Always Never Yours by Emily Wibberley & Austin Siegmund-Broka

Always Never Yours
Emily Wibberley & Austin Siegmund-Broka
My Rating: 💜💜💜

A contemporary Shakespeare-inspired YA from a fantastic new author couple! What’s it like to play the understudy in your own love story?

     Megan Harper is the girl before . . . just like Rosaline from Romeo and Juliet. Every one of Megan’s relationships has ended the same way–her ex replaces her with someone perfect. But instead of crying over every breakup, Megan spends her time on her two passions: pursuing her next fling and directing theater. She hates the spotlight, and she’s hoping to fulfill her college program’s acting requirement in the smallest role possible. But then Megan’s theater teacher casts her to play none other than Juliet in her school’s production of Romeo and Juliet–and she meets Owen Okita, an aspiring playwright. In exchange for Megan’s help writing a play, Owen agrees to help Megan catch the eye of a hot hipster stagehand. Between rehearsing and contending with her dad’s plans to move with Megan’s pregnant stepmom to New York, Megan begins to realize Owen– thoughtful, unconventional, and utterly unlike her exes–might be the Romeo she never expected. Better yet, with him, she might finally be a Juliet.

ARC provided by Penguin Teen in exchange for an honest review.

If you’re looking for a book that will make you happy, this is certainly the one for you. This is a fluffy romance that was filled with theatre and it was really cute. If you love Shakespeare then this is the book for you, because there are a ton of references here!

Our story is about Megan. She is known as the class flirt at her high school. She is constantly jumping from one relationship to the next. It’s hard to not to judge her for it, but all her relationships end the same.

“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.” 

Now while I wasn’t the biggest fan of Megan, I loved how realistic and honest her story was. This really took me back to feelings I had in high school and it felt true to those. I feel like you need to put yourself in your teenage shoes while reading this one. It will make the story feel more real. 

The relationship between her and Owen was really sweet. The chemistry between them was great and I loved the banter between them. I swooned while reading this one. 

I gave it only 3 stars because I found it to be full of romance tropes and a tad predictable.

Now while it’s not my favorite YA read, I still recommend it for a good summer read! 

I also made a moodboard for this book. Now don’t be too critical about it, as it is my first try at one! 

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AUTHOR BIO
Raised by a school librarian, Austin’s always had a passion for books, especially books for young people. He met and fell in love with Emily in high school and went to Harvard University for undergrad. He studied English (focusing on Shakespeare) and graduated magna cum laude in 2014. Recently, Austin worked as a journalist for The Hollywood Reporter and was a UCLA law student; however, there’s nothing he loves like writing with Emily. Emily, whose parents are screenwriters, has loved writing and story-telling since an age she hardly remembers. Since meeting Austin (she says it was middle school–accounts vary), Emily attended Princeton University for undergrad, studied psychology, and graduated magna cum laude in 2014. While at Princeton, she wrote the first novel in her self-published YA fantasy trilogy, The Last Oracle, which was featured in USA Today and was a finalist for the Next Generation Indie Book Awards.