I've loved every book that I've read from this author, and this was no exception to that. I appreciated how the two main protagonists felt distinct from each other, and I think that reading from each of their perspectives helped a lot with that. I enjoyed watching their relationship with each other evolve throughout the course of the story and thought that the plot of a reality show was very intriguing.

This book was entertaining, I really enjoyed reading it. I especially liked the love triangle going on. It was well written and I would really watch it if it were a movie. Reality TV setting was a plus.

This book was both simultaneously absurd and wonderful. Funny, engaging, and kept me interested the whole time.

I love Sophie Gonzales's work and really enjoyed this newest book of hers. The premise of one man's exes all going on a dating show to compete for him again was wild to me. Why would these women want to do that after he hurt them? I, like Maya would've gone for revenge, but Skye went to see if she could rekindle their love.

Plot wit #1 occurs when they bunk Maya and Skye together. Skye being the girl that Jordy cheated with on Maya. The dynamic between these two was amazing. I loved their interactions and eventual friendship. The changes in POV also helped while reading because you were able to gain insight to each girl and her feelings. There was a second plot twist that I don't want to spoil, but if you read the tags you can figure it out. I truly loved how all the girls became friends and realized that Jordy is the real problem.

This was a lot of fun!

A huge thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for my advanced copy of Never Ever Getting Back Together.

I really enjoyed this one. From beginning to end I was entertained.
I ended up listening to this book on audio and the narrators were fantastic.
The book was super easy to follow.
The main characters and side characters were equally enjoyable.
The enemies to friends to lovers romance was great.

Overall- highly recommend.

Drama, drama, drama! And I'm right here for it. Love triangle? Not exactly... For the same reasons I watch The Bachelor, the summary of this book drew me. It was Sophie's writing that kept me in my seat, laughing, and rooting for... well, that's the part that took me by surprise. Maya and Skye are so loveable and I think I rooted for them harder than I should have. I know Jordy was the one looking for his second-chance, but I'm happier that Maya and Skye found theirs!

This was a fun story following a stuck up guy who gets all of his ex-girlfriends on a dating reality TV show. I loved the reality TV show aspect. It was very Bachelor-esque.

I really enjoyed the main character. She was kind of unlikeable at times but honestly, that made me like her more. She was vengeful and petty which I totally agreed with throughout the book. The other characters were all great too. I liked how we got to learn more about the girls in the house. All the "behind the scenes" drama made it feel even more like a true reality TV show.

The ending was awesome. I personally would have liked something more petty but it was still satisfying.

The romance was also really cute. I didn't know going into the book that it was a female-female romance and I was pleasantly surprised. I wish there was more of their romance story line because it was adorable.

Overall, it was a fun read!

Never Ever Getting Back Together was a super fun read. The idea of having a guy invite his exes to come onto a second chance at love reality show was absolutely brilliant. Sophie Gonzales has written some great books, and while this one wasn't my favorite, it was still solid.

I think this book would make a great movie. Gonzales did such an incredible job with writing the scenes that I had a vivid picture of it in my head as I read.

I really enjoyed Skye and Maya. There were times where I felt they were acting immature, but this is a YA book and they are teenagers. Gonzales did a great job at progressing the charges through the story, and everyone (besides Jordy, who is garbage) had excellent character growth.

Deeply enjoyed this book! What a fun read. I’ve enjoyed everything Sophie Gonzalez has written so far and this holds true to that statement! This was juicy with the twists and turns, the revenge!! Biggest fan of Sapphics getting their revenge!

I really joyed this book.
Maya has always been haunted by how her relationship with ex boyfriend Jordy ended.
Then out of the blue she’s asked by a reality show to represent one of a group of Jordy’s ex girlfriend’s to see which one he will rekindle a relationship. And that is the beginning of a rollercoaster of plot twists and turns.
This is a fun read.. Enjoy!

This book is haunting me...maybe not haunting, but it has stuck with me. It's 3 days until winter break, and I am knee deep in reality tv with marathons with my friends. Reading Sophie Gonzales' book, Never Ever Getting Back Together, hit me at the RIGHT time. I'm watching these reality tv shows with a new lens. This is definitely a YA book and I am a 33 year old. woman, so transparently, I struggled at times with the intensity of the "forever love" some of the characters expressed at 16-19. However, I do remember being their age and thinking how magical and intense loving at that age felt.

I loved the characters in this book so much. There was a wide variety of personality types in the cast and I really enjoyed how they bounced off one another in conversations. Additionally, I liked that the book shifted perspectives. Gonzales did a fantastic job of making me really root for one MC in the first chapter and I felt totally perplexed by the end of chapter 4 with who I liked most.

I listened to this as an audiobook and read It in between. Fun, captivating, and such a lot of good twists! It's guaranteed to be. quick read because you'll want to keep reading. Definitely read if you love reality tv dating shows like I do!

I've been looking forward to reading this one since Wednesday Books' marketing team reached out way back in April!* I generally like to read a book closer to release so I held off on reading it and then of course missed the release by two weeks, but what can you do when life and school and work get so busy you barely have time to do anything but get from day-to-day?

My first interaction with Sophie Gonzalez was her collaboration with Cale Dietrich If This Gets Out and after adoring that when this landed in my inbox I immediately said yes and am so glad I did. This brings a new romance that I haven't read in a long time to my site (FF) and increases bisexual representation as the two protagonists are both bisexual! I'm still giggling about this line:

'Sorry to disappoint,' I say.' I'm a disaster bi.'
'Literally or figuratively?'
'Literally. In every sense of the word. Where I go, drama follows. It's a curse.'
She settles back into a lounging position. 'That explains it.' (Chapter 5)

The premise of the novel is that Jordy, a pseudo-royal total asshat, has joined a reality TV show and is bringing six of his exes back for a second-chance romance. Maya and Skye are two of them that Jordy royally (HA pun intended) screwed over when they were dating.

I suppose when you trust someone not to hurt you, red flags look hear shaped. (Chapter 17)

The story ends up being your standard close-quarters, common enemy, enemies to lovers, opposites attract type trope, but Gonzales kept it fresh and made all of the characters just different enough I had no issue keeping them separate which some authors can't even do with just the protagonists! And she included just enough awwww moments to really sell it without taking it to the saccharine level.

'They don't call it gentle cascading f0r someone. You don't gracefully descend for someone. You fall. Head over heels, right? And either someone catches you, or they don't, and you don't have any control over how badly buried you are at the bottom of it. (Chapter 28)

I really liked the juxtaposition of the grudge-holding go with the flow whatever happens don't make plans Maya and the super uniform every second planned out Skye. It made their numerous conflicts that much more intense and their ultimate togetherness better.

The ending felt 100% right with Maya going rogue and causing yet another crisis, Jordy preempting some drama, the epilogue, and the viral post by Perrie. It all just worked so well and the ending left me grinning. I would've bumped up the rating from a 4 to a 5 star on Goodreads, but there were a couple of places where the chapters skipped or jumped and it felt like scenes were missing or maybe deleted. Now I was reading this as an ARC, so maybe it was fixed, but after the second one where I had to go back and re-read the page before to make sure I hadn't inadvertently done it I felt like it was part of the actual story and it was missing in general.

Recommendation: Loved it. The bi representation, the female protagonists and building each other up, the comeuppance the villain receives. It was all just so well done and included so much humor! Add in a Jane Austen throwaway reference and I am here for it. Can't wait to see what Gonzales does next and if I ever need a quick fun read I'll keep an eye out for her works.

Calling all Bachelor, Love Is Blind, or any other “looking for love” reality TV shows, READ THIS BOOK!

Jordy (ex-boyfriend) asks his former flames to compete in a “second chance romance” style reality show. However, instead of falling in love with Jordy again, two contestants fall in love with each other.

What I loved:
✨Reality TV setting: Even though I’m not a reality TV show watcher, I thoroughly enjoy the setting in NEGBT. The competition feels fresh, the camaraderie feels genuine, and Jordy comes across as an ass most of the time, which made me laugh.
✨Sapphic Romance: I love this twist. Slow-burn enemies to lovers lead to hot chemistry during their forced proximity (one bedroom), albeit a closed-door romance.
✨Revenge Plot: Maya’s plot to seek revenge on Jordy for cheating on her two years ago is highly entertaining. The scheming and setups offer great banter, feelings of girl power, and hilarity, as things don’t always go as planned.

My only complaint is that the girls feel older than 18 years old. My solution? I aged them as I listened to the narrations, which worked because both narrators sounded older than 18 years old.

3.5 stars rounded up because I’m a Bachelor stan and this was The Bachelor for young people and it was so fun!

This was such a breath of fresh air!
I laughed from start to finish.
Jordy is disgusting, and I am so glad Maya and Skye called him out. We ladies can’t let gross men walk all over us!
I enjoyed how Maya and Skye weren’t instantly in love. Their mutual crush took time and friendship to develop first. I thought the buildup was realistic and sweet.

I have a growing love for books about reality TV and this one really delivered! The next book in this vein that I read will have really big shoes to fill.

Maya and Skye are going on the reality show Second-Chance Romance for various reasons. The show centers on Jordy--a "royal" by a few degrees thanks to his sister marrying a prince--who is going to reunite with his exes on television. Maya is hurting since she and Jordy dated; he went to Canada and cheated on her with Skye. Skye, a worldly traveler who is typically cautious with her own heart, had no idea about Maya, but still feels pain from her own breakup with Jordy.

This was a strange one. I always want to get behind any sort of LGBTQIAP+ story, for sure. This is billed as a teen/YA story, but it focuses on a bunch of girls on a reality show trying to win back their ex--all of which seemed a little old for YA, even if these girls were fairly young. There's already the ick factor of a bunch of women trying to win back a vapid guy who clearly has a bunch of exes and who doesn't seem like a particularly good person.

I wanted to root for Skye and Maya to get together, of course--who doesn't love the idea of the women falling for each other on the show instead of the featured cad? Sadly, there isn't a lot of character development in how the two develop their relationship. At first, they hate each other due to misunderstandings. Then they are together due to proximity. Then, viola, a relationship? Maya is tough to empathize with due to her focused hatred on Jordy and desire for revenge; I liked Skye a bit more. Jordy came across as almost too much of a 1-D villain. There wasn't a lot to work with here. The other girls competing had their moments, but it was hard to tell them apart sometimes. There was so much drama about Jordy that I found myself rolling my eyes.

I am a huge sap, so I liked the ending, which is why my rating is bumped up a little. Still, I wished I had seen more growth in Maya throughout the story.

A YA reality dating romcom about exes sounds really good, right? Yes! This book was cute but left a little bit to be desired. I liked Maya and Skye and the revenge plot line was great, I mean taking down your ex only to fall in love with the person you are doing it with? Love it. The negatives were that this felt like it wanted to be an adult book so bad, but the author is holed into only writing YA. That might not be the case at all, but it sure felt like it. Overall I would give this 3 stars! Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy of thi

See below for Goodreads synopsis:

It’s been two years since Maya's ex-boyfriend cheated on her, and she still can’t escape him: his sister married the crown prince of a minor European country and he captured hearts as her charming younger brother. If the world only knew the real Jordy, the manipulative liar who broke Maya’s heart.

Skye Kaplan was always cautious with her heart until Jordy said all the right things and earned her trust. Now his face is all over the media and Skye is still wondering why he stopped calling.

When Maya and Skye are invited to star on the reality dating show Second-Chance Romance, they’re whisked away to a beautiful mansion—along with four more of Jordy’s exes— to compete for his affections while the whole world watches. Skye wonders if she and Jordy can recapture the spark she knows they had, but Maya has other plans: exposing Jordy and getting revenge. As they navigate the competition, Skye and Maya discover that their real happily ever after is nothing they could have scripted.

I really liked that both of the povs were able to have their actions justifiable/understandable in whatever they doing (except a few things) and also that I could completely understand where they were coming from. I didn’t once think ‘oh my gosh why would they ever think to do that’ even if it was something I didn’t agree with. I also liked the reality tv aspect as I find media/fame books really fascinating. I didn’t like some of the miscommunication that went on towards the beginning of the book (though I understand why it needed to be drug out a little) I just wanted everyone to be friends right away which wasn’t that realistic. After the miscommunication got resolved I like that it became the two against the one. I also liked how in tune Maya was to one of the characters gaslighting or manipulation tactics and how Skye was still learning or coming to terms with it, it was nice to see both sides. I don’t love reading about manipulative people but when the people who are being manipulated realize it and fight back it’s a lot more enjoyable than the alternative.

Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced E-arc in exchange for a fair review!

"I don't want us to be nothing, because you're not nothing. You're a lot. You're a surprisingly large fraction of everything."

Sophie Gonzales has a way of twisting glamour like a knife. We first saw it in If This Gets Out, a dazzling mlm romance between two members of an internationally acclaimed boyband. In ITGO (a book I'm proud to have been part of the street team for), the main characters are exposed to the dark, manipulative underbelly of fame when their romance is crushed and stifled by a sinister management team. But where ITGO went big, Never Ever Getting Back Together goes even bigger — and in my opinion, better.

On the reality show Second-Chance Romance, Maya and Skye are under many thumbs at once: the two-faced producers, the other girls on set, even the show's prince charming (hell, especially the shows prince charming). But as the adage goes, pressure makes diamonds. Their relationship goes from fraught to fiercely loyal in a classic enemies-to-lovers arc, but it doesn't lose any of its luster to cliche or overfamiliarity. Really, it wields them — the book channels reality television in such an incredible way that it butts heads with the real thing in terms of jaw-dropping, gasp-inducing, armrest-grabbing drama. But oaring above all is these girls' unexpected devotion to each other, with a healthy dose of well-deserved character assassination on those who might raise their misogynist tongues against them. Revenge is a dish best made with love, after all.

If there's any romance you read from Gonzales, I'd choose this one. I already know a reality-television-obsessed bisexual l'm going to recommend this book to (Hi, Kristin!). And many thanks to Wednesday for reaching out to provide me an early copy via NetGalley.

I was really looking forward to this book after reading the description because I thought the premise had a lot of potential, but in the end, the characters were a bit flat for me, the young adult genre didn’t work well for the plot and I thought a lot of it was overdramatized despite the fact that the book focuses on a reality TV show.

I will acknowledge first that I don’t generally watch reality TV which could contribute to my difficulty suspending disbelief during so much of the novel, but I was really intrigued by the idea of two exes of the same guy ending up together. I also thought the book was well-structured, though the pace in the first half was very slow for me and I had to push myself to keep going until the story picked up in the second half.

I thought it was understandable that most of the conflict between Maya and Skye was contingent on Jordy's gaslighting and the fact that Maya and Skye never actually tried to talk it out, since you probably would not want to talk to someone your boyfriend cheated on you with, but Maya was so immature that after a while I started to get annoyed by it. While Maya’s focus on revenge was part of her character growth and something she eventually got past, I thought it just overshadowed everything else in the book too much and took away from my enjoyment of the story and her POV. I did like Skye’s POV more than Maya’s, but I thought that she also lacked personality, though I think that could also be in part because we just didn’t get as many Skye chapters. I didn’t think there was enough emotional depth to their backstories outside of their past with Jordy and I didn’t feel particularly drawn to care about them. I thought the way they communicated and interacted did feel like it fit the young adult genre because there was a base level of immaturity, but considering all of the contestants on the show were 18-20 years old, it didn’t feel right.

I also wanted to add as a side point that while the creation of Chalonne was creative, I don’t think it was necessary to make up a new country, language, food, customs, etc. I thought it was a distraction from the story and took up space that could have been dedicated to developing the characters better instead.

Thank you for the early copy in the exchange for an honest review!