Review: Never Vacation With Your Ex, Emily Wibberley & Austin Siegemund-Broka

If you’re a frequent reader of this blog (thank you! Honestly, I adore you), you might already know about my love for Wibbroka books. I’ve been reading everything they wrote since they released their debut, back in what, 2018, and I adored them all. Let’s see if I enjoyed this one, shall we?

Never Vacation with Your Ex by Emily Wibberley, Austin Siegemund-Broka
Published by Viking Books for Young Readers on April 4, 2023
Genres: contemporary, romance, young adult
Format: Hardcover
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Seventeen-year-old volleyball star Kaylee Jordan lives a life of player rankings, constant training, and a carefully curated social media full of followers watching to see if she'll go pro out of high school like her famous mom. Her one refuge, and the thing she looks forward to every summer? The vacation her family spends in Malibu with the Freeman-Yus. This year, there’s only one problem: Kaylee and their son, Dean, dated for the past three months, and Kaylee just unceremoniously dumped him.
Hoping to spare them the worst summer ever, Kaylee comes to Dean with her unconventional solution: she’s going to walk him through her rules for getting over an ex. When Dean grudgingly cooperates, Kaylee’s got her work cut out for her. But helping Dean follow her own rules starts becoming difficult when the pressures of Kaylee’s family legacy and perfect life start to feel less like a plan and more like a prison… and amid warm California nights and stolen laughs, Kaylee feels herself falling for Dean for the same reasons and some new ones.
With their trip coming to an end, Kaylee has to make the complicated choice between doing what’s expected and taking a (second) chance on love.
Forgetting Sarah Marshall meets Crazy Stupid Love in a YA second chance romance from fan-favorite author couple #Wibbroka!

☂️ TRIGGER WARNINGS: (click to reveal)

There are no spoilers in this review.

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I ENJOYED…

☂️

• I think what drew me in, right from the start, in Never Vacation with your Ex, was the main character, Kaylee. I just found her deeply relatable. Okay, I might not play volleyball at all, let alone want to pursue it professionally, but I just found so many of my thoughts and personal struggles mirroring hers. She’s in constant comparison with her mother, who played professionnal volleyball and went to win at the Olympics, as well. She always wants to look fine, to be fine, to do and be good enough. Perfect enough. Honestly, this kind of hit me hard and, yeah. I loved the main character in this one so much more, for how I related to her and the way she thoughts and saw things, at times.
• The next thing that really drew me in was the setting. California is like, one of my biggest dreams, if I’m being honest (HA, get the reference to their other book. Oops) and this book really made me want to go there, even more. I loved the drives along the Pacific Coast Highway, the beachy setting and, I don’t know, this book made me feel like vacation and I’m all here for it.
• If you love the second chance romance trope, you should really enjoy this one. If you love the childhood friends to lovers to exes trope, you should LOVE this one. Honestly, I found the mix of these tropes worked really well in the story. We get background, history, a lot of past between them and a deep, profound, amazing friendship, yet we also get the tension betweeen the characters and obvious attraction they now, oops, haven’t gotten over, just yet (or like, not ever). I really liked both characters as individuals, but also loved the way they were together, their banter, every single one of their interactions. There’s no doubt, for me, Wibbroka just knows how to do romance that makes my heart happy.

• Aside from the romance, I loved the presence of family in the story. I loved seeing how close the families were, how deep the friendship between Kaylee and Dean’s mother was and how they also had their own struggles.
• I just want to quickly mention how wonderfully passionate the characters were, in the story. Whether it’s Kaylee with volleyball, Dean with its photography, whether they want to pursue it professionally, or keep it a hobby, it just warmed my heart SO much to have such passionate characters.
• I loved the discussions on social media and appearance, especially regarding young athletes. Something I obviously know nothing about, as I’m not an athlete, at all (aerm), but it was so good and brought some more depth to the story.

OVERALL

☂️

If you’re looking for a wonderful YA contemporary romance, I can only recommend Never Vacation with your Ex. I had, once again, a great, great time reading this book and you all know I’m going to read everything Wibbroka writes, next and forever.

FINAL RATING : 5 stars!

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📚 Books similar to Never Vacation With Your Ex that I’d recommend:

• Wibbroka’s other YA books: Always Never Yours, If I’m Being Honest, Time of Our Lives, With and Without You, What’s Not To Love.
• More YA second chance romances: Only Mostly Devastated, Opposite of Always.

Did you read Never Vacation with your Ex, or do you want to? Any YA thriller/mystery recommendations for me? Let me know in comments!

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