cast to balance the girls! This has a bit of enemies to lovers with perfect angst and I loved the whole LGBTQ representation and thought it was such a great take on this story and the Reality tv shows we have loved to watch and I would like to see it play out on tv lol. The only thing I’m marking a point down for was the ages of the girls, they should of been in there early 20s instead of Late teens! It felt more new adult than Young adult

I thought this concept sounded super cool, but ultimately I got anxious reading about the relationship between the protagonist and her ex.

I’m sure if I powered through this would have been good, but it wasn’t a good match for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

When I first read the quick synopsis of this, I thought what a fun premise to feature a reality tv drama based on the Bachelor, but make it with all of your exes.

NEVER EVER GETTING BACK TOGETHER features two eighteen-year-old girls who are asked to participate in a teen reality show with their now famous ex boyfriend, one bent on revenge, and the other hoping to rekindle romance. They get tangled up in an unexpected twist when they fall for each other instead.

It was a fun story and I thought that both Skye and Maya were great characters! Their unexpected romance was fun to see develop, and this just felt like the perfect coming-of-age love story.

I listened to the audiobook copy and really enjoyed it!

*many thanks to Wednesday Books and Macmillan Audio for the gifted copy

Thank you to Wednesday Books and Netgalley for this arc.

I knew I would love everything about this book the second I saw the cover. A Taylor Swift song title? One of my favorite authors? A bachelor-style show where two of the ladies fall in love? Yes please to all of that.

I absolutely loved this book. Both Skye and Maya are amazing and unique characters whose POV chapters added a lot to the book. I loved seeing their relationship develop throughout and how they each grew as individual people as well.

Also way to go making Jordy absolutely despicable. Like gaslighting egocentric terrible terrible person. He had it comin'.

CW: infidelity, gaslighting, emotional abuse, toxic relationship

I can't say no to a book that gives me behind the scenes reality tv drama, and I can't say no to gay literature- so here we are.

Maya and Skye share a famous ex, Jordy, who has invited both of them to join him on a new reality show exploring his relationships with old flames. Skye has joined in hopes to get clarity about her time with Jordy and maybe to work things out, while Maya has only one goal: revenge. Things quickly take a turn when Maya and Skye realize that the sparks flying between them are about more than jealousy. As Jordy shows his true colors off-camera and the connection between Maya and Skye grows, things could get messy- and this time, there will be an audience.

Sophie Gonzales has said that this book was born of rage first and comedy second, and she has married the two together so well here. It's abundantly clear this book was written by an author with a fire under them, and I really liked the intensity it brought- especially with the justified anger the main characters felt at different times. The premise was just perfect for me, and the leads were both amazing in their own unique ways.

Thanks so much to Wednesday Books and Macmillan Audio as well as NetGalley for the advanced listening copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.

Thank you to @netgalley and @Stmartinspress for a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Thank you to @macmillian.audio for a free download of the audiobook.

In an interesting twist on a romance reality show, Jordy brings his exes together in an attempt to rekindle a past relationship. Some of the girls take it super serious, some learn they were brought back because they would make great villians, and some are looking for revenge. But then there are girls who get more than they bargain for, each other <3 A twist I was not expecting.

I really enjoyed the development of the relationship between Maya and Skye. The concept is good. The writing was entertaining. I couldn’t put it down!

4 stars

#books #bookishlife #booklover #readingisfun #iowabookstagrammers #iowabookstagram #netgalley #stmartinspress #macmillianaudio #ltbreaderteam #neverevergettingbacktogether #sophiegonzales #smpinfluencers

I was lucky enough to get an eARC and an eALC for never ever getting back together. I like a lot of other people were drawn to the hype of this book, which made me a little nervous picking it up. But I have to say it was a lot of fun and I can’t find any other audiobook that can compete next to it.
We’re following Skye and Maya, two girls who had dated Jordy, the brother of the new Princess Sophie, and overall a terrible person. They’re both approached to do a reality show with Jordy and the rest of his exes. To add to the drama, Maya was cheated while dating Jordy with Skye, who had no idea Jordy hadn’t broken up with Maya. Maya goes on it hoping to ruin Jordy the way he ruined her life while Skye does it for fun and maybe another chance at love, but quickly it becomes hell for both girls, as Jordy plays up the lies he told everyone.
I’m quickly realizing that I love reality tv shows? This is the third one I’ve read recently that I completely loved. I loved the drama. I loved the fact they quickly turned against Jordy when they realize that they’ve been lied to and played up so they would cause drama on the show. I went along of the ride and ended up loving the whole story and the main characters far too much. We’ve all known a Jordy, who thinks he’s better than everyone else, who will do anything to come out as the one wronged and not the other way around. It also gave us a great commentary on shows like that in general and how messed up it can be and how they’ll do anything for the ratings, including getting 18 year olds drunk, of cutting things to make the center of the show be seen in a better light even if they don’t have a single good bone in their body.
I really loved this book and I wish I could find another just like it.