Author: Sophie Gonzales
Narrators: Barrie Kreinik & Natalie Naudus
Audiobook Length: 9 hours 54 minutes
When their now famous ex-boyfriend asks them to participate in a teen reality show, two eighteen year old girls—one bent on revenge, the other open to rekindling romance—get tangled up in an unexpected twist when they fall for each other instead in Never Ever Getting Back Together by nationally and internationally-bestselling and Indie Next Pick author Sophie Gonzales.
It’s been two years since Maya’s ex-boyfriend cheated on her, and she still can’t escape him: his sister married the crown prince of a minor European country and he captured hearts as her charming younger brother. If the world only knew the real Jordy, the manipulative liar who broke Maya’s heart.
Skye Kaplan was always cautious with her heart until Jordy said all the right things and earned her trust. Now his face is all over the media and Skye is still wondering why he stopped calling.
When Maya and Skye are invited to star on the reality dating show Second-Chance Romance, they’re whisked away to a beautiful mansion—along with four more of Jordy’s exes— to compete for his affections while the whole world watches. Skye wonders if she and Jordy can recapture the spark she knows they had, but Maya has other plans: exposing Jordy and getting revenge. As they navigate the competition, Skye and Maya discover that their real happily ever after is nothing they could have scripted.
Never Ever Getting Back Together immediately made me think of the Taylor Swift song when I read the title. This mixed with the interesting premise of two exes getting closure on one who wronged them made me try it. Jordy and Maya Bailey broke up two years ago after it was discovered Jordy was cheating on her with a girl named Skye Kaplan. Jordy became a heartthrob, though, after his sister married the crown prince of a minor European country, so Maya can’t seem to escape seeing him everywhere. In search of closure and exposing Jordy for who he truly is, Maya agrees to go on the new reality dating show “Second Chance Romance,” where six of Jordy’s exes will attend. Unfortunately, this means Maya will also have to confront the other woman, Skye. The two girls meet and need to figure out what to do about Jordy.
I can understand the appeal of writing about a teen heartthrob, but there were moments when I wished these characters were older. The concept of the show is to retry a past romance, but given Jordy’s age, it does not seem believable he dated six girls for long enough to know if a romance with them is worth it. As for Jordy, himself, though, I do love how he was written as the villain. As the story is told from both Maya and Skye’s perspectives, I loved seeing how Jordy interacted with each of them. It was a great exploration into gaslighting and the truth in general. I loved the reality show setting as each girl is ‘cast’ into a certain role, so it was interesting seeing them interact together in front of the camera and behind the scenes.
Maya and Skye are paired to stay in the same room, which means they must interact a lot through forced proximity. I liked the development of their relationship as they only know details about each other initially through Jordy. They come in with opinions of the other and soon discover their may be more to each other than meets the eye. I liked the concept of the two getting to know each other and becoming closer, but I feel the novel does not delve as deep for either of them as I would like. As there is a lot going on in the novel with the relationships and reality show, there was not a lot of time to develop each character a lot. They had a lot of potential to become multi-dimensional and complex but seemed to stay towards the surface. Overall, though, the concept was very fun and unique. I loved the twist on the reality dating show and I look forward to reading more from the author in the future.
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