This is the type of YA I get lost in. I am sad it is over. Doe was a strong but flawed heroine and I loved her growth throughout the story. The rivalry between the schools was fun and the banter between everyone was next level. I love me some expert level banter. This book touched on serious issues yet it wasn't weighed down with them. Last but not least, Wells. I could have been very happy with a Wells in my high school days. I look forward to more from this author.

This book was such a cute read and was so much fun. Most of the time when it says YA, it's not TRUE Young Adult. This is a book that I would feel comfortable giving to my younger cousins or family friends to read. It's got the fun rivalry going between the boarding schools. It has a variety of diverse characters, a strong female lead, and of course, my favorites, fake dating AND enemies to lovers. The book also touches on a number of real life issues like bullying, sexual assault, dysfunctional families, among others.

This book was an absolute delight. Doe was a wonderful main character, flawed and absolutely making mistakes but still someone I was rooting for the whole time. The romance between her and Wells was lovely and warm. I would have loved to get his character development/reveals earlier in the narrative and kept expecting a big heart to heart between Doe and Three that didn't really come. That being said, I had a lot of fun reading this book and I think it's going to be a hit with all the gutsy, angry, funny teens.

This ARC was provided to me via Kindle by St. Martin’s Press, Wednesday Books and #NetGalley for my honest opinion.

Hilarious, hard to put down and a great YA read.

As a high school guidance counselor, I am drawn to stories about high school students. It was always fun to share a good story with my students who were usually surprised that I read YA books.

In this story two rival prep schools that have always pulled pranks on one another are merging. Winfield is an all-male school and Weston all-female. Our main character Dorothy ‘Doe’ and the other girls are hoping to get in a good last prank before the merge. Yep turns out to be one of those enemies to lovers’ stories.
Doe is a character that some will love and others will find themselves screaming at her to stop making poor choices.
A side story is that the history teacher Brian Tully is accused of being a sexual predator. He offers a mentorship program to the vulnerable but has other things in mind. Administration doesn’t believe the rumors and he continues to work as a teacher.
I know I am not the target audience and am sure teens are going to love Doe and the way she dealt with this situation. Additionally, I realize that was written before the Summer Olympics but I am hopeful that Simone Biles’ story about coming forward about being sexually abused will have a positive impact on both males and females and neither will feel threatened or ashamed to tell the truth.
True Doe’s approach does make for a good story

I applaud Ms. Markum on her debut novel. As a Guidance Counselor I like when YA authors not only tackle tough topics ~ areas that some teens are dealing with daily and additionally provide resources in hopes will be used if needed.
This is an early eGalley so the resources aren’t included but I am hopeful that by pub date they will be added.

Want to thank NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press ~ Wednesday Books for this eGalley. This file has been made available to me before publication in an early form for an honest professional review.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for April 12, 2022

Samantha Markum’s This May End Badly is a delicious treat of a read, full of memorable characters, a hilarious plot, and just the right amount of heart-tugging realizations to give it depth, too.

Doe waltzes in to her senior year at her beloved boarding school ready to continue the ongoing prank war with their rival school, and not at all ready to think about college, moving on, or no longer basing her identity on her school. As a Weston girl, Doe follows the example set by school founder Mallory Weston, a strong feminist setting out to make space for women’s education in a male-dominated world. As the resident pranking mastermind, Doe leads her friends through pranks and verbal sparring matches with their male counterparts at Weston’s rival school, Winfield. But when news of the two school’s merger breaks, Doe has a new objective: stop the merger. When the opportunity to fake date her enemy’s cousin arises, Doe leaps at it…but the cost may be too high this time. As Doe spins lie after lie to try and save the school that was her salvation, she’s faced with a bigger issue than the merger. Doe has to decide where, exactly, her loyalties lie.

This book is engaging and engrossing from the beginning, immersing you in Doe’s world and showing just how high the stakes are. The writing is exquisite and humorous, establishing the voice of the novel. The plot is perfectly paced, each situation providing insight into these characters and their world. Every character is well-developed, from Doe’s friends to her rivals to the staff at each school.

The dialogue throughout this book is top-tier. From witty banter to heavy conversation to tongue-tied moments, each scene is full of realistic and believable dialogue. Doe serves as the first person narrator; her sarcastic comments and biting wit really set the tone for the book’s events.

The relationships between characters are absolutely perfect. The tricky balance of friendships with a new relationship is put under a microscope, a relatable conundrum with the added weight of a lie that makes the reader empathetic and worried for the main character simultaneously. Doe’s relationships with her friends are just as deeply explored as the relationship, a beautiful and necessary component many YA romances are missing.

The plot is full of lovable tropes, from enemies to lovers to fake dating to academia. They’re all flawlessly pulled off and well-integrated into the story, making the novel feel fuller with their presence. The plot does handle some delicate subjects, such as abuse, harassment, and grooming. These topics are thoughtfully handled and do not feel exploitative.

The addition of these tougher plot topics takes this book to the next level. Without them, the book is wonderful: funny, sweet, a total rom-com that leaves you feeling great. These realistic issues add depth to the story, raising the stakes and showing the characters what’s really worth fighting for.

I loved every moment of this book. The characters were incredibly enjoyable to spend time with, and living in their world was delightful. The heavier moments are well-balanced with the lighter ones, and you finish the book feeling empowered, hopeful, and already wanting to read it again.

This book gives me Jenny Han’s To All the Boys and Cruel Intentions vibes; if you’re a fan of either of those, I highly recommend checking this one out!

This May End Badly will be available April 12, 2022 from St. Martin’s Press. Thank you to Ms. Markum, Net Galley, and St. Martin’s Press for an advanced copy such that I could write this review.

I love reading fake dating books even though some end the same, with falling in real love. This book though had difficulty, she fell in love with her fake boyfriend but tried to keep it to herself until a teacher starts to inappropriately mess with a girl student, that’s when she decides that everything else don’t matter and she must work to help all the other female students.

Such a cute book! Loved the setting, the characters and the storyline. Highly recommend for a funny heartwarming book!
Thank you to netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

This was a fun fluffy read. Yes it was predictable and you saw pretty much everything coming, but the book wasn't about catching you off guard or shocking you. It was just a fun read that made you laugh some times. I enjoyed the character development and the banter. There are a lot of sex jokes, but nothing actually happens (not giving spoilers on if anything happens one way or another, just saying that there are no play by play sex scene). All in all it was a fun read.

It was easy to tell my immediate love for this book.

I don’t often highlight sections I like on my ipad. I know the feature is there, but I’ve never felt the need to use it. But with this book, the urge was immediate. I probably ended up highlighting 10-20 lines in this book, whether it was because I thought it was funny or because it was heartwarming.

I also found it easy to tell that our main character, Doe, was in the wrong. Doe is holding on to this prank war and fighting the merge between her school and the rival, all-boys school, but I knew early on that this book was going to focus on her learning to accept change and “allow” the schools to merge.

However, it’s difficult to really describe the plot to this book without a long explanation, as it truly does focus on three different major aspects. There’s the prank war, which causes Doe and Wells to begin their fake dating prank against Wells’ cousin Three. As payment, Wells wants help with finding a watch his grandfather left him in his will, which makes the book focus a bit on the family’s dynamics as a whole. Finally, there’s the perverted teacher grooming students.

I cried three separate times about that ending, but it was very heartwarming. My favorite part of this book is the character development and watching these characters learn how to team up with each other in order to solve a problem for the whole of their schools. These characters definitely don’t “need” to do this, but it was really nice to watch them turn their strengths against a shared problem.

I also loved the relationship between Wells and Doe. It was easy to tell even in the beginning that they would be a good match (or maybe I just immediately loved Wells calling himself “a snack”), so watching their feelings for each other grow as their fake dating turned into “maybe dating?” was fun. I loved their interactions a lot, and most of my highlights were them talking and joking.

This is a book I definitely highly recommend, and I can’t wait to see it release and see the public’s view on this story. As this is the author’s debut novel, I’m excited to see what future stories this author publishes, and I’m definitely preordering a copy of this book for my own physical collection.

4/5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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Thank you to the publishers and Net Galley for giving me a copy of this book! This is my honest review, all views are my own.
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This May End Badly is a charming, laugh-out-loud story that follows Doe, a senior at the Weston School with a penchant for pranks—specifically, pranking the neighboring Winfield Academy and the condescending, arrogant Three. When a merger between the schools is announced, Doe dedicates it all to putting a stop to it… which includes a fake dating plot with Three’s cousin, Wells, among other schemes and lies.
Overall, this book was good! It kept my attention for the most part, and I really enjoyed the chemistry not only with Doe and Wells, but with the Weston girls as well as the various family ties and bonds. The writing was light and witty, with the dialogue feeling very authentic and the description not being too overbearing at the beginning. The pacing felt a bit wonky because there were different dates being thrown about, then adjusted and shifted. At one point, I thought the plot would end at Christmas, but it was only the first half of the book! Additionally, the ending of the book felt a bit detached from the rest of the novel, as it brought a subplot to the forefront of the characters’ minds and made a big production of it. It wasn’t out of place, but perhaps a bit jarring? I wish it had been elaborated upon differently throughout the book—perhaps different attitudes besides “discomforting yet accepted as a norm”? I don’t know, it was a bit strange.
This May End Badly was otherwise able to nicely wrap up the group’s senior year, and it was a very entertaining ride along the way! A cute and funny 4 star read.

this book hit a lot of my favorite tropes- enemies to lovers, faking dating, prank wars, strong female friendships. it also has the perfect amount of drama to filler. I would highly recommend this book for someone looking for a fun entertaining read.

<i>I received this eARC via NetGalley.</i>

This story was so enjoyable to read and the characters continued to impress me at every turn. One of my favorite things about reading is getting into the minds of the players in the story — <i>This May End Badly</i> does an incredible job of introducing characters and their layers while the plot unfolds. I found myself laughing, tearing up, and wishing for even more chapters about Wells, Three, Doe, Gemma and the rest the gang. On top of it all, Markum laces empowering lessons into the plot that teenage me would’ve been greatly impacted by.

Storyline/Plot: 4/5
Originality: 3/5
Characterization: 5/5
Quality of Writing: 5/5
Overall: 4/5

I would absolutely recommend this book to any fans of romance, YA, and academia. I’m still smiling after finishing it - the best sign of an enjoyable read!

Doe and Three are seniors at rival prep schools whose prank war goes back generations but no one takes it as seriously as Doe and Three.

When it is announced that the two schools would be merging, Doe decides she’s not going to sit quietly by and watch it happen. Enter Three’s cousin, Wells, and a fake dating plot is born to make Three crazy. I love a good fake dating plot and this one was no exception.

The two groups of friends are the most fun. And while this book is a fun, fake dating, high school rival prank war loaded book, it also doesn’t shy away from topics such as bullying, gender identity, sexual identity and sexual assault.

This was a quick read that I can definitely see being a hit upon its release. Juicy, drama, witty banter - it reads like a fun high school sitcom!!

Markum surprised me with a more nuanced YA romance than I was expecting here. Now, my expectations weren't all that high to begin with, but this somewhat fluffy book centered around a boarding school prank war exceeded them handily. I requested this story expecting to read another iteration of standard teen romance plot A and instead was treated to an enjoyable depth of characters that felt more real than many other YA protagonists. Doe is a flawed heroine who shows real growth through the novel, and it happens in a believable way. My biggest criticism is that I had a bit of difficulty sorting out all the characters at the beginning of the book; the introductions felt a bit rushed so it took me a while to learn who each of the main characters is. This is partly due to the "in media res" type opening scene, which sacrifices some background and description in order to maintain a sense of urgency and danger. Once I got to know the characters a bit better, the book flowed well and I appreciated the overall feeling of realism that Markum was able to achieve in the characters' relationships. I received this book free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

There's a lot to like about THIS MAY END BADLY. The main character, Doe, is vibrant, unique, and complicated, and despite her faults, you'll find yourself rooting for her throughout the whole book. She isn't perfect, she makes a ton of terrible decisions, and she has a lot to overcome, but she remains a likable, charming lead throughout that journey. Her friendships are wonderfully drawn, and the dialogue is quick and realistic.

Doe is a Weston Girl -- a senior at a private, all-girls boarding school that promotes empowerment and education, and gives girls a place to thrive. Weston is across the street from Winfield, an all-boys boarding school. No one knows when the rivalry between the two schools started, but Doe and her friends are determined to be the ones to finish it, and they engage in some of the most epic pranks pulled at both schools. Their direct rival is Three, a legacy at Winfield, and his cousins -- they've been trading pranks across both campuses since they were all freshmen, and have gone down as infamous leading up to their senior year.

But the stakes are raised when the administrations of both schools announce that next year, the schools will merge into one co-educational institution. What started as a final year of pranks turns into a desperate attempt to prove that Weston and Winfield can't ever mix. As part of that war, Doe dives into throwing Three off his game like she never has before -- and starts a fake relationship with his cousin, Wells, in an attempt to anger Three as much as humanly possible.

The friendships are the real gem of the book -- Doe and her friends have a rich history and close bond, and that shows throughout the whole narrative. They move seamlessly together as they plot pranks and hang on to the last year they have together before they all split up for college. Shawn and Doe, in particular, have a friendship that made me long for my own all-girls school years.

The one major fault with THIS MAY END BADLY is the use of antagonists -- there are too many of them, and with each addition, the last one doesn't get its due in the narrative. At first, the set up is clear: Doe is up against her arch enemy, Three, and as two ringleaders from opposite sides of a generation long prank war, they'll do anything to win, even if it means hurting others in the process. Then, there's the addition of fighting against the imminent merger of the two schools, which does fit in to the initial rivalry. But the addition of the third and fourth villains are where things start to go off the rails.

When Virginia, a student in the year below Doe and her friends, is introduced, it's in a direct girl against girl cat fight kind of way, and gives Doe a third layer of opposition to fight against. Almost all of Virginia's time on the page is negative, and forces her to come out as a flat antagonist that undoes a lot of the positive representation of teenage, female friendship -- not because Virginia doesn't make good points, but because she isn't given enough time on the page to develop her own voice, outside of how she makes Doe feel.

But the real issue is the way everything wraps up. In the last small chunk of the book, Doe and her friends take on a teacher who has been coming on to young students. It's mentioned lightly earlier, in the way of rumors and an uncomfortable, unconfirmed feeling that the girls get around him, and warnings passed down from the older girls. This is a serious, real thing that happens at schools, and in all-girls environments, but the storyline isn't given the weight it demands, especially given the audience the book is for. Instead of something that is taken seriously, it's rushed through, and treated with the same severity as the other pranks Doe and her friends pull throughout the book. In a quick rush, the girls band together with the boys, and a sexual predator is taken down off-screen, with no thought of the impact its taken on the girls involved. Instead of a serious issue, one that we should encourage young women to recognize and ask for help with, its used as a plot device to push reconciliation and bonding between kids at war with each other, Doe and her friends, and Doe and her parents. It's heartbreaking, because this is a chance for girls to see that this is a real issue that they should stand up for themselves about -- and instead, THIS MAY END BADLY suggests that they can and should keep authorities and parents removed from the situation, and shows them taking on the administration as a bonding exercise.

Unfortunately, if it hadn't been for that, Doe's journey would have had this perfect narrative. Ultimately, the villain Doe needed to overcome was herself - her own trauma, her own experiences, her coping mechanisms, and the way she hurt other people rather than dealing with her own emotions. It's a rich narrative and journey for a teenage girl, and a great display of female friendship. Her relationship with Wells could be great, and when they actually do get a chance to be together, it is, but to make space for some of these other storylines, much of their relationship happens off-screen, so to speak. And, on top of all of that, it was *fun* to read. The rushed ending, and the treatment of sexual misconduct, unfortunately pulls away from all of the great work the novel does before then.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the advanced copy, in exchange for an honest review.

This May End Badly was a cute read - I finished it in less than 24 hours and genuinely enjoyed the plot. Definitely a fun, fast-paced YA book.

I did not really enjoy Doe as the main character, obviously she’s flawed and that’s ok but I just didn’t relate to her much and while there was definitely some redemption in her being so self-centered I just couldn’t connect with her much. I did really like Wells though, what a wonderful book boyfriend. The fighting with Three was also a little overdone, it was very ‘will they, won’t they’ and kind of just randomly fizzled out.

This May End Badly takes place at a boarding school for girls. Doe is about to graduate and is quite the prankster, especially against their all boy rival school.

When the schools announce a merger, the stakes are higher. Doe is determined and angry, so she decides to go for her nemesis personally, by “dating” his cousin.

This fake dating trope was done so well! It had a lot of chemistry, lots of banter, and some great enemies-to-lovers moments.

The pranks were very funny and true to what I’ve heard about people doing in college. I love boarding school settings and this would be perfect to read during the fall (when it takes place.) I wanted to cozy up with hot chocolate.

There were also heavier themes of trauma and sexual assault/grooming. I appreciated the author showcasing some of the signs of teachers grooming students, and I loved how people stood up for each other. It was the definition of stronger together!

I absolutely loved this book!
I thought I would like it, I thought it would be interesting, but I didn't expect to love it as much as I do.
This was so well written, and the story was so good, I absolutely loved Doe and Wells!

This May End Badly is a fantastic debut from Markum, and I can't wait to read more from her.

ARC kindly provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book gave me quite the book hangover! After I stayed up WAY too late finishing this book, I ended up laying in bed just processing everything. I had such dreams for what college looked like for all of the students and curiosities about what the schools had coming next. The author tackled such complex topics such as depression, anxiety and abuse with the care and respect necessary for teenagers.

A must read for students and teachers!