Always Never Yours

This is the fifth book from my summer TBR - I'm slowly working through them! I mused on the TBR list that this might remind me of high school, and so it did. Megan is much bolder than I ever was, and dated a lot more, but her underlying feelings of being passed over for other girls - oh, I felt those. I wasn't very socially adept in high school, unlike Megan.

The premise of the story is that every guy Megan dates falls madly in love with the girl he dates after Megan. This has happened enough that she's come to expect it, so when her last boyfriend broke up with her to date her best friend, she wasn't even very upset with them. She understood. That's what her boyfriends DO. Which means she approaches relationships as temporary, and doesn't bother to fight for them when they end.

The book is really about learning what's worth fighting for. A family that seems to be moving on without her? A role in a play that her understudy fills better than she does? A boy who will go on to find his true love after her? A best friend who stole her boyfriend? Megan struggles with feeling imminently replaceable and misunderstood, and her vulnerability grabbed my heartstrings and yanked. I wasn't expecting to, but I LOVED this book.

Megan's worries are so very real, and her friends are such quintessential high schoolers. Every look, every word, every relationship has so much more intense meaning at that age because EVERYTHING is so important and felt so deeply. I loved how supportive Megan is of her friends, even if she doesn't always realize that she comes across a little strong. I liked the side plot of Megan's gay friend Anthony, and the closeted boy he has a crush on.

As a Shakespeare lover, I enjoyed that each chapter started with a line from Romeo and Juliet, the play that Megan's school Drama department is performing her senior year. I also enjoyed seeing the comparisons between Megan and Rosaline, and characters in the book saying how interesting Rosaline is as a character, even though we don't actually see her in the play! It reminded me of Bright Smoke, Cold Fire, which is a VERY different book, but another one that delves further into the character of Rosaline. And now I'm wondering if there are any other books that do the same....

I loved this book. It made me cry but then laugh through my sniffles. Books that can do that are special things.

You can find all my reviews at Goddess in the Stacks.

I've lived in Oregon my whole life and I don't believe even native me has said the word Oregon more than this book did lol

We follow our MC Megan through her journey of a Romeo and Juliet play because she wants to get into a prestigious college to fulfill her dreams of being a director of theater play and she needs this high school credit. This becomes all surface level as we delve deep into whats expected of Megan from her friends and family, and how she handles her boyfriends/sexual relationships while being an emotional shut in because she knows whoever she dates will leave her and find their perfect relationship after her. I believe this book starts not too shortly after her 6th relationship ending, implementing the truth further with this love “curse” but not curse.

Side disclaimer that I know absofuckinglutely nothing about Shakespeare or anything theater/play related. And yet, I didn't feel out of place reading this book even granting all the references which was a lot considering that the whole plot centered mainly on Romeo and Juliet play.

What I think this book did best was how they wrote Megan. I never really disliked Megan, however she started off extremely strong. So closed in and shut tight with her emotions and over the course of the novel she really opens up. And she becomes open to improving herself and how she acts and treats others and how she prioritizes her friendships and familial relationships too. And I think that was a beautiful thing to experience with her because I was invested in her life and her choices, etc.

I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a fast YA contemporary read that deals extremely heavily on all kinds of relationships, the good and the bad and everything in between.