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Never Say Never by Justine Manzano

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this book; all opinions are my own.

I am an absolute sucker for Greek Mythology – when I was younger I devoured any Greek Mythology books I could find, compared them to Roman Mythology retellings of the same stories, and read both fictional adaptations as well as “historical” accounts of myths. So when I learned about this book from a friend I knew I wanted to read it as soon as possible. I was fortunate to receive an ARC of this, and so I was able to read about Brynn, Adam, Nina, and Val/Aphrodite immediately.

I related to Brynn a lot, having gone through a similar situation in high school (which I am not going to go into detail about because spoilers), and her whole vibe/aesthetic just seemed very much me at 17. Adam was someone I would have totally dated, and Nina reminded me a lot of my best friend. However, Val grated on me a lot. To be fair, that is a huge aspect of the book, the character development of Val/Aphrodite and the back-and-forth between her and Brynn, but it was a constant struggle for me to find anything redeemable about her character which at times made it difficult to read sections of the book where she was the primary focus.

In the end, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is a very lighthearted contemporary YA and I would recommend it to anyone looking for something sweet to read who enjoys the Greek Myths. It isn’t overly long/drawn out, and I kept wanting to see what happened to everyone/how things resolved. You should definitely consider picking this up when it comes out in June 2021.