This book had a slow start for me but I ended up really enjoying it. Doe attends an all girls school and has a rivalry with Three, who goes to the local all boys school. When it is announced that the schools will be merging, Doe becomes extremely upset and is annoyed that Three does not feel the same way. To make him angry, she decides to start fake dating his cousin, Wells, who also does not get along with Three. I actually really liked the relationship between Doe and Wells, but I think it might have been even better if Three was the love interest. Overall, it was still a great read and I will definitely be checking out Samantha Markum’s future books.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC!

// Ugh this book - I absolutely loved it! 5 stars for sure!

Set in a girls boarding school, with a boys boarding school right next door, Doe and her best friends are prank masters. Continuing a feud that has been going on for years, Doe isn’t going to let up her senior year pranking Three and his boys, especially not when she just heard next year the boarding schools are merging into one. Cue even more pranks, including the best prank of all: dating Three’s cousin Wells to get under his skin. It seems like a smart idea at the time, until things start to become more real between Doe & Wells.

Put this one on your radar if you like:

-the best cast of girl friends ever (there is nothing better than a loyal friend who also calls you out on your crap)
-prank wars (some of which had me laughing out loud)
-fake dating (one of my fav tropes & let’s just say, Wells is hilarious, sweet & dreamy)
-boarding school vibes (quickly becoming one of my favorite settings!)

This May End Badly comes out 4/12 & will easily be one of my favorite reads of the year! I can not wait to see what else @sam.markum comes up with next

huge thanks to @netgalley & St. Martins Press for my e-arc

cw/tw: sexual misconduct/sexual predator //

This books was a cute rivals to lovers story. Two rival schools, two rivals who end up fake dating to pull off a few schemes. It was predictable but a fun read.

Decent YA novel. I enjoyed the rivalry. I didn’t falcon love with the main character though and was thrown off by the predator side story. I didn’t enjoy the message it gave about not going to adults for those issues.

This May End Badly was a good story with a slightly annoying protagonist. Dorothy, "Doe" to her friends, is very strong willed and refuses to see other people's perspectives throughout almost the whole novel. When she finds out her beloved all girls school will soon be merging with the boy's school next door she tries to fight it with her ever more reluctant friends. There is also fake dating that would be super sweet if Doe could just be honest with herself and the people around her. Overall, I really enjoyed the story but I do wish she would have actually felt bad about lots of the things she said and did.

4.5 ⭐️

Doe is fierce. Unstoppable. Fights for what she believes in. Up until the issue of sexual harassment from a teacher, she has been dead set on protecting her all girls boarding school Weston’s pride and mission, and being the center of a long-standing rival with the all boys’ boarding school Winfield. When pranks get out of hand with a merger between the schools in the works, Doe gets the heat. Who wins in the end?

Truth: I didn’t know if I was going to like it. The first chapter threw me for a loop because I had trouble keeping track of all the characters. But as I read, I got to really understand Doe (though there were a couple of times where I wanted to strangle her), her enthusiasm, her undying devotion to her school. I loved the perspective thrown in about gender (transgender and non-binary), and exclusivity. After halfway, I still didn’t know the ultimate direction it was going in, but I was pleased at how it ended, and the message underneath it all spoke quite the volume. AND, all Doe’s channeled energy redirected to the scumbag pervert, heck yeah. Oh of course, I was into the fake dating and the chemistry Doe had with Wells.

I would rate this book 4/5 stars. Thank you St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books, and NetGalley for giving me access to an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
“Pranking mastermind Doe and her motley band of Weston girls are determined to win the century-long war against Winfield Academy before the clock ticks down on their senior year. But when their headmistress announces that The Weston School will merge with its rival the following year, their longtime feud spirals into chaos.”

Doe and Wells…I love. I ship. Their banter stayed so consistent throughout the book, which I LOVED. I think that when there are begrudging allies it’s sometimes tricky to keep the wit alive as the relationship progresses but Samantha Markum nailed it. This book addressed so many important elements of education moving forward. The cast of characters was well-rounded and I loved reading all of the pranks.

Unfortunately, this one turned into a DNF for me. The chaotic start was difficult to connect with and engage me into continuing. My head was spinning from the start and it left me confused. By the time I felt like I figured out all the characters and what was going on, I realized I didn’t really care. First impressions really do matter and this one, even though I continued to give it multiple chances until about 1/3 of the book in, didn’t change my mind.

I really liked this book! It was both humorous and serious. It had romance with some emotional depth as well.
I loved the big friend group in this story. While Doe was the main character, each of her friends felt real and genuine as well. They each had their own stories that I would love to see explored in a companion novel! I was a big fan of Doe’s character arc. She learned a lot over the course of the book about herself and others. It was really cool to see her friends call her out at one point to help her realize that she needed to change how she was acting.
This features the fake dating trope which never gets old for me. I love the tension as they’re each falling for each other but pretending they’re not. The banter was so entertaining. Wells was such a great love interest. He was so swoon-worthy, everyone deserves a Wells.
I definitely liked the boarding school setting. An academic setting is always one that I like reading about but the book expanded into the town around the schools which was really nice too.
This was a fun book about rivals and prank wars but it also covered a more serious topic of sexual abuse. It wasn’t a main plot point until the last quarter or so of the book but I appreciated that it was included. It’s something that unfortunately happens far too often in the real world and bringing awareness to it in fiction is important.
I would recommend This May End Badly to readers who liked Today Tonight Tomorrow, Not Here to Be Liked or Tweet Cute!
Thank you so much to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I'm a bit conflicted about this one. On one hand, the writing was good and the story engaging enough, the chemistry between Doe and Wells interesting. On the other hand, I don't think I resonated with Doe at all throughout this book. She's a very unlikeable person - selfish, stubborn, immature - and she doesn't really change until towards the end. Along the way, her friends point out her faults, but nothing changes because of it, so she keeps on making the same mistakes over and over again. I liked her friends a lot, but do think they could have been fleshed out a bit more individually.

The fake dating in this book is good, and I really enjoyed reading about Doe and Wells together. About halfway through the book, this aspect took a back seat of sorts to wrap up the rest of the subplots. And the end was a bit too convenient, and I honestly don't think the subplot about the inappropriate teacher was needed at all. Doe's demands at the end seemed to come out of nowhere. I think this book tried to accomplish too much, and it turned into a book that I wasn't expecting to read.

I really loved this book! The main character was flawed and while she made some poor decisions, she learned and grew. I loved the supporting characters, especially Wells. I loved the schools and the pranks and the dynamics. Overall it was a very enjoyable story and characters and I devoured it in a night .

I'm so torn about This May End Badly. Part of me wants to rave about how I devoured Samatha Markum's debut and another part of me wants to rant about all the things that went wrong.

I guess my conflicting feelings make sense considering the emotional roller coaster of a ride this book took me on. This May End Badly and I did not start off on the best foot. The story opened with a highly chaotic, confusing, in medias res kind of scene with a whole lot of action and a whole lot more indistinguishable characters which is one of my biggest pet peeves. Like don't give me a bunch of names to remember when I haven't even decided if I like the one I'm supposed to care about. I immediately bristled at the presumption that I'd care about a bunch of (figuratively) faceless names and was ready for a long, painful read. But then, Markum started actually telling the story, and it was like a completely different book...until we started throwing in some more drama and went back to square one.

This May End Badly is full of things and tropes I love (fake dating, flawed characters, found family,) is set in boarding school and has the vibes of a rivals/enemies-to-lovers romance. Once we got past the disastrous opening scene, this should have been my new favorite book or, at least, my new temporary favorite. Unfortunately, it was mixed in with a bunch of things that are not my favorite which left me feeling very confused by the end of the book.

We'll start with the good. Doe's voice--sharp, cutting, sardonic--leapt off the page and immediately caught my attention. Regardless of how you feel about Doe as a character (more on that later,) you can't deny her voice as a protagonist comes across the page clearly and breathes life into what could easily be a formulaic, forgettable YA contemporary. She has a wicked sense of humor, and her take-no-prisoners attitude translates into the narrative, giving us a strong first-person POV that had me grinning like a creepy Cheshire for long stretches of time.

Weston Academy and the small town of Delafosse are now officially on my fictional bucket list of places to visit. For whatever reason, I had a fascination with boarding schools growing up, and This May End Badly let me relive my childhood dreams of going to boarding school without actually going to boarding school (which works because I was the biggest homebody as a kid and would've hated it in real life.) I also have an inexplicable obsession with small towns (which I also wouldn't survive in real life) and loved the admittedly brief description of Delafosse's landmarks and events.

Now for the bad. The backstory for both the Doe-Three rivalry and the Weston-Winfield prank war needed to be described better. We were basically told "grr we hate each other" and given bits and pieces of the history between the two and expected to believe in the legitimacy of the rivalries. Unfortunately, the pieces didn't really fit together and the big conflict that's supposed to be the driving force for the whole story isn't convincing. Without a solid foundation to stand on, the premise feels flimsy and the story never really comes together. I was willing to suspend disbelief for the most part and go with the flow, but it all kind of fell apart in the third act.

I guess the title is fitting because the book did end kind of badly. Markum got a little too ambitious with the plot, and the conflict started to get too big for the story. Issues seemed to come out of nowhere and a lot of the sources of tension started to creep into the melodramatic territory. It just felt like Markum let the story get away from her a little bit and it kind of spiraled out of control. Family drama was pushed to the extreme, everyone had conflicting motives, and it started to feel like I was watching a TV soap opera. The subplot with the teacher, especially was never really fit in well with the rest of the story. It just felt like it was plopped in there at the end so we could raise our fists and scream about feminism. I do think it could've worked with the book as a whole if it were incorporated better, but the way it was done was not it.

This is one of those 3 star ratings where parts of the book would get 4 stars and other parts would get 1. Overall, This May End Badly was a solid debut even if parts of it weren't for me. It reads like a very woke, Gen Z version of 10 Things I Hate About You, so if that's your kind of thing, have at it. 🤷🏻‍♀️ I'll definitely give Markum another shot in the future, but for now I'll just sit in confused silence about her debut.

This was a cute YA book, I liked some of it, the fight to unmask a predator and the fake dating turned to love, but the pranks got to be too much of the book, would have liked more character development and more emotion as is in some YA books

This was a really cute and fun book! I loved the boarding school setting and the rivalry between the all female and all male schools. The pranks were fun and entertaining, but I loved the story that unfolded between Doe and Miles the most. The growth and coming of age aspect always gets me and it was really played out beautifully in this book. I really enjoyed it. Thank you to Netgalley and Wednesday Books for the ARC.

"This May End Badly," is an entertaining and wild YA romance full of pranks, fake dating, and board school rivalries. The romance is the most detailed aspect of the novel. Some of the other storylines within the novel don't receive the same level of attention and development and feel almost forced. There's a lack of diversity within the characters that only becomes more apparent when side characters bring up the outdated concept of boys and girls schools and gender binary in general.

Doe's senior year in high school starts off perfectly. She and her friends are a highly regarded tight knit group. Weston high school became a safe haven for Doe after a rough period in elementary, and Doe wants to keep it that way forever. When the school announces that they'll be merging with a rival boys private school next year, Doe declares war.

I was irritated at first at how immature Doe was being about the school merger. It was going to happen the year after she graduated, so it's not like it would affect her personally. As the story progressed, her reasons became clearer. I may not agree with her, but I now understand where she was coming from.

This book had a good emotional journey. It's Doe's senior year, a time when most young adults are anxious about their futures. For Doe, graduation means leaving the very school that she feels safe and secure in. While life will force her to move on, she'll do everything in her power to ensure that the school won't change too. Doe is a fighter and strong leader, but she lets her drive to win overtake her life. When her friendships and relationships become casualties of her war, Doe must reassess her priorities and come to terms with her fears.

The two schools - girls vs boys - have been rivals since their inception. Doe and her friends proudly carry on the time honored tradition of pranking the boys, who are happy to retaliate. There was a good mix of humor and emotional depth throughout the book.

The fake date to lovers cliche is a well known trope. It was nicely done here. I'm happy that it didn't overtake the plot and that it avoided most of the awkward first time romance YA books tend to feature.

This book was a fun mix of pranks, high school drama, romance, and character growth. It took me a few chapters to start enjoying it. I'm glad I did. It was a very satisfying read.

A lovely time spent with this book.

Doe is our protagonist and she is nothing but competitive against the Winfield boys (specially Three). This is her senior year and is has been announced that their schools are going to merge. So Doe in her last chance to win decide to date Three's cousin: Wells.

I really enjoyed this book, though Doe decisions may be questionable at times. I wasn’t sold with her relationship with Wells until later on (Doe with Three would have been cliché but I couldn't help shipping them. And Doe name is close to Dos which is Two in Spanish so that's hilarious)

The pranks were fun as well and the ending was perfect in my opinion.

As much as I had hoped to enjoy this book, it really fell flat for me. There was just too much going on which led to too many things not getting enough attention. I was hoping this book was going to be more humorous and all because of the description, but there were times with the teacher ordeal that didn't make sense with the rest of the story. Overall the story kind of suffered due to the lack of direction and the characters were decent but didn't have a lot of time to shine.
Overall, just a mediocre book for me, wouldn't highly recommend.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

Heartwarming and cute story! I loved the pacing. Normally, I don't love reading YA romance but this changed my mind. It is a great romance for teens who don't want too much of the "really really romantic" scenes. As well, the novel discussed many important themes throughout and it felt well balanced with each theme getting fleshed out properly. Overall, I would recommend this to all young teens who want to get into reading romance novels!

Nope. I'm setting this one aside for now. I came for the promise of 'tropes' and Academy vibes. But I can't get into the story and the writing is kind of annoying me. I really wanted to like this one because I've had a string of dnfs recently. I do plan to return and try it again later.

Thank you for the review opportunity.