I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher, via NetGalley. This in no way impacted on my view.

Maya has just about forgotten that her ex-boyfriend Jordy cheated on her 2 years ago. Since then, his sister has married a prince in a small European nation, and Jordy has become a celebrity. So when Maya receives a phone call from a production company asking if she'll be a part of a new reality tv show, all about Jordy and his exes, she immediately refuses. But after thinking more, she realises that she might be able to make Jordy fall in love with her again, and expose him for the villain he is. However, Maya will have to bunk up with Skye, the girl Jordy cheated on her with. Will Maya be able to keep a clear head to succeed, or will her conflicting feelings for Skye get in the way?

This was a book I knew I would enjoy the second I saw the synopsis. Two girls out for revenge on their ex, who then fall for each other - perfection! Skye and Maya's characters were very different, so the fact that they had their own chapters in the book, helped us as the readers to understand them more, and see more of the vindictiveness, and egotistical manner than Jordy acted. Jordy was an absolute dick, and he deserved everything that came at him, plus more. I did like the way that the girls who went on the show became quite close friends, especially once the air was cleared between Skye and Maya, and they understood the only person to blame was Jordy. A great read, and perfect for today's teens!

I loved this book! The setting is a reality TV show for second chance romances. The story gives behind the scenes of what I would imagine happens in a real reality show. I read this book in one afternoon because I couldn’t put it down! The writing is excellent and the characters are perfect. You love some and hate others. I love Perrie because she is the quiet underdog who gets along with everyone. This is a highly enjoyable, quick read!

“I guess I was right the first time, months ago, when Rosie talked me into coming on the show. Jordy’s his own gasoline. Maybe all I needed to do was light a match.”

Eighteen-year-old Maya Bailey is tired of seeing her ex-boyfriend, Jordy Miller, in the news all the time. After his sister married a crown prince, Jordy’s face has been splashed across the headlines for working with charities and capturing hearts more times than she can count. But she knows that’s not the real story of who he is, especially since he cheated on her and another one of his exes, Skye Kaplan, at the same time and convinced everyone Maya was lying about it. So when Maya is invited to star on the reality show Second Chance Romance where Jordy will try again with six of his exes to find the one that got away, she realizes it’s the perfect chance to show the world who Jordy really is. Through competition hijinks, Maya gets to know Skye and the other four girls, but with the finale looming, Maya has to make a choice. Should she expose Jordy and get the revenge she’s been dreaming about for two years? Or is her heart leading her in another, very different direction?

Sophie Gonzales’s NEVER EVER GETTING BACK TOGETHER is a fun and frolicking romance that also does a fantastic job covering some deeper topics. I absolutely loved the dual-narration, and Gonzales’s latest is alive with her trademark humor and brilliant writing. Jordy is an antagonist that you love to hate, so hats off to Gonzales for his characterization! The romance is sweet and realistic, and I enjoyed watching Maya and Skye’s relationship grow and change throughout the book. If you’ve ever wanted the contestants on a reality dating show to fall for each other instead of the bachelor or bachelorette, then this book is 100% for you! Get yourself a copy of NEVER EVER GETTING BACK TOGETHER right away for romance, heartache, and humor galore!

Content Warnings: Strong language, anxiety, gas-lighting, infidelity, absent parent, divorce, sexism, slut-shaming, referenced intimate scene

(Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Any quotes are taken from an advanced copy and may be subject to change upon final publication.)

I thought this book was super cute. I liked the reality tv aspect of it. It was a little strange to me I think how young the characters were in it, that made it seem slightly u realistic to me in terms of dating reality tv. But I enjoyed all of the characters in it. I think it overall had a good plot and good character development. I wish the epilogue was a little bit farther down the road so it could have given a more clear picture of what the future holds. But overall I think it had a good ending to it. And everything throughout was pretty well paced.

4 stars!

The concept of "Never Ever Getting Back Together" by Sophie Gonzales is great! It is a drama-filled tale of revenge set on a Bachelor-style dating reality television show. Six girls who all dated the same guy, Jordy Miller, must vie for a second chance at love with him. As it turns out, Jordy Miller is absolutely the WORST. He's self-absorbed, sexist, obsessed with fame, a cheater, a liar, a coward, and has been spreading rumors about each of the contestants to each other unbeknownst to them. The girls are stuck together in a massive house while the show films. Maya and Skye, two bisexual girls who have been pitted against each other by Jordy, start having feelings for one another as they get to know one another.

I do think "Never Ever Getting Back Together" would have benefitted from NOT being YA, but that doesn't mean this book isn't scandalous and well-written. Gonzales is an excellent writer. She really takes her time developing the relationship between Maya and Skye. Some readers might see this as unnecessary, but I thought it worked out well. Gonzales also plots Maya and Skye's revenge against Jordy with pinpoint precision..until it all goes awry, of course. This book is a fun, funny read that I could not put down. Chapters skip from Maya's POV to Skye's POV, so the reader is always one step ahead of one of the girls. My chief complaint is that the plot is *a little* predictable, but that didn't stop me from enjoying it! Also, another complaint is that Maya and Skye don't have much of an identity outside of doing this reality show. They aren't super well-developed, so there could have been a little more individual character-building for them.

Thank you to NetGalley, Sophie Gonzales, St. Martin's Press, and Wednesday Books for providing me with an ARC copy of this book! All opinions are my own, and I was not compensated for my review.

Never Ever Getting Back Together by Sophie Gonzales is the fun enemies to lovers (with a twist) I didn't know I needed. This delightful read is a standalone, so no need to worry about prequels or other books to read first.

I had a ton of fun reading about the reality show where a royal-adjacent bad boyfriend gets to spend time re-dating all of the girls he treated like crap. Since I don't post spoilers, that is my entire commentary on the plot. The writing thought! Never Ever Getting Back Together was the perfect light, quick read that had me laughing out loud and cheering for the girls in this story. Sophie Gonzales writes like a dream and you won't even notice that there is writing, because she masterfully pulls you into the book - you'll forget your surroundings and just enjoy the story.

I really enjoyed this one and highly recommend it to you!

Gay gay gay. We love a queer rom com in this house. This book was legit funny not just light hearted but actually funny. Twists and turns through the book keep the pages turning.

Thank you @netgalley for my advance copy! I was thrilled because Perfect on Paper was one of my favorites last year!

You guys-I LOVED this! I have absolutely nothing to critic because it was perfect. The reality show setting, the revenge seeking ladies and the unexpected romance were so perfect. All of the characters were spot on (even Jordy) and so realistic! I laughed out loud quite a bit. So many witty comments, scenarios and banter. You know I love my banter!

The only sad thing is that it’s over 🥹 I wish that Maya and Skye were real and we could all be best friends. This was perfect!

This is a sweet celebrity semi love triangle that hits home with today's reality tv obsession. Jordy is the man who knows how to shine in the limelight but be a jerk behind closed doors. He goes through women faster than anything and often he doesn't end one relationship before starting another. Maya was one of Jordy's casualties and two years later she is still struggling to move on with her life. Enter a chance to possibly right the wrongs Jordy has done to her through a Second Chance Romance Dating Show! What could possibly go wrong when Maya is forced to share a room with the woman Jordy cheated on her with, Skye? This is a reality TV filled book that questions how far would you go to try to correct someone who wronged you? And what happens when you realize your enemy might possibly not be your enemy? This book is filled with reality tv humor, forced proximity, LGBTQIAP+ romance & representation, enemies to lovers, yummy jell-o shots, morning theme songs, and closed door romance - just kissing.

Thank you Sophie, NetGalley, St Martin's Press & Wednesday Books for my free ebook. It was not expected for me to leave positive feedback. These opinions are 100% my own.

This book was so good! it had a really unique plot that i’m obsessed with. I love sophie gonzáles books and this just solidified how great of an author she is. I really like the unique aspect of second chance romance and getting revenge. i really enjoyed the dual pov and thought that it was cool to see both of the MCs thoughts.

** Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review **

Actual rating 4.5 stars

Never Ever Getting Back Together follows Maya and Skye as they participate in a Bachelor-esque reality TV show at the request of their ex-boyfriend, Jordy. The twist? They end up falling for each other!

This book was such a fun read! I thought both MCs were interesting and complex. Both had their own issues to work through throughout and it was fun seeing them grow as the story progressed.

I’m a sucker for some good side characters and Perrie and Isaac were two of my favorites! In all honestly, I love the friendships that were formed by the end. I was afraid that due to the reality TV show aspect, it might be a bit catty and some of the other girls would come off terribly, but was pleasantly surprised!

I loved the revenge plot throughout this whole book! The more I read, the more I hated Jordy myself and understood why Maya and Skye were looking for some revenge on him.

I will say that the ending felt a tad rushed and there were places where the story could have sped along a bit. This is also a YA book, but the characters are 18.

In all honesty though, once I really got into it, I struggled to put it down! I had to know how it would play out and if our girls would get their happy ending!

I’d definitely recommend picking this one up if you love a good revenge plot, reality TV, some girl power in action, and a fun dual-POV romance!

Thank you to Wednesday Books / St. Martin’s Press for a copy of Never Ever Getting Back Together in exchange for an honest review.

“Better Than Revenge”
Okay, there’s a whole lot that works. Sophie Gonzales is easily one of my favorite YA authors. Perfect on Paper and If This Gets Out are two of my favorite books. Period. Full Stop. End of story. In general, Gonzales’s work is a shining example of bisexual experience.

Never Ever Getting Back Together is no exception. The premise is jam-packed with chaotic bi-energy. Not that a person of any other orientation wouldn’t dive headfirst into this situation, but there is something particularly “disaster bi” about it.

And I don’t just mean that from the fun side of it. The barely-passive biphobia that Jordy directs toward Skye and Maya is as über-realistic as it is heartbreaking. Bisexual women are at higher risk for intimate partner violence than other women, so it’s not a stretch that among this gaslighter’s list of six exes are two bisexual women.

But still, Sophie Gonzales does keep the story mostly light for all that it is about women getting over the need for revenge. At its heart, Never Ever Getting Back Together is about finding oneself, letting go of expectations and letting love in.

We’re also treated to many fun tropes like … there’s only one bedroom, enemies to lovers and second-chance romance!

“I Did Something[s] Bad”
Things aren’t perfect in paradise, unfortunately. Simply put, I don’t think this should have been YA. I had deep trouble buying that these characters were 18. Yes, they’re legally adults, but in basically every other way, 18-year-olds are still kids.

For the most part, how everyone in this story acts and thought-processes makes them seem about early-to-mid-20s. That’s not to say that teens aren’t more sophisticated than people give them credit for — just that their life experiences read older.

And also, yes, reality TV is gross, and yes, the drinking age in the fake country in which this story is set is 18 … but I have trouble believing that 18-year-olds being plied with alcohol would play well to the middle American audience the producers of such a show would likely be targetting.

The other quibble I have is much less important and maybe bordering on petty, but it’s something I’ve noticed in every Sophie Gonzales book I’ve read — Gonsalez is Australian, but her characters are predominately North American (most often US). However, they often use language that is not. I’d really love her to set a book in Australia and just … let loose.

“Long Story Short”
(AKA, should you read it?) Oh, absolutely. I found myself having all the feels and all kinds of them. But, like, only read Never Ever Getting Back Together if you’re in a place where you can emotionally handle reading about a gaslighting turd.

If you’re already a fan of Sophie Gonzales, you’ll probably adore her latest outing as well. And while it’s not my favorite of hers, it’s undoubtedly a fun, fun ride.

Never Ever Getting Back Together comes out on November 29, 2022. Pick up a copy at your local indie bookstore or library. 📚🫅💔👩‍❤️‍👩

NEVER EVER GETTING BACK TOGETHER is a book for all of us who've ever read about a woman who ends up with an unworthy dude and wished she would have just gotten together with her frenemy instead.

Main character Maya would still love to get back at ex Jordy for cheating on her two years ago when she's asked to go on a new reality TV show called Second Chance Romance, where all his exes will vie to get back together with him. Maya doesn't want him back, but maybe her time on the show would be worth it, if only to tell the world who Jordy really is (and protect the other women from him). But naturally that's a tall order -- and the woman Jordy cheated on Maya with, Skye, will be there.

I've never watched the Bachelor but thought this was a delight. It definitely scratched the itch left by all the romances that have left me wanting the two -- wonderful -- women to just get together already and forget about the less deserving man. I'd have appreciated more characterization of Maya and Skye but still wholeheartedly recommend this one. And it has me eager to check out Sophie Gonzales's backlist.

This one started so strong for me and then just sort of fizzled out.

A dating show where the contestant dates their exes to see if one of them is the one that got away? Okay, I kind of dig this concept. A revenge plot where said ex plans to get revenge on the boy who broke her heart and made her out to seem unstable and kind of a pyscho? Okay, tell me more. Two of the said exes fall for each other instead of rekindling with their ex? I love this idea! The execution was where we had the fall out for me.

I feel like the author missed a major opportunity to make this a girl power book by giving us two strong girls who didn't need the man at all. Instead I felt like I hardly knew either girl other than their relationship history with Jordy. Who was Maya? Who was Skye? I have noo clue. There is this whole college storyline for Maya but I never felt like it meant anything to me cause it was never explained well except for one line that said Jordy didn't think Maya was that smart. Skye was backpacking across Europe, but that's the extent of what I knew about her. They were surface characters, never given anything deeper to develop personalities or reasons for me to care about them. Jordy was a major narcissist and very unlikable and while I didn't dislike Maya or Skye other than Maya was kind of immature, I didn't like them either because of their lack of character development. Had a lot of potential but ultimately missed the mark for me.

I absolutely adored If This Gets Out which Sophie had co-written and I had hoped that I would find the same spark in her newest book when I requested it. Unfortunately, I never connected with these characters the way I did with those of ITGO.

This book would've worked better if it was written and aimed at an adult or new adult audience, instead of a young adult one. While the premise is interesting, the fact that all of these characters are between 18-21 makes it very nonsensical in execution. None of these characters had lived enough life between when they dated the main male character and when this book was set for it to make sense that any of them were looking for a second-chance romance with him, or that he would be looking to try dating all of them again to see if any of them were "the one that got away". None of these girls are well-developed enough on the page to even show that they've changed at all since dating him, much like he is shown to have not changed or matured at all in the time span between when he dated the first of these six girls and the present setting. It left the book feeling immature and under-done. 

I pushed through as far as I could handle, but eventually, the fact that none of the characters had more than one or two personality traits was just too much for me to keep going.

Thank you SO much to Wednesday Books for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review! (how is this my life??)

HELLO, I LOVED THIS! The fiery protagonists! The swoon-worthy romance! Our disaster bisexuals! The pure hatred in my heart for Jordy!

Never Ever Getting Back Together follows Maya and Skye as contestants on a reality TV show created to give a second chance for exes to rekindle their romances. Which is all good and fun until you consider how Jordy, the ex in question, cheated on Maya... with Skye. When the two women team up to take down Jordy a peg (or three hundred), they start to wonder what revenge is truly worth in the end.

From start to finish, this book was captivating. I am convinced that (at least if you're a reader with similar preferences to me) this book has the power to get you out of a reading slump. Which is a big claim to make, but I stand by it. Never Ever Getting Back Together is perfectly paced, hilariously written, and absolutely chock-full of strong characters. It made it so easy to fall into reading.

I am obsessed with Maya and Skye. Like, together, yes. But also if I could date one and/or be either of them?? DREAM COME TRUE. Maya has such a great character arc, but honestly her before the arc is very similar to me right now, so I could super relate to her character the entire way through. I loved the way she refused to back down, how she was unapologetically herself. And Skye... literally such a beautiful character, inside and out. She was chaotic while actively making regimented plans (such a mood fr). I loved her moments of realization and how she didn't take any less than what she deserved. Ever.

I also super appreciated how they were just, y'know, two canonically bisexual women who didn't feel the need to hide any part of this with the world. They just were and it was all I've ever wanted.

The unlikely alliance, the budding friendship, then everything more from there... it was all everything I had hoped for. I really do love a good falling-in-love. ...And did I mention they share a (bunk)bed?

Never Ever Getting Back Together is an incredibly fun romance, and such a freaking wild ride. I highly recommend checking it out! (As of writing this, there's still time to preorder a copy!!!) COMING OUT (hehe) NOVEMBER 29th

Content Warnings: cheating (pre-book), gaslighting, manipulation, sexism, biphobia

This was so fun !! I was a bit confused about the pace and timeline at times, but overall this was a delightful story ! Maya and the other girls were hilarious !! I loved the Reality TV setting and skyes and mayas connection was 🥹🥹🥹

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press!

I finished this book knowing that the ending saved this book. Never Ever Getting Back Together is filled with several unlikable characters, and several instances of forced proximity.

It seemed a little overdone, but by the ending a couple of characters became a little bit more tolerable and the actions of those characters bumped this up to a three star.

I didn't like the concept of this book. The writing was okay, but I just didn't find it interesting at all. It felt really slow to action and boring.

I love Sophie Gonzales and was thrilled when I first heard the amazing premise for this book. Maya agrees to go on a reality dating show in which all of the women used to date the bachelor, Jordy. He will choose a second chance romance from among them.

But Maya's not there for the "right reasons." She's there to clear her name because Jordy spread rumors about her after cheating on her. But the girl he cheated on Maya with, Skye, is on the show, too. And she might not be all that bad.

I started laughing out loud right from the first chapter. And I greatly enjoyed the interactions among the women and the bisexual representation. I loved all of the parts told from Maya's perspective. However, Maya felt like a more complete character than Skye. It's tough because Jordy gets so much page time with his key role as their ex and the literal star of the show. But it means that while I constantly rooted for Maya, I did not feel as connected to Skye or their romance.

This didn't really feel like a YA book so much as a new adult romance. All of the characters were at least 18. And since it was set in Europe, there was lots of legal drinking. With the reality dating background and activities, it generally called to mind more of an adult setting.

I recommend this for older YA and adult audiences. Read for hilarious dialogue and females banding together.

Thank you to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for the advanced reader and listener copies. These opinions are my own.