Book Description 

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.

My Review 

This book was a fun take on reality shows like the Bachelor and royal family madness. In this case, however, Jordy isn’t an actual royal, except for being a royal pain. At first, the two protagonists don’t like each other very much because they’ve been manipulated by Jordy to believe that the other is a bad person, but once the animosity dissipates when they realize who their real enemy is, that’s when the book really gets interesting. 

The fact that Maya and Skye develop feelings for each other is an extra twist to the revenge subplot. Obviously, their feelings are not performative, but it’s an unexpected element when they’re both on a reality show about reuniting with an ex-boyfriend. But Jordy is so generally awful that none of the contestants are particularly excited about “winning” the competition. 

The tone of the book is mostly light, although the constant manipulation is a bit stressful. On the other hand, this book provides some interesting commentary on how reality shows don’t really present a genuine unbiased portrayal of events, and that contestants can get a “bad edit” from the producers to make them appear villainous. I’d like to think that most adults are aware of that, but it might be revelatory for the target YA audience. 

I would absolutely recommend Never Ever Getting Back Together. Gonzales always offers a fresh perspective in YA literature, and I always look forward to her books. 

I received a digital ARC of this book from St. Martin’s/NetGalley