This May End Badly
by Samantha Markum
Pub Date – 4/12/22
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Ok I loved this!!

Rival boys and girls high school academies, fake dating the hot one, pranks, college applications, nasty perv teachers, so much in this book!

I loved the romance! Wells the cousin to the biggest prankster at the boys school and Doe the leader of the girls crew, decide to get under his cousin’s skin by fake dating. But at some point Wells was no longer faking and Doe just assumed he was always off limits or just out of her league. Omg they were just so cute even though it was open for miscommunication and hurt cause assumptions. But that’s the fun in navigating young love. They eventually got on the same page and she learned so much about herself which included that the rivalry wasn’t the most important thing the safety of the girls and inclusivity on campus was.
There were some twists with the friend crew that I didn’t see coming and Doe had a lot of issues to work through but very much enjoyed

So much to think about in this book! 

There was a movie I used to watch on repeat called All I Wanna Do that had some of the same themes and it’s my fav it was set in the 60s but still all the same ideas are relevant today. When boys and girls mix, boys become more important and girls get pushed to the back. At least that’s the fear. 

❓ Did you play pranks on high school or have rivalries?

We had a huge rivalry with the other high school but we were on the same street #smalltown #napa lol. 

Thank you stmartinspress and netgalley for the e-ARC for my honest and voluntary review.

Synopsis:

Pranking mastermind Doe and her motley band of Weston girls are determined to win the century-long war against Winfield Academy before the clock ticks down on their senior year. But when their headmistress announces that The Weston School will merge with its rival the following year, their longtime feud spirals into chaos.

To protect the school that has been her safe haven since her parents’ divorce, Doe puts together a plan to prove once and for all that Winfield boys and Weston girls just don’t mix, starting with a direct hit at Three, Winfield’s boy king and her nemesis. In a desperate move to win, Doe strikes a bargain with Three’s cousin, Wells: If he fake dates her to get under Three’s skin, she’ll help him get back his rightful family heirloom from Three.

As the pranks escalate, so do her feelings for her fake boyfriend, and Doe spins lie after lie to keep up her end of the deal. But when a teacher long suspected of inappropriate behavior messes with a younger Weston girl, Doe has to decide what’s more important: winning a rivalry, or joining forces to protect something far more critical than a prank war legacy.

This May End Badly is a story about friendship, falling in love, and crossing pretty much every line presented to you—and how to atone when you do.