Never Always Sometimes by Adi Alsaid
Grade: D
Release date: August 4, 2015
This ARC was provided by Read Between the Lynes in exchange for an honest review.
Summary: Best friends Dave and Julia were determined to never be cliché high school kids—the ones who sit at the same lunch table every day, dissecting the drama from homeroom and plotting their campaigns for prom king and queen. They even wrote their own Never List of everything they vowed they'd never, ever do in high school.
Some of the rules have been easy to follow, like #5, never die your hair a color of the rainbow, or #7, never hook up with a teacher. But Dave has a secret: he's broken rule #8, never pine silently after someone for the entirety of high school. It's either that or break rule #10, never date your best friend. Dave has loved Julia for as long as he can remember.
Julia is beautiful, wild and impetuous. So when she suggests they do every Never on the list, Dave is happy to play along. He even dyes his hair an unfortunate shade of green. It starts as a joke, but then a funny thing happens: Dave and Julia discover that by skipping the clichés, they've actually been missing out on high school. And maybe even on love.
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: This is Adi Alsaid's sophomore novel published with Harlequin Teen. For the most part, I enjoyed Let's Get Lost but Never Always Sometimes made me very mad. Pretty early on, I determined that Julia was basically a manic pixie dream girl who was "so unique" and tried really hard to be different but ended up just being a selfish jerk. She thinks it's cool to always call Dave by his full name (and she doesn't even use the right middle or last names 99% of the time). She dyes her hair pink. She wiggles her way out of consequences all the time. When Dave started to fall for another girl (who seemed much more realistic and normal), I was relieved. I would be fine with him dating Gretchen. But then, spoiler alert, towards the end of the book, Dave and Julia hooked up. And Dave had just asked Gretchen, who is his girlfriend by this point, to prom a few days earlier. Then, when the two get back to town, they kiss and of course Gretchen sees. By that point, I was so mad, I skimmed the rest of the book, so I'm not sure how it really ends except I'm pretty sure Gretchen takes Dave back and he's moved on from Julia. But there was a lot more that peeved me about this book. Julia was so nonchalant when she was trying to "seduce" one of their teachers, and I was cringing the whole time on behalf of the poor guy. Thank goodness the principal handled it correctly. Also, Dave's dad and Julia's dads and biological mom were barely present, so there were few consequences (and they were mostly ones that didn't seem too harsh) for the bad choices these teenagers made.
There was swearing, underage drinking, making out, and hooking up.
The Verdict: Skip this one. It's not worth your time.
Will I be adding this book to my library?: Nope.
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