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Always Never Yours by Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka Review

Hello Everyone :)


I hope your're all doing well, and I want to thank you all for joining me today here on The Preppy Book Princess.


Unfortunately, the review I have for you all today is not going to be of the positive sort. I feel it's important to stay truthful in all my reviews, and that's why I choose to feature negative as well as positive reviews on my blog.


At a book blogger conference I attended a couple of years ago, they talked about the importance of stating why exactly it was you didn't enjoy a book, rather than just giving it a low rating. And so today I'm here to share with all of you why it is that I rated this particular title as low as I did. 


Always Never Yours by Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka:




Source: Library

Publisher: Speak

Publication Date: May 22nd, 2018

Genre: Young Adult Fiction/Contemporary


Synopsis:

Shouldn't a girl get to star in her own love story?

Seventeen-year-old Megan Harper is about due for her next sweeping romance. It's inevitable—each of her relationships starts with the perfect guy and ends with him falling in love . . . with someone else. But instead of feeling sorry for herself, Megan focuses on pursuing her next fling, directing theater, and fulfilling her dream college's acting requirement in the smallest role possible.

So when she’s cast as Juliet (yes, that Juliet) in her high school’s production, it’s a complete nightmare. Megan’s not an actress, and she’s used to being upstaged—both in and out of the theater. In fact, with her mom off in Texas and her dad remarried and on to baby #2 with his new wife, Megan worries that, just like her exes, her family is moving on without her.

Then she meets Owen Okita, an aspiring playwright inspired by Rosaline from Shakespeare's R+J. A character who, like Megan, knows a thing or two about short-lived relationships. Megan agrees to help Owen with his play in exchange for help catching the eye of a sexy stagehand/potential new boyfriend. Yet Megan finds herself growing closer to Owen, and wonders if he could be the Romeo she never expected.

In their fresh and funny debut, Emily Wibberly and Austin Siegemund-Broka break down the high school drama to find there's always room for familial love, romantic love, and—most importantly—self-love.


(synopsis from goodreads)



My Review:


With a tagline of "every guy she dates falls madly in love...just not with her", a front cover blurb from one of my favorite authors (Morgan Matson), and so many positive reviews from other bloggers, I was convinced I was going to fall head over heels for this one. After all, I adore young adult contemporary novels-it's my favorite genre-and I don't believe I've ever read one before about a girl who's never been anyone else's happily ever after.

I dove wholeheartedly into this one, and right away, I was a huge sucker for the poetic and imaginative writing style.

Quotes like:

"I'm not the girl in the center of the stage at the end of a love story. I'm the girl before, the girl guys date right before they find their true love. Every relationship ends exactly the same."

and 

"But the truth is, I have no reason to hope I won't be playing this role forever. To hope one day I'll be the one chosen and not just the girl before."

stuck with me long after I finished reading the book, and it's obvious to the reader that Emily and Austin make an incredible writing team.

Owen is quite possibly one of the most adorable YA love interests ever written. His scenes were so stinking adorable, and I felt like my heart was ready to melt at almost every single sentence he spoke.

So one would think that I was on my way to discovering a new favorite novel, up there with the ranks of The Distance Between Us by Kasie West, Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins, and Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson. Sadly, this did not end up being the case, and I'm sorry to say that the content in this one was atrocious, and left me unable to enjoy reading it.

Megan has an extremely carefree attitude about guys, relationships, and sexual activity in general. She treats almost every guy she comes into contact with as a potential hook up, and the reader is treated to way more information than they could ever want to know about her sexual activities. She makes no attempt to either hide any of this, or be ashamed about it, and instead brags quite regularly about how sluttish her reputation is. In so many ways she's slut shaming herself, and giving guys the opinion that they can treat her however she wants to be treated as long as she gets something out of it too. And this attitude irritated me to no end. 

One instance in particular stood out to me as horrifying, as Megan is reminiscing about a past boyfriend, and showcases the extreme measures she's willing to go to:

"There's something about having that emotional connection made physical, the romantic rendered real, that's unique and possibly enticing. Even though I knew the relationship would end, I felt in those moments of togetherness I could finally step out of the wings and into the center of our stage."

Throughout the entire novel she tries to find herself in physical and sexual means, and I kept waiting to see growth in her character, and it just never happened for me. 

Likewise, every other character in this book with the exception of Owen, is a hot mess and I honestly couldn't tolerate any of them. None of Megan's friends (except Owen) are decent people. They're all selfish and entitled, and have no problem reminding Megan of her many downfalls with relationships, and constantly making her the butt of a joke, and never taking the time to realize their words might be hurtful.

However, perhaps most disappointing of all is the the characters of Megan's parents. Her parent's divorced years prior, and her mom lives in a different state with a new boyfriend, while her dad has remarried and Megan now lives with him, her stepmom and her half-sister. Throughout many of the interactions Megan has with her parent's over the course of the story, they constantly encourage and enable her messed up ideas about relationships.

In one particular interaction, Megan is skyping with her mom about a phone call she's recently had with the mom's boyfriend, and this lovely line follows:

"You need a warning before you talk to Randall? I never got a warning when I'd come home to find the newest boyfriend making out with my daughter on the couch. I get to have a love life too, Megan."

This was so not okay on so many levels, and should never be the proper response when talking about your seventeen year old daughter's love life.

Other interactions occur where both her mom and dad are teasing and joking about the time they caught a boy in fourteen year old Megan's room, and making comments about how they expect a new guy any day now as she's never been single for this long before. 

The entire way the sexual content is handled in this book was huge turn off, and I'm beyond disappointed with the result.

As much as I loved the writing and the character of Owen, there was just no redeeming this one in my eyes, and I'm disgusted that this type of content is being marketed to young teenagers.

I will not be recommending this one, nor do I see myself picking up a book from these authors in the future. 

Sadly this is probably my most disappointing read of the year so far, and I was expecting such great things from the synopsis and its great potential.

Final Rating: ⭐


Thanks so much for reading guys! Have a great rest of your day!


This is not a sponsored post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. The photo does not belong to me, and all rights to the respective owners. 


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