This was a diverse and fun YA romp! I could see this becoming a movie. I love a good prom retelling, and this one was a fun adventure filled with multiple narrators and many a bump in the plan which made for a fun read.

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

This book will appeal to YA contemporary readers who enjoy a light, fluffy all-in-one-night adventure. How many ways can prom night go sideways, after the prom has officially ended?

With a wide cast of characters, including 4 narrating characters, the author included folks with different ethnicities, body sizes, sexual orientations, and an autoimmune chronic illness. Really appreciated all the rep in this book.

Hello, best YA book of 2021!
Part romance, part contemporary friendship story, this book deserves ALL the hype when it comes out. I'm currently at the same point in my senior year as the characters in this, so it was really nice to see so much of the plot devoted to planning for college and uncertainty about the future.

Julia Harmond has a plan to lose her virginity on the night of her senior prom, and she's gotten her entire group of friends to join her, after securing access to Zoe's uncle's lake house. But she's disappointed to find her first try too painful and is desperate for everything to go as planned. There's also the problem of Zoe's uncle leaving his cat behind in the house, while Julia is severely afraid of cats. And when she and her boyfriend, Kevin, try roleplaying for the first time, she ends up locked in a closet for several hours.

Zoe Blackwell and her girlfriend, Morgan, have already been having sex for nearly a year, but she's happy to follow along with Julia's plan, as she really needs a distraction from her recent acceptance to Yale (where she is a legacy student). She doesn't know how to tell Morgan that she might move across the country, and what's going to be even harder is telling her family that she might not want to go after all. (Her uncle even has a whole bedroom in his house decorated entirely with Yale paraphernalia). Yale has always been her dream, so that can't ever change....right?

Alex Song figures that he's not going to take part, as he only met his prom date, Leah, five hours before when Julia set them up. But on the way to the lakehouse, Alex is called to the hospital when he finds out his grandmother had a heart attack, and he has no choice but to bring Leah along. His parents and younger sister instantly assume that they're dating, much to Alex's annoyance. But when a hunt for internet connection to look up the lottery numbers for his grandmother leads them across restricted areas of the hospital, Alex and Leah are forced to get to know each other after all. Leah is the daughter of wealthy parents responsible for the developments that got rid of Alex's grandmother's favorite park, and she's planning on going to Vermont for college in the fall, so he tells himself he can't fall for her, but what if he does anyway?

Madison Alvarez, Morgan's twin sister, is happy to take any opportunity to be a normal teenager and spend time with her boyfriend, Jake. Madison used to be a hardworking ballet dancer until she was diagnosed with lupus five years ago. Ever since, Morgan has been extremely protective of her, but Madison wishes she had a little more freedom sometimes. But is her relationship with Jake really what she needs?


I think my favorite thing about this book was that even though it sounds like it's going to be focused on the romantic relationships and friendships, the majority of the conflict came from other thing (like college plans, pressure from family, and chronic illness). There's no misunderstanding trope here, and no particular "everything goes wrong" moment. No point where the group has a huge fight.
Also, NO EXAGGERATED PARTY CULTURE! Since most of the story is about the group and their partners at a lake house with no adult supervision, I was hoping it wouldn't be an over-the-top party with everyone getting drunk and high on the fancy furniture. Nope, it's actually very realistic. They mostly just sit around and talk, and yet they're still more entertaining to read about than any "wild party" in any other book.
And the GROUP CHAT. There are several scenes of the characters' group chat, and you'll love the names they come up with for it.

Read this if you're at the end of high school, a student who's scared of the future, or if you just miss your teen years.

Thank you for the publisher for letting me review this title!

I can't believe my own prom night was almost 20 years ago, but I still remember the assumptions. The pressure. The fun of finding a dress, dressing up, getting my hair and makeup done. But I spent mine sitting around and eating Gyoza and Chocolate Dipped Strawberries because my bf at the time wasn't actually interested in going to the prom.

It's hard to realize, at a certain point in your life, that even if you think things are perfectly in place, sometimes things just don't happen how you planned or expected them to. This was a really cute read that took me back to my own mindset in high school and I really enjoyed this!

Thanks to the publisher for providing an eARC of The Night When No One Had Sex in exchange for an honest review.

This was cute! I think one of the downsides to splintering off the main group into 4 pairs with different story arcs is that inevitably some stories are going to be more impactful for readers than others, but I don't even think it's chalking them up to personal bias when I say Alex and Leah's story was by far my favourite considering my rep starved brain devours anything sapphic and I still found myself rushing through the Zoe/Morgan scenes to get back to them. I think a lot of these characters were really flawed, but in ways that I can see making sense for actual teenagers (including Morgan's weird parasocial relationship with her mum that I already know people are going to read as 'no teenager ever has acted like this' but I promise I knew multiple teenagers in high school who would do exactly that) which I really like in YA. I also like how they were able to portray some relationship plotlines that didn't end in the stereotypical happy way without needing to use some big 11th hour twist where someone suddenly becomes a villain.

My one wish was probably more bonding with the whole friend group. Everyone pairs off really quick which would be fine if this wanted to be a series of interlocking stories instead of one about friendship, but the ending had big friendship theme vibes that I don't think really carried through the book. Once the split-up happens the only big interactions we get are through a text thread and I personally am not a big fan of texting in books so maybe it actually was strong on the friendship front and my distain for reading group text threads just ruined it for myself.

Book Review for The Night When No One Had Sex
Full review for this title will be posted at: @cattleboobooks on Instagram!

This was a cute, easy YA read with a brief hint of something more. I liked that it was a mostly fun, light-hearted look at prom night, but also had the characters deal with more adult issues (a sick family member, a serious medical crisis, conflict about the future, etc.). I liked some characters and plotlines more than others, but I didn't dislike any characters which certainly made for an easier read.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC for an exchange for an honest review.
I thought it was light and easy read. I enjoyed it.

It's prom night and this group of friends has decided that tonight is the night: they will all have sex with their significant others before wrapping up their senior year and continuing on to college in the fall. What's the big deal about virginity anyway? One of the girls has an uncle with a fancy cabin in the woods, so they even have a nice place to be. But then so many things go wrong and it looks like no one will be having sex after the prom: one kid's grandma is rushed into emergency surgery, one kid is suffering from an autoimmune disease, another is petrified of the cat, who just happens to be inside the cabin. Told in alternating points of view, which moves this story along quickly.

Okay this did remind me a bit of high school and our crazy priorities. The only things that were off were: One, a character's crazy obsession with her mother (what kind of awkward teen calls her mother throughout the night on prom night, even at 2:30AM? I would assume it would be the sheltered, weird kid) and two, they mentioned twice that the siamese cat had green eyes. GREEN eyes, people! Really? No. Siamese cats have blue eyes. Trust me on this. Sometimes, they have crossed eyes too (like one of my two who is watching me type this).

Thanks NG and Publisher for this erc!
I really enjoyed this novel! This was a good quick read! With great characters.

This was the perfect read for a summer day; it was light, fluffy, and cute. I'll admit that some plotlines and characters intrigued me way more than others, but I still enjoyed this book.

My favorite plotline was definitely the one about Alex and his grandma. I was most invested in his relationship with Leah, and the lottery ticket added a fun side to it. I was always looking forward to their chapters, which was both a good and bad thing.

My least favorite plotline has to be the one about Morgan and Madison. I didn't care about Madison as a character, and her chapters bored me. I think that other people will like them though!

Although this is classified as a romance, it's definitely more of a contemporary or general fiction. It's a tale of friendship and first love, not just a romance. While I'm not sure if I'll reread this, I really enjoyed it!

Thanks to Netgalley and Kalena Miller for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review

***Thanks to NetGalley for providing me a complimentary copy of THE NIGHT WHEN NO ONE HAD SEX by Kalena Miller in exchange for my honest review.***

A group of friends makes a pact to lose their virginities to their dates at a cabin on prom night, but things don’t go as planned.

Kalena Miller’s story takes place over a night, a milestone night for high school seniors in America. I didn’t go to prom, I spend the evening babysitting, talking to a friend on the phone guessing who had and hadn’t “done it”. It was the early 1980s, okay. Prom night was The Night girls who hadn’t yet had sex reportedly decided to “do it.” Sex positivity was definitely not yet a thing. I was intrigued to read THE NIGHT WHEN NO ONE HAD SEX to see how things had changed and stayed the same.

I liked how each teen was dealing with a challenge, a grandmother needing emergency surgery, a chronic illness, worries about a twin etc. The issues they had will be familiar to readers of all ages. I enjoyed the different points of view and the growth the teens experienced during the book.

THE NIGHT NO ONE HAD SEX is a good light, fun read, nothing too heavy. I’m not sure it’ll stay with readers, which is okay as long as they enjoy the story.