Sophie Gonzales is one of my favorite authors of all time and when I originally heard the premise of this book, two contestants falling in love on a reality-tv dating show while trying to destroy the showrunner’s reputation, I was so excited and couldn't wait to get my hands on it!

The setting is a reality TV dating show similar to The Bachelor where 6 ex’s of a semi-famous guy are brought on to date him again and try to win his affections. The book shifts perspectives between two of the contestants, Maya and Skye, one of whom is not going on the show in an attempt to win the guy back but instead wants to destroy him (you go girl!). During filming Maya and Skye grow very close and begin falling for each other and teaming up in an epic revenge plot.

Both Maya and Skye are wonderfully developed characters and their relationship in all of its stages is so beautifully written. The side characters were also very fun and I loved all of the humor and banter that occurred between all the women. It was so refreshing to read a book where bisexuality was simply accepted and represented positively. Sophie did a great job of creating some really complex characters who make mistakes and learn from them. She also created a very relatable “villain” in the showrunner Jordy, who I'm sure will remind everyone who reads this book of a narcissistic, entitled man that they have known.

At times the references to the made-up country and royal family were a little cheesy, but it did seem intentionally so. Especially in the beginning there were some references to cultural stuff in the fake country that came off a little awkward but I understood why it was necessary to the story to use a made-up (Genovia-style) nation instead of relying on real-world places. There was one other aspect that I wasn’t a huge fan of and that was the ages of the characters. I think this book would have made way more sense as a new adult or adult romance with the characters being at least a few years older. It doesn't seem realistic that an 18 year old (even a semi-famous one) to have had 6 meaningful past relationships that the media or the public would be interested enough in to create an entire dating show around. Also, the drama between Maya and Skye in both of their relationships with Jordy would have been more believable if they were all older. I couldn't see any reason why the characters needed to be under 20 other than the opportunity to market it as YA.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and I will continue to read anything Sophie Gonzales writes forever.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for giving me access to an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I truly loved this book so much!!
Reality TV is possibly my favorite thing in the world and to be given the opportunity to read this reality TV based book was amazing! Already only reading the description of the book I was hooked. Sophie Gonzales has managed to make you feel as if you are witnessing the production of a reality TV show. Between the descriptions of how many things were staged to how all of the girls managed to live together in one house it felt so realistic.

Sophie has also created two main characters that you can't help but root for. The concept of the ex-girlfriends of Jordy coming together to take him down but falling in love instead has to be one of my favorite things. I loved the friendships the women in the book made along with Maya and Skye themselves and their relationship. Personally, I would have loved for there to be more development in the beginning of their relationship but I do see the time constraints they are under in the TV filming realm. I enjoyed having the perspective of both characters and getting to see their own ways of figuring out their love. I loved this book so much and cannot wait to have it in my hands in December!

Thank you so much St. Martins's Press for this ARC!

This book was everything I wanted it to be and more!!! I loved the humor, the distinct voices, the feminist message, the subtle and slow-burn romance (a hate to love where you can feel the longing underneath the resentment is my kryptonite). Jordy was the most punchable villain, Maya and Skye were both relatable in their own ways (though I think Maya is my favorite).

I really appreciated the bi rep, which we still don't have nearly enough of. The plot twists at the end were fantastic, and I didn't see most of them coming, but they all felt earned. I especially appreciated Maya's journey of realizing her need for revenge is destroying her. I can see a show starring people in their late teens / early 20s happening in real life, given our obsession with celebrity dating lives!!! If Olivia Rodrigo ever dated her exes on live tv I would not be able to turn that off. I live for the drama.

What happens when your ex invites you to participate in a reality TV series to try to win him back? What happens when you have no interest in winning him back, but would rather win revenge? What happens when you unexpectedly find love in an unlikely place?

Sophie Gonzales sets out to explore these questions in this book, Never Ever Getting Back Together. This story is told from two contestants' points of view as they "explore" their way through love on a reality TV show with their ex. Both girls have different reasons for agreeing to come on the show. They come to learn that there may be two sides to every story.

Maya and Skye along with their ex, Jordy engage in a confusing love triangle thanks to some troubling miscommunications. I could definitely relate with these women as they journey to find their own place in the world. I loved their inner dialogue as they worked through their own insecurities.

Throughout the book, Gonzales takes the time to point out the "reality" of reality TV, pointing out how staged some of our favorite romance shows may be. She left me reflecting on what may be "real" and what may be "staged" in all our romantic relationships.

This is a well-written romance story! It is a fun, light-hearted, and well-paced read. This closed-door (but not clean) romance story has characters and conversations that feel real.

Thank you Wednesday Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this title prior to publication day, it was a joy to read and review!

Thanks to NetGalley, St Martin’s Press, & Wednesday Books for the ARC.

I never thought I’d be someone who said “I really wanted to like this book,” but here we are. At first glance, this book had everything I liked: revenge, enemies to lovers, & a reality TV backdrop. However, when I started to actually read the book, I realized that my first glance was wrong.

The first 150 pages (out of 320) were a slog. Maya was annoying & self-righteous, Skye was too naive, & the side characters, with the exception of Perrie, were beyond my fairly high tolerance of cattiness. There didn’t really seem to be any development from plot point to point, everything seemed to just happen without a lot of reasoning behind it.

After the first 150 pages the book got a bit better, because we finally got to the romance part, but even that was woefully underdeveloped to me. Skye & Maya went from hating each other to wanting to kiss each other, & while that’s not totally abnormal, I didn’t really buy their chemistry (an arguably fairly important element of a romance).

What I did like was how utterly terrible Jordy was. He sucked from the beginning & I appreciated that. The scheming towards the end was also fun & I enjoyed watching the schemes play out. The bi rep was great to see too.

Overall, I’m sure this book is wonderful for some people, but I sadly can’t count myself among them. While there were enjoyable elements, I found the romance to be underdeveloped & not at all believable; I also felt very little connection to either of the main characters.

This book was a quick, cute and fun read. I enjoyed the plot and how the character grew and developed. I also like the alternating point of views because it made the story more interesting.

It's been two years since Maya dumped her cheating boyfriend Jordy. But even after all that time she can't seem to get away from him. Maya ends up on reality TV where Jordy ends up re-dating his exes. That's where Maya gets exploring to her past love, with Jordys ex girlfriend Skye. This book was a great YA romance with good LGBTQ+ big twist in the end funny enjoyable book.the

Overall, a great read! I loved the unconventional twists in this book, especially the combination of royalty (or royalty-adjacent in this case) and a dating competition. A few big things I enjoyed here:

1. The girls' friendships! I enjoyed that despite the fact that these women were competing against each other, they genuinely supported each other (at least - most of them), especially towards the end of the novel. This kept things less drama-filled than an episode of The Bachelor.

2. So many twists! I appreciated that this book didn't follow the traditional reality tv show romance trope.

3. The jokes! Sophia Gonzales is a hilarious writer, and I especially enjoyed the names that she gave other fictional television shows that were referenced.

4. The ending! I'll avoid spoilers, but I was so excited that the novel went in this direction.

However, there were a few things that fell flat for me when reading this one:
1. The fact that this novel is YA to me felt disjointed. While an original concept, having 18-20 year old women compete on a reality dating show to end up with a man felt odd, and that it would be better suited to a group 25+. Similarly, it was strange that Jordy had so many exes despite being so young!

2. Character development - I had a hard time connecting with the characters - I felt like there wasn't much development other than Maya wanting revenge, for example, or Perrie wanting more Instagram followers. I had a hard time getting to know them. Because there weren't many descriptors in the book, I also had trouble picturing what Gonzales wanted these characters to look like as well.

3. There were all these references to the royal family / government that we didn't get to see, despite references throughout the novel. Would have loved more of this to be integrated into the book to make it more cohesive as this part felt like an afterthought.

Thanks to Netgalley and St Martin's Press for the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review!

It’s been two years since Maya dumped her cheating ex-boyfriend Jordy, and she still can’t escape him: his sister married the crown prince of a minor European country, and in the lead up to the wedding he captured hearts globally as the eligible younger brother. So, when Maya receives an invitation to be a contestant on Second Chance Romance, a new reality show in which the now-famous Jordy will re-date his ex-girlfriends in an effort to find “the one that got away,” she isn’t interested…that is, until she realizes she can use this opportunity to exact her revenge.

The plot had potential but I think it could have been delivered better? I don't know, I just didn't get as invested in this book as I wanted to. Don't get me wrong it was a decent book, not something I regret reading it just didn't hook me like I hoped it would. I always love a happy ending, completely thrilled the main characters ended together! Overall, worth the read.

Special thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for sharing this digital copy with me in exchange for my honest thoughts.

Cute story. I had mixed feeling about what the goal of the contest was and I was very happy with how she wrote the ending. Easy summer read!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for gifting me an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I really wanted to love this book. I enjoyed the dual POV and the twists and turns. However I did feel like the book was slow and hard for me to get into at some points. Sadly, I also didn't love the characters and found it hard to relate and get close to them.
However, I do enjoy what Sophia Gonzales' writing and I look forward to reading her work in the future.
I also appreciated getting to read a book with bi representation which is really important.

I wouldn’t classify this as a bad read, it’s a a good slump book. You know when you need something really surface level after being in a book slump or a book hangover? This is one of those palate cleansers.

It’s truly a surface level story. I imagine if your a fan of reality TV and shows like the Bachelor you may enjoy it a bit more, but I hate reality TV so take that with my review of this books about a reality show.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the eARC! Never Ever Getting Back Together was such a fun romp. Once I picked it up, I had a hard time putting it down!

If you enjoyed Perfect on Paper or Only Mostly Devastated, then there’s a good chance this is on your TBR, but if not, what are you waiting for? If you ever looked at the Bachelor and wished it was gayer or wondered what girls see in boys who are clearly jackasses, then give this a try!

Having the dual perspective of Maya and Skye allows the reader to see early on how manipulative Jordy is. That even when the characters are still he-said, she-saiding, you aren’t having to decide which narrative to believe, because clearly it’s whatever one isn’t falling out of Jordy’s lying mouth.

Maya is unapologetically prickly and I suspect that many people will consider her unlikeable. But one of Sophie Gonazles’s strengths is being able to take those prickly, unlikeable characters and make you fall in love with them and empathize with their choices. And she certainly managed to pull that off with Maya. Skye and Maya’s initial antagonism comes across as manufactured, which is entirely the point. It’s a reality show. But once they’re able to put their rocky start behind them, they can focus on the true villain. Jordy.

If you ever want proof that the best way to make friends is to talk about all the things you hate, then this is the book for you!

Featuring: girls in love, a jerk who doesn’t deserve redemption, and the friends you make along the way

4.5/5 stars

I read to about ~60% of this book and had to DNF. I am a huge fan of Sophie Gonzales but this book was super disappointing. It was written poorly, was cringey, and the storyline - while it has amazing potential - was slow and awkward.

Two teenage girls compete on a dating reality show to win a second chance with their mutual ex-boyfriend, only to fall in love with each other instead. Sophie Gonzales' Never Ever Getting Back Together is a sweet and feel-good YA romance.

Maya and Skye are adorable together. I love how they initially hate and distrust each other (because of Jordy's manipulations, obvs), but then actually work things out by talking to each other. Their romance is just fun and light-hearted; each heroine gets her chance at being a knight in shining armour to the other, and I love how openly they communicate with each other about their concerns. The story does touch on some more serious themes, like Maya's single-minded focus on getting revenge on Jordy, Skye's inability to trust people due to past trauma, and Jordy's gaslighting and overall jerky-ness. But these are all treated with a fairly light touch, and I love how both heroines help each other through difficult moments.

I also really love the friendships formed amongst all the girls in general. Each contestant has her own reason for wanting to be on the show, which range from ambitions to be a social media influencer or meet Jordy's royal in-laws to genuine desire for give Jordy a second chance. Jordy also varies in how he treats each girl badly -- he brushes off one contestant who tries to talk to him about her worry over a friend in the hospital. I love how even the other contestants get their own meaningful mini-subplots, so that even as we're cheering on Maya and Skye to get together, we also get to cheer on other awesome young women to achieve their individual goals. 

Finally, how awesome is that title? I love the Taylor Swift reference, and the overall mood of the story fits right in with this song. The ending was also super satisfying, and even though this did not happen in the book, I love imagining Maya, Skye, and other contestants singing along to a Taylor Swift soundtrack and letting Jordy know that they are never, ever getting back together with him.

+

Thank you to St Martin's Press for an e-galley of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Never Ever Getting Back Together by Sophie Gonzales is an exploration of past love, finding self respect despite one's circumstances, and second chances. What was quite interesting about this title was it's ability to critique reality tv without shaming people who find enjoyment and opportunity in it. When I heard about this book I immediately wanted to pick it up because of the title (those who get it, get it) and the really intriguing cover. I actually had no idea what this book was about until I started reading it, and I think that made my experience much more enjoyable because I was just there for a good time.

Unlike other books in this genre, the side characters are interesting and continue to stay prevalent in the story, enabling the reader to pick a favorite that is not a leading character and continue to hear about them throughout the book. The plot is predictable, but that is forgivable in this instance because I don't think someone who is picking this up is intending to have a very unpredictable and shocking storyline. The writing was engaging and did not pull me out of the story like so often occurs with YA books. As someone who is silently but quickly inching out of the YA genre, I am pleasantly surprised to have enjoyed this book and would recommend it to someone who is looking for a good time.

If you love watching the Bachelor, skimming the news for info about the Royal family and reading Young Adult Romance with LGBTQ+ representation, then this book may be for you.

I enjoyed the dual perspectives of our main characters and contestants, Maya and Skye. The reader quickly learns that Jody, our Bachelor a.k.a Second Chance lead, is beautiful, narcissistic and manipulative. To me, his character was more of a plot device. He moved the story along and added all the angsty emotion any good Young Adult book needs. Enemies to Friends to Lovers is always a fun trope and I think the transitions were believable as Maya and Skye found the truth and trust in each other. This was a quick and easy read with a little drama and a nice happy ending.

Great book about a 2nd chance dating show and some of the contestants fell in love. I loved that there were friendships and helping each other out. I liked the girls and this did feel like a dating show. The show was fun and loved that they all worked together in a way. Loved the romance.

You can be swept off your feet,” I say, wrapping my arms around her middle and hoisting her up as she lets out a gasp of surprise. “No bruising required.”

I loved this book so much! It was lighthearted and sweet and just incredible.

Summary:
It’s been two years since Maya dumped her cheating ex-boyfriend Jordy, and now he wants her to compete on Second Chance Romance, a reality show where he dates his ex-girlfriends again to find “the one”.

Maya sees this as a chance to show everyone who Jordy really is, aka a major idiot. So she decides to win him over then reject him at the finale. Easy enough, right? Nope, think again.

Enter Skye, the girl Jordy cheated on her with. She didn’t expect Skye to be so beautiful and charismatic, and she definitely didn’t expect them to become friends.

But as they get closer, Maya finds an ally in Skye, and as they plot to take down Jordy, they just might find themselves falling for each other.

OH my god. This book was so perfect. The concept, the characters, the writing.... everything. I loved how unique it was and I found that I was intrigued the entire time. I really fell in love with the characters and found myself routing for them the entire way through. This book was a real page turner and the humour was perfect! I will definitely be recommending this to my friends. 4.5/5