Thank you so much to the publisher and netgalley for the arc of this book. All opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed this one! It was a lot of fun and such a nice break from the fantasy I'd been reading. I love a story you can get lost in and this is exactly what this did!

This is a friends to enemies to lovers story about Emma and Caleb former friends who both set their eyes on the new girl, Juliet, they make a competition to see who will win her first only to find eachother instead

This is the authors second book and second book I read. Both books started a little slow and then picked up quickly for me. I found myself reading the first few chapters not being sure of how I was going feel about the characters. One thing that I love about Amanda’s writing is her ability to write very flawed characters with difficult family lives. On the surface the character may feel hard to like, but you continue to read and as you learn about where they come from and how they struggle until you eventually find them likable. She is also very good at writing enemies to lovers stories that don’t have a quick sudden resolve, which is something that can be difficult in a lot of enemies to lovers stories.

Overall I found myself falling in love with Caleb, Emma and Juliet as well as Caleb’s mom and their other friends. Caleb, however, is such a loveable character it’s impossible to not fall in love with him.

A great sophomore novel, 4 stars and I look forward to reading future stories.

I absolutely loved They Hate Other so I’ve been very excited for this book but I was also nervous because sometimes I just don’t love an authors second book as much as I did the first one but y’all this book is SO FREAKING GOOD!! Like I really really loved it!! It was sweet and funny and emotional and heartbreaking and heartwarming and so much in between! I absolutely loved both Emma & Caleb so much and was invested in both of them from the very start. I also adored Juliet so much (especially with the reveal at the end ((I 100% guessed it really early on too))) and I loved Caleb’s mom, Liz, & Alice too!

One of my favorite things about Amanda’s books is how complex they are! Both this book & theo deal with really heavy topics (really well, I might add) but they’re mixed with humor and self deprecation and so much love that they’re impossible to put down! I just really loved every single thing about this book and highly recommend it! Will definitely be making my list of favorite books for the year 🩵

Exes & Foes is a cute second-chance YA romance with a lot of heavy secondary themes. This book deals with parental abuse and neglect, bullying, homelessness, and issues around identity and coming out. I liked Caleb and Emma a ton as characters, and while they both make some questionable choices, for the most part I saw them as pretty relatable teenagers, especially given the circumstances they are put into by the people around them. There's a ton of great queer rep, with both Caleb and Emma being bi (we love a bi4bi pairing!), Caleb also being demisexual, Juliet being nonbinary and aroace (coming out as both throughout the course of the novel), and Alice being a lesbian. Their friend group is also culturally diverse, though this doesn't play too big of a role; there are Chinese, Indian, and Black families represented.

One issue I had with this ARC was that there were a TON of spelling and grammar errors that I hope are cleaned up before publication. Just off the top of my head, I remember seeing "canon" instead of "cannon", "breaks" instead of "brakes", and a bunch more.

While I really hoped that this book was going to be polyam, with Caleb Emma and Juliet ending up in a triad, I think that Woody worked through the relationships in the story in a way that made the pairing at the end make sense, and I was really rooting for Caleb and Emma. I recommend this one for queer YA readers especially!

Overall, a cute and quirky YA romance. I enjoyed the characters and all their flaws. The childhood friends-to-not-friends-to lovers concept was well done and sweet. One of the things I didn't like, though, was their "competing" for Juliet. Just didn't sit well with me, even though the characters admitted to it and apologized to Juliet. Overall, this was a fun read, but not a new favorite.

Exes & Foes by Amanda Woody is a contemporary novel that explores themes of relationships and rivalry. While the story provides some engaging moments, its overall execution and character development might not stand out to all readers. The book offers a familiar narrative but may appeal differently depending on personal tastes.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin for the ARC of this book.

It’s the first I’ve read by Amanda Woody, but it won’t be the last.

Definitely check triggers. This isn’t dark by any means, but it does deal with some heavy topics like abuse from a parent (mental and emotional) and homophobia. That being said, those were handled well and were part of the story and making the characters who they were.

This book had such cute moments, while also dealing with these heavy themes. The LGBTQIA+ rep was great and again, done well. It was such a great found family story with a cute second chance romance, which isn’t usually my favorite trope. Everything about this book worked so well.

My only complaints are that it started a little slow and I kind of wish some of the side character friends were fleshed out a bit more, but again, I loved it and will read more by this author.

Slow to start, but the book tackles a lot of tough things with grace and empathy. The superficial storyline of Emma and Caleb, the chaotic bisexual exes engaging in a contest to win the affection of Juliet is easily the least interesting story arc. The friendship and themes of parents, good and bad, are the real meat of the story. This book has solid character development, self-discovery, and personal growth. Lots of teens will see themselves and their lives reflected in these characters and their challenges, and can feel hopeful.

Unfortunately this was a dnf, I didn't care for the story line or the characters.
Thanks for net galley ans publishers for giving me and opportunity to read this book in exchange for a honest review.

I was a bit reluctant to dive in as I don't really like love triangles. The whole "competition" Emma and Caleb come up with to "get" Juliette just gave me the ick.

I ABHORRED Emma's mom! She is someone who should not have ever had the chance to be a parent. (That's so mean of me but seriously....)Emma is going to need therapy big time to deal with that trauma and neglect. I have never disliked a person so much! Caleb's dad wasn't the best either but at least his mom more than made up for it.

I like the queer rep throughout and Emma and Caleb (both bi) helping Juliette really define what she felt she was (aroace). I liked that (though the time apart from each other) didn't make Emma or Caleb ever not care about the other. They just needed Juliette in her sneaky way to get them back to that place in the others life again.

First of all thank you to penguin young readers and Amanda for letting me review such a great read .

i really did have so much fun with this book i have not read much YA for a while so i loved dipping my toe back in .
i thought that Amanda's writing was wonderful and refreshing to read , she kept it so well paced and i was turning the pages so fast to see what happens next .

the characters i thought were great took me back to when i was a teen but i loved the open minded way they would think in the book ,so many different personalities in the mix i loved it . and the drama was so good very much loved it with the laugh out load moments .

i think if you love young adults I would give this one ago .

i am giving the book 4 teenage dreams stars

I have to preface this by saying I already know that my YA patrons at the library will LOVE THIS BOOK. I want to recommend it to all of them right away. We will definitely be purchasing this book for circulation at my library!

I'm going to be completely honest here: the beginning of this book is ROUGH. The characters almost don't feel real, more like charicatures. The dialogue is cringey as fuck, and makes you debate if this author has ever talked to another human before, and the insta-love is WILD. It was almost painful to read, but the concept was interesting and the reviews were great so I decided to stick with it, and I'm glad I did.
I think over the time of the book Amanda Woody did a great job developing these characters. At the start they feel like charicatures but by the end they are fully fleshed out people that I got so incredibly attached to. Emma and Caleb are two very different people, yet there are A LOT of parallels to their personal journeys. I thought this author did a great job at developing those aspects, and I also love how we got flashbacks to really see how deep some of these things run. I absolutely cried like a baby at a certain point throughout this book. I thought that was all just masterfully executed, and really packed the punch it should have.
I also adore the friendships within this book. We're mainly focussed on Caleb and Emma in this book, and their friendship is precious to me. I actually really liked how rough around the edges it was. It felt very real, and I loved seeing them put the pieces back together, and heal the hurt between them throughout the novel. Juliet is also quite a big part in this one. I actually really liked their journey of realising her past friends were toxic, and finally finding a place where they fit in. I really loved that b-plot throughout this book. I also really liked the other side characters that made up the friendgroup. They were a lot of fun, and I kind of wish we got a little more from them.
The only thing I didn't really like in this book was the romance. The whole thing with Juliet felt incredibly insta-love, and forced. I really disliked that aspect to this book, and it lasted WAY longer than I expected. It annoyed me a little bit. However, I don't think it got that much better once the focuss went on Emma and Caleb instead. I don't hate them as a couple, I just think it was extremely underdeveloped. I mean, in the flashbacks it's clear they have little crushes on each other, but in the present those feelings just weren't present for me. I just think that was the part of the book where the least amount of effort was put into. Like I said, it wasn't horrribly done. It just kind of felt like an afterthought, and I think this book could have been so much more impactful if it was just a friendship story instead.

This was actually a lot of fun. I love how stupid Emma and Caleb were. They couldn't see that they were clearly in love with each other. I enjoyed how Juliet was a good sport about it and even tried to get them together.

I received an arc through netgalley.

Thank you to @NetGalley, Amanda Woody, and the publisher of the book for the eARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

Two old friends challenge each other to compete for the new girl's heart. Emma and Caleb use to be friends, but not since eighth grade. Emma thinks Caleb is a stick in the mud and super boring. Caleb is super annoyed with Emma because she keeps getting in the way of any potential relationships. When both try to go for Juliet, will they fall for each other instead?

A cute bisexual YA!

This is such an intense and poignant coming of age story. I felt so bad for Emma whose mother was extremely hard on her and she could never do anything right.

There is a new girl at school and she's interested but her ex bff Caleb is too. They decide to compete for her. But every time they try to get her alone they end up alone together. It brings up old feelings that never went away and helped them realize what separated them.

There were so many adult issues that these poor teens were having to deal with, homelessness, hunger, absent fathers and fathers using them, bullying, verbal abuse, and more.
The only adult who was actually kind to then was Caleb's mom who all the other adults criticized for dressing too sexy. Ugh society.

I did love their found family in their friend group.

A really sweet YA romance that kept me interested the whole time. I liked the mcs, and I liked their relationships with their friends and each other.

3.5 stars rounded up. This was a mostly sweet YA rom-com with endearing characters and a decent amount of queer diversity.

I liked all the characters in this one, even if I found their actions questionable (at best) at times. I feel like this story might actually work better as a movie, assuming the leads were especially charismatic.

The ending to this one made me smile, which is really all I need from a book like this.

I read an ARC of this book from NetGalley. All comments are my own.

First off, I want to thank Viking Books for Young Readers and NetGalley for sending me an e-arc in exchange for an honest review!

There were some things I really liked about this book, but it did take me a while to get invested. It felt like they both became interested in Juliet fairly quickly. I’m just not typically a fan of insta-love and had been expecting a bit more build-up since they liked her so much that they neither wanted to give up their chance of being with her. I also wasn’t the biggest fan of the dialogue at times.

Now for what I did like: how it all ended. I love how the author tied up the romance and the family aspects of the book. I love the little found family they created and how they showed the difference between healthy and unhealthy friendships. While I wasn’t sure how to feel about Juliet at first, I ended up really liking her as a character once we got to know more about her! I was also rooting for Caleb and Emma! This book ended up being heavier than I thought it’’d be, but I really did like reading about how their familial relationships developed and believe that these plotlines could be really helpful for younger readers who are going through similar situations. I also liked the flashback chapters! I think they provided great context for the kind of bond that Caleb and Emma had before their friendship had ended. Also, I loved all the rep and the conversations they had around sexuality and identity! One particular conversation stood out to me that I think will mean a lot to many readers.

I do have to admit that I was in a bit of a reading slump, which could be why I was not super invested at the start of reading it. Overall, I did still like it and could definitely see other readers loving it.

Overall, 3.75 stars rounded up to 4!

cw: emotional parental abuse, queerphobia, physical violence, bullying, toxic friendships (off-page), abandonment, mental illness

This was super cute and fun, but also covered some pretty heavy topics. I liked that the ending was happy, but not fully "everything wrapped in a bow", and it had some great POVs and representation in it.