Review || Never Always Sometimes by Adi Alsaid

Never Always Sometimes

by Adi Alsaid
Series: None

Release date: August 4th 2015 (first published August 1st 2015)
Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Genres: Contemporary, romance

Age category: Young Adult
Source: Pinoy Book Tours

Synopsis:

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.

My thoughts and whatnot:

My rating: ★★☆☆☆

Human beings are more or less formulas. Pun intended. We are not any one thing that is mathematically provable. We are more or less than we are anything. We are more or less kind, or more or less not. More or less selfish, happy, wise, lonely.

This was one of my most anticipated releases of 2015. To say I was excited to have an ARC was an understatement. I mean, the premise wasn't the most original but I'm a sucker for books with lists. Maybe I have too much expectation with this book because I was disappointed with how the story went. The characters didn't help much either.

This book didn't have the most original premise. No, there's a lot of books out there that has to-do lists and best friends dating and stuff; the cliches of cliche. But what is this something that make the book special, or is there something special in this book? I've asked myself that question several times as I read this book. I, personally, think that this book has something special untapped, buried, under the mountain of cliches and little story development

I like the idea that Alsaid wanted to show us. Not every main characters would have a very happy ending. I like that, really. What I don't like, or frankly speaking, hated, was the way it was presented. As I've said earlier, the characters didn't help in this case. The characters were actually my main problem here. Julia was quite annoying but Dave, gosh I hate this guy, ticks me off. I hate his personality, he's indecisive and selfish. But what I loath the most, in this guy (I would not bother to type his name, he annoyed me so much), is his emotional cheating. He goes off with a girl but then thinks of another girl, next thing you knew, he's making out with the girl. Both Julia and the guy was so odd, they're not realistic anymore. The other girl (I can't even remember her name anymore) was such an idiot. Dave is a freaking prick, he doesn't deserve another chance.

Overall, it was a very intense read for me. I love the idea of the story/book but I didn't like how it was delivered. And I freaking hate Dave.

Did I like the ending? Hahaha. No. I like open-endings but the ending of this book was a mess.
Is it a page turner? Yep, definitely.
Would I re-read it again? Maybe.

About the author:

Adi Alsaid was born and raised in Mexico City, then studied at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. While in class, he mostly read fiction and continuously failed to fill out crossword puzzles, so it's no surprise that after graduating, he did not go into business world but rather packed up his apartment into his car and escaped to the California coastline to become a writer. He's now back in his hometown, where he writes, coaches high school and elementary basketball, and has perfected the art of making every dish he eats or cooks as spicy as possible. In addition to Mexico, he's lived in Tel Aviv, Las Vegas, and Monterey, California. A tingly feeling in his feet tells him more places will eventually be added to the list. Let's Get Lost is his YA debut.

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