Never Vacation with Your Ex
"He's inscribed with memories, context I share with no one else. Our every conversation, every passing glance, reminds me of our years of friendship. It's a melody of endless reprises, of new variations on the wonderfully familiar. It's like nothing else. Until I ruined it, of course."
Never Vacation with Your Ex by Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka is exactly what the title implies: a romcom following two former best friends as they navigate their annual family vacation together as exes. While this book isn't groundbreaking in any sense, as a young adult romance it achieves the parameters set by the genre, and is a quick, fun beach read.
Synopsis:
Kaylee Jordan perpetually lives in the shadow her Olympic mother. A pro right out of high school and an Olympic gold-medalist in her twenties, Kaylee's mother has set the volleyball standard, and Kaylee is determined to live up to it. Kaylee trains constantly, habitually checks player rankings, and has become a social media star, partnering with sportswear brands and volleyball companies to promote herself to the public. With her dedicated training schedule and pressure to live up to her mom, Kaylee's life doesn't have time for dating. Sure, she'll hang out with a guy for a month or two, but as soon as things get serious, Kaylee cuts the cord. Volleyball comes first, and everything else is secondary.
So when Kaylee falls for her best friend, she decides to give the relationship a shot, despite warnings from both sets of parents, and her history of breaking hearts. Kaylee and Dean make it a record three months before Kaylee unceremoniously dumps him with no explanation, shattering both their romantic and platonic relationship in a matter of minutes, and leaving both hearts broken. Still, despite her heartache Kaylee knows she made the right decision; relationships distract from training, and falling for someone isn't written in her Olympic plan.
Unfortunately, a month after their breakup, Kaylee's parents remind her that their annual vacation with Dean's family–the Freeman-Yus–is still happening, and for the next three weeks, Kaylee and her ex will sleep across the hall from each other. To avoid absolute misery, Kaylee proposes a plan to keep Dean from wallowing in his room: she's going walk Dean through her patented rules for getting over an ex. Dean agrees under the pretense of spending time with Kaylee, and the two begin their quest to help Dean move on.
Of course, as the days progress, Kaylee finds it harder and harder to encourage Dean to forget their relationship and fall for other people. On top of her newfound jealousy, the two families begin to experience tension as old grudges surface and new fights emerge. Suddenly the always heavy pressure has increased ten-fold for Kaylee, as she battles the image of her perfect life against the very real, not perfect feelings she's been experiencing. As the trip comes to strained end, Kaylee has to weigh her picture-perfect future against the present she so desperately wants, and the roles of both volleyball and Dean in her life.
Thoughts:
While this book does its job, nothing about it left me feeling awed, changed, or inspired. The plot is predictable from the the title, let alone the first page, and the writing wasn't amazing enough to make up for the content. I found Kaylee to be a relatively average narrator, and would have preferred to read from Dean's point of view side-by-side with Kaylee rather than her first person point of view the entire time. I didn't find Kaylee and Dean's relationship realistic or compelling, and would have much gathered they stay friends. The two lacked chemistry in every scene, and I found myself shipping Dean with other characters more than Kaylee.
I also hated the way the parents treated Kaylee. From the get-go they all blamed Kaylee for Dean's mood and the ruined vacation. Sure, she broke up with Dean, but she's a seventeen-year-old girl––blaming her for the choices made between two teenagers is ridiculous and childish. The tension between the moms was channeled into expectations for Kaylee, and everyone calling her out in public situations made me want to strangle someone.
Overall:
In the end, I found the whole situation unrealistic; not only the relationship between Kaylee and Dean, but the families in general. My feelings may be skewed as an adult, but I can't imagine any scenario where good––or even mediocre––parents would put their children into the situation this book presents. However, jaded twenty-two-year-old feelings aside, Never Vacation with Your Ex does make for a classic young adult beach book, and I think for ages 12-17, this would be a cute, fun read.
My Rating: 3/5
Goodreads Average: 3.64/5
Information:
Never Vacation with Your Ex by Emily Wibberly and Austin Siegemund-Broka (Viking Books for Young Readers)
Publication Date: April 4, 2023
ISNB: 9780593326909