Review: Never Always Sometimes by Adi Alsaid

Title: Never Always Sometimes

Author: Adi Alsaid

Published: 4 August 2015
Publisher: HarlequinTeen Australia
Source: HarlequinTeen Australia in exchange for an honest review
Reviewed: Sapphired Dragon
Rating: **** 

My Review:

I really enjoyed Never Always Sometimes. More so, I think, than I was expecting to.

Having come to read it straight from another book in a similar vein, at first it took me a little while to distinguish one book from the other but once I did, this story really came into its own.

The story starts with two teenagers Dave and Julia, about to start high school, deciding  they don't want to be the cliched high school students out of all the books they have read and tv shows they have seen. So they make a list of all the things they never will do during their high school life with items such as being identified by their lunch spot and running for prom king/queen.

Fast forward to their senior year and college acceptances are in and they are on their very last stretch of high school with only a couple of months till graduation. They find the Nevers list, and decide to spend their last couple of months of high school doing everything on the Nevers List.

The real strength of Adi Alsaid's writing is his characters as you cannot help but fall in love with them the more you get to know them. It is then through the characters that the reader is drawn more into the story and becomes more invested in the outcome.

The book itself is divided into three parts : one from Dave perspective then the next part fo the story for Julia's perspective ans the last part of the story alternating between Dave and Julia's perspective. The way this is done is really clever and timed extremely well so that it adds more to the story and the atmosphere of the book.

This story is great for the feels as well as the characters drawn feel very real and their actions and reactions believable given the things they have gone through and the storyline. I love the way the act of doing the items on the Nevers list really brings out both Julia and Dave's characters to life and everything that is around them.

A very very enjoyable read.

I give this book 4 stars

Sapphired Dragon xx

About The Book:

Never Always Sometimes by Adi Alsaid

Goodreads |  HarlequinTeen Books | Book Depository | Amazon |

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 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.