I love Sophie Gonzales so much! Though this didn't quite hit the mark for me, the casual queerness Sophie writes in these characters made my heart so happy and I still had a pretty fun time.

I definitely loved the story more once Maya and Skye are able to move past their entangled relationships with Jordy and on to revenge and falling in love. As much as I loved them, the stakes were always very low and I didn't fully feel the trust that becomes central to their conflict is very developed. I didn't really care since this is YA and they don't always need to be so developed because teen emotions are messy, but since part of my brain wanted this to be NA on some level (mostly because I couldn't buy into the show otherwise), I wanted more regardless.

My biggest complaints are definitely that 1) this novel does not feel quite right for a YA audience, and 2) it leans heavily into the assumption that anyone reading this has watched dating shows to the point of production awareness. The entire concept being 18 year-old girls competing on a show themed around second chances felt odd, given how few high school relationships make it into the real world. But even disregarding that, the time spent on the dating show just believes too much that readers know the scheming that goes behind the scenes. I definitely do, but I can see how readers who don't care about dating shows but do like revenge might be confused. Also... this show is so tame that I even found my ability to suspend belief difficult here too lol.

I still adore Sophie and all her books. This is a 4 star read for a number of reasons, including positive dating show girl power! But this is definitely my least favorite so far and it's a bummer. How did a dating show revenge plot not land with me? We may never know.

This was a fun twist on a Bachelor-inspired rom-com. What if instead of the the Bachelor dating brand new women, he dates all his ex-girlfriends again? And what if he cheated on some ex-girlfriends with other ex-girlfriends? Maya still hasn't gotten over Jordy cheating on her with Skye, so when the opportunity to go on a reality TV show in which Jordy dates all his ex-girlfriends again in an attempt at a second chance at love, she can't wait to get her revenge. What Maya doesn't count on is actually liking Jordy's cheating partner, Skye, maybe even liking her a lot.

Absolutely PHENOMENAL book. I was concerned when I saw the ages of the main characters, but I was surprisingly in love with this story. Sophie Gonzales kills it, once again!

I don't believe I have ever read a book that takes the premise of a television series such as The Bachelor and turns it into a "Second Chance with Your Ex" competition, so this was a first for me. I really enjoyed reading this book. We are so used to getting the heteronormative romance story, that this was a delightful change from the norm. I really felt invested in the characters and their happiness, although I will say that one of them was overly concerned with the idea of revenge based on a romance that was less than a year old. That said, the revenge plot morphs into something else and becomes the impetus for the resolution of the story.

*I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

Oh...my...god. This was such a cute sapphic romance and I absolutely adored Skye and Maya's relationship! The writing was fun and I enjoyed that that MC's were in their early 20s and trying to figure things out in life. I think this book would have benefited if it had had a bit more female empowerment throughout the novel rather than at the end, parts of it felt very 'Mean Girls' early on but taking in the character's ages I think it made sense seeing as they aren't meant to be these mature adults who know what they want. I'm not a fan of reality TV but I would 1000% watch 'Second Chance Romance' if it was real!

Definitely one of the best romances I've read this year!

This was my first novel by Sophie Gonzalez and I requested an ARC on a whim because hello, T Swift inspired title? And I am so delighted I got the chance to read this. John Tucker Must Die meets the Bachelor (2 of my guilty pleasures) but make it sapphic. This story was adorable and fun and funny and the secondhand embarrassment Maya was giving me in the first few days of filming quickly turned into giddy excitement and Maya and Skye slowly started to fall for each other. I absolutely adored Maya and Skye and this was such a treat to read.

Thank you so much to St Martin's Press for the invitation to review Never Ever Getting Back Together via NetGalley.

This is such a fun book. It centers around a reality show in which a guy's exes come back to compete for another chance with him. The guy in question, Jordy, someone who is "royal adjacent" but not a royal, is not the nice "Prince Charming" type the public believes him to be. No one knows this better than Maya, who had her heart broken by him as a teenager. Maya sets out to expose Jordy for his duplicitous ways, and in the process, meets Skye, another contestant, who played a pivotal part in her (and Jordy's) past but might also be her future. Maya and Skye need to decide what to prioritize and what compromises are worth making for their chance at a happy ending.

The main character Maya was a bit much for me at times but I really enjoyed Skye and Perrie. I loved the reality show setting, and the way it allowed the development of a lot of characters. I thought the author did a good job of using tropes in a fun way without overdoing them. It was nice to read a sapphic romance in which the plot wasn't tragic or centered around coming out.

Overall a fun, quick, lighthearted read.

I am a big fan of Sophie Gonzales' work and this one did not disappoint at all! I am a big reality TV fan and so I thought the premise of the show was fascinating. The humor was on point throughout the novel and I loved the journey of all the contestants in the show, not just Maya and Skye.

"I suppose when you trust someone not to hurt you, red flags look heart-shaped."

Never Ever Getting Back Together follows two main characters: First, there is Maya, a girl who's about to go to med school, and whose cheating ex bf, Jordy, made her a laughingstock by lying about her when he cheated on her then dumped her. It's even worse when Jordy becomes famous when his sister marries royalty in a small fake european country and she has to see him everywhere. When she gets asked to go on a reality show where he has to re-date all his exes, she initially disagrees, but then realizes if she goes on she can break his heart in public! When she gets to the show she finds out she's roommates with:

Skye, the girl Jordy cheated on her with two years ago. Skye agreed to come on the show because she thought she might have fallen in love with Jordy if they'd been together longer, and because Jordy lies to her about Maya, she doesn't believe Maya when she insists she was with Jordy the same time Skye was.

Finally there's Jordy, who isn't a POV character, but the villain. He is a narcissist who agreed to go on the reality show because he's jealous of the attention his now-princess older sister is getting, and he wants the spotlight, and his family's attention, to be back on him. He also agreed because he had his heart broken by a girl he loved before the show.

Jordy is really charming, but when the girls start comparing notes, they realize he's a liar and uses the same lines on everyone. The only reason he hasn't been caught before now is his family moved countries all the time, and he'd always break up with one girl whenever he moved and date someone else for a few months in the new country, so none of them had ever met before. When Skye realizes Maya is telling the truth, they team up to take him down.

Things I liked:

1. I really related to Maya! She is impulsive, but smart, and really good at reading people and finding ways to make them feel better. But she really cares about what people think of her, so she's going to med school to look smarter, and to prove she can do it. It's also the reason she wants to come on the show, so she can prove to the people at home that Jordy is the liar, and not her. But trying to control how other people see her causes her more pain than anything, and I won't say how the plotline ends, but I really appreciated how this was handled.

2. I loved Maya and Skye together. Skye is a little bit meaner than Maya and is happier to throw some of the girls under the bus (but Maya stops her), and she is a free spirit who travels the world and gets rid of people when they hurt her so she can have fun etc. Maya helps Skye to understand that she can let people in, which Skye is scared to do after her mom left the family and Jordy broke her heart (twice), and Skye helps maya focus on the experiences she wants to have instead of the ones people will be impressed by. It's also a really slow burn that kicks off really early, and I loved that!

3. I love the concept, and think it's really unique. The story didn't go where I expected it to go, either (other than the obvious that Maya and Skye would have a happy ending together) and I thought Jordy's take down was really satisfying.

What I didn't like:

1. I saw a lot of people reviewing this saying the reality show is more of an adult concept, and at first I really agreed, but then about halfway through the book I changed my mind. I understand why people wouldn't like it, but my controversial opinion is a reality dating show with younger people would probably go off in real life (think about how obsessed we are with the dating lives of young celebrities). And no one is underage. Maya and Skye are eighteen, Jordy is twenty, and the other girls are said to have been in college for awhile, so I could see it! I think it would also work as NA (especially because I would have loved spicy scenes) but in the end I wasn't mad about it really. Also I did a buddy read with my friend who pointed out the hunger games is about much younger children killing each other and it was believable that people would watch that, and killing shouldn't be considered less adult than dating / kissing and I agree with her!!!!!

2. I loved Perrie and would have loved a few chapters from her point of view to see things the girls weren't able to be there for.

3. I would've loved the epilogue to be a little bit longer so we could see more of the fallout because that was the most satisfying part and we had to use our imaginations a bit!

I only have a few tiny nitpicks with this book, but I am now obsessed with the reality TV romance trope, so thank you for this one, Sophie Gonzales.

This is my first Sophie Gonzales, but when I saw the premise I knew I needed this in my life! And Never Ever Getting Back Together does not disappoint!

Two years ago, Maya dated Jordy who suddenly moved to Canada, but they were going to try keeping it going and make things work. Except almost immediately after moving to Canada, Jordy met Skye and started dating her. He convinced everyone, including Skye, that he broke up with Maya before the move but she couldn’t let him go and stalked him, and when she learned about Skye she made up lies about him being a cheater. So Maya has spent the last two years being vilified and harangued for how she treated Jordy “post breakup,” especially as he started gaining more publicity and public recognition when his sister married a prince.

Now Jordy is about the be the star of a new reality dating show, Second Chance Romance, which involves him reconnecting with exes and seeing who is the “one who got away.” When Maya is invited, at first she refuses, but then she realizes being on the show would be a chance for her to get her side of the story out there in a way that couldn’t be ignored, so she decides to take this opportunity for revenge. Except of course she is roomed with Skye and Maya believes she knew all along that Jordy was cheating on her with her, and takes out her hurt feelings on Skye. What follows is them bonding and realizing the one they love is each other.

This is a really fun, tropey romance and a really fun story. I think people who enjoy reality shows will enjoy it even more than I did, but I still had a lot of fun with this book. This premise is just the best hook and I loved everything about it. If you’re looking for a fun, slightly goofy, reality dating romance where instead of the girl getting the guy she gets her “rival,” I think this book will be perfect for you!

[blog post will go live Dec 6]

I really enjoyed this. Combining reality TV with a revenge plot is exactly what I needed. Maya and Skye have a lovely journey learning about one another as they are on a reality show where they re date their ex in common.

I drank this book in one day. It was such a good lighthearted read, and the ending was satisfying in the best way. I’m pretty new to sapphic reads and I absolutely loved this! Definitely adding this author to my must-read romance authors list!!!

*3.5 stars!!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for gifting me an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Never Ever Getting Back Together (taylor swift is that you???) is about a bisexual teenage girl who goes onto a dating show to get revenge on her ex, only to come face to face with the girl he cheated on her with. Drama ensues, words are said, names are called, enemies are made; it looks like this won't be as easy as Maya thought. It doesn't help that her and Skye are roommates (OMG and they were roomma- i'm sorry) and the rest of the girls have taken her side. But as the show goes on, and they discover there seems to be more to the story than they both thought, sparks begin to fly between the two of them. How will they deal with this undeniable chemistry? Will their reluctant alliance be enough to expose Jordy, their charming but extremely manipulative and self-centered ex, once and for all? Stay tuned...

When I saw that I had been accepted to receive an ARC of this book (by Sophie Gonzales, aka one of my all-time favorite authors), I literally SCREAMED. It's an understatement to say I was very excited. Unfortunately though, this book did have a few misses for me, which was quite disappointing!

#1: Maya and Skye did not feel like well-developed characters, they are exceptionally one-dimensional. When I first started this book, I was so excited for their romance because the idea of two girls finding love on a dating show sounds absolutely adorable, and they both sounded like such interesting people. But neither of them had any personality traits besides the fact they both hated their ex boyfriend (which is totally deserved). Especially Maya, because at least Skye had her quirk about needing to plan everything and anything in advance. This also caused their romance to feel a bit bland, because again, they had nothing in common except the ex-bf situation. I felt almost 0% chemistry throughout the whole book :/ They were still cute, but their romance was lacking in quite a few areas.

2# I found it a bit odd that a teenage boy has dated over 6 girls. I think the plot would make way more sense if it was about a 25 year old, or just someone older, but I do get that Sophie Gonzales is a YA author which is probably why she didn't go that route. However, I do think it'd make a lot more sense because no teenage guy, especially as manipulative, sexist, and entitled as this boy is, could pull six amazing, gorgeous, lovely girls like the ones in this book. I mean, it's not uncommon for very mediocre, awful men to date amazing girls and get away with it so...maybe not so unbelievable? Just realistically sad.

3# Now for the good things!! I really liked the reality tv show environment! I've only watched a couple dating shows, but I always find them so interesting, especially the behind the scenes parts. Like, what actually happened? Did they take this shot out of context? What happens after filming is over? Obviously this is a fake show, so none of it was real, but it was entertaining to see how these questions were answered nonetheless. I liked how they showed the way the producers made the contestants twist their stories to sound better or the way they'd make them refilm fake reaction shots to use. It felt very accurate to, how I'd imagine, reality tv shows work in real life.

4# The dry humor was everything <3 Anytime Jordy would say something back-handed or entitled, the girls would have to go along with it in order to keep the producers happy, and their responses were hilarious. It was even funnier because Jordy thought they were genuine. Like no buddy, no one actually wants to hear you complain about how "life is SOO hard now that girls just THROW themselves at me. How do I know if they're genuine and not just some sl*tty gold-digger?" (yes he did call them that at one point). Maya's sarcastic responses really cleansed my soul. What an awful guy.

Overall, I think this book just didn't feel as passionate as the author's other books. I'm not sure how to explain it, but I just didn't feel the love or connection that usually shines through Sophie's other works. I think it's still very entertaining and worth a try, but I believe it could've been way better and there was some lost potential. However, don't let me discourage you from reading this book because maybe you'll love it more than I did!!

The Taylor Swift title reference is what originally drew me to this book, and it totally matched the vibe. It goes back and forth between getting back with Jordie and never talking to him again. I liked not knowing where all the other girls stood with him as it added to the pressure on them. The book totally delivered on the drama to go along with the plot, it very much reminded me of the Bachelor but with more of the drama that makes it so addictive. However, this book fell flat with the dimension. It was a fun read but extremely predictable. Typically that is part of the run in a romance novel but I wasn’t drawn to pick up the book over what I was doing. There was so much build up between Skye and Maya but then their big moments happened without any large fanfare from the two. The moment on the cliff at night between them was the highlight of the book but I cringed during the isolation week after the show wrapped. And just a side note, I would raise their ages slightly because although it was in another country, it’s not common in many countries and I had to keep reminding myself of both facts, so I couldn’t really connect with them through similarities.

“Ah, so he calls me up and he's like, "I still love you"
And I'm like, I'm just, I mean this is exhausting, you know?
Like we are never getting back together, like, ever” - TS

I absolutely adored this book. It made me so so smiley😊. This book is a mix of several of my favorite things. Taylor swift title reference, reality dating shows, revenge and of course, sapphics. Jordy is the perfect narcissistic villain. I wish there was more of a build up between maya and skye but that’s just cause I’m a sucker for angst. I know that it was set in Europe so drinking at 18 is okay, but I wish it was written as new adult instead of ya.

Overall this was a fun queer read and I would definitely recommend!

I was lucky enough to get ahold of an ARC for one of my most anticipated releases of 2022: NEVER EVER GETTING BACK TOGETHER by Sophie Gonzales.

NEVER EVER GETTING BACK TOGETHER follows bisexual Maya, who joins a Bachelor-style dating show designed to let her cheating ex Jordy re-date all his exes to find the one that got away. But Maya’s not interested in getting back together: instead, she plans on making it to the end just so she can reject him on live television. When Skye, the girl Jordy cheated on Maya with, finds out about Maya’s plan, they make a pact to help one another tear Jordy down once and for all.

NEGBT is brimming with drama, excitement, and a romance far more satisfying than you’d find on any reality show. There are so many highlights—far too many for me to list out in a single spoiler-free review—but for just a few:

First, the romance. The relationship between Maya and Skye and its evolution from rivals, then partners-in-crime, to romance is Gonzales writing at her finest. Maya and Skye are such fully developed characters who complement each other so well that you’re rooting for them to get together, even when they’re at each other’s throats.

The setting would make it easy for the competing girls to all hate one another. Instead, Gonzales deftly writes each of them as multi-dimensional characters and even when they’re in opposition to one another, there’s never a sense of internalized misogyny.

You might have noticed in my brief description that I mentioned Maya being bi. Since the central premise involves two girls on a competition to win a man who fall for each other instead, the two main girls being bi is essential to the plot. It’s great to see a romance between two bi girls, where their relationship is kept secret not from fear of being outed but from the need to pretend they’re in love with someone else as part of a revenge scheme.

It's refreshing.

On that note, Jordy. Yes, he’s a highlight of this book. Not for being likable—good grief, not for that. No, Jordy is a highlight as one of the most infuriating villains I have read this year. Gonzales does an outstanding job of writing him with enough charm that you can get glimpses into what made Maya and Skye fall for him—and then he says or does something awful that reminds you of why Maya’s set on vengeance.

The last 40% of the book had me constantly screaming. I might’ve been tempted to throw my kindle across the room, except I wouldn’t dare do anything that would cause a delay in getting to read the next page.

NEVER EVER GETTING BACK TOGETHER comes out on December 6 of this year, and I can’t recommend it enough. Anyone who’s ever watched the Bachelor and thought that the women were way too good for the guy they were fighting over (and maybe rooted for them to start dating each other), this book is for you.

This is a fantastic book with compelling characters and entertaining dialogue. I would highly recommend this book to readers looking for sapphic romance!

Thank you Netgalley and Macmillan Publishing for an arc of this book! It came a surprise and I am very grateful.

4.5 !! I will actually consume anything that Sophie Gonzales has written and this one was so good I have been waiting for her to write a sapphic book and she did not disappoint. It was such a fun cute rom com that I couldn't put down and I couldn’t stop smiling the entire time.
Things I really liked about the book:

The setting. I thought the design of the game show was really unique with the whole only ex’s thing. I really liked it as a take on modern dating shows

Female friendship. Yes the ship is really cute but also all of the girls being friends and then kicking ass was very cool. Even though it starts as a competition they end up on good terms which I loved. No women hating women!

The ending. Jordy getting what he deserved was very satisfying. I felt the last book of hers “If this gets out” ended sort of abruptly but this one wrapped up very nicely.

Again, it was just very cute and made me very happy

Things I didn’t like so much:
Sykes main personality trait was that she thought things through and Mayas was that she was more impulsive? Other than that I actually could not tell you a single thing about them. They were both really fun main characters, I just wish they had a little bit more depth? I guess that's what I'm trying to say? Or maybe something that made them stand out a little more? They were just missing something that makes me become attached to a character. The plot was so enjoyable that this didn't affect my reading of the book at all but looking back It's just something that I noticed and something that I know Gonzales can achieve from reading her other work.

That's honestly it. For a YA romcom it was really well done (and I actually have a tendency to give YA romcoms 3 stars so this is one of my favorites). I would say it's perfect for fans of “Better than the Movies' ' or any of Gonzales' other works.

I struggled with this one! Why would there ever be a dating show focused on a bunch of teenagers? Why the weird royalty aspect that doesn't do anything but establish fake stakes?;

I think this would have been much more successful as a new adult novel focused on people just out of college instead of just going into college. Some fun characters and banter but just couldn't get past the weird setup.