Dee is in love with Matt. Matt falls in love with Misa. Dee is best friends with Matt and Misa. They all met at a psych hospital. Typical love triangle storyline? I think not.

The majority of the book takes place at the weeklong destination wedding of Matt and Misa which Dee decides to attend with her sister as her plus one where she intends to disclose her feelings for Matt.

This story had snippets of raw insight into these three characters’ experiences with mental illness and inpatient treatment. The dialogue was intelligent and insightful. And despite the potential for the topic to be depressing, the ancillary characters, in particular Dee’s sister Tilley, Matt’s childhood friend Vik and Misa’s cousin, Kei provided comedic relief throughout the story. It was a unique storytelling of a challenging topic that made this a surprisingly enjoyable read for me.

Sweet, funny, and insightful story of finding love, finding yourself, and identifying what is really important while dealing with mental illness. Love of friends and family and sorting through complex feelings made more complex while navigating treatments, meds, misconceptions, and unidentified and sometimes out of control feelings. An emotional journey for sure.

This book was wonderful! It had the full range of emotions and portrayed mental health struggles so well. I laughed, cried, and felt for these characters. I was able to picture each one as a complete person and watch their journey over a week at a destination wedding. It was a lovely story with just the right amount of snark to feel authentic. If you are looking for something to make you feel the feels and be happy to be along for the ride, this is for you.

Never Been Better, by Leanne Toshiko Simpson, is a real and raw book that focuses on family and friendships, and the challenges of living with mental illness. It touched on topics you don't often see in books, and it was refreshing to read that kind of representation. Thank you so much for the opportunity to read and review this book!

This was well written and shined a light on mental health issues in a way I haven’t seen before. And in a good way.

My only issue is that this book is labeled as a rom-com. It’s not. I almost didn’t finish several times, just because, for someone that’s very empathetic, I was not prepared for the heaviness of this book and in the right mind set.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this book. ~I was given this book and made no commitments to leave my opinions, favorable or otherwise~

This was a great book! I think the author accurately depicted the beautiful, messy nature of bipolar disorder for those who walk with it and those who walk next to it. I was really engaged with the story and was sad when it was over. The only thing that didn't quite sit right for me was how neatly and quickly it wrapped up. I'm happy it wasn't a sad ending but honestly that's what I was expecting

This is a story about three people who meet in a mental institution and the destination wedding of Dee and Matt. Unfortunately Tilley is also in love with Matt and Dee is her best friend.

Even with the turmoil I really liked the characters. Tilley and her sister are quite funny, but Tilly does not have her mental illness under control.

I recommend this book because it is very interesting and entertaining, but I think people with mental illness could possibly be triggered.

#LeanneToshikoSimpson #PenguinGroup #Putnam #WomensFiction #Romance #NeverBeenBetter#NetGalley #ARC

This was an interesting book. To me,it was like ‘My Best Friend’s Wedding’ but way more drama and darker. I didn’t find this book particularly funny like the blurb suggests but it was interesting. It is extremely focused on the mental health/bipolar aspect. Not a traditional romance, but I did appreciate not being able to fully guess the ending as I was reading. There are no open/closed door scenes.

Thank you Penguin Group Putnam for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

I’m a huge proponent of mental health. So I was excited to receive this ARC. However I just couldn’t get into this book. Maybe it was the time of year or I just didn’t like the writing style. No hate to author at all! It was definitely well written just not for me. It was a middle of the road book in opinion.

I’d like to thank Netgalley, Leanne Toshiko Simpson and HarperCollins for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I don't know what I expected from Never Been Better, but it wasn't what I got from this novel. Although the publisher's note describes it as hilarious and funny, this Leanne Toshiko Simpson novel is certainly not funny. In many places it is so very sad and painful that I wanted to cry for these characters. There is some slapstick, although some of it seems unintentional and forced. The descriptions were a real strength, since I was easily able to visualize much of the action. I kept thinking this book would make a funny film, but I will also admit that I am not a fan of slapstick humor.

The central characters in Never Been Better--Dee, Misha, Matt, and Tilley--are mostly dysfunctional. They are all dealing with some level of mental health problem. In many ways, Never Been Better is an extraordinarily sad novel. For about the first 25-30%, I was not sure if I would be able to finish reading Never Been Better. I kept pushing through and eventually the novel became better and the characters more interesting. Readers learn about Japanese culture, about women's lives, and about how people survive mental health disease. Matt's mother actually provides the best humor, although unintentionally. Simpson produces an emotional coming of age novel, creating a slightly different take on the traditional bildungsroman narrative. Without giving anything away, Simpson also establishes the importance of finding balance in the midst of bipolar disease.

I thank the author, publisher, Penguin Group Putnam, and NetGalley for providing me with this ARC in exchange for my honest review. The above comments reflect my honest thoughts. I do think that Never Been Better is an important novel, since I helps readers to understand many of the complexities involved in mental health treatments.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the ARC!

If you enjoy mental health rep and quirky characters, this one is for you! The setting is unique and interesting. The characters have depth and I would consider the character relationships like found family dynamic.

I ended up wanting more from this book though I appreciated it for the things included. 3.25 ⭐️

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️- {NEVER BEEN BETTER- Leanne Toshiko Simpson}

As soon as I read the synopsis I knew I had to read this one! I was diagnosed with bipolar in my early teens so any book related to bipolar disorder or mental health peaks my interest, and the love triangle at the center of this one sounded too good to pass up!

Dee met Matt and Misa while they were inpatients of a psychiatric hospital. They stood by each other during their darkest moments and developed a deep (maybe a bit codependent) friendship by the time they were discharged. One year after discharge Dee is still trying to get her life together when Matt and Misa reach out to invite her to their wedding in Turks and Caicos. Dee is devastated. She has been in love with Matt since day one of tapping songs on her arm in the hospital rec room and holding her like a teddy bear when she was hurting. He was supposed to be part of her recovery story, her prize for getting out of the hospital, her missing puzzle piece to finally fix her! Dee decides to tell Matt how she feels and stop the wedding with the help of her firecracker sister Tilley, so they board a plane and embark on a week long, alcohol fueled vacation with plenty of laughs, lots of breakdowns, and an important discovery of the value of friendship in your support circle.

I loved every part of this book! I felt like it was a lighthearted way of presenting mental illness so that the reader wasn’t bogged down by it. There was plenty of humor to keep the vibes up even as it showed how difficult it can be for families and friends to support each other when someone they loves is suffering. I think it will be well received in 2024 and I highly highly recommend!

Thanks to @netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you Netgalley, Penguin Group Putnam, and the author for the opportunity to preview the ARC. Publication date: March 4, 2024

The cover tricked me into thinking this was going to be a sweet little romcom, but it is definitely a chunkier book that’s more Midnight Library. This was a slow burn for me and took me about 100 pages in before I realigned my expectation and got into the groove. The book is about mental health, finding yourself, and finding your community.

This was a sensitive, nuanced, darkly funny exploration of mental health, friendship, love, and community—a smarter kind of beach read, and a total delight.

This story was at times very heavy. I governor credit to the author for so openly and accurately portraying characters with mental health issues. I occasionally had some issues with continuity as I feel the story jumped around a little abruptly and didn’t always provide detailed context for how certain characters knew each other or how their relationships came to be but overall I think it was a great story. I like how the focus turned to the sisterly relationship and less about the Main Character finding love. Overall I would give this story 4 out of 5 stars.

Thank you to Netgalley and publisher for an arc in exchange for my honest opinions.

Publication: March 5, 2024

Rating: 3 stars

I wished I enjoyed this more but I realized that what this book is advertised as was different than what I got.

I appreciated the mental health rep especially as someone who deals with that on a daily basis.

Where this book lost me was that it’s not really a romance. This was more in the vein of self help/growth/discovery. An example could be “The Measure” or “The Midnight Library”.

I was hoping this would have been more like Chloe Líese or Mazey Eddings where the main focus is romance but underlying tones of mental health.

TW
- Suicide attempts (off page)
- Talk of harm
- Bipolar Disorder
- Depression

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for this ARC! I wanted to love this book, but it fell flat for me. The character development was minimal at best and the book seemed to drag on for quite awhile. I think there was a huge opportunity to give a glimpse into the world of mental illness, but this was very surface level.

On the positive side, this book gave light to experiences and perspectives many people have which are underrepresented in literature and we need more of! There are a few moments of deep humanity, applicable to everyone. But on the negative side, the book didn't hold my attention enough, there was something superficial and not super engaging about how it was written. I liked the story, but the way it was written just didn't grab me enough.

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this E-arc for my honest review.
A touching story of mental illness and accepting who we are. The author was able to blend humor with tears as well as heartbreak and empathy.
This is a story of learning to accept yourself and who you are not defining yourself by illness. It also sheds light on the stigma that society has on mental illness in a very real and raw way. Highly recommend.

Cute book but it took way too many turns to get to the ending. Events happened that just didn’t make sense.
While I did finish the book, it isn’t one I would be running to recommend or read a second time.