I had high hopes for this one, it sounded really fun but sadly it was a miss for me. I got extremely bored within the first half of the book. It felt very far-fetched and just didn’t keep my attention enough for me to keep going.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing a free advanced copy of this ebook and audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

This was a solid sapphic romance story that features a fun plot and a cute romance. If you are a fan of shows like the Bachelor, you will probably like this one as well, as our characters participate in a show that is very similar. I do wish that the plot focused a little more on the romance and its development throughout the whole story, as it seemed to move very quickly, especially toward the end. However, our two main characters were well fleshed out and I found myself entertained throughout the entire thing!

The publisher provided a "Read Now" eARC of Never Ever Getting Back Together and I had been eyeing this upcoming release from Sophie Gonzales and couldn't pass it up with how fond I am of If This Gets Out.

Royalty! Revenge! Reality TV! The Bachelor, but these ladies are bi, so bye bye boy!

Ok, so real quick note, I do not really understand the appeal of reality tv/the bachelor/the rich & famous, other than as a kind of live stream of fame/what if flashing before your eyes, but this obviously wasn't much harder to understand the appeal of.

Maya acts as a modern day Medea ready to tell the world all about her cheating and narcissistic former boyfriend Jordy and get her revenge when the opportunity, provided by Jordy and the TV crew of Second-Chance Romance, is put in her lap. All she has to do is win against a few of his former girlfriends.

This includes Skye, who Jordy cheated on her with, who believes like the rest of the world that Maya was a jealous and abusive ex-girlfriend. Luckily it doesn't take very long for them to clear things up because, for drama, and to seemingly make them into rivals -or Maya into a villian, Jordy made them roomates.

Told in the alternating POVs of Maya and Skye go from enemies to lovers, sure to send Second-Chance Romance into a tailspin and whoever wins into the headlights of a oncoming media storm.

5 stars

What a delightful and fun little book. Great humor, great romance, great friendships, and great revenge. I laughed out loud several times! And the two main characters Maya and Skye? Well fleshed out and flawed but I was really rooting for them by the end.

Even the villain ex-boyfriend all the girls share, Jordy, was fun to hate. The reality show premise centering around him was well used without him overwhelming the development of the romance between Maya and Skye and the friendships between all of them. Even if they did talk about him a lot.

The reality show set up was superb. Them having to reshoot scenes like Maya falling in the lake a hundred times was ridiculous and amusing. My biggest gripe with the book is how young everyone is. I pretended they were all much older because yikes, a dating reality show with multiple exes when everyone is 18-20 years old? No thanks.

The best part of the book was Maya and Skye and the other girls being the real winners. Eat dirt, Jordy!

In conclusion, a fun, sweet, amusing, and slightly absurd young adult queer romance.

A perfectly wonderful romance/Romcom read. The cover is absolutely perfect as well! I found myself loving each of the characters even the ones that were absolutely unlikable. Thank you to the publisher and author for this netgalley read.

"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 absolutely devoured this while home with the flu. Like...I read it in five hours. And I'm not typically a romance person but this one had me hooked from the beginning.

The "revenge, romance, and reality tv" arc was what made this book stand out. It's not an overdone enemies to lovers trope that we all love but can predict from the first page. Skye and Maya are complex characters. They have their own traumas and histories that they need to work through. The ups and downs and twists and turns between Skye, Maya, Jordy, and the other ex-girlfriends kept me on the edge of my seat wanting more.

I only hope that Gonzales gives us more in the future. A sequel about Skye and Maya post-reality show? Count me in!

Never Ever Getting Back Together | Sophie Gonzales
Rivals to lovers in a European Royal version of “The Bachelor”

Jordie is a grade-A tool with a string of ex-girlfriends. His sister married into royalty, giving Jordy the opportunity to scrape together a D-grade celebrity status and inflate his ego enough to raise a hot air balloon. Maya and Skye are both offered the chance to win him back [cue eyeroll] through a Bachelor-style competition full of date recreations and sporting challenges. Ironing out the details of Jordy’s lies and deception, the girls band together to make it to the finale and serve him a cold dish of revenge. Tensions dissolve and sparks fly as the story unfolds, but is it possible to truly get EVERYTHING you want?

10/10 premise; I love when karma comes around to cut the arrogant back down to size. It’s true that people don’t generally get away with bad behavior forever! While the sparks flew freely between competitors, I wasn’t getting a strong sense of chemistry between the girls. Other than statements about being drawn to each other or reactions to ballgowns and bikinis, I was looking for a deeper connection. I loved the emotional elements about Maya choosing the right path and the struggle to change course, and though less familiar with reading f/f relationships, seeing the banter and pining unfold from enemies to lovers was brilliant.

Never Ever Getting Back Together would play out well on-screen. I would love to see the fumbles at a royal tea [total Princess Diaries vibes for me], stranded on a rockface and shock-desire in stunning ballgowns. This book was a great bubble-gum read for me: sweet and spicy, medium pace, something to chew on when I’ve got some time to kill. Watching Jordy get served definitely warrants a re-read the next time I’m in the mood for some girl-power energy!

3.5/5 stars
Thank you NetGalley and Wednesday Books for providing the ARC for review!

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for a copy of this e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

I was super excited to receive an early copy of this book. The premise and description sounded like The Bachelor, which I watch every season. As soon as I started reading the book, my interest kept falling the more I tried to read. The entire book felt SOO repetitive. I felt like I was reading the same chapter over and over up until the 80% mark. While I loved the initial idea of female empowerment, I think the characters fell flat for me. The age of all the characters did not help. How do you expect 18-year-olds to be able to form these deep connections with others? I wish the author had gone with mid-twenties or early thirties. I overall had very little emotion when it came to the end of the book other than being glad I had finished it.

While it was not initially a book I would recommend to others, I would say that everyone should read it to get their own opinions. I have seen a lot of others rave and love the story.

Reality show rivals to lovers sapphic romance--we are here for it! And this isn't your average second chance romance because men are trash.
But seriously, this book had heart and humor in all the right places, making a gripping and fabulous romcom that is an insta-buy for anyone rooting for real romance.
Special thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book--though all opinions are my own.

Thank you so much to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this brilliant novel in exchange for an honest review.

Maya was blindsided years ago when Jordy broke up with her after cheating on her and painting her as a villain. A role that very much belongs to Jordy. So when she’s contacted for a reality show where he will date all of his exes again she sees the perfect opportunity not to get him back but to get even.

Only one hiccup, she arrives to find that her roommate is Skye. The very same Skye who Jordy allegedly cheated on her with. The meeting goes as you would expect, not well.

I absolutely adored this novel I read it in one day. It was refreshing and made me cackle. It definitely made me rethink every single reality show I have ever watched. Viewers are so quick to label someone as a villain when in reality they were told to say those lines or act a certain way. This novel is funny and I enjoyed every single character by the end aside from Jordy for obvious reasons. This gives me John Tucker must die vibes in the best way possible. I would absolutely recommend this to everyone.

A reality show starring ex-girlfriends of an adjacent royal -- and two of those exes fall for one another? SIGN ME UP!

I will admit in the beginning I was slightly nervous: there was just so much girl-on-girl hate. But I should have known better than to doubt Sophie. No sooner had those worries crept up than it became clear the girls were joining forces to take down a scumbag -- and that's something I can get behind 100%. I would up racing through this one and absolutely loved it!

This book was just so fun. At first, I was a little skeptical about the premise. I felt like the characters were a little too young to be on a dating show, but I was quickly proven wrong. I think the game show aspect really worked for the mechanics of the romance. I loved Maya and Skye’s character development and I loved watching their relationship unfurl. Also, can we please appreciate all of the Taylor Swift references??? That is always a sure fire way to get me to read a book. After this and If This Gets Out, I can’t wait to read more from Gonzales.

Thank you to @netgalley and @wednesdaybooks for my e-arc of NEVER EVER GETTING BACK TOGETHER by @sgonzalesauthor ! This book published last Tuesday, Nov 29 so you can grab your copy now!

If you enjoy shows like Love Is Blind or the bachelor, then you will enjoy this book! It’s basically a reality tv show about revenge 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 (side note: I have never watched these hawks, but my buddy read chat group likened this book to those type of shows!)

This book was so much fun to read! It’s the type of book that tho the premise/plot line is a little unbelievable, you keep reading because of that fact and to just dive into the drama of something else. I’m not saying this is a bad thing/ we all need those kinds of distractions! Isn’t that why we watch shows like Love Is Blind and The Bachelor?!

I really liked Maya, and then I really like Skye (once both girls sorted out their issues with each other, and realized Jordy is to blame). Even tho there were other girls in the show, we get these two perspectives, and see the most character growth from them. I loved how they played Jordy at his own game 👏🏻

Speaking of, Jordy is just plain awful and totally deserved everything he got by the end of the book. Who has that many ex girlfriends and willingly goes in a reality tv show with all (or most) of his exes, with the sole purpose of stringing them along to make them all believe they are “the one that got away” It makes for great televisions drama, but I really hope this doesn’t actually happen in real life! (Tho I’m sure it does).

Overall, this is still a fun book that I will recommend for some light, fun reading, maybe as a palate cleanser type book ☺️ if you have read any of the author’s other books, I think you will like this one!

Bachelor + Revenge = Never Getting Back Together!
This book follows Maya is invited to go on a reality show with her ex-boyfriend and his ex-girlfriends. Talk about complicated. At first, Maya wants nothing to do with the reality show until she comes up with the idea of Revenge. However, when Maya becomes roommates with Skye, the girl Jordy cheated on her with, things get tricky.

Firstly, I want to thank Net galley and Wednesday books for early access to this book for an honest review. I was excited to read this book; after all, I am a HUGE Sophie Gonzales fan, but this book didn't do it for me. Usually, I fall in love with the characters and the plotline, but this one fell short. I'm not saying that this novel didn't have good qualities at all.

My number one issue is that all the ex-girlfriends faded into the background. It may be because the main focus was on Maya and Skye's relationship, or there were too many side characters. Each week the girls go through elimination; such intense moments should make the book exciting, right? But, no. Instead of being on the edge of my seat, I felt withdrawn; we already knew who would win; we just had to get there.

As for the romance in the book, I wished there was more to it. I felt it went from enemy to lovers; to we are in love immediately. Although I LOVED their banter, there could be more. I wanted more scenes of them hanging out or even plotting together. I'm curious if I'm the only one who felt this way, but they had no chemistry. In the end, I was frustrated with how the romance in this novel was written. I know that Sophie Gonzales can write some fantastic romances, but this one wasn't it.

As for the EX, I was disappointed in how his storyline went, and I was left with more questions. I felt like Jordy had more personality than most of the girls. Yes, I didn't like Jordy, but I wish we understood why he became who he is. There is also the massive issue of the fact that I wish there were some successful revenge against him that we, the readers, could experience. But nope, none.

At the end of the day, did we like this book? Well no. But I'm still a HUGE Sophie Gonzales fan, and I will still read anything that she publishes.

This was a really fun book. It should have been a book that loved because I love the Bachelor franchise and the messiness of it so much and I love this concept… But I can’t help but think that this would have worked way better if the characters were maybe 10 years older. I get he was a player and everything, but most of these past relationships were long term ones. How many of those can a 18/19 year old really have? I also have no idea what Maya decided to do in the epilogue. Other than that, I really enjoyed the writing style just like I did in If This Gets Out. The characters were well fleshed out and their POVs read as different, fully formed humans. I loved the chaos and Bachelor vibes. I am 100% Here For The Drama.

I am such a FAN of these Bachelor-esque type books. Please continue to grow this trope because it is filled to the brim with juicy drama. And I mean Maya and Skye were absolutely incredible, you couldn't help but root for them from the first time they appeared on page. Sophie Gonzales does it again and fully knocks it out of the park!!

The latest book by Sophie Gonzalez takes place in the world of reality television. Although, these days in literature, reality shows are a popular topic this book puts a different spin on the genre. The reality show here revolves around a guy choosing from among a handful of his exes to see which one he would like to get back together with. It seems like a show that could never really happen in life until you look at some of the reality shows that have actually been produced, and you realize that truly anything goes in reality television.

The book isn't really about Jordy, the guy at the center of the reality show, however. He is basically a lying, cheating scum. It's about the girls participating in the competition particularly, Maya, who enters the competition determined to win so that she can show him for what he really is, and Skye, the girl whom he cheated on her with. They end up falling for each other. Their romance is sweet, but there is not enough of it. Nothing really even happens between them until about halfway through the book. Plus, their characters are also not differentiated from each other enough to keep them straight even with chapters with alternating views.

There are good things about this book. The unique reality show plot is interesting. The female empowerment aspects of the plot are affecting including the eventual bonds formed between the contestants and the bringing down of a male character who clearly deserves it. However, if you are looking for a book with a lot of romance, you won't really find that here. You might want to try one of Gonzales's other books instead.

Happy Pub Day Sophie Gonzales and Never Ever Getting Back Together!

Thank you St. Martin’s Press, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for advanced copies in exchange for my honest review.

I loved the premise of this book where a reality TV show chooses someone to invite all his exes on the show in the hopes for a second chance at love. I personally could never go on a show like this, but Maya’s decision to go on to show the world who Jordy really is was brilliant. Of course Maya didn’t expect to fall for the girl Jordy cheated her on with, Skye.

I’ve always been a fan of Sophie Gonzales’ books so was really excited to read this one. I loved the story and thought there was great character development with all of the contestants. Jordy on the other hand was awful, but that made the romance between Maya and Skye that much better. There was a slow build to the girl’s getting together, but I thought it worked well in this story.

My only issue was that these kids were in their teens so how could Jordy already have so many exes. I also felt the book didn’t read as YA because of the reality show premise. I think it would have been better as an adult book, but overall I really enjoyed it.

I read along while listening to the audiobook, and I enjoyed both narrators. Natalie Naudus always does a great job, and I enjoyed Barrie Kreinik as Skye. The only issue I had was that they sounded older than the 18-year-old characters should.

The strength of this novel lies in the banter. If you want cute, witty, and funny conversations, then you’ll have a blast with this. My only real gripe is the age. Having teenage girls on a dating show with a fellow teenager with a low key prolific dating history? Slightly weird.

Fluffy, sweet, and funny. This was a fun ride.

This one was a DNF for me. Maybe I just wasn't in the right mood for a YA, but the concept sounded good in the blurb and just didn't jive once I started reading. Maybe another time, maybe not.