A review by looseleafellie
Never Ever Getting Back Together by Sophie Gonzales

emotional hopeful fast-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Never Ever Getting Back Together follows Maya, who gets invited onto a second chance romance show with her celebrity ex who cheated on her and lied about it to make her look obsessive. Maya is determined to expose him on live TV, but that means being around Skye, the girl he cheated with. As Maya and Skye work out how their ex played them both, they team up to bring him down, and end up finding new love with each other!

I loved Sophie Gonzales’s previous book Perfect on Paper, but this one was a whole new level. The pacing had me flying through the pages desperate to see what came next! Maya and Skye made such a cute couple, and it was lovely to see how they balance each other out despite being very different people.

The book deals heavily with misogyny and girl-on-girl hate, and I love how it unpacks the harmful way reality shows — and society at large — often pit women against each other. The female characters don’t behave perfectly by any means, and even Maya and Skye engage in toxic behaviors, but the book makes it very clear that it’s a product of internalized sexism, and that was very refreshing to see.

The ending somehow manages to balance a message of not letting revenge consume you AND the evil ex getting his just deserts, and I was so here for it! I came away feeling extremely happy and satisfied.

Thanks to Wednesday Books for the ebook ARC!

CWs: misogyny, cheating, gaslighting/emotional abuse, panic attack, brief biphobia.
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