Always Never Yours by Emily Wibberley & Austin Siegemund-Broka | Book Review
6.23.2018
BLURB: Megan Harper is the girl before. All her exes find their one true love right after dating her. It’s not a curse or anything, it’s just the way things are, and Megan refuses to waste time feeling sorry for herself. Instead, she focuses on pursuing her next fling, directing theatre, and fulfilling her dream school’s acting requirement in the smallest role possible.
But her plans quickly crumble when she’s cast as none other than Juliet–yes, that Juliet–in her high school’s production. It’s a nightmare. No–a disaster. Megan’s not an actress and she’s certainly not a Juliet. Then she meets Owen Okita, an aspiring playwright who agrees to help Megan catch the eye of a sexy stagehand in exchange for help writing his new script.
Between rehearsals and contending with her divided family, Megan begins to notice Owen–thoughtful, unconventional, and utterly unlike her exes, and wonders: shouldn’t a girl get to play the lead in her own love story? (Goodreads)
Honestly, hating acting isn't the only reason I don't want to play Juliet. The other reason is, I'm not Juliet. 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 one of my relationships ends exactly the same.
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Title: Always Never Yours
Author: Emily Wibberley & Austin Siegemund-Broka
Publication: May 22nd 2018 by Speak
Pages: 352
Genre: Young adult, contemporary, romance
Standalone/
review
★★★★★
Normally I'm super stingy of giving 5 full stars for a book, a contemporary especially but almost all contemporary YA that I read this year were really good with a range of only 3 to 5 stars and this book is one of the 5 stars books.
First of all, can we all at least appreciate how cute the book cover is? With the cute font and the pastel colour and everything, this book cover gives a good first impression to the readers who judge books by their covers!
I was smiling up to my ears during the last chapter; that's how happy I was when I was reading this book. This book totally gave me the warm vibe during cold weather; it felt like I was sitting on my favourite couch with a throw blanket in front of a fireplace while eating my favourite chocolate chip cookies dipped in a cup of milk. There was happiness, and there was some sadly relatable stuff that made me cry.
This book is a light read, there were no heavy messages so it's perfect for those who just want to escape their hectic life. Although not having heavy messages, the messages the authors tried to deliver were delivered perfectly to the readers. From this book, I learned that (more like be reminded) you can't be replaced. People come and go in your life, and yes some roles that used to be yours fall into someone else's shoulders. That happens. But that doesn't mean that you're replaceable as a person, because there's only one you in this world. Megan, the main character, always feels replaceable and every time Megan mentioned that it hits me really hard too because I always feel the same way (I even cried but that might be caused by my PMS).
This book mentions a lot of reference to Romeo and Juliet and truthfully, I rolled my eyes during the first chapters where Romeo and Juliet got referenced because it's my least favourite Shakespeare's play. I'm one of those people who are cynical towards the story because it's obvious that Romeo and Juliet is an insta-love story and it isn't really logical to me; Romeo and Juliet were what, 13? And they fell in love so instantly and willing to die for each other and it was just so foolish to me. However, from this book, I could totally see Romeo and Juliet from a different view, like how some people really get foolish when they're truly in love. I could also see the story from Rosaline's point of view, and that was new to me.
I love seeing how Megan's relationships with her family, friends and love interest develop bigger and bigger as the chapters pass. The more I read, I could see more layers in the characters especially Megan and Owen. Some books overdo this by making the characters too layered when it's supposed to be a light-romantic-contemporary read and some other books have characters that barely have any layer than the surface, making the characters two dimensional. The authors did wonderful in this book, the layers in each character were perfect and sufficient for me and not too much either.
My favourite part of this book that made me give it 5 stars was that the main couple started as friends first rather than the usual love at the first sight thingy in every YA romance I always read. There was no "I feel something when I saw him, something different" *eye rolls*. When the main character's love interest was first introduced, it was like "hey that's Owen, we're schoolmate and he's a quiet person". If you never read the synopsis, you probably wouldn't really see that Owen is the love interest. Megan started liking Owen slowly, and I just adore the process of slowly falling in love.
Recommended for people who love: non-insta love, Shakespeare's reference in book, original YA contemporary romance, wholesome story
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