Never Always Sometimes by Adi Alsaid #BookReview #Playlist #Giveaway

Never Always Sometimes
by Adi Alsaid
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Release Date: August 4th 2015

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.

So I admit the reason I wanted to read Never Always Sometimes is because I’ve run into Adi Alsaid unintentionally many times at conventions. It’s like there are some book gods causing divine book intervention saying you need to read something he writes. It’s also because talking to him, he put so much thought into a dying hair scene and making sure it was right that you have to respect that.

Without a doubt I absolutely loved Never Sometimes Always and it is by far one of my favorite contemporary reads. It blew me away with it’s amazingness honestly.

This is a great plot. Two best friends take one list that they created before high school and decide to do the opposite of everything on it. By taking on the list it forces the characters to kind of separate and grow in different directions. You really see Dave and Julia evolve as they take on each new challenge they’ve put before themselves. It also takes on an interesting time period of the end of high school. I think everyone did/does treat it differently so it was a good area to grapple.

Dave and Julia, Julia and Dave, two peas in a pod or so it seems. I loved Dave but was kind of not the biggest fan of Julia.It didn’t hinder me liking the book or anything. I like having characters that I’m not head over heels for, I don’t necessarily like everyone in real life either. Especially with a contemporary there is not always a villain so it makes things more well rounded. Even though I wasn’t a Julia super fan, I loved her relationship with Dave. Dave and Julia are not outcast but they live on the fringe. Dave is more down to Earth/shy and Julia is more eccentric/bold, they manage to balance out.

I liked the writing and thought there was plenty of great lines and quotables. If I was a quote writer down I would have included them. I’m all for joke witty banter. I liked the Uniqueness of how the story went.

I don’t want to give things away. I did not have a problem with the pacing of the beginning of the book. I had read it in smaller chunks though. I really liked the middle and end. I was a huge fan of the end. Just so you know Brett, I totally knew. I really enjoyed the book. I think I have a hard time explaining why I like it so much because I don't want to spoil anything.

DIRECT LINK

Sometimes I will still add songs to playlist. So if you have Spotify and follow the playlist it's always a possibility :)

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.