Superstar high school volleyball player and influncer Kaylee exudes perfection. But the pressure she puts on herself to be the perfect daughter, the perfect athlete, creeps over into her dating life, where she breaks off every relationship before it can even get going. And that includes the guy of her dreams, best friend, and son of her parents' best friends, Dean. After their breakup, Kaylee goes through all her typical heartbreak avoidance steps, but their annual summer vacation together to Malibu throws a wrench in her plans. Forced proximity, anyone?

I will read anything Austin and Emily write, whether it is YA or adult. Their books bring a certain charm and tension to them. They've mastered the art of writing couples who are fighting but in so deep you can't help but root for them, and this book is no different. Kaylee isn't the perfect heroine--she's a bit selfish and wholly emotionally unavailable--but that's also kind of the point. With the sunny Malibu setting and beach volleyball prominence, it screams summer, and would be the perfect beach or poolside read.

Thanks to Penguin Teen for my eARC! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

5 stars - 9/10

A cute romance about a perfection freak who can't date for long because love is messy.

Kaylee's just broken up with Dean, but their families refuse to cancel the joint yearly vacation. Now Kaylee's stuck spending time in the same house as him! Not even the beautiful California ocean can be enough to make that bearable when it's clear Dean's still hurting. Kaylee's a take-charge personality, so she decides the perfect solution is giving Dean her lessons on how to get over a break-up. But spending time together makes her tap back into her messy, messy emotions.

Dean's a super-sweet, nerdy guy who somehow is the perfect foil to competitive, driven, athletic Kaylee. He's the yin to her yang. There's a side plot about the mothers' different choices in life - going pro in volleyball vs. not - and it reflects on how Kaylee and Dean treat their life passions. It takes Kaylee a long, long time to figure out what she really wants when it comes to Dean, but it's worth watching her get there.

A perfect summer beach read.

Thank you to the publisher for the advance review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

My main gripe with this book is that the main character's name is Kayleen and as a Kayleen, I hate all Kaylee's. But other than that, I really enjoyed this book. It was fun and all that, nothing too special but it was entertaining!!

This book was written for me! I absolutely loved the volleyball aspect, the romance tropes and familial parts and the setting was superb. This was like nothing I have read before and highly recommend

**Review will be published on my sites & socials March 30th, 2023**

I LIKED IT.

I feel kind of surprised by this one. Initially I didn’t know what I would think about it all, but in the end, I think it has a pretty good message and is set up really well for the audience (young adult!).

The pressure of perfectionism, especially in teens, was a big theme and WOW did I resonate with that. Kaylee struggling with trying to be the best volleyball player out there with the best image and everything else truly hit home. Everything in this vein was well written.

Now the other side of that is the romance. I LOVED Dean. He was fantastic. Swoony, sweet and full of feelings. I love seeing his emotion and commitment to getting Kaylee to express some raw feelings. Kaylee though, I don’t love how she handled the whole situation. She didn’t come off in the best light and I wish she had been a little quicker to sensitivity.

Perfect beach, summery setting. Made me wish I was on a beach right this second. OH, lets talk about the PARENTS. I LOOOOOVE that there were present and active parents in this book y’all. It’s not seen enough. Even better, we saw that they weren’t perfect and made mistakes too. It was a great contrast to the young adults in the book making decisions too. A great cast all around.

Overall audience notes:
- YA Contemporary Romance
- Language: a little
- Romance: heated make-outs

Never Vacation with Your Ex is a young adult romance following Kaylee and Dean. Kaylee is one of the highest ranked high school volleyball players in the country. Dean loves photography. The two are different, but being the children of super close friends has led them to get close. So close, in fact, that the pair dated briefly. With the forced proximity of an annual Malibu vacation and Dean's oppeness about his broken heart, things are about to get a lot more complicated.
There were definitely things that I liked about this book and things that had me struggling to keep reading. I'll start off with the positive. The authors did a good job with the character development and arc of the main character, Kaylee, over the course of the book. Though I personally did not like her there was certainly growth from the point at which she started and where she left off. This is a testament to the authors' skill and the attention that they put into making sure the book detailed a real journey.
That said, the journey that was being followed was part of the reason I could not give this book a full five stars. It was just a personal frustration that I felt every time I read that had me struggling to continue at certain points. The main character Kaylee was incredibly self absorbed. She only cared about herself and treated a lot of the people in her life, especially Dean, extremely poorly. Given the genre of the book it was very clear that the two would end up in a relationship and it killed me knowing that she had been so repeadtedly unfair to him.
Another thing I noticed was research on smaller details. One example that stood out to me was the main character's attendance of "Newport High School" as she lives in Newport, RI. As someone who happens to live in Newport County, RI, I happen to know that the local school is named and always referred to as Rogers High. Though most people from other places would probably think nothing of this because they would not know, it became apparent that some of the things in the book had not really been researched and were not accurate.
Overall, the story was good and the book was a typical second chance romance. For those who like that genre this is definitely a great fit. Though I didn't love Kaylee and her treatment of Dean, it was definitely realistic in the sense that everything about the relationship wasn't perfect just like in real life.

Thank you @netgalley and @penguinteen for the e-ARC of this YA summer romance!

Here’s what to expect:
• second chance romance
• friends to dating to exes
• beach vacation
• family friends
• forced proximity
• Dean, the softest cinnamon roll guy

This book was not my jam, but I think it could be for other people! If you love headstrong, stubborn main character who have to go on a long journey to learn their lessons, give this one a try!

My issues— POSSIBLE SPOILERS
The Mc was so stinking selfish. I mean, she dates her best friend, breaks his heart, tries to make him not go on their double family vacation, then decides it’s time for him to move in, forces him to do things to try and move on, decides she was wrong so starts playing games with him, and more. I mean, she is terrible! Not only that, but she’s emotionally unavailable and still puts him through the ringer. He deserves better.

dnf

I think I've officially outgrown this writing duo.

This is definitely a case of... it's me. Hi, I'm the problem. It's me. It's not the book. It's me. (I hope years from now if I ever stumble across this review, I would remember that that's a T. Swift reference.)

I'm sorry but all I could think while reading about I-forgot-her-name's woes is that there are worse things in life. Some people aren't as lucky as her. And she should learn to appreciate the things she has and the people on her side. Stop being a priviledged, spoiled brat. Also? From the few chapters I read, it was obvious Dean could do better. He deserves someone better.

And to think second chance romance is my second favorite trope right after enemies to lovers. *sigh*

I'm a HUGE fan of this husband wife author duo! Never Vacation with your ex is perfect for those who love fake dating !!

This book hit really hard! I thought going into this book that it would be a fun and flirty romance, but it actually was super relatable and really resonating with issues I face in my own life. I enjoyed this book quite a bit, not just for the romance, but also for the candid discussions about college and growing up. I would highly recommend this book to high school students who play sports or put a lot of pressure on themselves.

I love the authors they are amazing at everything they do. I loved this book, more so than I thought I would and I love that I took it to the beach while the book had a beach setting! I'm a sucker for second chance romance and this did it for me. I did enjoy seeing into their childhood and seeing more of the family friends dynamic. I think this was a cute and quick read. The only thing is I'm so sad that this book won't match the author's other books but its all good.

This was a fast paced second chance romance where childhood friends, Kaylee and Dean, after experiencing a break up are forced to co tinier their annual tradition of vacationing at the beach together. This makes for some awkward moments, lots of pining and a lot of will they or won’t they get back together. Once the best of friends, Kaylee’s needs to be the best in every aspect of her life has her constantly feeling compared to her Olympic mother athlete. She worries if her own volleyball skills and dreams will hold up to her mothers or will she always feel less than? Her need for control leads her to start and end relationships before they get too serious. She always has to be “on” and “ok” and she always is, but this breakup is different. She not only broke up with her boyfriend but also her best friend. Dean, on the other hand, is struggling with what went wrong and not handling it well at all. When Kaylee suggests she help him with her tried and true moving on strategies, Dean sees it as a way to reconnect and get back together. During their kids’ relationship struggles the two families have some conflict as well. The beachy setting and volleyball were fun. A quick easy ya romance read

Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka have written yet another powerhouse of a novel. I truly believe Never Vacation with Your Ex may be the best work from them yet.

This YA contemporary novel is beautifully written and perfect for fans of Beach Read or Summertime Second Chance romances. The second chance romance with forced proximity trope is beautifully written with the perfect amount of tension and angst. Dean and Kaylee's relationship is full of pining and moments that have readers routing for them to end up together. As individuals they are both such strong characters and I adored Kaylee. She was imperfect in the best ways, and while reading I truly felt for her and the emotional turmoil she experienced. Wibberley and Siegemund-Broka did a fantastic job of setting this story up to feel real, authentic, and complicated in a way that truly reflects the ties of life. The plot and story were well thought out and the execution was perfection.

Emily and Austin have grown so much since their first book and I feel so happy to still be reading and loving their books today. They're such talented authors and I am so excited for this book to come out! It is SO good and I think it will find a happy home on the shelves of many readers :)

Never Vacation with Your Ex follows Kaylee Jordan: volleyball player, social media influencer, daughter to pro-volleyball player Judy Jordan, and notorious heartbreaker. While her social media is well-documented and carefully curated with photos of her playing volleyball, it’s also a reel of all her failed relationships — most recently, Dean Freeman-Yu. The Jordans and Freeman-Yus have been vacationing in Malibu together for as long as Kaylee can remember, and it’s always been Kaylee’s favorite time of the year; the summer vacation is a much needed reprieve from Kaylee’s perfectly curated life. Until this year, when Kaylee dumps Dean out of the blue, after a three month relationship, and after Dean tells her that he loves her. Hoping to ease the tension and to keep the summer vacation relatively drama free, Kaylee decides she’s going to help Dean get over her by walking him through her steps for getting over an ex. But the more time they spend together, the more Kaylee remembers why she dated him in the first place.

I absolutely adored Never Vacation with Your Ex. I flew through it, and simply could not put it down. From the get-go, I was already invested: Wibbroka cuteness, summer vacation vibes, and second chance romance? How couldn’t I love it? I felt so deeply for Kaylee, who has spent her entire life living under her mother’s shadow, and just trying to measure up. I can only imagine how exhausting living your life in someone else’s limelight would be, and I just wanted to give Kaylee the biggest hug. Every action Kaylee made, every thought that she had, was then adjusted based on how she’d be perceived — whether it was by her mother, or by the world. While Never Vacation with Your Ex doesn’t get into the effects of social media as much as I wanted it to, I do appreciate how its commentary on living up to people’s expectations, instead of living for yourself.

Kaylee’s love for her family, and for volleyball, was truly the main love story of this book. Throughout the entire book, Kaylee’s just trying to do the right thing. Although misguided at times, her heart is in the right place, and she often acts out of self-preservation rather than anything else. It’s because of her family that she breaks things off with Dean, and her relationship with volleyball is also heavily influenced by her family. We get to follow Kaylee as she figures out what different aspects of her life mean in relation to her family and their influence, and I loved it. Kaylee unlearning her family’s expectations was so powerful as well.

As our love interest, Dean is charming and witty and so patient. It was evident how much love he had for Kaylee, despite his heartbreak, and how he would genuinely do anything for her — even if it meant more angst and heartbreak for himself. Kaylee and Dean both clearly knew and understood each other extremely well, from years of vacation and knowing each other, to the point where they could read each other with just a look. Despite his confusion and hurt over their breakup, Dean never wavers in his love for Kaylee, and is continuously supportive. Together, Kaylee and Dean were very sweet, and I was rooting for them to get back together. While Never Vacation with Your Ex was incredibly predictable, I found that I didn’t mind that at all.

Overall, I found Never Vacation with Your Ex to simply be a light-hearted, adorable summer rom com with classic Wibbroka magic! I couldn't recommend this more highly.