I really enjoyed this YA romance. Aubrey is a strong character, dealing with the struggles of preparing to leave for college, friends growing apart, and a disastrous family life. As she watches her parents fight, she increasingly doubts the ability to love and have a functional relationship. She tries to apply science to relationships and take emotions out of the equation. She grows a lot throughout the story, and finds her way. I loved the characters in the book, and I think the author presented their problems in a realistic way. There is some adult content, so it was a bit too mature for my middle school students, but definitely appropriate for high schoolers. I would highly recommend!

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

This book was very good and not what I expected. I enjoyed the storyline a lot. It didn’t get boring and I kept wanting to read more. I also liked the characters. Both of the love interests were great and I almost couldn’t decide who I liked more. The only thing I didn’t like about this book was that the main character could get annoying at times. I never understood the whole “Bayes Theorem” thing so it got confusing and annoying. But I liked the rest of the book and everything else about it.

Overall this book was fun to read and I recommend it to young adult and contemporary book lovers.

Purchased this YA/middle grade novel for my middle school library. Superb character development, elegant world building, and compelling plotting.

This ones just not for me. Too much of a coming of age story then a romance. Might appeal to someone closer to their age range.

3.5 Stars

Aubrey has had a front-row seat to heartbreak: her parents' marriage, her best friend's doomed "blink and you missed it" relationships, and even her own public humiliation at Homecoming where the guy she was falling for stood her up. Why even bother setting yourself up for such disappointment and unhappiness? Maybe it's better to hold yourself at a distance and never risk your heart. When Aubrey starts dating Holland, she feels pretty safe. It's fun, and no one is going to get hurt. Except seeing Holland has put her back in Webster's (the guy who ditched her Junior year) orbit, and spending more time with him makes her realize just how differently he makes her feel...and that he could break her still-tender heart all over again. With the end of Senior year looming and everyone destined to scatter in different directions anyway, is it even worth it to fall in love if it's sure to fail or end?

This was a cute, clever teen romance. The characters are smart, but also get things wrong in a believable way and learn as they go. Aubrey learns about some theory of statistics that she uses to predict relationship outcomes, and though it doesn't really work....it was an entertaining twist to her just stewing over things. She was taking control and trying to use her brain to solve the problem, which I appreciated.

I had two minor issues: 1) Webster's character is bi, but aside from occasionally mentioning that, it didn't impact the story much so it felt like it was just added in for diversity's sake. And 2) Things got physical between characters so abruptly and rather...seriously, quickly, which just took me by surprise and didn't feel entirely authentic either.

Those minor quibbles aside, it was a fun read. I liked it better than her first book (though with 2 friends trying to find their way back to each other after a massive misunderstanding, a lot of it was familiar). I enjoy Martin's voice, so I hope she branches out a little and tries a different trope. It would be interesting to see what else she can do!

**Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!**

This book hits on so many big issues: divorce, friendship, relationships (of all kinds), & just general teen angst. I think it will appeal to kids for the sheer breadth of topics it covers. The protagonist, Aubrey, is wonderfully flawed. She makes poor choices, she hurts people she loves, she jumps to conclusions... she is real. She doesn't come across as plastic or too perfect, but as is often the case with YA characters, she is remarkably self-aware--definitely beyond the adolescents that I get to work with daily. Even though her self-awareness seems to be a little disengenuous, she's still a readable and interesting character. The other characters are similarly developed. I picked up the book because I thought it would help me turn my brain off and drift into sleep, but it didn't. Instead of sleeping, I spent the next two hours devouring the story.

You’ll never forget your first love, your childhood BFF, and the most embarrassing things that happened to you during high school. There was a lot of miscommunication and Aubrey struggles (painfully) to express her feelings. Then again, awkward teenage years! The ending was a bit rushed but overall a good story. A cute YA that took me down memory lane.

Thank you Netgalley & Inkyard Press for the ARC

It’s the age-old story. Girl loves boy, boy hurts and humiliates her, girl pines away, heartbroken, watching him date girl after girl. Until she meets his cousin.

Thank you, Ms. Martin, for addressing the toxic beliefs regarding virginity. Further, she addressed the culture of shaming a woman for what she’s wearing, because essentially, boys can’t control themselves. We need more of this in books. We need to show the repercussions of these kinds of toxic beliefs.

Poor Aubrey spends so much time trying to control things she isn’t really living. Her unhealthy attachment to Bayes rule is controlling her life. But these obsessions are rooted in the drama of her parents. The constant arguing and putting her in the middle has changed her. Her absolute need for control makes her unlikable at times. But there is hope, and we get to see that in this. If there was anything I didn’t love, it was the sparring between Webster and Aubrey. That got to be pretty toxic. Had they talked things out, they wouldn’t be in this mess.

Overall, this was a cute read. It addressed a lot of real-world issues. It was angsty and dramatic. A fun enemy to lovers read. Thank you, Inkyard Press, for sending this along.

There are so many different emotions that you go through when you are young. Relationships are messy, life is a lot of ups and downs and when you throw in anxiety and insecurities you have the life of a teenager. You are almost an adult but still a child with emotions that run all over the place. Aubrey is trying to find the best outcomes for her life by using bayes rules. It's an adventure to watch her with her friends and potential love interests.

I've always loved coming of age stories and how they maneuver their lives through their teenage years. We meet aubrey as shes being stood up for the school dance. This experience shapes the books direction. We meet all the secondary characters such as her best friend Reese and her neighbor Webster (who stood her up). Also his cousin Holland. They all have their insecurities as well, this whole story just felt very plausible and raw.

The insecurities you have in relationships, family and changes suck as going of to college are real. This book was a good read, I enjoyed the realness of it all. I was really rooting for Aubrey to have some happiness in her life. I think by the end she finds what she needs and finally gives in to just being. Life is hard. Families are hard. Relationships are hard. I really am feeling some type of way after reading this book but most of all I feel hopeful.

Five Ways to Fall Out of Love by Emily Martin was a classic YA novel. It's about Aubrey Cash, who learns to detest love after being stood up by her date Webster Casey at her junior year homecoming dance. Adding to that is the constant fighting between her parents at home and her best friend's long list of ex boyfriends, and Aubrey is determined to avoid love at all costs. In her senior year now, Aubrey meets Holden, Webster's cousin. After a lot of convincing, she finally agrees to go out with him. But at the same time, Webster starts to rekindle the friendship they shared before everything went wrong. And when her parents decide to separate, Aubrey just starts spiraling, before finally finding her way.
I really liked the way the author split the book into five parts. It really highlighted the way Aubrey had to completely lose her way and hit rock bottom before finally paving her way forward.
I also really liked that the author wrote Webster's bisexuality into the story instead of just shying away from it. It definitely improved my rating for this book.
While I did enjoy this book, I do have to say that for a YA novel, this book had more sex in it than a usual YA novel. There wasn't anything explicit in it, just more scenes about it, that I felt was more than a teen novel usually has.
There were moments where the characters were extremely frustrating and I just really wanted them to get it together. There was just a lot of instances of miscommunication and a whole lot of drama in this book that could have been handled better. I also felt like the ending could have been a little more conclusive.
I would give this 3.5 stars, just cause it was still an enjoyable book, even though I had some issues with it. I would recommend it if your looking for a classic teen novel about a girl who looks past her cynicism to really understand what love is really about.

I forgot this was a YA while I was reading it and I mean that in the best way possible. I felt the this book really salt with the themes of isolation and of how to be the "captain of one's own soul" in ways understandable by and familiar to young adults. Though I, at my "big age" of 33, often felt frustrated and annoyed by the teen logic of the protagonists, I mostly felt those feelings because I recognized those same actions from similar scenarios I faced at 18. This was a strong book and I enjoyed it very much. I didn't quite get the "Five Ways" referenced in the title, but that could have been just the formatting of my ARC.

Aubrey Cash gets ghosted at the homecoming dance her junior year in high school by the guy she thought was her best friend. She spends the next 350 pages agonizing over what went wrong, how to know if one is actually in love, and obsessing over her obsession with how people fall in love and stay there.

While she frets about her relationships, she watches her parents’ marriage die a slow, agonizing death. Her best friend keeps her centered, and she spends a lot of time hating the boy-next-door who stood her up.

Filled with oodles of angst, hormonal displays, cursing, and underage drinking, I had a difficult time connecting with the protagonists. While the author spends plenty of time sharing Aubrey’s innermost thoughts, the reader knows little about Aubrey other than she gets good grades, she has a best friend, she can’t decide which college to choose, she’s gone to school her whole life with the same kids but doesn’t seem to know any of them very well, and she likes dogs.

Webster Casey, the object of Aubrey’s hate and affection, comes out to her as bisexual the summer they meet. His sexual orientation adds a ring of confusion to the story. He likes guys, but he really likes Aubrey. Could Aubrey really fall for a guy who also likes guys?

In the end, Aubrey decides relationships require a leap of faith into all the unknown variables.

Super cute young adult romance.

That being said, I am an older (Much) adult who usually loves young adult. This was just a little too young for me.

I do want to thank #netgalley, the author and the publisher for a chance to read an ARC of this book. It did not impact my review. I do think actual young adults will truly love this book.

For me this was a DNF at 40%, i just couldn't get into it, I wanted to DNF at 25% but I was trying to give it the benefit of the doubt and I just ended it at 40% because for me I just couldn't connect with the characters at all which is a shame because did want to like this book.

Thank you to @netgalley for a copy of Five Ways To Fall Out Of Love by Emily Martin!

Synopsis: Aubrey Cash has never understood why her relationship with Webster Casey, her next door neighbor, went from friends to enemies in the span of one night. But she’s honestly tired of trying to figure it out. Between that rivalry, making college decisions with her BFF and her parents’ constant fighting, Aubrey is ready to give up on relationships. But she’s a scientist at heart — and when there’s a scientific formula that she can use to prove love doesn’t exist, she has to do what any scientist does: collect evidence. But will her love experiment leave her heartbroken in the process?

I found this to be an okay YA read that I finished in about 48 hours. Aubrey is a little angsty and tiny bit overdramatic in my opinion, although she’s dealing with a lot more than I ever did in high school and I’m arguably under-dramatic. It was sometimes difficult to sift through to the meat of the plot and the character development because everything was very crowded by her internal thoughts and diatribes, which were very adult for a high schooler. I also felt like everything wrapped up way too quickly and I wanted to have more closure at the end.

However, it was still a fun read, with a few butterfly inducing moments — I will never get over a secretly protective trope, sorry about it — and some steamy-for-high-school scenes. Webster is also a bisexual love interest, which I haven’t seen before in a YA novel so that was cool! (There’s actually some addressing of anti-bi comments and mindsets, so head’s up on that — nothing major or particularly heavy but it’s there.)

Overall, Five Ways To Fall Out Of Love was a solid weekend read! I’d probably say get this one from the library, unless you really love all YA.

Captivating story. Interesting twist on the girl falls for best boy friend trope. Upper high school appropriate.

This was cute! I liked the best friends to enemies to lovers trope. The angst and the pining were great! There were a few things that just made me feel a little uncomfortable reading as an adult and not an actual teen but I just skimmed a little through those parts. Webster was super cute and I loved him. Aubrey was a great MC with a lot of feelings and I loved that about her. I loved the storylines of love and friendship and overall this was adorable!

I received this book "Five Ways to Fall Out of Love" from NetGalley and all opinions expressed are my own. Okay so I needed something light to read and choose this one. I know it is a YA and I was okay with that. First, I really liked the characters, they were fun and real, people you could be friends with in high school. There was the romance, while Aubrey tried to find herself. There was the girlfriend fights, misunderstandings and hurt feelings. Oh the struggles of being young! Overall a good book.

When Webster Casey moves across the street the summer before junior year, Aubrey can’t help but become smitten with him. Endless days shooting hoops and endless nights ordering pizza and watching movies has them bonding before school starts. But as the novel opens with Aubrey being stood up during the homecoming dance, and Webster telling her that she’s easy to dislike, her world is shattered. Follow Aubrey through senior year as she picks up the pieces of a lost friendship (and crush), navigates her parents separation, and tries not to let her cynical side ruin friendships and relationships as high school comes to an end.

Compelling relationship quagmire!

The following ratings are out of 5:
Romance: ❤️💙💜💛💚
Heat/Steam: 🔥🔥
Story/Plot: 📕📗📘📙
World building: 🌎🌏🌍🌎🌎
Character development: 👤👤👤👤

The setting: High School

The Hero(s): Webster - The summer after his parents divorce, he moved in across the street from Aubrey. They spent all their time together and became fast friends, then when she asked him to the homecoming dance he stood her up, never telling her why.
Holland - Webster’s cousin who meets Aubrey at a party at Webster’s house on New Year’s eve in their senior year of high school. Holland attends a rival school, but is extremely attracted to Aubrey and treats her great.

The heroine: Aubrey - grew up in a home where her parents fight non-stop about anything and everything. Aubrey has little faith in everlasting love and sometimes figures why even put yourself through that. She is focused on school and hangs out with her friend Reece.

The Love Story: For the longest time I had not idea where this one was going as Aubrey worked through the relationship issues left with her after growing up with parents that seem to hate each other, seeing her best friend fall in and out of love with different guys all the time and Webster standing her up and turning on her the first time she puts herself out there.

I have to admit I was kinda hoping she would end up with Webster because she seemed to think about him so much. However, it became such a quandary when she started dating and falling for his cousin. I had no clue how things could turn out if she ended up with Webster after his cousin said the “L” word. I began to think this was one of those that would somehow end up being touted as a coming-of-age story and she would end up going off to college alone and focusing on herself.

Also, I really liked Holland. He was hot, nice and sweet. Webster was nice as well, once we get to know him. He was bisexual and I liked how that was dealt with in that he said when he found himself attracted to guys or masc non-binary individuals he started thinking he must be gay, but when he was attracted to girls, he thought maybe he was just confused before, then he finally determined to just love who he loved and not worry about it.

Though the fact that Webster was bisexual was not really an issue in the romance other than the fact that there was some miscommunication between him and Aubrey about how she felt on the issue. The book was more centered on Aubrey’s fears about commitment and how to move forward in a relationship when you are so afraid one of you might someday fall out of love!

I voluntarily read & reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts & opinions are my own.