Never Always Sometimes

Written by Adi Alsaid

Narrated by Amanda Leigh Cobb

Never date your best friend Always be original Sometimes rules are meant to be broken Best friends Dave and Julia were determined to never be clichE 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 clichEs, they've actually been missing out on high school. And maybe even on love.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Aug 4, 2015
• ISBN: 9781501901973

Adi Alsaid

Born and raised in Mexico City, Adi Alsaid is the author of several young adult novels including Let’s Get Lost, We Didn’t Ask for This, and North of Happy, a Kirkus Reviews Best Book nominee. He also wrote the middle grade books The Bravest Warrior in Nefaria and The Greatest Heist in Joviala and edited Come on In: 15 Stories about Immigration and Finding Home. He currently lives in Chicago with his wife and two cats, where he occasionally spills hot sauce on things (and cats).

Reviews for Never Always Sometimes

[lizzy · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Horrible ending I’ve never been more disappointed or mad, absolute Bs honestly I’m genuinely pissed off

[Kinga xoxo · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Ending was a bit disappointing can’t lie but good book

[jwitt33 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

"Never date your best friend Always be original Sometimes rules are meant to be broken."Dave and Julia are best friends entering high school and they decide to make a "Never" list so they don't become cliches, but as graduation gets closer, Julia decides that they should now do everything on the list instead. What she doesn't know is that Dave has already broken rule #8, never pine silently for someone for the entirety of high school. As they begin to cross the Nevers off the list, will Dave be able to keep his love for Julia a secret so it doesn't ruin their friendship, or will he let the cat out of the bag?I really, really, really wanted to love this book, because the premise is a great one, but I felt like it lost something in the execution. Dave and Julia were almost caricatures and way over the top most of the time. I started out looking forward to seeing where the story would go, but by the end I was kind of tired of Julia (she was exhausting!). Dave was okay but he was too much of a pushover, at least until the end, but it was too late by then to get behind him. I enjoyed this book okay, but it wasn't one that will stick with me. 3.5 out of 5 stars.*** I would like to thank Harlequin TEEN and Adi Alsaid for the opportunity to read and review this book.

[reader1009-863136 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

diverse teen fiction - Latinx-American boy and his best (girl) friend (whose parents are incidentally gay) decide to leave their comfort zones in the final 3 months of 12th grade in San Louis Obispo, CA.
I read to page 83--It was okay, lots of clever dialogue and likeable teen misfit characters--but nothing I cared to continue reading.

[heatherlinc · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Hmm, " Never, Always, Dometimes was not for me. I found myself skimming large sections of this book because the writing never brought the story to life. While I quite liked Dave, Julia annoyed me from the start and did some rather silly things, but always managed to avoid the consequences. Basically, this book was boring, and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

[gengenbookblog · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I expected a lot from this book. I was excited about it that I immediately signed up for the blog tour and requested it. I started the book, all excited and happy, thinking this would be a fun and an LOL book but sadly, that wasn’t the case. I didn’t like the characters AT ALL. Julia was so…frustrating and infuriating! I wanted to smack her head or let her die. I know this is bad but I just couldn’t deal with her. She was so demanding and had Dave on a leash. He followed her around all the freaking time, he didn’t have a mind of his own. It’s like Julia did all the thinking for him and he would roll with whatever Julia said. Just writing this review is getting me agitated. I was about to DNF the book but then Dave stands up for himself and someone else and I literally did a jump and a mini dance and grinned because I was so happy that Dave was finally opening his eyes and speaking up for himself. That didn’t last long, though and in the process he hurt someone and I just wanted to smack him, too.The reason I’m giving it 2.5 is because there were very minimal times where I had fun just a “smidge” and Dave speaking up for himself really got me super happy. The ending is a happy one that I enjoyed a bit. There are two supporting characters that really made me think my rating so I had to bump it up to 2.5 because these characters were fun and cute.