Never Vacation with Your Ex - by Emily Wibberley & Austin Siegemund-Broka

I actually want to start by comparing this book to another book that came out recently. Have you read Happy Place by Emily Henry? I did. That book was massively popular. Enjoyed it and it’s summery vibes but it was so heavy and sad so much of the time Never Vacation with Your Ex has a similar storyline. If you enjoyed Happy Place, I think you’ll enjoy Never Vacation with Your Ex and vice versa. Never Vacation is still contemplative, and there are still some major stakes regarding the couple in the book, but it didn’t feel sad or neatly as heavy as Beach Read. Kaylee and Dean’s parents have been best friends since they themselves were teenagers. Now Kaylee and Dean are teenagers. Their families have vacationed together for twenty-five years, longer than Kaylee or Dean have been alive. Kaylee has always known about Dean’s crush on her but she never acted on it until a few months ago. Kaylee is the queen of short term relationships. She’ll date a guy and break up with him before it gets serious, she never lets it get serious. But when Kaylee and Dean dated, Dean expected it would be different. I think everyone expected it would be different. The very thought of the two dating could have an impact on the family vacation. But them breaking up could ruin it. A couple months after they started dating, Kaylee dumped Dean. A few weeks have passed. Dean is still heartbroken. And it’s time for the family vacation again. Three weeks together in one beach house in California. Family traditions galore. Kaylee thinks the only way to make this vacation tolerable is to help Dean get over her. The idea of his ex, that he’s still in love with, helping Dean get over her? It sounds impossible right off the bat. Kaylee has a lot of expectations hanging over her, mostly connected to her volleyball career. She’s spent her whole life trying to be perfect. And for the first time, everyone is treating Kaylee like a careless little heartbreaker (even her own parents). I definitely felt like we needed a good reason why Kaylee felt like relationships were bound to end and being a commitment-phobe. I won’t say whether I think this was accomplished because I’d consider that a spoiler. But I enjoyed Kaylee’s journey. I’ll admit that I didn’t love her at the beginning of this book either. I did feel like she was careless with Dean’s heart. But the authors wrote this story with enough emotional depth that I still felt bad for Kaylee even when I didn’t love or agree with her. And I liked her more as I got to understand her motivations better. I won a copy of this book on BookishFirst, thank you! If you haven’t read it yet, I’d recommend throwing it in your beach bag :)

After dating for three months, Kaylee dumps Dean without an explanation. Her life would go back to the norm of volleyball training and social media curation except for one huge problem – her family is friends with Dean’s family and they are about to go on summer vacation together. Trying to salvage the awkward situation, Kaylee helps Dean out with her plan on how to get over an ex, but as they spend time together, feelings get complicated. Will Kaylee take a second chance on love? NEVER VACATION WITH YOUR EX was a cute YA romance. The teenage angst started right from the beginning and never let up. The characters lacked much development. Topics such as family expectations, body image, social media, and teenage pressures were touched upon but not really given the depth that I would have liked to have seen. The writing flowed well and made for a quick and easy read. The ending wrapped things up to provide a satisfying conclusion. NEVER VACATION WITH YOUR EX was a light read and may be a good fit for fans of YA romance that enjoy the second chance romance trope. I mixed reading the e-book with listening to the audiobook.