Book Review: Always Never Yours by Emily Wibberley & Austin Siegemund-Broka

Stand Alone

Format: ebook

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

How I Got It: Library

Genre: YA Contemporary

Publisher: Speak

Synopsis courtesy of Goodreads

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. 

Review

I got this from the library after hearing Hailey from Hailey in Bookland.

I'll be honest. I remember being at 18% and considering DNFing this. But I decided to give it another 15 minutes to see if it would work for me.

I'm so glad I did.

Megan, the main character, is not my favorite, but in the end I enjoyed her story. She shows you don't have to identify with a character for a story/book to work. She's also different from a lot of YA heroines which is nice. She's flirty, bold, and owns herself. And she definitely has personality flaws.

The side characters were also interesting. I really enjoyed reading about Megan's relationships/friendships with all these different people. The romance was cute and I really loved how it evolved out of a friendship. I don't want to go into too much detail, but theses different relationships were fun to read about.

I see these two authors are writing another book and I would pick it up.

Thanks for reading!

Holly